Gaming
A New Hope For Portable Gaming
The Steam Deck is a handheld portable console capable of playing most games on Steam.
Struggles of Portable Gaming
Recently portable gaming has been a true struggle for most gamers.
The obvious choice would be a gaming laptop, but most gaming laptops are either too chunky or too inconvenient to play with on the go.
Many gamers, including myself, have got themselves a Nintendo Switch, which is very portable but doesn’t have every game available.
Fortunately, in July of 2021, Valve (the company behind Steam) announced the Steam Deck.
What is the Steam Deck?
The Steam Deck is a handheld portable console capable of playing most games on Steam.
It is the approximate size of a Nintendo Switch but just a bit chunkier and heavier to accommodate the impressive hardware.
Much like a Playstation or Xbox controller, it features two joysticks, four main front buttons, a d-pad, two bumper buttons, and two triggers.
It also includes four re-mappable buttons on the back, as well as two trackpads on the front and a touchscreen display.
Steam Deck technical specifications
Here is a summary of the speck:
In terms of processing, it will include an AMD APU.
The CPU will have a clock speed of 2.4–3.5GHz.
The GPU will have 8 RDNA 2 CUs with 1.0–1.6GHz.
It will include 16 GBs of LPDDR5 RAM as well as 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB variants available.
The display resolution will be 1280 x 800 on a 7" display.
It will also feature a USB C port for charging, a 3.5mm headphone jack, stereo speakers, and a dual microphone array.
It will also include an SD card slot for storage expansion.
Out of the box, it will run on SteamOS 3.0.
As you can imagine, this enables consumers to play whatever Steam game they wish to.
But you might be asking, what if I want to play non-Steam games?
Well, there’s an interesting answer for that.
The Steam Deck can be considered a portable PC, which means it can run operating systems other than SteamOS.
Many reviewers who got their hands on a Steam Deck early were quickly able to install Windows or Linux onto the device.
This means not only you can play steam games but also any other game available on PC.
This includes games on storefronts such as; The Microsoft Store, The Epic Games Store, UPlay, Battle.net, Origin, etc.
You even have the freedom to download console emulators, such as emulators for; NES, Nintendo 64, GameBoy, Playstation 2, PSP, etc.
As you can see, The Steam Deck will be a very versatile handheld gaming console capable of running games from multiple platforms.
Personally, I can’t wait to play games like Forza or GTA when I’m away from home or on holiday.
How can I get a Steam Deck?
Currently, the Steam Deck is not available for purchase.
But it is possible to reserve yourself a unit for when it is released.
All you have to do is visit the Steam Deck site and reserve a unit for yourself.
Valve has announced that all previous reservations will receive their Steam Deck in Q3 of this year.
But current and future reservations will receive their Steam Deck sometime in Q4 this year or early Q1 next year.
Unfortunately, reservations are only available in certain regions, which means my friends and I weren’t able to reserve any for ourselves.
But if you’re interested, navigate through the link above to see if it’s available for you.
Final Words
The Steam Deck will be one of most gamers’ best portable gaming systems.
Not only can you play whatever Steam game you desire, but also any game you can typically get on a PC.
It will certainly have the hardware necessary to run most games, if not all.
Personally, I can’t wait to get one for myself and play all the games I desire on the go.
Thank you for reading my story. I wish you a prosperous life.
About My Content and Editorial Duties on Medium
I write about gaming and social media topics. In addition, I am the owner and editor of two publications on Medium. One is for YouTubers, and another one is for gamers.
Some YouTubers are also gamers, so they are welcome to join both publications. If you are interested in these topics, I look forward to hosting your stories and promoting them.
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Sample Gaming Stories In My Collection
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Recent Stories on Other Topics
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