Read more.AMD APU powered device is built around a 7-inch screen and will ship this December.
Read more.AMD APU powered device is built around a 7-inch screen and will ship this December.
Well she's no looker is she!?
Not a bad spec but the SSD pushing the price up out of the casual gamers reach who would no doubt bleat their way in line for a Switch anyway.
Jonj1611 (16-07-2021)
This news coincides with Elgato updating its Stream Deck product.
And below is a video with Gabe Newell in an interview, discussing the Steam Deck.
As with most of steam related hardware, I cant wait to pick one up when on fire sale as they decide they don't want to do it anymore
If this SOC is truly custom for Valve only, then I would imagine that it must have cost a good bit.
Mask costs alone would run into tens of millions plus design and validation.
Plus yet another thing to use of scarce TSMC 7nm wafers.
Wouldn't mind if this SOC does see release as a APU although LPDDR5-only precludes AM4 so a BGA soldered thing.
I do get the appeal of these devices, but it's doomed to fail and to be a waste of money for those sucked into it.
It's already underpowered compared to even a mid level gaming PC, and whilst you will be able to tune a lot of the steam back catalog to work fine on this - it will be out of date SO quickly (within 1-2 years) as you don't have a dedicated, incentivised set of developers working to product content that will look good and work well on the device.
Contrast that with a Switch, which has even less power (by a long way), but has a 5+ year lifespan due to having that dedicated software support.
These are nice ideas, but until we have one that functions as an upgradeable form factor, I don't think they will be a success. Note that you could contrast to a laptop - since this is just a PC really - but laptops have a life long past gaming and will be suitable for web browsing/content consumption for many years to come...this won't.
Wonder if it has TPM 2.0
FYI - Steam OS 3.0 is Arch Linux with a KDE Plasma desktop.
Apparently, you can quit out of Steam OS and use it as a regular PC.
Wonder if the SSD on the middle tier is replaceble?
-7-inch 1280 x 800px - Only just acceptable. At least it's not 1366x768 with dialog boxes vanishing.
-64 GB eMMC. Would be full within a month. Base Windows install and the next release downloaded = full.
I'm actually tempted.
"up to 8 hours of 30fps gaming" = 3/4 hours at 'standard' 60fps gaming? Who the heck wants to game at 30fps???
From their page: "2 - 8 hours of gameplay"
Oh. Okay.
I'll wait for reviews. Still highly tempted.
"SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based)"
Immediately not interested. Oh well.
I love the idea. I got a switch for the on the go gameplay but found the cost of games just stopped me dead and its sat on a shelf ever since. I've since moved onto using game pass a lot - I suspect the base model would work great for game steaming (just can't get on with phone + controller). Wonder if the storage is user upgradable in the base model or being MMC is it soldier on?
I'm not sure how much of this is a consumer interest test product, but that's what it seems like.
You can already play a bunch of Steam games on things like the GPD models, and this is certainly smaller (possibly better) than a laptop. Steam presumably don't want to, or cannot, get into the Switch side of things, so they've made their own version?
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Originally Posted by Mark Tyson
Unless I've missed a recent GPD release this is 1) Cheaper than a GDP 2) Has dedicated gaming controls rather than trying to use a tiny keyboard 3) Has more graphics power. I've looked at the GPD devices several times but could never justify the price plus figured gaming on a little keyboard is no better than a touch screen on my phone.
You have no proof valve isnt treating this like a game console, seeding dev kits to developers, ensuring future games have a Steam Deck profile.
There are more 'exclusive' games on PC then there are on the Switch which doesn't have the power to run them and the Switch is woefully out of date hardware wise but that hasn't stopped it from doing well.
If Valve have done their homework and put support teams behind this it could do very well.
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