Steam Deck Launch Date Revealed, Will Launch In February 2022 End: Specifications, Price

Valve announced the Steam Deck portable gaming console last year. Now, the company has confirmed that it will launch on February 25, 2022. Folks who have reserved the product will get an email with the purchase link. Valve assures that it will start shipping the Steam Deck soon after the launch and will reach its buyers by February 28, 2022. 

Bear in mind that those who have reserved the product will have 72 hours after receiving the email to order their Steam Decks. Failing to do so, their invitation will be passed on to the next prospective buyer on the list. After the initial list is exhausted, Valve will start releasing new batches weekly. The email purchase links will be sent out in the order that they were received.  

Let us have a look at what makes the Valve Steam Deck portable gaming device different from its competitors. 

Valve Steam Deck Features, Specifications

The Valve Steam Deck runs on a tweaked SteamOS which will let you access your library on Steam by logging in. You can play games like Portal 2, Death Stranding, Mad Max, Celeste, and many more. You can also install social apps, web browsers, video streaming apps on it just like on your PC. It offers seamless connectivity to the keyboard, mouse, controllers, and monitor. The cloud service lets you pick games from save points even if you switch to playing on your PC. 

The Steam Deck sports a 7-inch HD display with 1280 x 800 pixels resolution, 60Hz refresh rate, and 400 nits brightness. It has a touchscreen, so folks used to gaming on smartphones will feel at home with this device. Valve worked closely with AMD to create a custom APU for the Steam Deck. It is based on the Zen 2 + RDNA 2 architecture comprising of eight threads and eight compute units, which promises to run the latest AAA games without breaking a sweat. It is equipped with up to 16GB of unified LPDDR5 memory. The console will be available for purchase in three variants—with 64GB eMMC storage, 256GB NVMe SSD storage, and 512GB NVMe SSD storage. All the models get a microSD card slot to expand the storage capacity even further. 

When it comes to the physical controls available on the Steam Deck, it gets two thumbsticks and two Steam Controller-style trackpads on either side. It also has the ABXY buttons placed on the right side, and D-pad on the left. The gaming device gets L1/L2 and R1/R2 shoulder trigger buttons. The dual stereo speakers are placed on either side of the display. 

Gyroscope players will be delighted as it comes with an in-built gyroscope sensor for more efficient control. The device also has dual-band Wi-Fi 5, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB 3.1 Type-C port. You can use the USB Type-C port to hook up two 4K monitors at 60Hz. The Valve Steam Deck gets power from a 40Whr battery pack and will come with a 45-watt fast charger bundled with it. Valve claims that the battery life should be anywhere between two to eight hours, depending on the game. 

Valve Steam Deck Availability

The Valve Steam Deck’s pricing starts at $399 (around ₹29,967) for the 64GB eMMC storage variant. The 256GB NVMe SSD and 512GB NVMe SSD storage are priced at $529 (around ₹39,730) and $649 (around ₹48,750) respectively. The Valve Steam Deck portable gaming console is available for reservation in the United States, Canada, European Union, and the United Kingdom. It is not available for reservation in India yet.