Valve’s Steam Deck has been announced for a while now. The console promises players to play Steam library Games on the go. Let’s see what’s more –
New Specs
For starters, the Stream Deck is nothing like the traditional portable game console. It has got AMD APU with a quad-core eight-thread Zen 2 CPU along with AMD RDNA 2 GPU. Speaking of the GPU, this variant has a complete 8 compute units. Apart from all these, there is 16GB LPDDR5 RAM.
However, there are variants for the upcoming Steam Deck. 64GB eMMC storage unit costs you around $399. For $529 you will get a 256GB NVMe SSD. Furthermore, the top the line has a 512GB high-speed NVMe SSD which will come with a $649 price tag. Well, don’t underestimate the base model as Valve boldly said that “There is no in-game difference in frame rates or graphics quality” in all of these three models.
A Competitor
Obviously, Valve”s Steam Deck is a decent competitor of the recently announced Nintendo Switch OLED Model. Now when it comes to comparison, both devices have the same screen size, more or less the same design, and 720p touchscreen displays too. But Nintendo is offering a four-year-old Arm-based processor, the NVIDIA Tegra X1 chipset.
Even though Steam Deck is an on-the-go handheld console but holds similar architecture to the PS5 and Xbox Series X. Not to mention, Steam Deck handles Games more efficiently which you won’t be able to play on Nintendo Switches. There are Showcase Games, like, Jedi: Fallen Order or No Man’s Sky. This game was never been available to portable consoles but will be available to play on Valve’s Stream Deck.
However, consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X are way more powerful than this portable one. Even though the architecture is somewhat similar thus Steam can offer PC games on this smaller console for an on-the-go experience. You see, when it comes to comparison with metrics, GPU power offered by Steam Deck is 1.6 TFLOPS, where Xbox Series S has 4 TFLOPS, Xbox Series X has 12.15 TFLOPS, and PS5 has 10.28 TFLOPS.
More Features on Steam Deck
Unlike other portable gaming consoles, Steam Deck has a pair of Steam Controller Style trackpads on both sides of the display. Worth mentioning that, there are thumbsticks, additional four buttons, and paddle-like other inputs at the back of this console. How about connecting your Bluetooth headphones with Steam Deck which most other consoles lack?
Battery Life
When it comes to battery life, an efficient CPU and powerful GPU are supposed to take more battery juice. Nintendo Switch offers 4.5 to 9 hours of battery life where Steam Deck says a decent 2 to 8 hours of battery life. Valve is saying that you can avail yourself of 4 hours of Portal 2 at 720p and 60 fps flawlessly.
Get or Pass?
If you are looking at Nintendo OLED Switch for $349 probably you must check out the $399 Valve Steam Deck. Even though Nintendo has a greater games collection but you get old CPUs for a lot of money. Not to mention, spending $399 on better and newer hardware that offers an exclusive PC Gaming library must be a better pick. Technically speaking, you can even install Windows and get Xbox Games, also install Epic Game Store, and use all of these on the Steam Deck. So, you better think before getting a Nintendo Switch OLED.
Wrapping Up
Valve Steam Deck is the next portable console for a handful of reasons right now. Gamers will love such a small accessory that can run PC games on the go which is also a potential threat to other expensive options that are out there. Stay tuned for more updates.
