Valve's Steam Deck handheld is like a Nintendo Switch built by PC nerds
The rumors were true. Valve officially pulled the curtain back on the Steam Deck on Thursday—a $399 gaming handheld designed to bring your Steam gaming library to the palms of your hands, powered by AMD hardware and Valve’s own Linux-based SteamOS operating system. Preorders open July 16, with shipments starting in December.
The Steam Deck looks like the Nintendo Switch, if the Nintendo Switch was created by diehard PC enthusiasts. You’ll find a big 7-inch screen front and center—the same size as the new OLED Switch—complete with touch functionality. It’s not OLED, alas, but Valve says the display shines at a very respectable 400 nits (crucial for outdoor use) and runs at 60Hz, a.k.a. the PC gaming gold standard. By comparison, the Switch drops down to 30Hz when undocked, a refresh rate that simply wouldn’t fly for us PC snobs. The Steam Deck’s screen should also be a bit clearer than its Nintendo rival, with a 1280x800 resolution and an “Optically bonded LCD for enhanced readability.”
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