Valve Steam Deck: Everything you need to know

Eight years ago Steam launched for the first time in the world of consoles with its Steam machine otherwise known as Steam Box. Unfortunately, Valve’s console was an abysmal failure and many people have forgotten that it even existed.

However, the American firm does not intend to give up and a few months ago, the Steam Deck was announced. This time, we’re talking about a portable console capable of supporting a good portion of Steam’s huge library of games!

So what is this console worth and what is the price of this Stream Deck? That’s what we’re going to see in this article that will give you all the information you need to know about the Steam Deck console.

What is Valve Steam Deck?

As we just told you, the Valve Steam Deck is meant to be a portable console. But since the release of the Switch, mobile gaming has undergone a revolution becoming a mix between portable and home consoles.

The Steam Deck was then inspired by Nintendo’s success in this area in the design of its Steam Deck. Indeed, it is basically a portable console that offers a screen of a quite respectable size.

Indeed, this console offers a 7-inch touch screen that will allow you to play in decent conditions. For comparison, you should know that the Switch has a 6.2-inch screen.

The comparison with the Switch doesn’t stop there, as the Steam Deck is a console that you can connect directly to your TV if you play from home. Be careful though, the dock to connect the Valve Steam Deck to the TV is not included, which is a big drawback! In fact, at the time of writing, this dock, although made official by Steam, is not yet available for purchase.

Three versions of the Steam Deck Console

By the way, we’ve been talking about the Steam Deck for a while now, but in fact we should talk about it in the plural, since this console exists in three different versions with prices ranging from 419 to 679€.

For the cheapest version, you’ll get a console with only 64GB of storage, which means you’ll often have to uninstall games to make room for new ones. For 549€ you will get a Steam Deck console with 256 GB of storage and above all an SSD.

For the most expensive version, the price of the Steam Deck goes up a bit more, this time to 679€. However, for this price, you will get 512GB SSD storage which is much more comfortable. You will also get a free protection for your console.

What games are compatible with the Steam Deck?

When you see this Steam Deck, the opportunity to be able to freely play all the games in your Steam library is clearly a dream. Indeed, on paper, it’s quite a promise that is made here.

But the Steam Deck being a kind of laptop, you can imagine that depending on the games you are going to play, the experience will not necessarily be the same. Thus, indicators have been put in place by Steam.

They have launched a major analysis of their entire catalog to ensure that they can quickly give gamers insights into the playability of games on the Valve Steam Deck. Indeed, you can imagine that for the price of the Steam Deck, not everything will be playable in optimal quality.

So, to help you, a color code has been put in place. If you see a green dot next to the game, it means that the game is fully compatible. You will be able to enjoy an optimal experience on your Steam Deck console.

If you have a yellow dot with an « i » inside, you know that you are facing a game qualified as « playable » by Steam. This means that you have a game that works, but that may require some adjustments to work properly.

The crossed-out white dot means that the game is not supported at all. For the moment, you will not be able to play this one on your Steam Deck. Finally, be aware that a white dotted line with a question mark means that the compatibility of the game has not yet been verified.

What autonomy for this Steam Deck?

The price of the Steam Deck is really important, but the other point not to be neglected is obviously its autonomy, because we are talking about a console that wants to be portable and to continue our comparison, the Switch allows an autonomy between 5 and 9 hours for the latest versions.

We could have guessed that the autonomy of the Steam Deck console would be less, but the results are still quite light. In fact, if you play the most demanding games, you’ll only have an average of two hours away from a power outlet.

On lighter games, we can reach 5 hours of autonomy and we can still scrape a few minutes by capturing sound and Wifi, but for a handheld console, it may be a little light.

Steam Deck Release Date

Are you convinced by the price of the Steam Deck compared to its promises? Well let’s see now when you can get your hands on it and the answer to that question, it’s not that simple.

Indeed, on paper, the Valve Steam Deck is available since February 15. However, if you follow a little the news of the consoles, you know that it is complicated in this world to find the components of our machines.

However, the Steam Deck console is no exception to the rule and only orders placed in 2021 were honored on February 15. Today, the situation has improved a bit for the Steam Deck with a recent announcement from Valve indicating that the pace has picked up.

To give you an idea, if you order the console when this article is published, you will receive it at best for the month of October 2022, that is to say a delay of two months. So you’ll have to be patient if you want to get your hands on this console.