Items tagged with steam deck
The Steam Deck has not even released yet, but it is already proving to be a highly popular console—it did not take long to fill up reservations for the first batch of shipments that will go out in December, and any new reservations ($5 down) are now quoted as arriving sometime after the second quarter of next year. Adding to the hype, a tweet by Microsoft's Phil Spencer suggests that XCloud support is headed to the handheld PC. Spencer is the head of Microsoft's Xbox division, so the tweet holds significant weight. While nothing has been officially announced as it applies to XCloud support on the Steam Deck, Spencer did say that it "works well" on the handheld, noting that he recently visited...
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There is a lot of excitement surrounding Valve's upcoming Steam Deck handheld gaming PC, and rightfully so. Adding to the hype, Gabe Newell bragged how the open nature of the Steam Deck is its superpower, and a distinguishing characteristic compared to the crop of game consoles running on proprietary platforms. That means users will be able to install Windows 11 if they choose. But will the Steam Deck be ready to accept Microsoft's next OS at launch? That's the goal. Several factors are at play that make this an interesting question. The biggest one is Microsoft's stringent requirement that systems must enable Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 support. This is an added layer of security that...
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It seems that just about everyone's excited about Valve's Steam Deck, the tiny portable computer with big PC gaming aspirations. Right out of the gate, just securing a position to pay for one was a hot commodity on online marketplaces like eBay. That doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon, either. Already, excited gamers are dreaming about the possibilities of the little Steam engine that could. The company's explosive presales prove that out, as right now the Steam Deck's listing says that it's available for preorder starting at $399, but won't be in customer hands until "after Q2 2022." In the meantime, Valve's hype train hasn't stopped, as a few select outlets got their...
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Fair or not, Valve's recently announced Steam Deck is drawing comparisons to the Nintendo Switch, the result of both systems being built around a handheld form factor. They are not really the same thing, obviously—Steam Deck is a PC in handheld portable form, and the Switch is dedicated console. There are valid comparisons to be made, though, Valve's Gabe Newell points to the open nature of the PC platform as a big advantage in favor of the Steam Deck over some other systems and consoles. Out of the box, the Steam Deck runs a new version of SteamOS (version 3.0), an Arch-based Linux operating system that is optimized for the handheld, and powered by the KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment....
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At this point, Steam Machines are little more than a footnote in the history of computing, but that did not stop Valve from focusing on hardware. Just the opposite, it recently announced the Steam Deck, a promising handheld that has drawn inevitable comparisons to the Nintendo Switch, though the two are very different products. And don't worry, Valve says, that 30 frame per second target you may have heard about is not a frame rate lock by any stretch. The concern arose when Valve designer Pierre-Loup Griffais suggested in a recent interview that gamers who are used to high frame rates on other platforms will be happy with 30 FPS on the Steam Deck's 1280x800 screen, which is a lower resolution...
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The design team behind Valve's upcoming Steam Deck is confident that controller drift will not be an issue on the handheld gaming PC. We will have to wait and see if that is truly the case, but we are crossing our fingers that drifting will not rear its ugly head, as it can be a major point of frustration among gamers. We have already seen this with Nintendo's Joy-Con controllers for its Switch consoles. Joy-Con drift issues have led to class-action lawsuit against Nintendo, an apology from the company, and various hacks and mods aimed at solving the problem. More recently, a modder discovered that a fix could be as simply as sliding a piece of paper or cardboard around 1mm thick inside the Joy-Cons....
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Valve announced the Steam Deck, a handheld gaming PC, this week and gamers are abuzz with interest. As preorders opened on Friday, questions poured in about various aspects of the device which is powered by AMD's Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU technology. It is available in three variants which differ only in storage capacity and type. Among other things, prospective buyers were eager to know if and to what extent the onboard storage options are upgradeable. Co-Founder and President Gabe Newell has confirmed all three models of the Steam Deck use a m.2 slot, though Valve is discouraging buyers from attempting to upgrade the storage themselves. Emails to Gabe from u/midnight_watch (left) and u/BernardoOne...
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Valve dropped a rather intriguing bombshell on the gaming market on Thursday when it revealed the Steam Deck. The 7-inch handheld gaming PC runs a SteamOS flavor of Linux and comes with some relatively powerful hardware under the hood: a custom quad-core AMD Zen 2 CPU that pairs with an RDNA 2 GPU. Preorders for the Steam Deck kicked off yesterday at 1 PM EST, and it didn't take long for enthusiasts to crash the Steam store, causing all sorts of issues. The device is priced at $399, $529, and $649 respectively for 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB configurations. Unsurprisingly, the first batch of preorders sold out quickly, not only to eager gamers but also scalpers. Unlike most product preorders, which...
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Earlier this year, rumors of a Valve hardware console started to float around, but there were concerns about the ongoing chip shortage. Despite this, it seems Valve is plowing forward with its plans as the Bellevue, Washington-based company has announced the Steam Deck starting at $399, with reservations opening on July 16th at 1 PM EST. The Steam Deck is powered by a custom 4-core/8-thread 3.4GHz AMD Zen 2 CPU with RDNA 2 GPU alongside 16GB of RAM and up to 512GB of PCIe SSD storage. It also features a 7” 60Hz 1280x800 LCD, Bluetooth 5.0, Dual-band WiFi, and stereo speakers, along with the illustrious headphone jack that seems to be missing from most mobile consoles or devices. Another...
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