On February 18, 2022, journalist Geoff Keighley posted on Twitter an allegedly official photo from Valve with 117 fragments of various prototype casings and devices of Steam Deck elements and parts. Then he hid this post.
In fact, this story of the creation of a compact game console from Valve in one picture from the initial awkward vision to the solution with arms sticking out on the sides, then with removable elements, and to the current convenient implementation that has been released.
Many Valve prototypes show design and engineering marks in an attempt to understand how best to make the device convenient for different ages of users, to choose the optimal placement of sticks, buttons, tactile panels and screen size and format. Also, the Steam Deck case took a very long time to acquire its final form - the designers experimented with its elements and appearance.
An original photo of Valve with the Steam Deck prototypes is available on a third party resource. Its resolution is 10000x9116 pixels.
On July 15, 2021, Valve introduced the compact Steam Deck gaming console powered by an AMD APU based on Zen 2 (4c/8t) and RDNA 2 (8 RDNA with two compute units) microarchitectures. The console runs on a specially adapted version of SteamOS 3.0, which is based on Arch Linux with a KDE Plasma desktop. The console is also specifically designed to display all of the games in the Steam library at 800p at 30 frames per second. Three versions of the Steam Deck with 64/256/512GB drives will be priced at $399/$529/$649, respectively. All versions of the Steam Deck console have an M.2 2230 SSD slot, but Valve advises against upgrading.
Steam Deck dimensions (width, height, thickness) - 298x117x49 mm, weight about 669 grams, it has a 7" capacitive multi-touch screen with a resolution of 1280x800 (16:10 aspect ratio) and a built-in 40 Wh battery (up to 2 hours in 3D games offline or up to 8 hours when running 2D games or browsing in the browser).
Steam Deck is available for booking in some countries, Russia is not listed there yet.
In early September, Valve opened the call for applications for Steam Deck devkits and said that it had created the Steam Deck API for developers to quickly optimize games.
On October 6, Valve published a Steam Deck breakdown. There you can change the control keys (sticks) and the internal drive.
In November, Valve warned of a delay in the release process of its Steam Deck gaming console to the market by at least another two months. The manufacturer cited problems with the supply of device components due to a shortage of the necessary materials and semiconductors as reasons. Valve also spoke about the AMD chip in Steam Deck and the speed of the console on different drives.
In early December, Valve showed the packaging of Steam Deck - it says that it can be played in the subway, in the country, on a tree and in the toilet.
On December 11, Valve unveiled the look of an exclusive cover for the top version of the Steam Deck with 512 GB NVMe internal storage. In versions with 64 GB eMMC and 256 GB NVMe, there is a functionally the same case, but simpler and without additional bonuses inside.
On January 14, 2022, Valve showed a photo of the testing process of the newly assembled Steam Deck.
On January 22, a tester showed that 10 peripheral devices can be connected to the Steam Deck devkit - six Bluetooth controllers, a Bluetooth speaker, a wired gamepad, a wired keyboard and mouse via a USB hub.
In early February, Valve announced that it would begin shipping Steam Deck to early adopters on February 28th.
The first tests of Steam Deck showed its good performance and average battery life.
On February 12, 2022, Valve released the CAD files of the topological surface of the Steam Deck case to the public. Now crafters, modifiers and accessory makers can 3D print the Steam Deck and evaluate it in their hands.
On February 15, 2022, Valve announced a partnership with iFixit to sell parts and accessories for the Steam Deck and Valve Index. As part of this event, iFixit did a full Steam Deck teardown and showed how well this compact gaming console is built and arranged. iFixit says it's an impressive repairability device.
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