The Steam Deck: A Portable PC with Ambitious Goals and Open Possibilities

If you want more ports on your Steam Deck, there's even the Steam Dock, a separate accessory that basically turns your Steam Deck into a desktop PC running Linux with additional ports. Now you know what it is and what's inside, still interested? Let's talk about what you can do with the Steam Deck and what you can't do.

The Steam Deck runs on a custom Linux distribution called Steam OS, which means this is a full-fledged portable PC with a custom operating system. Proton is the compatibility layer that makes it possible for Windows games to run on Linux hardware, and Valve says their goal is to get every single game on Steam in playable condition at 30 frames per second or better on the Steam Deck. 100% of Steam that is an incredibly ambitious goal but the key word here is playable, will it be glorious high frame rate gaming probably not but playable is playable so I have to give Valve credit where it's due.

But Steam is only one game store, what about everything else? Epic, Xbox, Origin, you play Battle.net well, I am going to let valve answer that themselves take it away and steam deck is not a Walled Garden. You can install whatever you want on it, including other apps and OSes. That's right, if you want you can technically wipe the entire thing and install Windows on it, it's a PC remember genuinely of the coolest most open portable consoles out there so huge Kudos Dev valve for not locking everything down which I think is a major win for users. Give this video a big thumbs up if you want to see us install Windows on a Steam Deck in a future video.

Theoretically, you can take this thing anywhere and play anything right, even offline. Well kind of obvious obviously you'll have to be online to download a game to the Steam Deck and if you want to play online multiplayer well I hope I don't have to spell that one out for you. If you're offline, you'll also need a local save file or you'll need access to the game while connected to the internet in order to load a cloud save before starting an offline session.

Valve also says some games are required to be launched in online mode as part of initial game startup before they'll work in offline mode usually because of some required update either to Steam or the game itself so make sure you have all your day Zero updates or day one patches fully installed before you go on a big road trip or to a cabin somewhere without internet access.

Oh and one more important caveat, some games employ anti-che measures and they need to be specifically configured for Steam Deck for the game to work. Now if you're still with me, you're probably pretty interested in getting a Steam Deck how much and when can you get it?

The Steam Deck is competitively priced starting at $399 for the base 64 GB model $529 for the 256 gig model and $649 for the 512 Gaby model all of them again are the same uh they come with a carrying case but the two pricier versions do have a few extras I know the top-of-the-line model has a premium screen it's antiscratch might be a good idea. You can pre-order one right now for just five bucks but your pre-order won't actually get you a Steam Deck when it launches officially on February 25th cue the sad trombo music please yeah sad initial pre-orders opened up in the summer of last year and quickly pushed out the ship date at the time of this recording anyone pre-ordering a Steam Deck isn't going to get it until quote after Q2 2022 according to valve's landing page now I don't actually know if that means starting in Q3 which would mean July of this year or if it means after the start of Q2 which would be sometime after April 1st either way it's still a bit of a wait to get one but it only costs $5 to hold a spot in line and when it's your turn you'll get an email from valve to confirm your order and pay the final balance so there's not too much risk if you're interested but not quite ready to commit.

However, some corners of the internet have noticed that valve hasn't exactly been well successful when it comes to some of its previous hardware attempts over the years yes, the Index is a great VR headset but do you remember Steam Link, Steam Controller and maybe the biggest flop of them all Steam Machines. I can see where some folks might be hesitant about Steam Deck and take a decidedly wait-and-see approach to its release and reception no one's going to blame you there day one pre-order late to the party but excited or waiting to hear a more thorough verdict from your friends and favorite content creators before placing an order.

Drop your thoughts down in the comments and be sure to subscribe to Ca's YouTube channel for more Great Tech videos just about every day of the week I'm Ashley Esa.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: envalve steam deck will allow you to take your steam Library anywhere here's everything you need to know before launch we should probably kick this video off by answering the most important question you might have what even is a steam deck well it's a handheld console designed for PC Gamers to access their steam Library when they're untethered from their main computer like if a gaming laptop had a little baby with the Nintendo switch what's inside let's talk about specs the steam deck is equipped with an AMD Apu combining a Zen 2 CPU with an rdna2 GPU that rdna2 GPU is the same one inside the PS5 and Xbox series X and Series S just with a little less compute units compared to the next gen consoles but it's still pretty impressive stuff there's a 7-in LCD touchcreen with a 1200 by 800 resolution 16 gigs of RAM and three different storage capacities 64 256 and 512 GB all of the three models have the same RAM and Apu so the only difference between them is how quickly you'll be accessing installed games and how many you can install plus a few extras I'll get to that in a minute a quick note on Steam deck storage options by the way the 64 gig base model used uses emmc storage versus faster nvme storage on the two higher-end models so if you think you really want one of these and you plan on playing bigger more resource intensive games that take up a lot of dis space factor that into your decision-making process you'll thank me later the design of the steam deck itself is pretty rad if a tad bulky looking aside from the touchcreen it has a Micro SD card slot for storage expansion two Precision Track pads underneath the analog sticks a dedicated steam button and two additional buttons on the back of the device that's on top of the standard bumper SLT trigger combo on top the USBC port on top isn't just for charging you can actually plug in peripherals like a keyboard or if you're feeling extra Saucy a freaking fight stick if you want more ports there's even the steam dock a sold separate accessory that basically turns your steam deck into a desktop PC running Linux with additional ports now you know what it is and what's inside still interested let's talk about what you can do with the steam deck and what you can't do the steam deck runs on a custom Linux distribution Steam OS which means this is a full-fledged portable PC with a custom operating system proton is the compatibility layer that makes it possible for Windows games to run on Linux hardware and valve says their goal is to get every single game on Steam in playable condition at 30 frames per second or better on the steam deck 100% of steam that is an incredibly ambitious goal but the key word here is playable will it be glorious highr 120 frames per second gaming probably not but playable is playable so I have to give valve credit where it's due but steam is only one game store what about everything else epic Xbox origin you play Battle.net well I am going to let valve answer that themselves take it away and steam deck is not a Walled Garden you can install whatever you want on it including other apps and os's that's right if you want you can technically wipe the entire thing and install Windows on it it's a PC remember genuinely of the coolest most open portable consoles out there so huge Kudos Dev valve for not locking everything down which I think is a major win for users give this video a big thumbs up if you want to see us install Windows on a steam deck in a future video so theoretically you can take this thing anywhere and play anything right even offline well kind of obvious obviously you'll have to be online to download a game to the steam deck and if you want to play online multiplayer well I hope I don't have to spell that one out for you if you're offline you'll also need a local save file or you'll need access to the game while connected to the internet in order to load a cloud save before starting an offline session valve also says some games are required to be launched in online mode as part of initial game startup before they'll work in offline mode usually because of some required update either to steam or the game itself so make sure you have all your day Zero updates or day one patches fully installed before you go on a big road trip or to a cabin somewhere without internet access oh and one more important caveat some games employ anti-che measures and they need to be specifically configured for steam deck for the game to work now if you're still with me you're probably pretty interested in getting a steam deck how much and when can you get it the steam deck is competitively priced starting at $399 for the base 64 GB model $529 for the 256 gig model and $649 for the 5112 Gaby model all of them again are the same uh they come with a carrying case but the two pricier versions do have a few extras I know the topof thee line model has a premium screen it's antiscratch might might be a good idea you can pre-order one right now for just five bucks but your pre-order won't actually get you a steam deck when it launches officially on February 25th cue the sad trombo music please yeah sad initial pre-orders opened up in the summer of last year and quickly pushed out the ship date at the time of this recording anyone pre-ordering a steam deck isn't going to get it until quote after Q2 2022 according to valve's landing page now I don't actually know if that means starting in Q3 which would mean July of this year or if it means after the start of Q2 which would be sometime after April 1st either way it's still a bit of a wait to get one but it only costs $5 to hold a spot in line and when it's your turn you'll get an email from valve to confirm your order and pay the final balance so there's not too much risk if you're interested but not quite ready to commit however some corners of the internet have noticed that valve hasn't exactly been well successful when it comes to some of its previous Hardware attempts over the years yes the index is a great VR headset but do you remember steam link steam controller and maybe the biggest flop of them all Steam Machines I can see where some folks might be hesitant about steam deck and take a decidedly wait and see approach to its release and reception no one's going to blame you there day one pre-order late to the party but excited or waiting to hear a more thorough verdict from your friends and favorite content creators before placing an order drop your thoughts down in the comments and be sure to subscribe to ca's YouTube channel for more Great Tech videos just about every day of the week I'm Ashley Esa be good humansvalve steam deck will allow you to take your steam Library anywhere here's everything you need to know before launch we should probably kick this video off by answering the most important question you might have what even is a steam deck well it's a handheld console designed for PC Gamers to access their steam Library when they're untethered from their main computer like if a gaming laptop had a little baby with the Nintendo switch what's inside let's talk about specs the steam deck is equipped with an AMD Apu combining a Zen 2 CPU with an rdna2 GPU that rdna2 GPU is the same one inside the PS5 and Xbox series X and Series S just with a little less compute units compared to the next gen consoles but it's still pretty impressive stuff there's a 7-in LCD touchcreen with a 1200 by 800 resolution 16 gigs of RAM and three different storage capacities 64 256 and 512 GB all of the three models have the same RAM and Apu so the only difference between them is how quickly you'll be accessing installed games and how many you can install plus a few extras I'll get to that in a minute a quick note on Steam deck storage options by the way the 64 gig base model used uses emmc storage versus faster nvme storage on the two higher-end models so if you think you really want one of these and you plan on playing bigger more resource intensive games that take up a lot of dis space factor that into your decision-making process you'll thank me later the design of the steam deck itself is pretty rad if a tad bulky looking aside from the touchcreen it has a Micro SD card slot for storage expansion two Precision Track pads underneath the analog sticks a dedicated steam button and two additional buttons on the back of the device that's on top of the standard bumper SLT trigger combo on top the USBC port on top isn't just for charging you can actually plug in peripherals like a keyboard or if you're feeling extra Saucy a freaking fight stick if you want more ports there's even the steam dock a sold separate accessory that basically turns your steam deck into a desktop PC running Linux with additional ports now you know what it is and what's inside still interested let's talk about what you can do with the steam deck and what you can't do the steam deck runs on a custom Linux distribution Steam OS which means this is a full-fledged portable PC with a custom operating system proton is the compatibility layer that makes it possible for Windows games to run on Linux hardware and valve says their goal is to get every single game on Steam in playable condition at 30 frames per second or better on the steam deck 100% of steam that is an incredibly ambitious goal but the key word here is playable will it be glorious highr 120 frames per second gaming probably not but playable is playable so I have to give valve credit where it's due but steam is only one game store what about everything else epic Xbox origin you play Battle.net well I am going to let valve answer that themselves take it away and steam deck is not a Walled Garden you can install whatever you want on it including other apps and os's that's right if you want you can technically wipe the entire thing and install Windows on it it's a PC remember genuinely of the coolest most open portable consoles out there so huge Kudos Dev valve for not locking everything down which I think is a major win for users give this video a big thumbs up if you want to see us install Windows on a steam deck in a future video so theoretically you can take this thing anywhere and play anything right even offline well kind of obvious obviously you'll have to be online to download a game to the steam deck and if you want to play online multiplayer well I hope I don't have to spell that one out for you if you're offline you'll also need a local save file or you'll need access to the game while connected to the internet in order to load a cloud save before starting an offline session valve also says some games are required to be launched in online mode as part of initial game startup before they'll work in offline mode usually because of some required update either to steam or the game itself so make sure you have all your day Zero updates or day one patches fully installed before you go on a big road trip or to a cabin somewhere without internet access oh and one more important caveat some games employ anti-che measures and they need to be specifically configured for steam deck for the game to work now if you're still with me you're probably pretty interested in getting a steam deck how much and when can you get it the steam deck is competitively priced starting at $399 for the base 64 GB model $529 for the 256 gig model and $649 for the 5112 Gaby model all of them again are the same uh they come with a carrying case but the two pricier versions do have a few extras I know the topof thee line model has a premium screen it's antiscratch might might be a good idea you can pre-order one right now for just five bucks but your pre-order won't actually get you a steam deck when it launches officially on February 25th cue the sad trombo music please yeah sad initial pre-orders opened up in the summer of last year and quickly pushed out the ship date at the time of this recording anyone pre-ordering a steam deck isn't going to get it until quote after Q2 2022 according to valve's landing page now I don't actually know if that means starting in Q3 which would mean July of this year or if it means after the start of Q2 which would be sometime after April 1st either way it's still a bit of a wait to get one but it only costs $5 to hold a spot in line and when it's your turn you'll get an email from valve to confirm your order and pay the final balance so there's not too much risk if you're interested but not quite ready to commit however some corners of the internet have noticed that valve hasn't exactly been well successful when it comes to some of its previous Hardware attempts over the years yes the index is a great VR headset but do you remember steam link steam controller and maybe the biggest flop of them all Steam Machines I can see where some folks might be hesitant about steam deck and take a decidedly wait and see approach to its release and reception no one's going to blame you there day one pre-order late to the party but excited or waiting to hear a more thorough verdict from your friends and favorite content creators before placing an order drop your thoughts down in the comments and be sure to subscribe to ca's YouTube channel for more Great Tech videos just about every day of the week I'm Ashley Esa be good humans\n"