The weaker mobile hardware on those gadgets couldn’t achieve full-on performance parity-meaning a new blockbuster release like the latest Call of Duty was only available on home systems. Console manufacturers have long offered portable consoles such as Sony’s PlayStation Portable to play games on the go. That means you’re glued to either your office chair or living room couch while you play games. The components powering these systems are expensive, bulky, and power hungry.

Read on to see how well it fares past the honeymoon phase.ĪMD APU (with up to 1.6 TFlops of graphical power)īefore the Steam Deck, you would traditionally buy either a home video game console or a heavy (30 pounds on average) desktop gaming computer tower in order to play the newest games at their highest graphic fidelity. This versatility has earned the Steam Deck a spot in my everyday carry. When it’s time to go out, simply unplug the Steam Deck and pick up where you left off. This additional functionality opens the door for computing tasks like editing photos or browsing the web. If you’re really determined, you can even connect accessories like your mouse and keyboard to a dock’s additional USB ports to use it as a traditional Linux or Windows desktop. The Steam Deck’s USB-C charging port supports a dock mode when connected to a USB-C hub so you can play on a larger TV or gaming monitor up to a 4K resolution at 120 FPS while you’re home. Plus it has enough power to run the latest triple-A titles smoothly at up to 60 frames per second. This system places all the benefits of a computer such as a desktop operating system, mod support, and highly adjustable graphics settings in your pocket. Just don’t mistake the Steam Deck for a game console.

This makes it easy to hold for hours on end and untethers the PC gaming experience from your desk. At $399, this handheld costs half the price of a comparable desktop PC build and weighs just over a pound.

Steam Deck condenses an entire gaming computer setup into a portable device-complete with a built-in controller and an 800p LCD touchscreen.

From its massive game library to its impressive performance, this little PC has only gotten better with age. In that time, this portable gaming computer has seen major monthly upgrades that bring new interface tweaks and features. Valve’s Steam Deck released exactly one year ago today.

Stream deck dock price