One of my favorite pieces from the last 12 months. First published on his May 4, 2022 date.
Valve hasn’t confirmed if it’s really working on a Steam Deck follow-up (opens in new tab), its handheld gaming PC. However, we are definitely considering something similar to Steam Deck 2. Company president Gabe Newell said: corner (opens in new tab) The shipment of first-generation units “helps frame the Deck 2 mindset,” and the company wants to see the new handheld as a “permanent addition.” (opens in new tab)Whether Valve is making the next generation of PC handhelds or renting out SteamOS to someone else, we have a lot of ideas about what we want to cut.
Some of our suggestions are quite realistic. Improvements you’ll want to see after using the Steam Deck for a while, and improvements you definitely won’t. When it comes to pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with today’s technology, our Flying Pie dream deck is undoubtedly wild enough to make Valve’s engineers sweat. But PC gamers can dream.
Ultimately, Valve has no immediate plans to upgrade Steam decks. Like many of you, we’re still waiting for our original order to be fulfilled, and no one knows when the portable PC will be generally available. Whether you’re into handheld PC gaming or not, there’s so much potential for handheld PC gaming that it means you’ll have plenty of time to figure out the next version of the handheld.
Senior Hardware Editor Jacob Ridley: Along the way, there’s a big change in integrated GPU power. A shift where both AMD and Intel could offer much better performance in compact system-on-chip packages. For Valve, or handheld gaming PCs in general, it could be a way to deliver performance well beyond 720p on the go. We’re talking about discrete graphics card performance from a single chip that incorporates the CPU, GPU, and other critical systems.
Since the Steam Deck is already powered by AMD processors (Zen 2 chips with 4 cores, 8 threads, and 8 CUs of RDNA 2 graphics power), we think the follow-up will also favor the red team. AMD has confirmed two new APUs known as Phoenix and Dragon Reach. These will reportedly feature the upcoming Zen 4 architecture for desktop Ryzen 7000 processors. Rumor has it that even low-end Phoenix chips could feature up to 24 CUs from his existing RDNA 2 or upcoming RDNA 3 graphics architecture. The exact GPU specs we can expect from these chips have yet to be confirmed by AMD, but we’re talking about massive frame rate increases at high resolutions, even at the low end similar to Radeon’s performance. RX6500XT (opens in new tab).
Make no mistake, this is a kind of pipe dream. The power demands of such chips can be substantial for portable handhelds. So far we know he intends to downgrade the Phoenix chip to his 35W. That’s a lot thirstier than the current Steam Deck’s max 15W chip. And it’s the more thrifty of the two next-gen APUs. , let’s hope for the best.
Katie Wickens, Hardware Writer: Half a month of Steam Deck freed me from my craving for the best gaming laptop (opens in new tab) Being a bit of a deckhead. With a laptop, I could settle for system-resource-hungry city-building habits, but I still found myself enjoying RPGs and walking sims enough to buy a Steam Deck. . However, while using it, a few niggles appeared and pulled me back into a life of luxury with a lid.
At about 1.5 lbs (660g) the deck is a little more difficult to handle.Resting on your lap means being stuck bent over for hours (opens in new tab)and if you want to try different gyro controls in Euro Truck Simulator 2 (opens in new tab)If you don’t lift it, your arms will get pretty tired after just a few minutes. We know it won’t be easy to fit the upgraded specs into a lighter machine, but we hope the next version of the deck is a little lighter.
If you can’t do that, lower the height just a bit so you can press the top button while hugging the deck. It also has a little kickstand on the back so you can put it down instead of facing the ceiling and miss the next cutscene entirely. Thanks Papa Newell, you are the best
Wes Fenron, Senior Editor: colour! ! I’m with Katie in that my “desire” for 2nd gen is mostly physical. not indulging in What I really care about is a lighter, more manageable device, but as I said in my review, I think Valve made the right trade-off with this. And I would like to shrink the whole system down just a bit and make it more portable.
Steam decks could definitely be more stylish. I want a device that feels like engineer-designed hardware and has a stylish design like the Switch Lite or Playdate. The bezels around the Steam Deck’s display are so large that it’s possible Valve would tighten the overall system dimensions while keeping the screen the same size. It’s a study, but Valve needs to make sure the OLED can handle the refresh rate changes that are just beginning to be introduced to Steam decks. Being able to lock your game framerate and display refresh to 40Hz or 50Hz gives you great flexibility when performance and battery life are always at odds.
Impatient Consumer Chris Livingston: Maybe I’ve been spoiled, or maybe it’s just another example of instant gratification, but hopefully Steam Deck 2 arrives in the mail in a few days. Or not a million years from now, but a week after ordering? Now, if he preorders a Steam deck here in May, he’ll have to wait until after October to get it. October?that is distant futureOr later? it’s even further. We’ll probably live on Mars and use telepathy to play games “or later.”
Hopefully, Valve will pre-manufacture more Deck 2s than they did in the first run. Even if a few decks go unsold, the company doesn’t go bankrupt, right? Or maybe it’s my fault to stop expecting to get what I want quickly. Hard to say.
Alan Dexter, Senior Hardware Editor: When it comes to dream steam decks, it’s torn. Part of me needs more power for higher resolutions and better frame rates, but at the same time I don’t have to deal with noisy fans. So if you’re in fantasy realm, the 24 CU RDNA 3 GPU cores are your best bet. Plug it into a 1080p screen and you won’t have to mess around with weird resolutions.
Plus we like the more premium chassis. The OG Steam Deck feels pretty decent, but looking at a number of his high-end laptops, I got a taste of his CNC-machined chassis of high quality. If this helps cool the next Steam Deck, then all is well.
The last thing I want in Steam Deck 2 is something a little tricky to solve. I would like a better controller. I just don’t like the input provided by the existing Steam decks. This is partly due to the fact that the PC games I tend to play work best with a mouse and keyboard, and I’ve always considered console controllers to be inferior to PC input power. I don’t know the solution, but it’s not thumbsticks and trackpads.
In summary, it requires a performance boost, a premium chassis, and a complete rethink of the controller. And at roughly the same price as the original Steam Deck, it’s one of the things that Valve has completely nailed in its first generation of devices.
Dave James, Hardware Lead: silence. That’s all I really want from a second generation Steam Deck. I was sitting on the couch next to my wife, who was on the phone. shoe shoe After a while the cooling of the deck still reaches me. The dream is passive his chip cooling that keeps her APU with RDNA 3 at its heart and allows it to run at peak performance. But I know it’s a pipe dream. Or the dream that the heat pipes are so big that Deck 2.0 is 3 inches thick.
That’s the main thing, but it also has some useful features that I wish it had. Deck customization lets you tweak most games to get decent battery life, but you don’t need a battery I want a battery that means that. At least not if your system is consuming much less power than it currently does.
Finally, I would like a Thunderbolt 4 connection. Being able to dock the deck was an incredibly fun experience. I wrote the entire tech review on the Steam deck itself, with it hooked up to my office monitor, mouse and keyboard. However, higher-spec screens for gaming don’t always do the trick, but if you can hook it up to an external GPU dock, you can have a mobile gaming machine that becomes a complete desktop PC in your home.
