What Is Steam Deck? Valve's Handheld Gaming PC

Steam Deck is a handheld gaming PC made by Valve, the company that runs the Steam PC game store. Valve announced it on 15 July 2021. In the US and the other first markets, the first order emails went out to reservation holders on 25 February 2022, and shipments began on 28 February. In Japan it was sold by the distributor Komodo, which began shipping on 17 December 2022, with the 64 GB model at ¥59,800. Japan was not a first-wave market; it came about ten months after North America and Europe.

From announcement to "launch"

On 15 July 2021 the official Steam account introduced Steam Deck as portable PC gaming starting at $399, and said reservations would open the next day. According to GIGAZINE there were three models that differed in storage: 64 GB at $399, 256 GB at $529 and 512 GB at $649. Shipping was planned for December 2021 in the US, Canada, the EU and the UK, and for 2022 elsewhere. The CPU had four Zen 2 cores and eight threads, the GPU eight RDNA 2 compute units, and memory was 16 GB of LPDDR5; every model had a microSD card slot.

December did not hold. According to Tom's Hardware, Valve said in early November 2021 that shipping would slip to February 2022, and on 26 January 2022 named 25 February at 10 a.m. Pacific as the "launch". What began that day was the sending of order emails to people whose turn in the reservation queue had come; anyone who received one had 72 hours to complete the purchase or lose their place. The first units shipped on 28 February. Reservation deposits were applied to the full price.

Japan, via Komodo

In Japan Steam Deck was sold not by Valve but by Komodo, under a licensing partnership. According to the release quoted by Famitsu, Komodo opened online reservations in Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan on 4 August 2022, and said shipments would start in Japan and reach the other three markets within a few weeks. Japanese prices were ¥59,800 for 64 GB, ¥79,800 for 256 GB and ¥99,800 for 512 GB. According to GAME Watch, Komodo announced on 30 November that shipping would begin on 17 December.

What kind of machine it is

Steam Deck was built to carry an existing Steam library around. Its operating system is Valve's SteamOS 3, which Valve's specification page describes as Arch-based. A desktop mode runs KDE Plasma, so the device can also be used as an ordinary PC; the photo above shows one connected to an external monitor and keyboard, running a Linux desktop.

Because not every Steam game runs well on the device, Valve set up a system in which it tests Steam games on the Deck one by one and labels their compatibility with categories such as "Verified". Valve says it is reviewing the entire Steam catalogue.

In Valve's Steam Hardware & Software Survey for September 2026, Linux accounted for 3.05 percent of responding Steam users, and the operating system listed as "SteamOS Holo" for 0.53 percent of all users.

Steam Deck OLED

In November 2023 Valve released the Steam Deck OLED, with an OLED display. According to TouchArcade, the US prices were $549 for 512 GB and $649 for 1 TB, with orders from 16 November. At the same time the 256 GB LCD model stayed on as the entry model at $399, while the 64 GB and 512 GB LCD models were cut in price and sold until stock ran out. In Japan Komodo released the OLED model on 17 November at ¥84,800 (512 GB) and ¥99,800 (1 TB), and the 256 GB LCD model became ¥59,800. According to GAME Watch, the screen grew from 7 inches to 7.4 inches.

The last LCD model ended too. According to GamingOnLinux, in December 2025 a note appeared on Valve's official page: "We are no longer producing the Steam Deck LCD 256GB model." Valve's specification page now lists only the 512 GB and 1 TB OLED models, built around a 6 nm AMD APU.

The 2026 price rises

In 2026 Steam Deck was caught up in the shortage of memory and storage. According to AUTOMATON, Komodo announced on 27 February that, citing higher logistics costs and exchange rates, it would raise the Japanese prices of both OLED models by ¥15,000 from 6 March, to ¥99,800 for 512 GB and ¥114,800 for 1 TB. In the United States, according to PocketGamer.biz, when stock returned in May the 512 GB model went from $549 to $789 and the 1 TB model from $649 to $949. In a statement Valve said: "Steam Deck itself hasn't changed; these new prices reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole."

God is a Geek reported an estimate, based on the device's position on Steam's top-sellers chart, that unit sales fell by roughly 80 percent after the increase. That chart ranks products by revenue, not units, and Valve itself has not released shipment figures. The same article says Valve's next piece of hardware, the Steam Machine, launched in June 2026.

The handheld gaming PC category

Windows-based handheld PCs followed. According to Video Games Chronicle, Microsoft and ASUS priced the ROG Xbox Ally at $599.99 and the ROG Xbox Ally X at $999.99 ahead of their 16 October 2025 release, and Microsoft introduced a Handheld Compatibility Program that VGC described as similar to Steam Deck Verified.

Nintendo's handhelds, such as the Nintendo Switch Lite and the Nintendo Switch 2, sell their own software; what Steam Deck carries is games its owners had already bought on PC. For consoles as a whole, see the game consoles timeline.