Valve's portable gaming PC "Steam Deck" announced. Starting at $399, it will be available in Europe and the United States in December 2021, and in other regions in 2022.

　Valve, which provides the PC game sales platform Steam, has announced the portable PC game machine "Steam Deck". It is scheduled to be released in the United States, Canada, the Euro, and the United Kingdom in December 2021, and in other regions in 2022.

Reservations are scheduled to start at 2:00 am on July 17, 2021 Japan time, and for reference, the overseas price is $399 for the 64GB model (eMMC), $529 for the 256GB model (NVMe SSD), and 512GB. $649 for the model (NVMe SSD). An official dock equipped with a USB port and an output terminal for an external display will also be sold separately.

　There were rumors that Valve was making a portable PC game console, but this time it was officially announced. The price is reasonable, but the specs are pretty powerful and unique.

　Following the main specifications, first, it is equipped with an AMD processor with the Zen2/RDNA2 architecture, which is also used in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Equipped with 16GB of high-speed LPDDR5 memory, medium-end models and above have NVMe SSD storage.

　In addition, the OS uses the Linux-based in-house OS "SteamOS", and in addition to the Linux-compatible games for SteamOS that are already on Steam, Windows games are supported through the Proton emulator jointly developed by Valve. It seems to do. In addition, KDE Plasma can be used as a desktop environment (that is, it can be used not only as a game but also as a Linux computer).

　In addition to the general input of a modern controller, the control system also includes a customizable grip button on the back, gyro input, and a trackpad for games designed with mouse operation in mind. . It is an impression that the method cultivated in the Steam controller that was once sold is utilized.

　The play time is ``several hours of play for most games'', and for light games, it is ``about 7-8 hours of use'' (from the official website). It is also possible to connect to an external monitor from the dock or various ports on the main unit, or to connect a USB controller. The specs posted on the official website are as follows.

There are also resale measures to limit the number of accounts that can be purchased early.

　There is also an FAQ posted on the sales page, so let's follow up on any topics that interest you. (*Added at 8:00 am on July 16, 2021)