A new version of Valve's handheld PC, dubbed Steam Deck 2, is on its way.
After the successful release of the original Steam Deck in February 2022, the company is already working on its successor. Steam Deck designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais revealed some information about the upcoming Steam Deck 2 in an interview with The Verge.
In this article, we will share all the details about Steam Deck 2 that we have gathered. We will also share information about its release date, specifications and pricing.
Steam Deck 2 specs rumours
It is safe to assume that Steam Deck 2 will be better than its predecessor in almost every respect. In fact, the Steam deck designers shared in the interview that they plan to improve screen and battery life.
One of the biggest criticisms against the original Steam Deck is its low battery life. If you play games like Elden Ring on Steam Deck at 60FPS, the device will die between two hours and two and a half hours of playtime, which is pretty disappointing.
Steam Deck's battery life is between 2 to 8 hours. We can realistically expect Valve to improve the battery life to about 4 hours or more in Steam Deck 2 to help the new gadget's battery last longer. Hopefully, you won't need to shell out on a power bank for Steam Deck 2.
As far as screens are concerned, Steam Deck 2 will probably feature an OLED display. Steam Deck's LCD screen doesn't look bad but it has some issues such as light bleed. OLED screens tend to produce deeper blacks, better contrast ratios, and better images overall.
Naturally, Steam Deck 2 will have a more powerful processor and upgraded GPU. The original Steam Deck has 16GB of unified memory, shared between CPU and GPU. We can expect Valve to release a 32 GB version of Steam Deck 2, capable of playing fast-paced, memory-intensive games like Returnal.
Steam Deck 2 price speculation
At this early stage, it is difficult to predict exactly how much Steam Deck 2 will cost. However, we can safely assume that Steam Deck 2 will be more expensive than the predecessor, given the gadget’s new hardware.
GPD Win 4, the handheld PC powered by AMD Ryzen 7 6800U APU, stands to be a serious competitor to the prospective Steam Deck 2. As such, its price might also be in the same ballpark. GPD Win 4 starts selling at $799, with the most expensive variant costing $1199.
If Valve follows the trend of releasing 3 models, our speculation is that the cheapest model would be priced in the $500-600 range, the midrange Steam Deck 2 would be priced around $600-700, and the high-end version will be priced around $700-800.
- Read more: Best Steam Deck dock 2023
Steam Deck 2 release date speculation
Since the original Steam Deck isn't even 1 year old yet, we shouldn’t expect the Steam Deck 2 release date to come around anytime soon.
The inaugural Steam Deck hit the Asian market recently only, and there are still many countries in which it is not available. So, it is possible that Valve won't release a new version of Steam Deck until the current version is released everywhere.
Therefore, it might take a few more years for Steam Deck 2 to hit the shelves. We speculate that the earliest possible release date for Steam Deck 2 will be Q1 of 2024.
That covers everything we know about Steam Deck 2. We will update this article when new information becomes available. So, keep an eye out for more Steam Deck 2 news, including specs, release date and price.
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