Steam Deck review — My favorite gaming PC ever made

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Stop comparing the Steam Deck’s size to Nintendo Switch or any other dedicated gaming handheld. Valve Software has delivered a cutting-edge handheld PC with mind-blowing specs at an even more mind-blowing price. And in that context, this is a tiny gaming powerhouse that is going to change the way I play games forever.

The Steam Deck launches today — for whatever that means. You needed to preorder months ago for a chance to get one by the end of this year let alone by the end of March. But the device starts at $400 and goes up to $529 and then $649 as you add more and faster storage and extra features. But even that base model comes with a powerful and efficient AMD Zen 2-based PCU and RDNA 2-based video chip. You also get a massive 16GB of speedy LPDDR5 memory and a menagerie of input options. With all of that, you get to experience games on a 7-inch 1200×800 screen.

I want to state clearly at the top that 800p at 7 inches is crystal sharp for video games, and a higher resolution would only drain your battery faster.

What you should take away from the on-paper specs is that this is a very powerful machine for its price and formfactor. Other, less-powerful handheld PCs sell for more than twice the price of the Steam Deck. Of course, the question is whether or not those specs translate into reality. And they do. This machine is capable of handling even the most modern and graphically intensive games.

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But the Steam Deck poses a larger question: can it change the relationship between people and PC gaming. And the answer to that is a resounding yes. This is the most important advancement in