Steam Deck

Understandable.

What I will say though is that I personally wouldn't mind regular spec bumps at all. The Deck isn't exactly a cheap device and to get the "latest and greatest" for your "investment" at any given point of purchase would help longevity.

But as I said, in this case it makes a lot of sense (for Valve). SteamOS is still under heavy development, even more basic stuff such as the update mechanism and also power management is something they're still working to improve.

They also use a custom APU designed in collaboration with AMD, and these designs cost a lot of money. It's not just a rebranded 7840U like the Z1 Extreme for example. This custom design makes a lot of sense in terms of focusing on gaming performance and efficiency, and it clearly shows in (very) power limited scenarios.

Either way, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a new Steam Deck based on Zen 5 and RDNA 4 with another custom designed APU sometime in 2025 or early 2026. Zen 2 is really starting to show its age and Zen 5 is a solid leap even over Zen 4 (not talking about desktop CPUs here, but Ryzen AI 300). RDNA 4 will likely improve quite a bit over RDNA 3(.5) (with the current Deck having RDNA 2) and include some type of hardware-accelerated machine learning upscaling with FSR4, which could make a lot of sense on the Deck as long as enough games support it.

I'd also like to see a few other improvements. The OLED display is great in many aspects, but VRR would be a great feature to have. Internally I'd like to see an easier way to swap the battery, maybe using similar tech to what Apple does with the iPhone 16's battery. Currently, swapping the battery is one of the most complex repairs on the Deck, but it'll also be the most common a few years down the line when all these batteries really start to show their age.

I honestly think (hope) valve should take a shot at a genuine console. I would absolutely love something that just WORKS like steam deck, but unlike my PS5 syncs with my steam library and can easily transition to my deck with no fuss. Library compatibility, graphic customization, capable of functioning as a one stop media device for the TV room. I feel like the steam machines were too early and too short sighted/compartmentalized, but now that so many games are coming to PC, valve could take everything the PlayStation 5 did right, while removing all the bullshit that drives people nuts.

It's not what makes them money so they don't really have the business incentive for maximizing hardware sales that leads to a relentless pushing out of new versions of their hardware that are barely better than the last one and all manner of tricks for early obsolescence of older devices (things like purposeful OS and App under-performance and even incompatibility with older versions of the hardware).

Also in the big picture of gaming the Steam Deck is tiny and in its early stages, so business-wise is not the time to go down a strategy of relentless new hardware versions and enshittification, quite the opposite.

Absolutely, they're doing the right thing and as the right thing aligns with their business objectives it's a bit wishful thinking to claim its because they care so much about their customers as people.

Might sound kind of stupid, but one thing I'd personally love for the steam deck would be the ability to detach the display from the controls on each side like the Nintendo switch so I could use it like a small tablet in portrait mode. You can already do that, but it's awkward and bulky.

I'd actually use it for browsing the web on desktop mode and I could probably get rid of my android tablet.

A desperately needed view in an industry of fashionable e-waste. Apple, Google and now Microsoft: I'm looking at you

I just sold my 4090 after playing some latest hit AAA games I didn’t like at all and I play only indies on deck, it’s the best gaming device ever

Also it seems the only games I liked from hundreds of aaa graphics eye candies from recent years are rdr2 and cyberpunk and bg3. I unironically think there are fewer great big aaa games nowadays cmv and I am not planning another xx90 card any time soon

I’d like to get a Steam Deck but was wondering if it’s getting close to a newer, better version coming soon. This makes me feel more comfortable, not that I have the budget for one right now anyway.