How to pre-order Steam Deck: where to buy Valve’s handheld gaming PC

How to pre-order Steam Deck: where to buy Valve's handheld gaming PC

(Image credit: Valve)

Value has announced the Steam Deck is coming this year. This portable gaming PC is the company'due south answer to the Nintendo Switch and will allow you to accept your unabridged library of Steam games on the go.

The early on response from PC gamers has been pretty enthusiastic and information technology won't be a surprise if the Steam Deck becomes another piece of gaming hardware that becomes extremely hard to purchase. Similar the PS5, Xbox Serial X and recently-announced Nintendo Switch OLED, getting your easily on a Steam Deck at launch could be a very tricky job.

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Thankfully Valve appears to be aware of this and is implementing systems to ensure the device ends up in the easily of gamers, rather than resellers looking to brand a quick profit.

Nevertheless, even if scalpers have a tough fourth dimension hoovering up all the launch stock, due to the ongoing global flake shortage, there will nigh certainly be more demand for the Steam Deck than there is supply. If you're interested, you'll desire to go your society in during the first wave to avoid disappointment later down the line.

The pre-society procedure for the Steam Deck is a little more than complicated than just refreshing a retailer'due south list and hoping you manage to get your order in earlier the dreaded "sold out" notice appears. We've broken down the procedure beneath to assistance you become your pre-lodge fuss-gratuitous.

Where to pre-society Steam Deck

Currently, the Steam Deck can only be pre-ordered from the Steam website. Pre-orders are currently live.

Although, technically the word pre-order is slightly misleading in this instance. Valve is allowing customers to place a $5 reservation on a unit from today, which will then be taken off the cost of the Steam Deck when yous complete your order closer to release.

Valve has yet to put a definitive release appointment on the Steam Deck. The company has just given a somewhat vague December 2021 shipping date for customers in the U.S. and U.K. for now. Nosotros would wait the device to release in time for the holidays though.

How to pre-order Steam Deck

As noted to a higher place the pre-club procedure for the Steam Deck is a little chip dissimilar. Yous're reserving a unit rather than completing an club, which does, unfortunately, mean that you're not guaranteed a unit of measurement even if you put $5 down.

Once y'all put your deposit down you lot'll be placed into a reservation queue and then exist contacted closer to launch to complete your order. Customers will be contacted based on when they placed a reservation, then if y'all badly desire a Steam Deck gets your reservation in as shortly every bit possible.

Don't worry if you identify a deposit and so change your mind. If you asking a refund inside xxx days of making a reservation you'll get refunded to your payment method, if it's been longer than a month you'll get a refund equally Steam credit.

No other retailers are listing the Steam Deck only withal, though that is likely to change in the future. Withal, it may not exist until 2022 that you lot can buy a Steam Deck from anywhere just Valve.

Steam Deck price and models

The Steam Deck is being released in 3 models. The cheapest version will cost $399 and comes with 64GB of eMMC storage. If that's non a big enough hard drive for you, and so you lot tin can get a Steam Deck with a 256GB SSD for $529 or a 512GB SSD for $649.

Spec-wise all three models of the portable gaming device are the aforementioned, so the price difference is solely due to the increased storage capacity. Each likewise comes with a carrying case, and the most expensive model comes with "premium anti-glare etched glass" every bit well.

The storage capabilities of the Steam Deck can exist expanded upon with third-party hard drives, and so even if you opt for the cheapest 64GB model now, y'all will be able to increment its storage in the time to come.

Steam Deck specs

A total technical breakup tin can be found on the Steam Deck site, only these are are the key specs:

Steam Deck at a glance

Price	$399; $529; $649	Same processor/RAM, different storage
CPU/GPU	AMD Zen 2 + RDNA 2 APU	four-core, viii-thread with viii RDNA 2 compute units for GPU
RAM	16GB LPDDR5
Screen	7" 1280x800 LCD Display	512GB model to include anti-glare etched glass
Battery	forty-watt hour	7-viii hours for 2D games/web browsing
Connectivity	Bluetooth, USB Type-C, 3.5mm headphone jack
Storage	64GB; 256GB; 512GB	256GB and 512GB models will employ faster NVMe SSD storage. 64GB will use eMMC.
Expansion	Micro SD Carte du jour slot
Other	Congenital-in microphone, ambient light sensor

The controller is built into the organisation, like a Nintendo DS for example. You'll run into all the buttons you expect including shoulder buttons and two joysticks. Plus the device even sports 2 trackpads to simulate mouse functionality.

Rory is a staff writer at Tom's Guide based in the Uk. He covers a wide range of topics including tech news, deals, gaming, streaming and more. When he's non writing hot takes on the latest gaming hardware and streaming shows, he tin can be found watching a borderline unhealthy amount of movies and being thoroughly disappointed by his terrible football squad.