Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and BlueSky @andrewfreedman.net . You can send him tips on Signal: andrewfreedman.01 ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-13/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Andrew E. Freedman Social Links Navigation Andrew E. Freedman is a senior editor at Tom's Hardware focusing on laptops, desktops and gaming. He also keeps up with the latest news. A lover of all things gaming and tech, his previous work has shown up in Tom's Guide, Laptop Mag, Kotaku, PCMag and Complex, among others. Follow him on Threads @FreedmanAE and BlueSky @andrewfreedman.net . You can send him tips on Signal: andrewfreedman.01
usertests Definitely no Steam Deck 2. Machine/Frame took care of their hardware quota for the next 2 years, at least. The longer the wait for the Steam Deck 2, the more interesting it gets for me, if it means it ends up with some neat SoC. Zen 6/7/8 are possible, and even ARM is on the table. Reply
thestryker Given Valve's hardware strategy to date I don't think a Steam Deck 2 is coming before late 2028. Unless the other GPU manufacturers really change their Linux driver stance I don't see Valve stepping away from AMD. There's also zero indication that Valve is going to do custom hardware which means they're beholden to AMD's releases. Since there's no sign of regular APUs moving beyond RDNA 3.5 that means a hardware configuration Valve would even consider using won't appear until some time in 2027. This would be moderately worrying to me, but the memory apocalypse is going to help out a lot here. Even if Intel can sell their proported G3 lower SKUs at a good price the DRAM/SSD costs will ensure no low priced handhelds this year at minimum. Of course on the other hand if PTL's performance holds up at the 15W range in handheld that would mark the first time we've seen a performance increase good enough to upgrade to from a first Gen device (Ally, Claw or Steam Deck) for most people. This could very well drive sales of these devices especially later in the year if holiday discounts are a thing. Reply
Notton I echo the sentiments that there is no way there is an imminent launch of Steam Deck 2. Valve has been pretty clear they aren't even considering it until there is a substantial hardware improvement. Panther Lake offers that improvement, but it's unlikely to be cheap enough for Valve's pricing target. Valve also has no incentive to release a new handheld when Asus/Xbox/Lenovo/MSI/etc. all offer something that works with Steam library. I would guess they soft discontinued the product until DRAM and SSD pricing improves. Reply
ezst036 Hopefully this is not the end of the road for the Steam Deck, but if it is. The Deck 1 did its job. At this point wiping other handhelds and putting SteamOS on them increases performance and otherwise makes them into more or less Steam Decks. The Legions and Claws and Allys etc etc etc. Reply
Key considerations
- Investor positioning can change fast
- Volatility remains possible near catalysts
- Macro rates and liquidity can dominate flows
Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/handheld-gaming/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/handheld-gaming/steam-deck-availability-goes-up-in-smoke-suddenly-goes-out-of-stock-in-us-asia-stores#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.