About Steam Deck 2
Valve is developing the Steam Deck 2, a follow-up to the original Steam Deck. The device aims to incorporate learnings from previous hardware, such as the Steam Machine and Steam Controller.
Current Development Status
The Steam Deck 2 is still in progress, with Valve indicating that it is at least a couple of years away from launch. Valve rep and Steam Deck designer Pierre-Loup Griffais confirmed that the company is "hard at work" on the device. However, there’s no firm release date yet, as the team continues to search for suitable hardware.
Griffais noted that a sufficiently advanced APU is crucial for the next-gen performance Valve envisions. He stated, "we're not interested in getting to a point where it's 20 or 30 or even 50% more performance at the same battery life. We want something a little bit more demarcated than that." This highlights the challenges Valve faces in finding appropriate components for the new device.
Technical Specifications
The original Steam Deck utilizes AMD-sourced hardware, featuring a custom chip with Zen 2 CPU cores and RDNA 2 graphics. The Steam Deck OLED offered a slightly refined version of that chip, but it remains fundamentally similar in terms of performance.
Recent advancements from AMD could play a significant role in the development of the Steam Deck 2. The upcoming Gorgon Point APU is based on AMD Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 technology, but it is described as a minor respin of the existing Strix Point chip. According to reports, a custom APU for the Steam Deck 2 might become feasible for production late this year or early in 2027, suggesting a potential launch window of late 2027 at the earliest.