Source is KeplerL2, who is generally considered a reliable source for insider hardware info, particularly on AMD GPU hardware and AMD SoC for consoles.
Previously I would have personally estimated Steam Deck 2 to release mid 2026-early 2027, but the recent info about an upcoming Steam Machine made me think that maybe I should push back that estimate.
Of course even if we assume this is reliable insider info, a lot can change in couple years, so things can definitely change.
Oh… I kinda hope so… I just ordered a steam deck yesterday.
I meant to check this specifically before i ordered and i completely forgot
So basically when the hardware gets better and cheaper, like AAA games on medium 120fps stable, additionally it would use MicroSDexpress cards. Oh, and HDR and dynamic framerate on OLED (both at the same time) needs to be developed for small screens.
Just upgraded the internal storage to 2tb.
I’m happy with my SD as is.
As the kids like to say … Let em cook.
It’ll come out when it’s meaningful and a big leap. They’ve said as much before.
Yup, they’ve straight up said that they’re not interested in iterative upgrades. They said they’d only consider a Deck 2 when the hardware was actually in a place that it would be a meaningful upgrade.
In the meantime, they’re focused on getting devs to actually optimize their games for the SD’s (admittedly aging) hardware. Basically, forcing devs to actually plan for Steam Deck support, instead of just shipping an unoptimized piece of junk out the door and blaming hardware limitations when nothing except the newest cards can play it. There are plenty of games that look gorgeous on the Deck, so we know it’s 100% possible to do so.
Fucking seriously. They pushed out a handheld that can play AAA games on low settings. It came out ~3 years ago, so they’re on track as any other major hardware developer.
Good choice. As easy to forget as it is, that’ll be the 8th year of the PS5. Probably will benefit from similar supply chains as the rumored PS6/PS5 handheld and whatever MS does. Main shame to me is for people buying a Steam Deck and being stuck with regular sdxc microSD. microSD express or that Biwin mini SSD would be real nice
You can upgrade the SSD in a Steam Deck instead of using an SD card. It is pricey though.
I upgraded my 512gb to 2tb for $144.
I don’t know who those “we” people are but benchmarks have repeatedly shown that in low wattage situations the performance difference between Deck and the newer handhelds is negligible, so this prediction is hardly a surprise IMO.
Good, there is nothing wrong with the current gen. I want major leaps every few years not marginal improvents every year.
It is like you don’t even care about profits and value the consumer.
I mean, Valve is wildly profitable. On a profit-per-employee basis, they beat out virtually every other company in existence, at a staggering $3.5M in profit earned per employee. The Steam Store is a money-printing machine, and takes very little in upkeep/support staff to stay profitable.
The Steam Deck was never a massive profit-seeking venture for them; It was a way to divest from Microsoft, (who had been rumbling about going the way of Google/Apple and forcing everyone to use their proprietary store, then skimming a portion of all sales made on said store), and to be able to bring the Steam storefront to people who otherwise wouldn’t be using Steam.
The only reason Microsoft backed off of their Microsoft Store idea was because Apple and Google got slapped in the EU, and forced to allow third-party app stores. And by that point, the Steam Deck was already in production, so there wasn’t much point in canceling it. Especially since, as I mentioned earlier, it expands the Steam Store’s reach, which is their real end goal.
I don’t know why people are so eager for it, the deck is great, it’s a great purchase. I wish I had gotten the OLED, but I’m very very happy with it. I don’t see that it needs to be replaced annually or even every 2-3 years. It’s like the switch, why not go 4+ years before hardware drives that a new one is possible
When I first got the steam deck, I thought it was so great and used it all the time; I still do.
I told my wife that I liked it so much that I would buy the next one as soon as it released.
After having it for some time, I realized that all the games I play run on it easily and there is no real need to upgrade.
So, I plan to use this steamdeck until it it stops working. I imagine that will be a while as I’m going to repair it when/if something breaks.
Because the capitalist system has trained the consumer to always want new, shiny things.
There you go, that’s the answer. Can’t just be happy with what we have, not even for a couple of years. Time to throw it away, get the new one!
100% agree. My only gripe is I wish I got the OLED.
Oh, and input lag in Rocket League.
I havent played it on steam Deck, usually on PC, but on console you can vastly improve the input lag with a few settings, mainly turning the vertical synchronisation off. Maybe it helps with the Deck too.
PC gamers are very excited that there’s a handheld PC on the market thats made by Valve, but they don’t understand its meant to be a low-power gaming device. its not meant to be a 500+fps massive rig with all the trimmings and fixins.
They are trying to apply their upgrade logic/obsessive consumerism to a device that neither wants nor needs that in its own market.
This has been a major annoyance I’ve had too with gamers. It was never meant to play games at 240fps with ultra graphics. It’s meant as a way to make “most” games playable on the road. A great low cost entry point, or something to compliment your big gaming rig. I don’t need an upgrade because it does what it does great, plays most games on decent settings well enough for the duration of a flight or trip. If you want ultra graphics, you will have to pay ultra prices and probably do a big desktop. Even “Steam Deck 2” will still probably only do 30-45fps games on medium, just newer games will be a bit more playable.
I would like a smaller deck though, the current one is hard to hold if you don’t have big man hands
That’s a fair ask IMO. Not wanting a newer shinier one, just one that fits you better.
I want a second one because I know it’ll blow the first one out of the water, with the first one they had to figure out all the r&d from scratch, with the two they should be able to refine the hell out of it, I think there’s a good chance the 2 will be basically perfect. Shame they’ll never make a 3 though.
I’m not really sure what’s not perfect with the OLED already, lol. Maybe a second USB-C port would be nice, so we could charge it while using a non-hub device, or use a cheap hub to add even more controllers? That’s a minor, incremental improvement, though.
It could always be smaller/thinner/quieter, I guess, but I can’t think of anything I’d really want to change with my Deck. I have lots of minor pain points with other tech, but I literally can’t think of anything with the Deck, so I’m curious if you have any specifics, or if you’re just trusting that Valve has put some real thought and research into this and will surprise us with design changes for the better that aren’t obvious.
Hall effect everything, adaptive triggers, higher screen to body ratio, reduced weight, usb-c on top and bottom, enough performance to play spiderman 2 in particular on nice settings, 1080p, detachable siderail controllers, better haptics, better speakers. There’s honestly a lot wrong with the steam deck these things were all off the top of my head, if they fix everything on that list I won’t want any other gaming machine ever, though.
Cuz there are a lot of games that it can not run due to performance? I mean there are a lot of games on my wishlist that are waiting for a steam deck 2 so I can actually play them if i buy them… On top of that I have the OG LCD version and it’s not worth for me to upgrade to the OLED, a steam deck 2 on the other hand
Your question depends on your definition of “can it run”. To me, as a portable device I get 45 fps on the witcher on medium settings and that’s very playable. If you want to use it as a desktop and expect that the next version will rival a 5000 series GPU, that’s unrealistic.
Because the first Deck was underpowered at release and is several years old at this point. It’s overdue for a sequel, hopefully one that can handle games at a reasonable resolution this time around.
Underpowered?! I can play fucking Elden Ring!
At Ultra with no dips below 90 FPS @1440p?
Ultra Graphics at 1440p
Good Battery Life
Good PricePick 2.
How is that the standard for a thing that costs less than just my graphics card and is fully portable?? I don’t even need my gaming pc to do that shit.
For what it is, the steam deck performs exceedingly well.
It’s not, but it should be.
It’s like people (like you) forget that not that long ago, a high-end graphics card used to cost $300. It is entirely possible to go back to those days, but greed is holding us back. There’s no reason why Valve couldn’t make a $500 Steam Deck that runs games at 1440p with RT. But Nvidia’a greed and AMD’s inability to keep up in the GPU sector (along with their greed) is preventing that from happening.
Nobody under 16 should be on Lemmy
What handheld, wait no, console period can?
Most people don’t care that much to play at 90 fps on 1440p on a mobile device.
I suspect part of the issue is you’re a kbm player primarily?
Even on desktop PCs, you need a relatively recent gpu to play at that level, one of those gpus is almost the entire size of the deck lmfao
No console can, and that’s my point. Which is why I can’t get into console and handheld gaming. They’re overpriced and underpowered, thanks to greedy chip makers. There’s no reason why a high-end GPU can’t cost $300 like they used to not that long ago.
I think you misunderstand what the Deck is. It’s a handheld laptop with a built-in controller with the express purpose of playing games. It’s not a GPU with a screen.
I feel you about GPU pricing, but the Deck is one of the few things I’ve bought in recent years where I didn’t feel buyer’s remorse, even slightly. How it’s priced is fair for what you get: an ultra-portable Linux gaming laptop. Plus, you get the added benefit of knowing that you’re further supporting gaming on Linux; Proton literally changed the gaming landscape, and Valve has directly partnered with Arch Linux.
I still frequently play my Desktop, but there are times when I just want to chill in bed, sit on the couch, play on vacation, and there’s simply no way I can take my desktop computer with me to those places.
90 FPS @1440p
On a handheld? What even for?
60 FPS is already a meme on computer, even more now that certain companies hallucinate frames for their games with AI.
See other comments, this was on purpose to make it more portable. The deck doesn’t need to be a powerhouse, it needs to be portable. We already have powerhouse desktops
Yes but where’s my powerhouse portable?
The ROG Xbox Ally X is rumored to target 1080p at $899.99, ONEXPLAYER has models using the latest and greatest AMD AI 9 HX and 144hz at $900~$1K-ish, Aya Neo and GPD Win have some too.
There’s plenty options for “Powerhouse portables”, you just gotta be willing to pay for 'em.By definition it cannot exist. You can have a powerhouse or portable. The fact that they made the deck as powerful as they did is frankly amazing.
Nothing has indicated that a new Steam Deck is anywhere near a release or announcement. They said themselves time and time again that they would want a new Steam Deck to be a significant upgrade on the first one.
As long as a really big performance improvement is not possible there won’t be a new Steam Deck. And I don’t think running Cyberpunk 1080p instead of 800p counts. My bet is that as long as raytracing is as abysmal as it is now on APUs we can’t even dream of getting a new Deck.
Think console generations and not smartphone releases.
Not only that, but raw horsepower and battery life are always in a delicate balance in any portable device.
There are practical limitations when it comes to current battery technology. Not to mention heat generation and dissipation that comes with more powerful hardware.
Why is everyone in a hurry? What’s wrong with the one we have? I have the 64GB LCD one (OG one) and it’s fucking flawless still. Yeah, the storage is annoying, but all of my games play no problem. So, what’s the issue? Also, do y’all realize how fucking insane the ergonomics on this one? It genuinely made me not look at any other device. Please let them take their time so we can get an even nicer device.
There are two kinds of people who would like a refreshed Steam Deck, in my experience:
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People who seem to think it needs to be faster. Since it appears to be crafted to provide suitable performance for the 720p display it has (which I don’t personally think needs to be changed, considering the whole “portable” use case), this seems to just be a “bigger number better” argument and those people should probably go out and buy a Lenovo Legion / ROG Ally / whatever.
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People who are otherwise happy, but think it should have a newer, more efficient processor to get longer battery life, and make less heat/noise in the process. There’s a measurable gulf between the current Zen2/RDNA2 CPU and a theoretical modern Zen5/RDNA3.5 (or even RDNA4) model in that regard; it could be tuned to deliver roughly the same performance as the original (or a little more, for the handful of games that tend to miss their performance target slightly) but deliver longer battery life.
We got a hint at 2) with the OLED model’s CPU using a newer manufacturing process improving thermals and battery life (of course it did also have a bigger battery). I think the number of people willing to pay a bit extra for what could be an even larger improvement in that area is probably more than some would like to admit.
(I personally fit in that latter category. Considering a full work day including a public transport commute and lunch break, not a whole lot of extra battery could well be the difference between having to carry a charger and not)
Certainly understandable. I really don’t want them to increase the resolution. For that screen size, it’s perfect. If they made better hardware and kept the same screen res, imagine the battery life you’ll get out of this thing. Also, I want them to keep how it looks like right now. It’s hands down the most comfortable handheld I’ve ever tried, and I’ve tried several of them.
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I guess it’s consumerism and people always wanting more.
I’d be happy if the Steam Deck 2 wasn’t released until 2028 as I’ve just got my used LCD in 2025.
I have a friend who is like that. He doesn’t leave anything behind. He basically has every gaming console out there, two PCs, 3 handhelds… Etc. He has over 1800 games in his team library. I couldn’t do that even if I had the money for it. Man, we don’t even have enough hours in the day to play all of that shit. Lmao
This lines up with how their VR hardware is rolling out too. (A huge multi year gap)
And the “Soon” meme, of course.
Valve has never said the Deck 2 is coming soon. In fact they have said specifically that they have zero current plans for a Deck 2 and will not until hardware advances sufficiently
Yup! It’s all happening as they said and as is consistent with their past.
…who the hell thought it was anytime soon? they work on valve time. when they can shift a paradime they do, when it won’t they do something else
It’s been “Coming Soon™” for at least over a year and a half now, and according to THE CHART, “coming soon” = only over two months. 🤷♂️
Except Valve never said the Steam Deck 2 was Coming Soon™.
Take your time Valve.
I can wait for 2028, but how about giving us a Steam Controller 2? Take the screen out of a steam deck and call it a day.
Take the screen out of a steam deck and call it a day.
Almost. Also put the dual stage triggers back in.
Yeah. I have a Steam controller that I’d use if it had 2 thumbsticks. The touchpad is okay for controlling the cursor but otherwise it’s annoying.
This would be great, I recently used a regular xbox controller for the first time since I got my deck and it felt so small and all the buttons were in the wrong place and it made me mad.
It’s coming, expected to launch alongside the upcoming Steam Machine.
This one I’m excited for. A Steam Machine would be great, and my biggest gripe with controller play on my desktop is the missing trackpads mean Steam Input didn’t work. There are games that I choose to stream to/play on my Deck over using my 1440p 32" screen on my gaming rig because I don’t have Steam Input on my desktop.
The Steam Deck is the minimum standard spec that games aim for to get the verified tag. Move it higher and people will have to upgrade everything.
Arguably the switch 2 will be the big indie target going forward, but thankfully it’s performance being so close to the Deck’s should keep the Deck relevant.
