Steam Deck Goes On Sale For Steam's Spring Sale

[kpedersen]

Except that you can run anything you want on the Deck and it isn't locked down in any way.

Neither is a cheap laptop for a fraction of the price and probably 10x the specs (and screen size).

So I don't really think "openness" is what the Steam DRM platform users are going for as a market.

[mbriar]

Neither is a cheap laptop for a fraction of the price and probably 10x the specs (and screen size).

So I don't really think "openness" is what the Steam DRM platform users are going for as a market.

Laptop for a fraction of $500 with 10x the specs, yeah right.

[rhadlee]

Still not available in Australia! C’mon Valve - this shouldn’t be so difficult. People here have to buy from scalpers to get their hands on a Steam Deck.

[QwertyChouskie]

Neither is a cheap laptop for a fraction of the price and probably 10x the specs (and screen size).

So I don't really think "openness" is what the Steam DRM platform users are going for as a market.

A $447.99 laptop gets you a 15W 6c12t Zen 2 chip with Vega 7 iGPU, 8GB DDR4 RAM, and a 256GB SSD; while a now-$476.10 Steam Deck gets you a 15W 4c8t Zen 2 chip with RNDA2 graphics, 16GB DDR5 RAM and also a 256GB SSD, and you can drop to a 64GB SSD while still keeping the same performance and only spend $359.10. The performance of the Steam Deck is impossible to beat with a similar-price laptop, unless you only care about CPU multi-core performance. Not to mention the laptop likely has significantly worse build quality, worse software, and worse warranty/support.

[Linuxxx]

Neither is a cheap laptop for a fraction of the price and probably 10x the specs (and screen size).

So I don't really think "openness" is what the Steam DRM platform users are going for as a market.

Seriously, why is the typical Phoronix user so far detached from reality?

Here in Europe, laptop prices are pretty reasonable compared to most parts of the world already, and even so, the cheapest notebook with a Zen 2 + RDNA2 architecture only has an AMD Athlon Silver 7120U (Mendocino), which is far worse than Steam Deck's "Van Gogh" APU!

The price? 399 €

Delusional autists...

[sarmad]

Its Zen 2 based so it's kinda dated. I wouldn't be too surprised if there's a hardware update coming soon and they're clearing the warehouse.

They did mention that there wouldn't be any new hardware with bumped specs for years. Also, based on a recent comparison from Digital Foundry this Zen 2 APU is doing relatively well against Zen 3 when you compare the same power bracket, so the APU at least is still in a good shape and isn't expected to be replaced anytime soon. But maybe they are planning a new Steam Deck with the same APU but other updated hardware components (screen, battery, etc).

[stiiixy]

If they want to move more units they could sell it in more regions (like here in Australia!)

Every Aussie who knows of Deck, got one. Even tradies. Despite our high uptake of ridicously overpriced tech gadgets, similiarities to the US market (MS Office used to be trial run here before release), some organisations still feel our 24 mill is to much to bother with. Being a remote island (shipping) the size of the US mainland (trucking) probably doesnt help.

[jorgepl]

They did mention that there wouldn't be any new hardware with bumped specs for years. Also, based on a recent comparison from Digital Foundry this Zen 2 APU is doing relatively well against Zen 3 when you compare the same power bracket, so the APU at least is still in a good shape and isn't expected to be replaced anytime soon. But maybe they are planning a new Steam Deck with the same APU but other updated hardware components (screen, battery, etc).

At the same TDP it was pretty similar to the Aya Neo 2, so I believe if the TDP could be increased you'd see it being very competitive against a more modern chip.

[Almindor]

Does this mean the Deck is not selling as well as Valve hopes? I find it strange that they discount a product that is already lower price than the competition.

Yes, deck sales have lowered and I suspect it will go the way of steam machines, this time due to marketing and supply issues instead

[chithanh]

I hope that Valve uses this sale to clear inventory and release a lineup with increased storage. (e.g.128GB/512GB/1TB)

Does this mean the Deck is not selling as well as Valve hopes?

Well the point of the sale is to get more people to buy the product, so…

I find it strange that they discount a product that is already lower price than the competition.

It is lower price because it is effectively subsidised hardware for the Steam DRM platform. This is where they will make most of their profits on gamers from.

Probably they don't make any profit off the 64 GB model. But the premium for the 256/512 GB model suggests that Valve uses those to make profits.
Valve said that the 512 GB model was most popular contrary to their expectations. So that wozld give them the option to reduce prices