Although Valve may have released a ton of new equipment yesterdayit hasn't updated its popular handheld console. However, several publications were invited to the company's headquarters and told why we are still waiting for the next Steam Deck.
According to the report on GizmodoIt all comes down to the fact that Valve wants to provide the perfect price/performance ratio. Over the last year or so, we've seen plenty of other portable devices that offer more power than the Steam Deck, but they achieve this at the expense of consuming more power, which can result in poor battery life. Even Nintendo Switch 2for all the weight of Nintendo's custom Nvidia chip, it can only last about 30 minutes longer than the first Steam Deck when playing AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077.
It's impressive that the Switch 2 can last longer and deliver higher-resolution portable gaming experiences than the Steam Deck, but from Valve's perspective, I believe this improvement isn't enough to warrant a new portable. Especially since the Steam Deck won't sell as much as the Switch, so the company can't play hardball with the GPU company to get the best possible deal.
That being said, Valve is also trying hard to keep the price of the next model the same, meaning the Steam Deck 2 will have to undercut the Switch 2's price, but by over $100, and be just as powerful or more powerful. It will be possible, but it will likely take a few more years for mobile GPU/CPU hardware to hit the sweet spot unless the company works some magic with ARM chips like Apple did with its M-series.
And Valve is working on using ARM chips. Notably, the new Steam Frame VR streaming headset uses the Snapdragon Series 8 chip.which was the flagship model a few years ago. Perhaps if things go well, the company will look to use more ARM chips in the future. In an interview with IGNthe company has stated that it's looking for something better than a 50 percent improvement while maintaining the same battery life, so it seems to me that this is a solution aimed at ARM gaming, but it's probably still a few years away from being implemented.
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made through our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide for free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us Here.
