$3,000 Steam Deck Prototype Disassembled: Concept Units Featured Discrete GPU Support, Smaller Joysticks, and Circular Touchpads

Sure thing, here goes:

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So, okay, there’s this YouTube dude — got his hands on a Steam Deck prototype. Yeah, not the shiny one everyone’s playing with now, but like, an old version, marked “engineering sample 34.” The thing’s interesting, ya know? This Twitter (sorry, X?) dude, SadlyItsDadley, gives it to Jon Bringus from Bringus Studios. And, alright, who knew Jon was the go-to guy for archiving such geeky historical stuff?

Anyway, Jon’s there on his YouTube channel, literally tearing this thing apart, probably for science or whatever. The prototype comes with this paper, super official-looking, labeled “POC2-34 Control 163.” No clue what that actually means, but apparently, it’s a big deal. And guess what? He plays games on it. Yes, games! It’s wild seeing where Valve started with this whole handheld gaming console idea.

Oh, and there’s even a video — “So about that $3,000 Prototype Steam Deck…” (catchy title, huh?). Those touchpads? Huge, like, circular pizzas on your console. Weird, right? Not like the nice, neat rectangles on today’s Steam Deck. Joysticks? Tiny compared to what we’ve got now. The palm rests? Different, just different. And it’s running AMD Ryzen 7 3700U with 8GB RAM, plus a 256GB SSD. Not too shabby, except Jon couldn’t check out the discrete GPU thing — bummer.

So, Jon copies the SSD, making sure not to lose whatever “ancient” data’s on there. Plugs a new one in, and boom, there’s a dated SteamOS version loaded with mystery accounts. One’s labeled ‘34’ (I guess it’s special?), but sadly Jon can’t crack into it. The OS dates back to September 30, 2020 — like a time capsule, from before Steam Deck was officially a thing. Makes you think, right?

And who’d have thought, but Valve kind of revolutionized handheld gaming. The Switch paved the way, sure, but the Steam Deck sealed the deal — proving people wanna game on more than just their couch. Now, you’ve got all these tech giants joining the party; Asus, Lenovo, and MSI crafting their stuff. Crazy how fast things change.

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