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.
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
Because the capitalist system has trained the consumer to always want new, shiny things.
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 want a higher resolution screen to make specific games more playable, by rendering text and stuff like that at higher resolution (while the rest of the game could keep targeting lower resolutions and get upscaled)
As described in more detail here; https://infosec.pub/comment/17743689
I want to get a steamdeck but I feel (felt?) I’m too late in so I figured I’d just wait for the second one…
Same…I was thnking of getting one Q1 2026… Might just wait it out I guess . maybe firmer date by then?
It’s actually refreshing that a tech company isn’t putting out a barely upgraded yearly iteration just to cash in on fanboys/collectors.
I love my Steam Deck OLED and would only really consider an upgrade for things that improve the experience or reliability. Being able to run low and medium-graphics games locally and stream everything else from my PC with Remote Play is awesome.
I’d only want things like:
- Hall effect or TMR sticks and triggers
- Better battery life(but honestly it’s already great)
- 1080p, but not at the cost of horsepower or battery
- More CPU and GPU power is never a bad thing but I wouldn’t want it at the cost of battery
- Cooler and quieter(it gets warm and loud on Forza 5, TABS, Helldivers 2, etc)
- Thunderbolt with external GPU support on the dock
- More storage is always a good thing and 2230 SSDs pretty much top out at 2TB
- The Bluetooth is laggy but I dunno, Bluetooth just kinda always sucks
and bloody hell Valve put the god damn xone driver in your SteamOS so I can use my Xbox wireless receiver without installing the driver after every update
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.
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.
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.
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.
You know there’s a funny workaround here - stream the game from your PC to the Deck over Steam Remote Play while keeping that PC monitor on, and then use the Steam Deck only as a controller while looking at the big screen. It will add a bit of latency to controls, but it’s surprisingly not bad
Take the screen out of a steam deck and call it a day.
Almost. Also put the dual stage triggers back in.
I don’t want a new steam deck. I want a new steam controller and for valve to announce steam machines 2.0
Then we can finally watch windows die a (probably fairly slow, but steady) death.
New steam controller was leaked earlier this year, and leaks for the new steam machine came out a few days ago. So you’ll get your wish pretty soon probably.
What’s really cool is that in a lot of cases you can just load up the game on steam in linux and it just downloads and uses the same proton layers that the deck does. I run arch and in my testing so far it works, hampered by the fact that my test box is a very old a10 amd apu
That’s fucking awesome, so as long as the proton layers exist for the steam deck, they’ll exist for (at least the distro your describing) Linux? Fuck I need to actually sit down and learn Linux one of these millennia.
Maybe if they could make the steam deck 1 actually available in aus/nz first so we can actually purchase them instead of everyone just having nintendo switches idk just a thought
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.
Honestly, for me I don’t really need a new steam deck. The OLED deck is almost perfect already. I don’t know that a ton more processing power is necessary for me. Whenever I’ve wanted to play a more demanding game on my deck I stream it from either my desktop gaming rig, my ps5, or from Geforce Now. (Though i know obviously not everyone is going to have those luxuries) The only thing I think I would REALLY want would be a WiFi chip that doesn’t shit the bed if it doesn’t like the router your using.
I see plenty space to upgrade on battery relates masters, more deficiente processors would certainly allow that, whilst also enabling the deck to be used in 4K screens whilst docked with an actual decent performance and graphics.
Battery doesn’t have as much of an upgrade path as people think - you add more cells / energy in the same space, and you get the cause of those Samsung phone fires. It more commonly comes from processor efficiency improvements, which is hard when that’s mostly the domain of whoever coded the Windows-based video game you’re playing.
If it helps: Look up TDP customizations for your favorite games to play on Deck.
Ugh I just want to see the next gen if their VR.
