What is the Steam Deck?

The Steam Deck is a handheld gaming PC made by Valve. It looks a bit like a large portable console, but it runs PC games—mainly from your Steam library—using SteamOS, a Linux-based operating system designed for gaming.

In practice, it lets you play many PC games on the go, dock it to a TV or monitor, use controllers, install non-Steam apps, and tinker with settings much more than you can on a typical console. It comes in LCD and OLED versions, with the OLED models offering a better screen and other refinements.

It is best for people who already own PC games on Steam or want a portable way to play indie games, older AAA games, emulators, and many modern titles with adjusted graphics settings. It is not the best choice if you want every new high-end PC game to run at maximum settings, or if you only want a simple plug-and-play console experience like a Nintendo Switch.