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

Wow, okay, so there’s this YouTube creator – was it Jon Bringus? Yeah, that’s the name. He somehow gets his paws on one of those early Steam Deck prototypes. You know, like the ones before they hit the shelves looking all shiny. So, this guy strips it down on his channel. Honestly, it’s like watching some kind of geeky magic trick, revealing its insides.

Oh, and about that prototype? It’s marked with some cryptic label “POC2-34 Control 163” or something. Why do they use such weird codes? Anyway, this was proof-of-concept number 34. I mean, talk about rare finds, right? The dude not only poked around in its guts but also tried to boot up some games. Probably without knowing if it’d just explode, but okay.

So, here’s the fun part – this prototype looks nothing like the Steam Deck sitting in my living room. Seriously, those touchpads? They’re like giant circles. Who even thought that was a good idea? And the joysticks? Miniature, like, tiny. There’s all this cool stuff like an AMD Ryzen 7 3700U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, some Intel Wi-Fi chip. Oh, and it theoretically has discrete GPU support. Not that Bringus could check it out or anything. Maybe broken or just shy?

And then, he copies the SSD. Like, “Hey, let’s not wreck history, right?” Smart move, Jon. So, he stumbles on this ancient version of SteamOS. Apparently, September 2020 kind of ancient. But there’s more – accounts, like some ghostly trio of early testers. Too bad he couldn’t access the ’34’ account… linked to the POC number, I guess.

Feeling nostalgic here, thinking how Valve has kinda reshaped handheld gaming. Yeah, Nintendo hit it first with that Switch back in 2017. But then, boom, Steam Deck comes along, and everyone’s drooling over PC gaming on the go. Pretty soon, other giants jumped on the wagon—Asus ROG, Lenovo Legion… you name it.

So, if you’re into gaming gossip, or maybe just like old prototypes, definitely keep an eye out for Jon and other tech sleuths. And don’t forget those newsletters from Tom’s Hardware. Says it’s like having their best stuff delivered straight to you. Sounds like a nice deal, right?

Anyway, I’m rambling now. Catch you next tech wave.