Steam Deck 2 release date estimate, rumored price and specs

Despite continued rumors and a great deal of hope from gamers, there is still no firm suggestion of an impending release of a Steam Deck 2. It's even looking possible that Valve may transition to just providing its Steam OS software for use in other handhelds, such as the Lenovo Legion Go S. However, we still hold out hope for a true follow-up, and in this guide, you'll find everything we've heard so far about a possible new model.

Hype for a Steam Deck 2 all started the moment the first model landed. In our Steam Deck review we were bowled over by just how well Valve's handheld worked. It became a smash hit and remained the best handheld gaming PC you could buy, right up until the Steam Deck OLED arrived only a year or so later. Since then, though, Valve has been remarkably quiet about a true second-generation device, leading to speculation about the device mainly coming from leaks elsewhere.

Our best estimate for the Steam Deck 2 release date is the 2026 or later. This is based on comments by Valve staff, including designer Lawrence Yang, who said back in November 2023 in an interview with Bloomberg that "a 'next-generation' power upgrade […] won't be available for at least two or three years." Yang also said that while "we're thinking about Steam Deck 2 at all times", a big leap in tech will need to present itself before major strides are made.

More recently, Valve has also flatly denied that it is making a Steam Deck 2 using an AMD Z2 Extreme, after AMD suggested as much at the launch of that processor (see the slide below). Valve Steam Deck coder, Pierre-Loup Graffais responded to the rumor saying "there is and will be no Z2 Steam Deck." It's possible this was a cryptic message suggesting that Valve just won't use that specific chip but will still use a slight variation of it (or that it just won't be called the Steam Deck 2), but the general tone, along with the announcement of the Lenovo Legion Go S using Steam OS, strongly suggests otherwise.

Whether that means Valve could be moving on from handheld production of its own or really is just sticking to a very drawn-out hardware update cycle, we'll just have to wait to find out. Either way, with 2005 drawing to a close, and still no sign of a new handheld, it's looking unlikely that Valve will drop the Steam Deck 2 before the end of the year.

Reinforcing this sentiment is a recent post by regular tech leaker KeplerL2 suggesting the Steam Deck 2 release date won't be until 2028. We honestly would be surprised if the company holds out that long. While six years between releases is typical for games consoles, the handheld market has moved so quickly since the first Steam Deck that it is already being left behind, and another two+ years is going to leave it feeling positively ancient.

Steam Deck 2 price estimate

Our best Steam Deck 2 price estimate puts the next Valve handheld at between $399 and $999, with there being scope for the company to hit a similarly low price as its original model, but there's also plenty of proven success for more expensive gaming handhelds, such as the Xbox Ally X, which you can read more about in our Xbox Ally X review. However, there are no meaningful leaks to further pin down a price as yet.

Valve CEO, Gabe Newell, previously described hitting the $399 MSRP of the Steam Deck's base model as "painful", plus the company has already released the more expensive Steam Deck OLED. With the original Asus ROG Ally launching at $599 and the Lenovo Legion Go launching at $799, other makers have also shown that gamers are willing to pay quite a bit more. As such, it seems likely that a Steam Deck 2 will be more expensive than the original, especially given the now-proven popularity of the device and those like it.

Further adding to this speculation, speaking with Edge magazine, Newell shared that the Deck's "most popular SKU is the most expensive one," which is currently the $649 1TB Steam Deck OLED. He says that the company is reading this concentrated demand as customers saying, "We would like an even more expensive version of this, in terms of horsepower capabilities or whatever."

Steam Deck 2 design rumors

Broadly speaking, we're not expecting Valve to change the physical design of the Steam Deck all that much. The original Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED have proven hugely popular, with us and many others praising how comfortable it is to use.

However, with the likes of the Lenogo Legion Go innovating on extra functionality, with its Switch 2-like removable controllers, and the Xbox Ally X adding proper gamepad-style grips to its side, Valve may have had a few thoughts on what to change.

Most likely, though, is that the design will largely stay the same but Valve might tweak the layout of the Steam Deck 2's buttons to be lower down on the device, which would match the position found on most rival handhelds. We, again, could see a slightly larger screen with smaller bezels.

Remarkably, there have been no leaks whatsoever that we've seen hinting at rumors about the physical design of the Steam Deck 2, though. This further suggests we're still some way off the release of the handheld, as hardware leaks tend to ramp up close to launch, as more people have the opportunity to sneak a photo of a piece of the hardware on the production line or during the many steps in shipping a product ahead of launch.

Steam Deck 2 specs rumors

There's no official word or any substantial Steam Deck 2 specs rumors, with the most recent Steam Deck 2 CPU rumors firmly denied by Valve. However, Valve has made some comments about what it would like to improve with future iterations of its handheld gaming PC, although at least some of these were addressed with the Steam Deck OLED.

In an interview back in 2022, Valve said it wants the Steam Deck 2 to feature better battery life and screen technology. Both these arrived with the Steam Deck OLED, with that device increasing from the 40Whr battery of the original to 50Whr, and the device moving from an LCD screen to an OLED panel.

For an actual future Steam Deck 2 device, now that the Steam Deck OLED has been released, a fair assumption for a Steam Deck 2 screen would be for it to move to a slightly higher resolution. Most rival devices have at least a 1080p resolution, with some even having 1440p panels, making for much sharper images. Not only would this make games look sharper, but video and other uses for the device would become better, too.

Some users might also want the Steam Deck 2 screen to be larger in size. Valve already increased the screen size slightly with the Steam Deck OLED, moving from a 7-inch screen for the Steam Deck LCD to a 7.4-inch model for the Steam Deck OLED. Meanwhile, several other handhelds have even larger screens. That said, with the second most high-profile gaming handheld, the Xbox Ally X, sticking with a 7-inch screen, it's possible Valve will also stay with this screen size for the Steam Deck 2.

As for processing power, the Steam Decks still use a relatively weak custom AMD CPU (APU/processor) simply called the AMD Custom APU 0405 by Valve, but often codenamed Aerith. It has just four CPU cores (able to run eight threads) and is accompanied by a GPU equipped with eight compute units (CUs). It's also based on the older Zen 2 CPU architecture and RDNA 2 GPU architecture.

Meanwhile, other first-gen Windows handhelds, such as the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go, have used the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor/APU/CPU, which is much more powerful. It has an eight core CPU (16 threads) using the faster and more power efficient Zen 3 architecture. Plus, its GPU has 12 CUs and uses the also faster and more efficient RDNA 3 architecture.

Meanwhile, we're currently seeing a true second generation of Windows handhelds hitting the market, in the shape of the Lenovo Legion Go 2 and Xbox Ally X, and both these use the new AMD Ryzen Z 2 Extreme processor. This new chip again has eight CPU cores but uses an even newer Zen 5 architecture. Meanwhile, its GPU extends all the way to offering 16 CUs using a new RDNA 3.5 architecture. Were a new Steam Deck to use chip, it would result in a huge bump in performance, but all hints currently are that such an upgrade isn't around the corner.

As for other specs, we've seen with the likes of the Xbox Ally X that handheld manufacturers are willing to put seriously larger batteries in these devices. As such, we could see the Steam Deck 2 include a battery of around 80Wh. That would be double the original Steam Deck and 30Wh more than the Steam Deck 2, potentially nearly doubling battery life.

Steam Deck 2 performance rumors

One thing we can reasonably expect, if and when it launches, is a big Steam Deck 2 performance increase. With the sorts of processor upgrades available now - as outlined above - Valve has plenty of scope for creating a device that can run at higher resolutions, higher frame rates, and last longer on each battery charge. It's just a case of if and when the company makes the change.

With the Steam Deck OLED, Valve made the decision not to fundamentally change the device's performance, keeping a consistent level of performance across its hardware range. However, even if the company is taking a console-like approach to hardware updates, only releasing major updates every five years or so, we can expect that eventual update to come with some changes.

Crucially, assuming Valve does release a Steam Deck 2 and that it does use an AMD processor, one factor that gamers shouldn't have to contend with is backwards compatibility issues. Unlike other consoles that often have a hard stop in compatibility from generation to generation, a Steam Deck 2 using AMD hardware should have essentially exactly the same compatible games list as the older device.

In fact, playing video games on a Steam Deck 2 should require less guesswork than on the current versions, as there should be more headroom in the new device for games that struggle to run well on the Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED to be playable on the Steam Deck 2 . That said, a Steam Deck 2 is still likely to suffer from some games being unplayable due to it running Linux. The likes of Battlefield 6 and Apex Legends use an anti-cheat software that simply doesn't run on Linux.

Ultimately, though, our current list of the best Steam Deck games is ever-growing and should still be a go-to resource for an eventual Steam Deck 2.

If you can't wait for Steam Deck 2 to release and want to get more from the first-gen console - or its OLED update - check out the best Steam Deck accessories and grab yourself a Steam Deck Dock so that you can hook your handheld up to a gaming monitor.