Valve has announced a new handheld gaming device called the Steam Deck.

The device looks similar to the Nintendo Switch but will reportedly have the same capabilities of a gaming PC. It will reportedly run on a modified version of Valve’s SteamOS.

The UI is similar to that of the consoles and is used to easily navigate the Steam store and the library. Users can also install any third-party applications (including non-Steam games or launchers) on an unrestricted computer desktop.

Looking at the hardware, the Steam Deck is little bit stronger than the Nintendo Switch. It has a 7-inch 60hz LCD screen with a resolution of 1280×800. It is equipped with a custom AMD APU featuring a 4-core, 8-thread CPU paired with 8 RDNA 2 compute units for the GPU and have 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM.

The controller setup of the device is similar to a modern gamepad. It also includes capacitive analog sticks which is able to detect when your thumb is resting on them or not.

Below the analog sticks, there is a small rectangular trackpad on either side which can be used as a mouse input and have a multi-input touchscreen.

There are four mappable back buttons similar to some of the elite game controllers on the rear side.

Steam Deck will also have bluetooth support for any device you able to connect to a PC. The Steam Deck can be docked and displayed on an external screen and also is able to connect both keyboard and mouse if you want to use it as a traditional PC. Valve will be selling the official dock separately

There are three models of the Steam Deck which will be available at launch. However, it is important to note that the only major difference between the three is only the storage size.

The base model cost USD 399 and have a 64GB of storage and costs USD 399. The second model have storage space of 256GB and cost USD 529 while the last model have a storage space of 512GB and cost USD 649. The 512GB model is also equipped with anti-glare etched glass screen treatment.

All of the models have an expandable storage using a MicroSD card. However, the latter two models have NVMe SSD.

The Steam Deck currently does not have a release date but it have a release window of Holiday 2021.

In related news, Valve have also revealed how they are going to combat against scalpers.

According to Valve, pre-order is only available for Steam accounts that have made purchase in Steam before June 2021. Doing this is a measure against people using multiple accounts to acquire multiple Steam Decks. This rule has already gone live as of 16 of July.

Users also have to also deposit five dollars to secure their pre-order.

One Steam Deck is available per Steam account holder,