Steam Deck previews go live, Dbrand Project Killswitch unveiled

Steam Deck first impressions have gone live

Sayem Ahmed

PC Tech & Gaming News

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We’re so close to getting our hands on the Valve Steam Deck we can taste it, and now that the press has revealed their impressions of Valve’s first handheld console, with their own Steam Deck previews. We’re starting to see performance numbers, in addition to other things such as comfort, quality of controls, and more. Of note are our two good pals, Linus Sebastian and Steve Burke, who doled out their PC gaming knowledge while talking about their first impressions of the Steam Deck unit itself. Linus went more on the experiential route, of how it feels to actually use the Steam Deck as an expert in handheld PCs, while Steve did his thing with monitoring thermal loads on the device, and where all that air actually goes within the device. However, the press only got to show off six titles running on the Steam Deck, including Ghostrunner, Devil May Cry V, and Dead Cells.

Steam Deck disassembly

Steve Burke of GamersNexus even uploaded a teardown video, which is an incredibly interesting watch, especially if you are interested in how Valve is able to pack this much power into a portable device and uncover some interesting findings of their own. It’s fairly incredible to see RDNA 2 coming to mobile chips, and the more advanced that these APUs manage to get, the better that portable handheld in this class will also get, too. This video is especially useful if you eventually want to upgrade the Steam Deck’s internal storage, or, god forbid, hook it up to some sort of nefarious water cooling loop. It’s dolloped in a healthy amount of thermal paste, so Valve has clearly tried to get this chip as cool as it can be. But, we’ll wait and see until were get our hands-on with the Steam Deck to reserve judgment.

Steam Deck pre orders

Regardless, the impressions are positive, with both respected members of the tech community giving their initial thumbs up to Valve’s new device. With the official release landing on February 25, you will be able to get your hand on the Steam Deck when you pre-ordered it. The pre-orders will be going out in waves, with only vague delivery dates being specified at the moment. However, if you are looking to get yourself on the list to pre-order a Steam Deck, you can still do so via Valve’s website. Though, you might be waiting a little while before you manage to get your hands on one of the elusive units.

• Pre order and reserve your Steam Deck directly from Valve

Dbrand announces Project Killswitch for Steam Deck

Before the Steam Deck has even been released, Dbrand has apparently been hard at work on a durable case for the Steam Deck. Named ‘Project Killswitch’, the case looks to be a heavy-duty grip case that will allow you to hopefully just chuck your Steam Deck in a bag, and have it suffer precisely zero damage. It’ll be interesting to see what thermals look like on the case, as Steve from GamersNexus pointed out that the backplate of the Steam Deck is actually used for the device’s dissipation of thermal loads, so it might actually have an impact on the device’s performance. Additionally, the case also has a built-in kickstand, which will allow you to plop it on a table, Nintendo Switch-style, and game using a Bluetooth controller. It’s likely that the Steam Deck will remain to be a fairly niche device, so having a quality aftermarket case is ultimately a good thing for

Dbrand is taking reservations for the Project Killswitch Steam Deck case right now.

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