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

Oh man, you won’t believe what just happened. So, there’s this YouTube dude who somehow got his hands on an early model of the Steam Deck—like the kind of thing you dream of owning but never actually think you’ll see. I think it was, uh, engineering sample 34 or something. And this isn’t just a rumor—it’s legit because SadlyItsDadley, who’s this big X (what Twitter’s called now, apparently) user, trusted Jon Bringus from Bringus Studios with it. Yeah, I’m jealous too.

So Jon gets this prototype, and the first thing he does? He pops the thing open right there on his YouTube channel. Like, he wasn’t messing around. I guess there was this piece of paper inside—”POC2-34 Control 163″ or some similar gobbledygook. Couldn’t help but think about all the stuff you’d find in an old attic and feel like you’ve stumbled on a piece of treasure.

And the thing, oh boy, is pretty different from the sleek Steam Deck we all know today. Those touchpads are like gigantic donuts, not the sleek little rectangles we’re used to. Now, I don’t know about you, but giant circles kinda throw me off. Oh, and the joysticks? They look like little nubs. Why Valve ever thought smaller was better, who knows. The whole thing had some intense specs—an AMD Ryzen 7 3700U with 8GB of RAM. Sounds like it could run laps around my PC. Yet, no luck with testing out that discrete GPU thingy. Not Jon’s fault though—some things are just meant to stay a mystery.

Jon was cautious (or maybe just really obsessed with keeping things intact). He cloned the original SSD before doing his digital spelunking. This is where it gets juicy—inside was a super early version of SteamOS with these accounts already in. Couldn’t get into the ‘34’ account, though. All very cloak and dagger, if you ask me. Felt like a little peek into the past, knowing this was from back in September 2020, way before any of us even dreamt of holding an actual Steam Deck.

The Steam Deck really stirred things up. You’ve got Nintendo, with their Switch kinda defining handhelds (since 2017, can you believe it?), paving the way. But Valve? They sparked a whole revolution. Suddenly, everyone’s like, “Hey, let’s do our own handheld PC!” So, you’ve got the Asus ROG Ally, the Lenovo Legion Go, MSI’s Claw—like a whole army of handhelds surfacing. Wild, right?

So, yeah, Jon did us all a big favor by diving into gaming history and all that.

Anyway, if you’re into hardware gossip and wanna stay in the loop, Tom’s Hardware on Google News is where it’s at. Trust me, press that follow button or whatever. You won’t regret it.