Valve’s hardware team says a follow-up to the Steam Deck is coming — but not until chipmakers deliver a generational leap in performance-per-watt that would preserve the handheld’s battery life.
In an interview at Valve’s recent hardware reveal, software engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais made plain the company’s benchmark for a Steam Deck 2: it must be meaningfully better, not just incrementally faster. “We’re not interested in getting to a point where it’s 20 or 30 or even 50% more performance at the same battery life,” Griffais told IGN. “We want something a little bit more demarcated than that.”
Waiting for the right silicon
Valve’s position is rooted in the trade-offs that have defined the handheld-PC market. The original Steam Deck debuted in February 2022; an OLED upgrade arrived in November 2023. Those devices were designed around an AMD-based APU chosen for its efficiency as much as raw speed, and Valve says there simply aren’t SoCs on the market today that meet the company’s target for a next-generation device.
Griffais said Valve has been “working back from silicon advancements and architectural improvements” and that engineers have a clear idea of what a successor should look like — but the present System-on-a-Chip landscape doesn’t yet include an offering that would “truly be a next-gen performance Steam Deck.” That echoes comments from other Valve engineers over the past two years, who have repeatedly warned that meaningful improvements require better perf-per-watt from chipmakers.
Industry watchers point to AMD’s APU roadmap as a likely constraint. Current mainstream mobile APUs such as Strix Point are built on older N4/N5-class processes; PC Gamer and others note that a substantial uplift would likely require silicon on TSMC’s more advanced N3 or N2 nodes, or a new chip architecture such as the rumored Medusa APU (Zen 6 CPU cores and RDNA 5 graphics) that’s expected further down the road in 2027.
Why battery life is the deciding factor
It’s not just about raw frame rates. Valve stresses that a portable gaming device must hit a balance of performance and endurance. More-powerful handhelds from other manufacturers demonstrate the trade-off: Asus’s recent ROG handhelds and similar devices can approach desktop-class performance, but they do so with much larger batteries and much shorter run times under heavy load.
Griffais and Valve engineers point to real-world examples. Reviewers have noted that running some modern AAA games on a Steam Deck can chew through a charge in around 90 minutes — and alternative, higher-power handhelds sometimes run similarly short sessions despite bigger batteries. The result is a hardware sweet spot Valve doesn’t want to abandon: reasonable battery life at a price consumers accept.
Competitors show what’s possible — and why Valve is cautious
The handheld market has become more diverse since the Deck’s debut. Devices from Asus, Lenovo, and other makers now push considerably higher CPU and GPU power in small form factors, and some reach 1080p-quality performance for many current titles. But those gains usually come with heavier units, larger batteries, louder cooling solutions, and higher launch prices — sometimes near or above $1,000.
Valve’s earlier pricing strategy—$399 for the original Deck and $549 for the OLED—helps explain its reluctance to chase top-end performance at any cost. Ars Technica and others have noted that Valve would likely be wary of launching a successor with a pro-tier price that would put it outside the mainstream Deck audience.
Could Valve go ARM or commission a bespoke chip?
Some of the reporting around Valve’s other new hardware has highlighted the company’s experimentation with translation layers and non-x86 silicon. The Steam Frame announcement showcased Valve’s interest in different architectures and software translation techniques. That raises the possibility of a future Deck using an Arm-based SoC — which would open the door to chips from Qualcomm or other Arm-focused vendors — but building the necessary ecosystem and achieving compatibility with the huge back catalog of x86-native PC games would be a long-term project.
Valve could also commission a custom APU as it did for the original Deck, but even a bespoke part would likely be tied to whatever process and architecture AMD or another supplier can produce; if AMD’s high-performance mobile APUs won’t land on an advanced node until 2027, a custom route may not accelerate the timeline much.
What this means for gamers and a likely timeline
For consumers, Valve’s stance amounts to tempered expectations: a Steam Deck 2 that meaningfully improves battery life and performance at the same time is unlikely to arrive in the next year or two. Several outlets and analysts place a plausible window for a true generational uplift around 2027 or later, when next‑gen APUs built on N3/N2 processes or a new AMD architecture might be available.
In the meantime, Valve is doubling down on other hardware: the company introduced the Steam Frame, a new Steam Machine, and a refreshed Steam Controller at its recent event. Those products expand Valve’s hardware footprint without forcing a premature upgrade to the Deck line.
A pragmatic approach — and the trade-offs ahead
Valve’s message is pragmatic: it would rather wait for a hardware foundation that preserves the Deck’s defining attributes than chase headline numbers that come at the cost of battery life, price, or portability. That approach risks disappointing fans who want a quick refresh, but it also protects the qualities that made the Steam Deck distinct in the first place.
For shoppers considering alternatives today: several third‑party handhelds offer higher peak performance, but expect larger batteries, louder cooling, shorter session times under heavy load, and higher prices. If you prioritize endurance, compactness, and Valve’s pricing tier, the current Steam Deck and its OLED variant remain practical choices — at least until silicon catches up to Valve’s vision for a true next‑gen handheld.
Tags: Steam Deck, Valve, Handheld Gaming, APU, Battery Life
Category: Gaming