Steam Deck sale! Valve knocks $80 off its wonderful PC gaming handheld

Dammit Valve, you’re not making this simple for me. Proper now the official, first-party Steam retailer is promoting the bottom mannequin Steam Deck for $80 off, bringing its worth down to only $319.20. This isn’t a used or refurbished unit; this a brand new, base Steam Deck, no methods, no punches pulled.

And that’s an incredible freakin’ worth to get in on the transportable PC enjoyable, even three years after the machine launched. You’ll be able to’t actually discover any of the Home windows-based options for underneath $500, and even then it’s essential hunt for uncommon gross sales or refurb {hardware}. Contemplating how expensive the Swap 2 is trying, to not point out different consoles that proceed to go up in worth as US shoppers take a beating underneath tariffs, it’s a refreshing change.

Sadly, the upgraded OLED mannequin of the Steam Deck, with its larger, brighter, quicker display screen and improved battery life, shouldn’t be on sale. Which isn’t to say that it’s overpriced — at $549, I’d argue it’s nonetheless a greater deal than any different. However an $80 low cost on that individual machine might need satisfied me to tug the set off.

Valve says the Steam Deck will stay on sale till 10 a.m. Pacific time on October 6, however I believe there’s a reasonably good probability of the discounted base mannequin going out of inventory earlier than then, so hold that in thoughts. And the 256GB storage within the base mannequin is unquestionably on the pokey facet — I’d use these financial savings to spice up it up with this 1TB SSD improve.

Get a base mannequin Steam Deck for $320