In the gaming world, engineering samples of popular consoles or accessories can become hot commodities, especially when they manage to slip into the marketplace. Take, for instance, a Steam Deck prototype that recently made waves by popping up for sale on eBay—a keen-eyed member of the r/SteamDeck community first tipped us off to this curious listing.
This distinctive piece of Valve history initially carried an ambitious price tag of $3,000, yet ended up exchanging hands at the more modest sum of $2,000. Drawing parallels to earlier Valve-shared images, the prototype houses an AMD APU with Picasso silicon, a throwback to 2019.
Codenamed “Engineering Sample 34,” this prototype certainly stands out. With its blue accents, unique curvilinear design, circular trackpads, and a mysterious sensor on the right joystick, it looks different than what consumers are accustomed to seeing in a standard Steam Deck.
Though the back cover boldly proclaims “Not for resale” with a sticker, this didn’t deter the enterprising seller one bit.
Valve, during various stages of development, crafted numerous engineering samples for rigorous internal testing. Pinpointing the precise age of this prototype is challenging, but with its older APU, it likely served as a mechanical test model before retail specifications were finalized, hinting at origins around 2019 or 2020.
Interestingly, this particular prototype is missing an operating system—no SteamOS in sight. Notebookcheck managed to snap some BIOS images from the eBay listing, shedding light on several intriguing specs. It turns out Valve was experimenting with older prototypes using an unnamed AMD Picasso chip. This Ryzen 3000 mobile chip offers up to four Zen+ cores paired with a GCN 5.0 (Vega 3/8/11)-based integrated GPU, a setup that lags behind the retail models in terms of performance.
When you compare the handheld’s 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD with today’s more robust 16GB or even 512GB configurations, the difference is evident, unless you’re looking at the more basic 64GB eMMC version. Nowadays, AMD’s Aerith and Sephiroth APUs would easily outpace this older setup.
As for the mysterious buyer? We remain in the dark for now. Should it be a reviewer or hardware analyst, we might get a deep dive into this customized Picasso chip and gain insights into the design evolution of the Steam Deck. On the other hand, if it’s a collector, the prototype’s secrets might remain untold.
Meanwhile, Valve has indicated that fans pining for a Steam Deck sequel will have to bide their time, at least until more advanced processors make their debut.
