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- Valve has repeatedly clarified that they won’t release a successor unless there’s a real-world generational leap in these APUs without sacrificing battery life.
- The OG Steam Deck witnessed a single mid-cycle refresh that saw Valve bestow the handheld with an OLED screen and a few QoL improvements.
- The Aerith Plus APU may be destined for third-party handhelds based on Valve’s SteamOS or perhaps a potential revival of the Steam Machine.
Ever since its launch in 2022, Valve’s Steam Deck has amassed a vast following due to the handheld being a blockbuster hit.
Its specs may seem outdated by today’s standards, but 3 years ago, a 7” 1280×800 IPS touchscreen with a 60 Hz refresh rate, 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM, the 7nm Aerith APU, and a 40 Wh battery proved more than enough to take my breath away.
If anything, the Steam Deck inspired the creation of its competitors, i.e., Windows-based gaming handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go.
However, fast forward to Q1 2025, those Windows-based handhelds are catching up and the Steam Deck is starting to resemble the ideology of the Hudson Hornet.
Naturally, all of us have been awaiting a new, improved version of the Steam Deck 2 and while we did get a noticeably enhanced mid-cycle refresh, it really isn’t the ‘generational leap’ in power that we’ve all been anticipating.
The Aerith Plus APU: What’s The Story?
For starters, the gaming community has been buzzing with excitement ever since an Aerith Plus APU was spotted in a shipping manifest.
After all, the original Aerith APU powers the current Steam Deck, and an upgraded version could mean significant performance improvements—faster frame rates, better efficiency, and enhanced graphics.
Naturally, many assumed this was the heart of a next-gen Steam Deck.
But before the hype could fully take off, Pierre-Loup Griffais, a key member of the Steam Deck team, shut down the rumors with a blunt two-word post on Bluesky: “Not happening.”
Steam Deck 2: Don’t Count On It
This isn’t the first time Griffais has dashed hopes of a Steam Deck 2. Earlier, rumors swirled about the AMD Ryzen Z2 APU being the heart of a next-gen Steam Deck, especially since the Ryzen Z1 powers competitors like the ASUS ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go.
But Griffais was quick to clarify:
There is and will be no Z2 Steam Deck.
It seems Valve is committed to sticking with the current hardware for the foreseeable future. The problem is, that the Steam Deck is starting to show its age.
While it was revolutionary when it launched, competitors are now pulling ahead. Take the Lenovo Legion Go S, for example. It boasts a Ryzen Z2 GO APU, an 8-inch touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate, up to 32GB of RAM, an improved 12-core RDNA2 GPU, and a 55.5Wh battery.
Compared to the Steam Deck’s aging specs, the Legion Go S feels like a generational leap.
Valve’s Market Penetration Strategy
Valve had to do something to retain the Steam Deck’s relevance in the handheld market.
On that note, in November 2023, the Deck became the subject of a mid-cycle refresh where its screen was upgraded to a 7.4” 90 Hz OLED screen.
Valve was able to install a 22% bigger 50 Wh battery thanks to the thinner display which increased the Deck’s runtime from a range of 2-8 hours to 3-11 hours.
Under the hood, AMD managed to shrink its 7nm Aerith APU into a new 6nm ‘Sephiroth’ SoC with Valve prioritizing power efficiency over performance gains.
The Steam Deck OLED also incorporated a thicker heatsink, larger fan, an increment to 6400 MHz RAM, faster charging speeds, and introduced WiFi 6E along with a dedicated antenna for Bluetooth 5.3.
Therefore, the Deck was able to run cooler and faster for extended periods of time, even though Valve didn’t tune the new silicon for performance.
Nevertheless, for gamers who want the latest and greatest, even the Steam Deck OLED is beginning to feel like a relic of the past.
What’s Next For Valve?
If the Aerith Plus APU isn’t for a Steam Deck 2, what’s Valve planning?
One possibility is that they’re focusing on expanding the SteamOS ecosystem. By making SteamOS available to third-party manufacturers, Valve could create a diverse range of handhelds and consoles, all running the same software.
This would allow them to compete with Windows-based devices like the ROG Ally X and Legion Go S without having to develop new hardware themselves.
Another possibility is the revival of the Steam Machine. Valve’s first attempt at a console-like PC was a flop, but the success of the Steam Deck might give them the confidence to try again.
Steam Deck 2: Patience Is A Virtue
While the idea of a new Deck is exciting, it’s clear that Valve isn’t in a rush to make it happen.
The Aerith Plus APU might not be for a new Steam Deck, but it could still play a role in expanding Valve’s ecosystem, whether through third-party handhelds or a revived Steam Machine.
In the meantime, the Steam Deck OLED remains a solid choice for portable gaming, even if it’s no longer the most powerful option on the market. So, if you’re holding out for a Steam Deck 2, you might be waiting a while.
But who knows? Valve has a history of surprising us, and when they do finally announce a successor, it’ll likely be worth the wait.
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[Wiki Editor]
Ali Rashid Khan is an avid gamer, hardware enthusiast, photographer, and devoted litterateur with a period of experience spanning more than 14 years. Sporting a specialization with regards to the latest tech in flagship phones, gaming laptops, and top-of-the-line PCs, Ali is known for consistently presenting the most detailed objective perspective on all types of gaming products, ranging from the Best Motherboards, CPU Coolers, RAM kits, GPUs, and PSUs amongst numerous other peripherals. When he’s not busy writing, you’ll find Ali meddling with mechanical keyboards, indulging in vehicular racing, or professionally competing worldwide with fellow mind-sport athletes in Scrabble at an international level. Currently speaking, Ali has completed his A-Level GCEs with plans to go into either Allopathic Medicine or Business Studies, or who knows, perhaps a full-time dedicated technological journalist.
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