When consoles or accessories with mass appeal end up in the public sphere, they tend to fetch hefty price tags. Take, for instance, a Steam Deck prototype that recently surfaced on eBay, only to be spotted by an eagle-eyed contributor on the r/SteamDeck subreddit.
You might have seen the price: an eye-watering $3,000 initially, though it eventually found a buyer willing to part with $2,000. The prototype looks pretty similar to some images Valve has previously shared and comes equipped with an AMD APU featuring Picasso silicon circa 2019.
Dubbed “Engineering Sample 34,” this particular Steam Deck version stands out with its blue accents, almost sculpted curves, and trackpads that are circular. Plus, there’s something that looks like a sensor right on the joystick’s right side.
Despite a bold “Not for resale” sticker plastered on the back, someone still managed to sell it. In the early stages of design, Valve crafted a number of engineering samples for internal tinkering, making it tricky to pinpoint the exact age of this unit. However, since it has an older APU, chances are this prototype was geared towards evaluating the mechanical design ahead of finalizing any retail specifications, suggesting a creation date back in 2019 or 2020.
The seller did indicate that it lacks an operating system—SteamOS isn’t present on this piece. Notebookcheck managed to snag images of the BIOS from the listing, which revealed some interesting details. Key among them is that Valve was trialing earlier prototypes with a nameless AMD Picasso (Ryzen 3000 mobile) chip, sporting up to four Zen+ cores alongside a GCN 5.0 (Vega 3/8/11) integrated GPU. Naturally, this makes for a substantial performance difference compared to what current retail Steam Decks offer.
Its 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD may seem underwhelming next to the 16GB and 512GB options you see today—assuming you don’t have the 64GB eMMC version. AMD’s more advanced Aerith and Sephiroth APUs would easily outperform this collection.
As for the buyer, it’s still anyone’s guess. If it ends up in the hands of a reviewer or a tech analyst, we could witness a deep dive into the custom Picasso chip and gain insights on how the Steam Deck’s design evolved. On the flip side, a collector might simply keep it tucked away.
Valve has also made it clear to gamers eager for a Steam Deck successor that they will have to wait until the next wave of enticing processors becomes available.
