Engineering samples of high-demand consoles or accessories tend to command impressive prices when they pop up on the open market. Just recently, a prototype of the Steam Deck appeared on eBay, as noted by a keen-eyed member of the r/SteamDeck community.
It’s fascinating to see such a piece up for sale—a genuine Steam Deck prototype that actually looks a lot like the images Valve has previously teased. It’s armed with an AMD APU, specifically the Picasso silicon from back in 2019. Although the seller initially asked for a hefty $3,000, it ultimately changed hands for $2,000.
This particular prototype, internally referred to as “Engineering Sample 34,” stands out from the regular Steam Deck. It features unique blue accents, a noticeably curved design, circular trackpads, and what appears to be some kind of sensor near the right joystick.
Interestingly, a sticker on the back cover loudly states “Not for resale,” but that didn’t seem to deter the seller at all.
Valve crafted numerous engineering samples during the Steam Deck’s development phase for thorough internal testing, making it tricky to pin down the exact age of this model. The older APU, however, indicates that this unit was likely created to evaluate mechanical designs prior to locking in retail specifications, possibly around 2019 or 2020.
According to the seller, this prototype doesn’t come with an operating system like SteamOS pre-installed. Images shown by Notebookcheck during the listing revealed several significant specs. It turns out Valve experimented with older systems using an unnamed AMD Picasso (Ryzen 3000 mobile) chip, which boasted a maximum of four Zen+ cores and a GCN 5.0 (Vega 3/8/11) integrated GPU. Comparing this configuration with current retail models highlights a substantial performance gap.
The prototype is equipped with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, noticeably leaner than today’s 16GB and 512GB (or even the 64GB eMMC) retail options. Notably, AMD’s newer Aerith and Sephiroth APUs would considerably outperform this prototype’s setup.
We eagerly anticipate more details on the buyer. If it lands in the hands of a reviewer or hardware analyst, we might get an exciting deep dive into this custom Picasso chip and insights on how the Steam Deck evolved. If it went to a collector, though, we might not hear much about it again.
For now, as confirmed by Valve themselves, gamers eagerly awaiting a new version of the Steam Deck will have to sit tight until more innovative processors come into play.
