A rare Steam Deck prototype sold on eBay for $2000 — inside a 2019 APU

A real technical rarity has recently appeared on eBay: an engineering prototype of the first version of Steam Deck, a portable console from Valve. This sample, internally dubbed Engineering Sample 34, is notable not only for its unusual appearance but also for its older hardware. The device was sold for $2000, although the starting price was $3000.

The prototype looks quite different from modern versions of Steam Deck: blue design elements, a more curved body, round trackpads, and a mysterious sensor near the right joystick. On the back of the device is a sticker that reads «Not for Sale», which, however, did not stop the seller from bidding.

The most interesting thing is inside: the device is powered by an AMD Picasso APU (Ryzen 3000 mobile series), which was created in 2019. This is a chip with Zen+ architecture and Vega graphics (GCN 5.0). The commercial version of Steam Deck uses a completely different chip — Aerith, created specifically for the console based on the Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures. Accordingly, the performance of the old model is significantly lower than modern models.

The prototype also has 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, while today’s models offer up to 16 GB of RAM and up to 512 GB SSD, not including the 64 GB eMMC version. The SteamOS operating system is not present on the device — it was probably never ready for mass use.

During the development phase, Valve created a number of engineering samples for internal testing, so it is difficult to determine the exact age of this particular model. However, the use of an older APU suggests that it was intended to test the case design and overall ergonomics of the device before finalizing the specifications. We are probably talking about the period of 2019-2020.

It’s not yet known who the new owner of this copy is. If it’s a tech blogger or analyst, we may yet see an in-depth review of the internal components and a detailed analysis of the differences between early and final versions. If the buyer — collector, the device will most likely remain hidden in a private collection.

In any case, this sale confirms that even technical samples can be of great value to enthusiasts and fans of the brand. Meanwhile, Valve officially states that a new generation of Steam Deck will appear only when significantly better processors appear on the market.

Source: tomshardware