Man, so there’s this YouTube dude who somehow snags an early Steam Deck prototype—engineering sample 34 if we’re getting fancy. Anyway, he yanks it apart on-screen, showing off its insides like some kind of tech surgeon. This guy, Jon from Bringus Studios, got the thing from a dude on X (still can’t get used to not saying Twitter). This SadlyItsDadley person thought Jon was the best guy for this nerdy treasure hunt. Honestly, props to him for that call.
Jon’s on his YouTube channel, tearing off the cover, and boom! There’s this paper that says “POC2-34 Control 163.” Whatever that means, right? It’s proof of concept number 34, which makes it sound like a secret agent or something. He tinkers with it, trying a few games. Valve’s really come a long way with their dreams of portable game gadgets.
So, I got sidetracked—but, oh yeah, the outside of this thing—it’s a bit off from the charming Steam Deck we’ve seen. Big, round touchpads instead of those sleek rectangles. And the joysticks? Tiny! Almost cute. The palm rests are different too. Under the hood, it’s got an AMD Ryzen 7 3700U and 8GB of RAM. Plus, a 256GB SSD and an Intel Wi-Fi chip. Apparently, it could handle a discrete GPU, but Jon didn’t dive into that part.
Anyway, Jon tries copying the SSD to keep its original vibe, pops the clone in, and surprise—the thing’s got an early SteamOS and three accounts pre-loaded. Too bad the main ‘34’ account is locked tight. The OS dates back to September 30, 2020. That’s a whole year and a half before the Steam Deck hit the stores, in case you care about timelines like I do. Weirdly fascinating, right?
And Valve, man—they didn’t just see the Switch and go, “Cool.” They kicked off a whole handheld gaming revolution. Steam Deck got big, and suddenly all the big PC names like Asus, Lenovo, and MSI jumped on the train. It’s like a party now, with all these new handhelds popping up. Seriously wild.
Anyways, if you’re into keeping tabs on this stuff, Tom’s Hardware is your spot or whatever. Follow them on Google News if you want. There’s a button somewhere for that.
