Engineering samples of popular consoles or their accessories often command high prices when they appear for sale, and the same happened with a Steam Deck prototype that recently surfaced on eBay. A sharp-eyed member of the r/SteamDeck community first noticed this listing.
This was no ordinary Steam Deck—the prototype closely matched images Valve had shared earlier and came equipped with an AMD APU featuring Picasso silicon dating back to 2019. Initially listed at $3,000, it eventually found a new owner for a slightly more modest $2,000.
Dubbed “Engineering Sample 34,” the prototype stood out with its unique blue accents, a more curved design, circular trackpads, and what looked to be a sensor integrated into the right joystick.
Despite the bold “Not for resale” label stamped on the back, it seems the seller wasn’t too deterred. Valve created quite a number of these engineering samples during development for internal testing purposes, making it tough to put an exact date on this model. However, given its older APU, it’s likely it was used to test physical aspects before finalizing retail specs, suggesting a creation date around 2019 or 2020.
Interestingly, the seller noted the absence of an operating system, specifically SteamOS, on the device. Notebookcheck managed to capture images of the BIOS from the eBay listing, shedding light on some key specs. Valve appeared to be testing the waters with older AMD Picasso (Ryzen 3000 mobile) chips, featuring up to four Zen+ cores and a GCN 5.0 (Vega 3/8/11) based integrated GPU. These specs alone hint at significant performance differences when compared to the standard retail Steam Decks.
In terms of memory and storage, the prototype comes with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, notably less than the 16GB and 512GB options available in the latest versions, unless you consider the basic 64GB eMMC version. Today’s AMD Aerith and Sephiroth APUs might make light work of this older setup.
Now, the big question is: who bought it? If it lands in the hands of a reviewer or a hardware analyst, we might get an in-depth breakdown of this custom Picasso chip and insights into the evolution of the Steam Deck’s design. On the other hand, a collector might choose to keep this piece of gaming history under wraps.
Valve has confirmed that fans hoping for a new version of the Steam Deck will need to hang tight until more advanced processors are available in the market.
