Everything Must Be As Straightforward to Upgrade As the Steam Deck (2023)

When I bought the Steam Deck a several years back, I was skeptical. I was inclined to threat purchasing only the most affordable version possible—a $400 handheld with a measly 64 GB of storage. Now, I know I really like it. I’ve utilized it for hundreds of several hours already, stuck with restricted, slower storage. If I had been to rectify this error, I would have to purchase a total new console. Or at the very least, that is what other gizmos have educated me to imagine. Not this time.

I have a extensive background of upgrading my equipment myself, when I can. The desktop Laptop I use on a day-to-day foundation has been ship-of-Theseus’d from the similar laptop I built around 20 several years ago—never entirely changed, but upgraded, piece by piece, more than the yrs. All through that time, it is significantly become the exception to the rule. Right up until the Steam Deck came together.

Elusive Updates

I made use of to replace the battery in my early smartphones when they acquired aged, respiration new existence into dated hardware. Now, several telephones make it possible for this with out cracking open up the full issue. My to start with MacBook experienced room on the base to up grade its RAM. Now it is baked appropriate into the M-series processors. I would not be equipped to improve it, even if it weren’t hard to entry.

Which is possibly why I felt so satisfied to discover that my Steam Deck is, in simple fact, extremely easy to enhance. Assets like iFixit, which advocate for a user’s correct to repair service their very own gadgets, have guides that present how to do particular upgrades on unique gizmos.

The manual for upgrading the Steam Deck’s storage is refreshingly simple. Unscrew and clear away the back again panel, clear away the board shield, pop out a cable, and unscrew the old storage. Place your new SSD in its area and reverse the system. Carried out. 

It is not rather as effortless as replacing the battery on your TV’s remote, but it was a lot quicker to incorporate a lot more storage than it was to reinstall Steam OS. All told, the method took it’s possible an hour. As an alternative of paying out $130 excess for a various Steam Deck—or worse, acquiring a complete new a single for $530—I paid $20 for a low-priced SSD on eBay. Minus the cost of a first rate hamburger and fifty percent the length of a standard online video essay on YouTube afterwards, I can now put in far more game titles on my Steam Deck, in less time and with shorter loading screens than I experienced right before. This doesn’t have to be a novel encounter.

Restore on the Horizon

It also may possibly not be, for a great deal longer. Earlier this 12 months, the European Union voted to pass new restrictions that will have to have smartphones to arrive outfitted with consumer-replaceable batteries. At present, seeking to switch a battery on a latest Apple iphone calls for specialty instruments and technical know-how, and can continue to outcome in warnings that you’re not utilizing “genuine” components, even when applying formal Apple batteries.

By 2027, that form of barrier to replacing a battery won’t be lawful in the EU, though the knock-on impact will possible guide to producers complying globally. We by now observed a identical outcome arise when the EU handed a regulation demanding all telephones, tablets, and cameras offered in the area to have a USB-C port. It’s just much more effective to make one particular product that the firm can offer everywhere.