Steam Deck Hardware Revision Reportedly On The Way

A new hardware revision for Valve’s handheld gaming PC, the Steam Deck, is in the works, based on the latest report.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the US government department that controls radio, television, phone, and other communications, has published an application regarding a Valve Corporation device, Model: 1030, which appears to be a hardware revision of the Steam Deck.

The application states that a new Wi‐Fi & Bluetooth Module manufactured by Quectel Wireless Solutions Co. Ltd has been granted by FCC dated 07/13/2023 under FCC ID: XMR2023FC66EB. The intention of this application is to enable the modular certified FCC ID: XMR2023FC66EB to be integrated in Valve Steam Deck/ Model: 1030. Based on this information, the new model will come with a new Wi-Fi module (FC66E-B) that supports the Wi-Fi 6E (6 Ghz) spectrum. The new Steam Deck revision may feature other hardware upgrades, though they were beyond the scope of the application and, therefore, not mentioned.

According to Quectel’s product page, the FC66E is a high-performance Wi-Fi 6E and BLE (Bluetooth 5.2) module in LCC package. Supporting 2×2 + 2×2 MIMO, it provides a maximum data rate up to 3000Mbps. It is a compact Wi-Fi/Bluetooth solution, making it suitable for size-sensitive applications. The module is designed with a PCIe 3.0 interface for WLAN capability, offering low-power and high-speed data transmission.

It’s unlikely for the new Steam Deck revision to come with a beefier CPU, GPU, or memory configuration than in the existing Steam Deck, as Valve Corporation had recently made it clear that does not plan on launching a faster version of the handheld PC for years to come. Speaking during an interview with CNBC, Steam Deck developer at Valve, Pierre-Loup Griffais, stated that it could be late 2025 or beyond before a faster version of the Steam Deck is launched, because the company wishes to see a leap in performance without a significant hit to battery life.