Five things that the Steam Deck 2 needs to feature to compete with its rivals in 2027... and beyond

When the original Steam Deck was first announced back in mid-2021, it was a revelation.

Valve proved that handheld gaming PCs could be cost-effective and still powerful enough to run demanding software at playable framerates.

The first-generation Deck would ship in February 2022, with the Steam Deck OLED model later innovating with a larger, prettier screen, improved refresh rate, and a superior battery in November 2023.

The Steam Deck impressed at the time with its respectable semi-custom AMD APU complete with its four-core (eight threads) CPU clocked between 2.4 and 3.5 GHz, and 8 RDNA 2 Compute Units clocked at 1.6 GHz.

In short, the hardware inside meant that pushing the best PC games to 30 FPS (and above in some cases) at its native 1280 x 720p resolution was a possibility, but the competition has proven that it's time for Valve to go back to the drawing board if it wants to stay competitive.

That's because the Steam Deck is now fairly underpowered when compared to the best PC handhelds on the market.

The competition have Full HD (1080p) displays (or better), and feature vastly superior hardware in the form of AMD Ryzen Z1 / Z2 or Intel Arc G3 APUs that run rings around the previous-generation frontrunner.

So, what does Valve need to do to ensure the Steam Deck 2 can compete if, and when, it launches? 1.

A 120Hz Full HD (1080p) OLED display as standard All of the major Steam Deck rivals use a high refresh rate 1080p display, or better, so it's time for Valve to catch up (Image credit: Microsoft) Both the Steam Deck LCD and Steam Deck OLED models feature a native resolution of 1280 x 720p with either a 60Hz or 90Hz refresh rate.

Considering when the former was launched, this was an acceptable trade-off for providing playable framerates.

However, every competing product in the oversaturated space has since eclipsed this, meaning the Steam Deck 2 absolutely needs a 120Hz 1080p display at a minimum to be viable.

You only need to look as far as the biggest rivals from back in 2023; the Steam Deck's panel was passé less than a year after the hardware debuted, as evidenced by the Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go .

Both devices could confidently be called true Steam Deck rivals.

The first-generation ROG Ally had a 7-inch 120Hz 1080p panel, whereas the original Legion Go had a 144Hz 8.8-inch QHD+ screen.