A few months ago, Valve had posted a teardown of its upcoming portable gaming PC, the Steam Deck. I’m sure you remember it; how could you not? The video was constantly reminding you that trying to tear down the unit could result in death. Well, that didn’t scare away iFixit. iFixit has released its own teardown video of the Steam Deck, and it’s quite better than what Valve released.
This video is very informative, as it shows off the original Steam Deck tear-down that Valve released with the production Steam Deck. It also shows that taking apart the unit is fairly easy and that Valve has thought ahead. One key point is that the thumbstick can be swapped pretty easily, as can the SSD. It’s great to know, as thumbsticks are known to be prone to controller drift.
iFixit’s video is worth watching if you are curious about the innards of the Steam Deck or wondered if certain parts were swappable, replaceable, or upgradeable.
As for when you can get your hands on the Steam Deck, preorders are still available. However, as the units are finally shipping out now, it could be some time before you get up to receive one. We’ve placed an order as soon as we could, and according to Valve, we’ll receive ours sometime in Q2 2022.