The Original Steam Deck LCD Is Officially Done
The original Steam Deck LCD model has quietly reached the end of its life. If you were hoping to grab Valve's entry level handheld without stepping up to the newer OLED version, you are out of luck. Valve has confirmed that the 256 GB Steam Deck LCD is no longer being produced, and once existing stock sold out, that was it.
This news was not announced with a big trailer or flashy reveal. Instead, Valve added a short disclaimer to the Steam Deck store page explaining that the 256 GB LCD version was being discontinued. In the United States, that model is now fully sold out, and Valve has no plans to manufacture more units.
For many PC gamers, this is the end of a surprisingly important device. The LCD Steam Deck may not have had the deep blacks or rich colors of the newer OLED screen, but it delivered something that mattered just as much: accessible PC gaming at a lower price.
Why the LCD Steam Deck Mattered
When Valve cut the price of the Steam Deck LCD a few months ago, it became one of the best value options in PC gaming. For around three hundred to four hundred dollars, you could get a full handheld PC with a custom interface, access to your Steam library, and the ability to dock it and use it like a small desktop.
That combination hit a sweet spot for a lot of people:
- Low barrier to entry compared to building or buying a full gaming PC.
- Portable PC gaming with real desktop titles, not just mobile games.
- Docking support so you could plug into a monitor, keyboard and mouse and use it like a mini PC.
- Custom SteamOS interface that made navigating your games easy even without a mouse.
PC gaming has a reputation for being expensive. Between GPUs, CPUs and other components, the cost of entry can be intimidating. The original Steam Deck LCD was one of the first mainstream devices that said, here is a PC gaming experience in your hands for less than a mid range graphics card.
That value made it especially appealing to beginners or console players who wanted to dip a toe into PC gaming without committing to a full desktop build.
Why Valve Is Moving On
So why discontinue a device that so many people saw as a stellar deal? In simple terms, Valve is tightening up its hardware lineup and shifting focus to newer and higher end models.
The handheld gaming space is much more crowded now than when the first Steam Deck launched. There are new Windows based handheld PCs launching constantly, as well as powerful Android based devices aimed at cloud gaming and streaming. At the same time, Valve itself has moved on to the Steam Deck OLED, which improves on the original in several ways:
- Better image quality with more vivid colors and improved contrast.
- Improved battery life in many scenarios.
- Refinements to the overall design based on feedback from the LCD model.
Maintaining multiple hardware versions adds complexity to manufacturing, support and marketing. By retiring the LCD version, Valve can put more energy behind its flagship models and whatever comes next in its hardware roadmap.
The article also hints that Valve has ambitions beyond the current Deck line. With talk of the company preparing to roll out the Steam Machine brand again or something similar, it is clear Valve is still very interested in hardware that ties tightly into the Steam ecosystem.
Your Options For Handheld PC Gaming Now
If you missed out on the Steam Deck LCD, you still have several paths into handheld PC gaming. The most obvious is to look at the Steam Deck OLED, which is now the main official Deck experience and offers the best overall mix of performance, battery life and screen quality in Valve's lineup.
Beyond Valve's own hardware, the handheld PC scene is full of alternatives from other manufacturers. Windows based handhelds give you a more traditional PC environment and direct access to multiple launchers and stores. Gaming focused Android handhelds pair well with game streaming services and cloud gaming platforms, turning them into portable screens for more powerful PCs or servers.
If your goal is to play big new releases like Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 on the go, you will want to pay attention to performance, cooling and battery life across these devices. A good starting point is to look at curated lists of the best handheld gaming PCs which compare specs, prices and strengths of each model.
It is also worth remembering that handhelds are now just one part of the wider PC gaming picture. With powerful GPUs, faster CPUs and improving cloud services, you have more ways than ever to play your games:
- Build or buy a desktop PC for maximum performance.
- Use a handheld like the Steam Deck OLED for portable sessions.
- Experiment with cloud gaming to stream demanding titles to lower powered hardware.
The end of the Steam Deck LCD is a little bittersweet. It helped lower the cost of entry into PC gaming and showed that a handheld PC could be both practical and affordable. But its retirement also signals how quickly PC gaming hardware is evolving. For anyone interested in portable gaming rigs, it is a good reminder to keep an eye on what comes next.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/valve-has-quietly-discontinued-the-last-lcd-steam-deck-model/
