With the upcoming Steam Deck on the horizon, there’s a lot of excitement in the gaming marketplace. Many PC gamers have already loyal to Steam and are eager to get their hands on what might be the hottest gaming handheld console on the market.
However, like all things, the Steam Deck will come at a price. Many existing Steam users want to know their options, some of them are wondering…
Can You Buy The Steam Deck With Steam Wallet?
Yes. Valve is planning to allow Steam users to buy the Steam Deck with Steam Wallet funds.
Plans can change, but it does seem highly unlikely that they would change up this close to launch. So if you have some funds in your Steam Wallet, you can go ahead and begin getting ready to use it.
This way you’ll be 100% ready at launch to grab your Steam Deck when it comes out.
Why Does It Matter?
When you spend a considerable amount of time playing competitive games, you tend to collect a lot of items, some of which can be quite valuable.
When you sell the items, the funds are added to your Steam Wallet, and you can only spend the Steam Wallet funds in the Steam environment.
If you’ve been collecting funds from selling in-game items like CS GO skins, instead of using those funds on a new game, you can put them towards the Steam Deck.
You can take a look at the Steam marketplace to see what is being sold. Chances are you have some random items from various games in your inventory.
Selling in-game items for a few dollars here and there can help offset some of the cost of the Steam Deck.
If I was you, I would look through your inventory and see if you have any valuable items.
Even items like CS GO crates or cards can be sold for a few dollars here and there.
What is the Steam Deck?
The Steam Deck is an upcoming handheld gaming and portable PC created by Valve. Steam has announced that it can run most games at 60 frames a second.
The Steam Deck is no slouch when it comes to specs. Valve has made it clear that they want to market the device as more than just a handheld device (like the Nintendo Switch). They’ve packed in some powerful hardware into it.
Your entire existing Steam Library will be available for you to download onto the device. This means that Steam Deck and Steam will be connected and you won’t have to purchase games for PC and Steam Deck separately.
Wondering if you should buy a Steam deck or a gaming laptop?
Steam Deck Specs:
- CPU – Zen 2 4 core 8 thread processor with clock speeds between 2.4 and 3.5 Gigahertz
- GPU – 8 RDNA 2 CUs with clock speeds of 1.0 to 1.6 Gigahertz
- RAM – 16 Gigabytes of LPDDR5 memory
- Storage – 64 Gigabytes of eMMC base memory, with models that support 256 & 512 Gigabytes via SSDs
- Size – 11.7” x 4.6” x 1.9”
- Weight – 1.47 lbs
- Screen – 7 inch 1280×800 (16:10 aspect ratio) 60 Hertz Liquid Crystal Display
- Battery – 40 Watt/Hours Unit – Between 2-8 hours lifespan depending on what you’re doing with the console
- Video Output When Docked – 4K UHD at 120 Hertz & 8K at 60 Hertz
- Ports – DisplayPort, HDMI, USB 3.1 and 2.0 & MicroSD card expansion
- Connectivity – 2.4 & 5 Gigahertz band Wi-Fi & Bluetooth 5.0
As you can see the Steam Deck is a beast of a machine, especially for a handheld device, and it’s going to be incredibly awesome to play on.
Just the ability to take your Steam Library on the go is amazing. If you want to you can even use it at home in docked mode as a fully-featured PC when connected to a monitor. I’m very excited to see what you can do with this machine.
And yes, Steam has confirmed that you will be able to install Windows on the machine. In other words, there’s potential to turn it into a full-scale workstation computer, complete with a mouse and keyboard. The possibilities are endless.
Do you know what would go great with a Steam Deck? a wireless keyboard and mouse.
Steam Deck Storage:
We all know that modern-day PC games can eat up storage very quickly, especially if you’re playing AAA titles. As I touched on in the specs overview the internal storage is not that much (64 GB, 256 GB, and 512 GB) but it can be expanded via a microSD card and an external hard drive.
Steam Deck Pricing:
The Steam Deck is very powerful and you may expect the pricing to be insane for such a device.
However, you’d be quite wrong as Valve has competitively priced this console and made it a great deal for what you get.
There are three levels of pricing to make the Steam Deck accessible at the widest range of budgets. Every model is the same, besides the internal storage, and a slightly improved screen on the most expensive one.
- Level 1 – $399 – The base model. It includes 64 GB of internal storage space.
- Level 2 – $529 – 256 GB for storage.
- Level 3- $649 – The premium offering with a whopping 512 GB of SSD memory and some other features including a keyboard theme and custom Steam profile bundle and improved screen.
How To Add Money To Your Steam Wallet:
After seeing those incredible specs and features you may be ready to put down your hard-earned cash right this very instant on a Steam Deck. While it’s not ready for launch right now you can get ready by adding funds to your Steam Wallet. Here’s how:
- Go to the Steam App or website
- Click Your Username
- Look for it in the top right corner of the app.
- Click “Account Details”
- Click “Add Funds To Your Steam Wallet”
- Click “Add Funds” next to the corresponding currency amount
- Confirm your account by signing in again
- Choose payment type from the drop-down menu
- Click “Continue”
- Click “I Agree” to agree to the payment terms
- Click “Purchase” to finalize and you’ll receive a receipt via email
- It can take up to two hours for you to receive credit in your wallet.
How to Buy a Steam Deck?
Steam Deck orders are based on a reservation system, and shipments will start in December 2021.
Bear in mind, reservations are location-based, mostly in the United States at the moment. If you live elsewhere, you’ll see a notice saying reservations are not available in your region. It goes without saying that you’ll probably have to wait a while, as it’s a very hyped up device at the moment.
Visit Steam Deck’s official page to learn more.
Conclusion
As you can the process for adding funds to a Steam Wallet is pretty straightforward. Once your funds are there all you need to do is access the Steam Store on launch day and purchase your Steam Deck with your Steam Wallet.
The console is expected to start shipping in December 2021 so be ready! Thanks for reading and if you’d like, I’d love to hear your feedback. Please share a comment below and let’s look forward to an awesome time with the Steam Deck.
