Engineering samples of popular consoles or accessories always seem to attract high bids when they pop up for sale. Recently, a Steam Deck prototype appeared on eBay, catching the eye of someone on the r/SteamDeck subreddit.
This particular prototype bore a striking resemblance to earlier images shared by Valve. It featured an AMD APU with Picasso silicon from 2019. Initially listed at $3,000, it ended up going for $2,000—a hefty price, but still a steal for what it represented.
With the internal label “Engineering Sample 34,” this prototype deviates from the typical Steam Deck design. It sports unique blue accents, a more pronounced curved design, circular trackpads, and what looks like a sensor on the right joystick.
Even though a bold “Not for resale” sticker is plastered on the back, it did little to deter the seller from making the sale. Valve produced numerous samples during the prototype phase for testing, making it tricky to determine its exact age. However, the fact that it has an older APU indicates that this model was likely used to evaluate its mechanical design rather than final retail specs, suggesting it dates back to around 2019 or 2020.
The device doesn’t come with an operating system installed, something the seller was clear about. Notebookcheck managed to snag BIOS images from the listing, revealing some key specs: notably, Valve tested these old prototypes using an unnamed AMD Picasso (Ryzen 3000 mobile) chip, featuring up to four Zen+ cores and a GCN 5.0 (Vega 3/8/11) based integrated GPU. The differences in architecture alone mark a significant performance gap between this prototype and the current retail version of the Steam Deck.
Additionally, the prototype’s 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD pale in comparison to today’s fuller offerings of 16GB and 512GB, unless you opt for the 64GB eMMC version. AMD’s new Aerith and Sephiroth APUs would easily outpace this older setup.
We’re left to speculate on who the buyer might be. If it’s a reviewer or hardware analyst, we could anticipate a thorough analysis of this bespoke Picasso chip and insights into the evolution of the Steam Deck’s design. On the other hand, a collector may simply enjoy having a unique piece of tech history in their collection.
Valve has stated that gamers eager for a new iteration of the Steam Deck will have to wait until more advanced processors are available.
