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A Valve Steam Deck engineering sample known as Engineering Sample 34 was reportedly sold on eBay for $2,000 on April 8, 2025, after being listed for $2,999.99. The unusual prototype paired an AMD Picasso-era APU with Vega integrated graphics and a markedly different design from the retail Steam Deck. Its sale was reported, but its chain of custody has not been established publicly.
How much did the Steam Deck prototype sell for?
The eBay listing for Engineering Sample 34 was priced at $2,999.99 and reportedly sold for $2,000 on April 8, 2025. The unit’s rear badge was said to read “not for resale.” The original listing later became difficult to access, so the transaction details rest on contemporary reporting rather than a currently viewable listing. Source: PCWorld coverage of the eBay listing
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Was the $2,000 prototype really made by Valve?
Evidence points to a Valve engineering sample, but the public record cited in early coverage does not independently establish its provenance. PCWorld noted that the device’s shape and control layout matched a prototype Valve had shown. Valve’s official Steam Deck press kit also includes prototype imagery. Those visual matches support the identification, but they do not establish how this particular unit left Valve or who owned it before the eBay listing. PCWorld coverage · Valve Steam Deck press kit
What hardware was inside Engineering Sample 34?
BIOS images reported by Tom’s Hardware pointed to an unnamed AMD Picasso APU, a Ryzen 3000-era platform with up to four Zen+ CPU cores and Vega integrated graphics based on AMD’s GCN 5.0 architecture. The reported configuration included 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage. Tom’s Hardware report on the BIOS images
#1 Best Overall
- 1TB NVMe SSD
- 1280 x 800 HDR OLED display with premium anti-glare etched glass, 7.4" Diagonal display size up to 90Hz refresh rate
- Wi-Fi 6E
- 50Whr battery; 3-12 hours of gameplay (content-dependent)
- Carrying case with removable liner
A June 2025 teardown by Bringus Studios, covered by Tom’s Hardware, identified the chip as a Ryzen 7 3700U-class Picasso configuration. That describes the teardown’s finding; it does not establish that every Engineering Sample 34 unit or prototype had identical hardware. Tom’s Hardware coverage of the teardown
How does the prototype differ from the retail Steam Deck?
| Feature | Engineering Sample 34 | Retail Steam Deck |
|---|---|---|
| Processor and graphics | Reported AMD Picasso APU with Zen+ CPU cores and Vega integrated graphics. Tom’s Hardware | Final Deck platform; the cited comparison does not specify its component model here. Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais said the prototype had about half the final Deck’s GPU power. PCGamesN |
| Memory and storage | Reported 8GB memory and 256GB storage. Tom’s Hardware | Higher-memory retail configurations; a directly comparable capacity is not stated in the cited reporting. Tom’s Hardware |
| Controls and shell | Circular touchpads, blue-accented buttons, smaller sticks, a rounder shell, different vent placement, and a more experimental control layout. PCGamesN | Final production design, rather than the experimental layout documented for the prototype. PCGamesN |
The physical changes reflect development experiments, not just cosmetic variants. Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais described the flatter ergonomics as an experiment that taught the team about comfort. Valve’s booklet says its designers tested control placement and grip comfort across many hand sizes and iterated through many prototypes. Griffais’s comment · Valve Steam Deck booklet
Rank #2
- International (UK) Version
- 7.4” diagonal, HDR OLED, 1280 x 800 x RGB, up to 90Hz Refresh rate, High performance touch, <0.1 ms Response time, 1,000 nits peak brightness (HDR), 600 nits (SDR)
- SteamOS 3.0 (Arch-based)
- 512GB NVMe SSD, 16GB LPDDR5 on-board RAM (5500 MT/s quad 32-bit channels), microSD UHS-I supports SD, SDXC and SDHC
- 6 nm AMD APU, CPU: Zen 2 4c/8t, 2.4-3.5GHz (up to 448 GFlops FP32
What does “half the GPU power” mean in practice?
Griffais characterized the Picasso prototype as having “about half of the GPU power of the final Deck.” That is an attributed comparison, not a promise that games run at half the frame rate: performance depends on the game, settings, and software. The June 2025 teardown coverage also noted experimental drivers and software, which could make game results worse than a simple hardware comparison suggests. PCGamesN · Tom’s Hardware
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Engineering Sample 34 offers a glimpse of Valve testing core design choices before settling on the retail Deck: touchpad shape, stick size, button placement, shell curvature, ventilation, and grip. Valve’s booklet documents an iterative process centered on comfort and usability. It also describes designing the retail Steam Deck for repair, replacement, and upgrades, including cases and attachments, component replacement such as the SSD, and an iFixit collaboration for parts and repair guides. These retail-device details do not show that retail cases or accessories fit this prototype. Valve Steam Deck booklet
Quick Recap
Rank #4
- Valve is entering the gaming console marketplace with the new Steam Deck, a console geared towards PC gamers. The Steam Deck can be docked to a monitor, and used as a PC, or docked to a TV.
- Players can play a huge variety of games at any time with the comfort of a console and the freedom of a PC. Not anti-glare screen.
- Like the name suggests, the Steam Deck will include upgraded 1TB storage, and will include a carrying case. A micro SD slot will also enable expanded storage.
- Valve partnered with AMD to create a specialized APU optimized for handheld gaming, and Valve says the chip will deliver performance to run AAA gaming titles.
- The Steam Deck is outfitted with a 7-inch touchscreen, and two trackpads under the control sticks that allow gamers to operate games never designed outside of mouse and keyboard capabilities.
Rank #3
- Operating System: SteamOS 3.0
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