The Future of Handheld Gaming: What We Want to See in the Steam Deck 2
The world of handheld gaming has come a long way since the Game Boy was first released in 1989. From black-and-white LCD displays to full-color HD screens, the scale and technical power of games have expanded exponentially. With the launch of Valve’s Steam Deck in 2022, players finally had the opportunity to play their entire PC game catalog on the go at any time with remarkably good performance.
While the Steam Deck is a truly impressive piece of hardware, there’s always room for improvement. With Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais stating that we won’t be getting anything until at least 2025, we’re left to speculate about what the future of handheld gaming might hold. Here’s what we’d love to see in the Steam Deck 2.
Bigger, Brighter, Sharper
The Steam Deck’s screen is a modest 7-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 1280x800. While it’s certainly more than adequate for most gaming, it’s objectively worse than the vast majority of modern smartphones with OLED screens and some even providing native 4K. We’d love to see a higher resolution screen, perhaps even an OLED like the recently upgraded Nintendo Switch.
Image: A potential Steam Deck 2 OLED screen
Gaming for Everyone
Accessibility in gaming has been a hot trend in recent years, and many game devs are going out of their way to include options tailored to a wide range of disabilities. However, even players with no form of impairment have complained about certain aspects of the Steam Deck. For starters, the text on the screen can be absolutely tiny, making it difficult to read. We’d love to see more options for text size adjustment, as well as more developers implementing different layouts and view features.
Image: Accessibility options in gaming
A Better Battery
The number one problem that many people have with the Steam Deck is the rather short battery life. In theory, the console has a battery life of up to 8 hours, but in reality, you’ll only get that if you’re in airplane mode, with the brightness all the way down, and playing Minesweeper. We’d love to see a significant increase in battery life, or at the very least, making them easily swappable.
Image: A potential Steam Deck 2 battery life improvement
Learn from Others
The Steam Deck isn’t the only portable console out there. The Nintendo Switch has become the best-selling Nintendo console and is currently the third best-selling video game console of all time. Valve could certainly learn a few lessons from one of gaming’s oldest hardware manufacturers. We’d love to see removable controllers, a more gaming-focused OS, and an included Dock.
Image: The Nintendo Switch, a competitor to the Steam Deck
Variety is the Spice of Life
Lastly, we’d love to see more variety in the design and color options of the Steam Deck 2. While black is a classic choice, it would be nice to have more options to make the console truly our own.
Image: Potential Steam Deck 2 design options
The future of handheld gaming is bright, and we can’t wait to see what Valve has in store for us with the Steam Deck 2. With a few tweaks and improvements, it could be the ultimate portable gaming console.
