Valve are selling refurbished Steam Decks, and they're dirt cheap
Another chance to get a discounted Deck, though supplies are limited
If you don’t mind your handheld gaming PC coming with the odd scratch mark, you may be interested to hear that Valve are now selling "Certified" refurbished Steam Decks on the cheap. A refurb of the top-spec 512GB model will save you over £100 / $100, and there are similarly proportioned discounts on renewed 256GB and 64GB models.
"Each Certified Refurbished Steam Deck has been thoroughly tested to the same high standards as our retail units," explains the Steam store page. The controls, display, sound hardware, battery, and power supply – arguably the part you’d least want blowing up in your hands – are apparently subjected to over 100 tests, conducted by Valve themselves. Refurbs also get the same one-year standard warranty and bundled carry case as new models, so you won’t need to spend your saving on at least one Steam Deck accessory.
While large parts of my brain are still administered by a child that likes peeling off the plastic on brand new hardware, these secondhand Steam Deck do look like decent deals. The 512GB version naturally gets the fattest discount but the 64GB Deck is down from £349 / $399 to a mere $279 / $319 – add a 512GB or 1TB microSD card and you’ll have a go-anywhere gaming PC that can run Baldur’s Gate 3 and/or transform into a desktop, all for less cash than what currently passes for a mid-range graphics card. $279 / $319 is less than what a new 64GB model cost during the recent Steam Summer Sale, too.
Valve are selling refurbished Steam Decks directly through Steam and, in the US, through "select" GameStop stores – though in the latter’s case they’ll be refurbished by GameStop rather than Valve, and will have their own warranty. In a tweet, Valve also warned that supplies will be limited due to inconsistent stock levels – presumably because these are based on former Steam Deck owners returning their faulty or unwanted handhelds, not an actual supply chain. At last, the maxim of "adopt, don't shop" can apply to portable PC gaming devices.