Jacob Roach / Digital Trends
Valve is serving up huge price cuts on the Steam Deck, but there’s a catch — the consoles are refurbished. Part of the Certified Refurbished Steam Deck program, these handhelds have been fixed up by Valve to reportedly run like new — and they’re significantly cheaper. You can save up to $90, but is this too good to be true? It doesn’t have to be.
Buying refurbished devices and hardware can be scary, but when the goodies come directly from the manufacturer, it becomes less risky. This is the case with Valve, which is now selling all three models of the LCD Steam Deck, refurbished and at a price cut. If this sounds good, you can now grab the base model for $279 instead of $349 ($70 savings), while the 256GB NVMe model costs $319 instead of $399 when purchased new. Lastly, the top handheld in the lineup with 512GB of storage costs just $359 instead of $449, which is $90 in savings.
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The company says that every handheld has undergone thorough testing, including over 100 tests at one of Valve’s facilities. This includes testing controller inputs, the screen, the audio system, and the internal hardware. Valve also checks battery health. As a result, the company promises that: “All refurbished units meet or even exceed the performance standards of new retail units.”
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Sound too good to be true? Well, there’s a small catch — you may have to deal with cosmetic blemishes or scratches that are unlikely to interrupt your gaming experience. The company even grants a one-year warranty on the device. It’s hard to find something to pick on here, honestly — as long as you don’t mind that it’s a refurbished Steam Deck, this appears to be one of the cheapest ways to get one and be sure that it’ll work. It makes sense that Valve would do this now, with the newer Steam Deck OLED offering a better alternative to the LCD model.
Valve’s Steam Deck started the handheld gaming PC revolution that spawned devices like the Asus ROG Ally and the MSI Claw. Among its competitors, it’s already one of the cheapest. Adding the option to buy it refurbished, but in perfect working condition, at up to $90 less is a great move from Valve right now.
Although the Steam Deck can’t rival the ROG Ally with its Z1 Extreme in performance, it’s still a solid console, and if you don’t mind the possible blemishes or scratches, this could be the right deal for you.
