Steam Deck comparison pics prove it's a big, healthy boy and Valve must be very proud

Steam Deck
(Image credit: Valve)

Valve has been open about Steam Deck's large size from the very beginning, but somehow we didn't truly wrap our heads around it until we saw it next to other handhelds.

That's just what gaming YouTuber The Phawx (AKA Gary Colomb) did on his Twitter account, doing us all the essential service of plopping a Steam Deck next to all kinds of handheld consoles and accessories from throughout gaming history. He started out with a PS Vita, though perhaps the most immediately useful comparison for today's average gamer would be side-by-side with a Switch - the OLED model in this case, though its dimensions are effectively identical to the original. GamesRadar's Rachel Weber noted the handheld's chonkiness in our hands-on Steam Deck preview from August, but found it didn't make it unwieldly to play on.

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As you can see, Steam Deck could handily shakedown Switch for its lunch money at the playground. Steam Deck would never do that, though, because they're obviously friends. Speaking of Nintendo devices, the closest comparison in the thread may actually be with the Wii U Gamepad, which is a bit taller but still significantly narrower.

If you want to be a little more scientific about it, the official dimensions for Steam Deck are 11.7" long x 4.6" tall x 1.9" thick, weighing in at a total of 1.47 pounds. Valve's handheld gaming PC is still set to start shipping out later this month, so we can expect a lot more photos of it placed next to various other things soon.

The list of Steam Deck verified games now includes Hollow Knight, Psychonauts 2, Sekiro, and many more, so you should have plenty to play as soon as yours arrives.

Connor Sheridan

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.