As widely acclaimed as the Steam Deck may be, the device is far from perfect for every single use case under the sun, and that's where the community comes in. While a whole bunch of custom modifications have been created since the handheld first came out, some go far beyond what most users would expect, and an electrical engineering student may have come up with the most extreme hardware mod yet.
Though Valve has been iterating on Steam Deck's hardware in the background, these changes are fairly subtle and don't change the device's core feature set. Users have been far more innovative in comparison, coming up with specialized mounting mechanisms, real-life integrations with actual combat drones, and more.
Engineering student and Reddit user mrblackm123 has come up with what is, in effect, a total revamp of the Steam Deck. In a recent video, they showed off a heavily streamlined version of the Deck that no longer has any of its original control buttons attached. Instead, mrblackm123 has retrofitted its screen and motherboard into a third-party tablet chassis. Afterward, they also added a couple of rails that fit the standard Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons, essentially turning the Linux PC into an oversized and superpowered Nintendo handheld.
Unsurprisingly, the community's responses have been mixed. While some are thrilled with mrblackm123's engineering prowess, others feel they "massacred" the Deck instead, replacing its unique collection of input devices with Nintendo's infamously unreliable Joy-Cons. Though some may question this revamped Deck's functionality, mrblackm123's ingenuity is fascinating, and many are excited to see their next upgrade.
After a video came out that showed the Ukrainian army using a Steam Deck to control their turrets in live combat, it's become obvious that Valve has created a truly flexible and customizable device that will easily handle a wide variety of tasks, gaming or not. Mrblackm123 is just the latest in a long line of hardware modders who are having fun with this Linux-based gaming handheld, and an even more extreme set of customizations will certainly be coming down the line.
Now that Asus' mainstream gaming handheld is due to launch very soon, some may expect Valve to feel threatened by the more advanced and powerful device. Instead, Valve congratulated the Steam Deck competitor when it was officially announced, praising the fact that Asus is also working on expanding the handheld PC niche further into the mainstream. For fans of portable gaming, the future is looking bright.