Holy moly! Valve just hiked the Steam Deck OLED price by almost 50% — but I have two fan-favorite handhelds that are still cheap and you should get instead | Tech Radar

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Holy moly! Valve just hiked the Steam Deck OLED price by almost 50% — but I have two fan-favorite handhelds that are still cheap and you should get instead

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It'll go up by over 40% in the US, and over 30% elsewhere

No hardware changes are coming with the price increase

Price hikes, even for older gadgets, are standard practice in 2026. None, though, warrants as loud a ‘WTF’ as Valve saying its Steam Deck OLEDs are going to cost close to 50% more in some regions, with smaller but still major price hikes landing elsewhere.

Per a blog post announcement where Valve revealed the handhelds are back in stock, it also dropped the pricing bomb. The

Meanwhile, the 1TB OLED Steam Deck will cost

You should probably buy that handheld gaming device you've been eyeing, now

While the Steam Deck still struggles with stock issues, the Asus ROG Xbox Ally gets a tempting $100 discount at Amazon

Lenovo Legion Go 2's price hike is even more absurd than expected

Notably, these price hikes don’t come with any hardware upgrades. Instead, Valve explains they’ve been introduced to "reflect the current state of component costs and other global logistical challenges across the industry as a whole.” The component prices specifically blamed are “rising memory and storage costs.”

If you’re after a handheld run, don’t walk, to grab one before further price hikes arrive.

This Valve announcement follows similarly catastrophic hikes from Lenovo back in April. We saw the Lenovo Legion Go 2 Ryzen Z2 Extreme 2TB jump up over

Outside of Australia, where the PC handheld rose in price in February, the Asus Rog Xbox Ally X has so far dodged serious hikes, though that will probably change soon.

I’ve been loving this Asus x Xbox PC handheld, and I predominantly use it for Steam games. I have it set up so that Steam’s Big Picture mode boots up as soon as my handheld switches on to better mimic the simplicity of the Steam Deck, and I’ve found the console comfortable to play for as long as the battery can last — which is a decent number of hours even for chunkier AAA titles.

So far in 2026, it’s been where I’ve enjoyed Resident Evil 9, Slay The Spire II, Zero Parades for Dead Spies, and 007: First Light among plenty of others, and while the meatier games don’t run as beautifully as they do on my static gaming rig, they still look solid and play very well — especially after a few visual settings tweaks.

Alternatively, you could nab a different kind of handheld: the Nintendo Switch 2.

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It’s not a PC gaming machine and lacks the incredible breadth of the Steam catalog, but it does have three key advantages over PC handhelds.

First, you get access to Nintendo exclusives like the Super Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Pokémon series. Yes, console exclusivity is frustrating, but it does give Nintendo an edge for fans of its franchises.

Secondly, and more importantly, I’ve found the Switch 2 is perfect for co-op. The Joy-Con pair you get with every console can be used together for single player, or as individual controllers for many couch co-op adventures, whether it’s a competitive brawl in Smash Ultimate, racing through Mario Kart: World, or teaming up in Super Mario Bros. Wonder. You can play co-op games on PC handhelds, but both players will need a console, making it a much pricier endeavor.

Thirdly, crucially, the Switch 2 costs a lot less but still packs a punch. It comes in at

We know this because Nintendo itself has warned that the console will go up by $50 in the US on September 1, 2026. A UK and Australian price increase is yet to be formally confirmed by Nintendo, though it is likely its cost will increase there too.

So you have a little longer to decide on a Nintendo console, but when it comes to the PC handheld market, I’d act sooner rather than later if you’re desperate to nab one — or risk some serious disappointment when, not if, prices get hiked for the few remaining machines yet to see one.

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• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets
• Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more
• Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards
• Unlock instant access to exclusive member features
• Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards