Valve has now announced that new base reservations for the 64GB Steam Deck will ship "in Q2 2022 or later", except for a few who were able to pre-order early. For those scoring at home, that could be Q3 or Q4. Previously, it was Q1 2022.

Fortunately for those willing to spare $650, the most expensive 512GB Steam Deck has been raised from Q3 to Q2 2022. At this time, there is no definite release date when the Steam Decks will first reach customers' hands.

The new shipping start date can be found on Valve's Steam Deck pre-order site.

According to a thread on the Steam Deck subreddit, pre-orders for those who were able to line up early are still set for December 2021. However, it appears that few have been able to secure a reservation slot for the end of this year. Most users on the thread are expecting to receive their units in the first or second quarter of 2022.

So at this point, this change in order delivery does not appear to affect those who were able to pre-order early. It will affect those who are trying to pre-order Steam Deck now.

As evidenced by previous changes in the availability of the more expensive 512GB model, it appears that component availability and production quantities may change on short notice. If overseas suppliers are able to produce more chips, it is possible that Valve will accelerate the timing of their offerings. Of course, things could easily swing the other way as well, due to the high demand for chips from Apple to Samsung.

Steam Deck will use a custom APU developed by AMD. The chipmaker has already confirmed that supply will be tight through 2021; we expect supply to be less tight as the Steam Deck will use the lower resolution, more ubiquitous 1,280 x 800 LCD displays.

We have also pre-ordered the Steam Deck, which is currently scheduled to ship in Q1 2022; it is unclear if Valve will be sending units to the press for early evaluation, but we will announce our review of the Steam Deck as soon as it becomes available.