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The handheld, portable Steam Machine previously known as the Steamboy will go on sale on Nov. 10 for $299 ? the same day other Steam Machines from manufacturers like Alienware and Cyberpower hit store shelves ? but the device won't actually ship until late next year, according to its manufacturer.
Smach, the company touting the portable Steam OS device, says the handheld will ship out during the fourth quarter of 2016. That $299 price (?299 in Europe) is apparently the device's pre-sale price only. We've reached out to the company for more details on pricing.
The Smach Zero ? the Steamboy project's new name ? claims to be "the first handheld console to play Steam games on the go." The device will play "more than 1,000 games" from Steam's library on day one, with a hardware spec that will balance performance and cost.
According to Smach's hardware specifications, the Smach Zero will feature two touch pads, a control stick, seven buttons on the front and six on the rear. The input scheme will be "similar to the latest version" of Valve's official Steam controller.
Here are the hardware specs that Smach announced in June:
- AMD embedded G-Series SoC "Steppe Eagle" with Jaguar-based CPU and GCN-based Radeon graphics
- 4 GB RAM memory
- 32GB internal memory and SD Card Slot
- USB OTG
- 5-inch Touch screen with 720p resolution
- Configurable tactile gamepads
- HDMI video output connection
- Wi-Fi connectivity
- Bluetooth connectivity
- 4G mobile network connectivity (PRO model only)
Smach exhibited at Gamescom this weekend, where it made the pricing announcement, but we haven't seen or played with its Smach Zero portable yet. We've asked Smach for more details on the company.
This is going to be an uber interesting handheld but the lack of info on the battery and its power hungry stature make me think of the Game Gear again. What will be amazing is what it emulates though....
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