Watch Valve take apart a Steam Deck so you don't have to

Looks pretty complicated in there

The upcoming Steam Deck is easily one of the most interesting products to be announced in 2021. For the most part, it's a beefier distant cousin of the Nintendo Switch, bringing the mighty performance of a gaming PC to a handheld format. Running a custom AMD Zen 2 APU with RDNA 2 graphics, it may not touch the capabilities of a really high-end computer, but the fact that it can handle a decent amount of PC games as a handheld console is pretty noteworthy on its own. As we look forward to its release, Valve is hyping the Steam Deck with one very nerve-racking teardown video.

With this teardown video, the message Valve wants to get across is that it really doesn't want you to repair or upgrade components inside your Steam Deck by yourself, but at the end of the day, it can't really stop you — it's your hardware, you own it, and you're free to do whatever you want with it. And we're big fans of that kind of attitude. Not only that, but the company also offers useful advice for those thinking about repairing their device, while even promising to make suitable parts available for sale.

Valve's warning does hold water, though, in case you really were thinking about popping open your Steam Deck once you get one on your doorstep. Being essentially a gaming PC in a handheld format, it's very tightly packed, and there are plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong, especially if you don't know what you're doing.

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