Foreign media The Verge recently discovered that Valve’s new handheld Steam Deck model 1030 has passed FCC certification. As for why I didn’t know the news until now? Because like the original Steam Deck, Valve’s confidentiality work is quite strict and they used the name of Steam Deck’s WiFi and Bluetooth chip manufacturer to apply to the FCC.
The X account “Brad Lynch” who focuses on Valve news discovered that the new Steam Deck model was submitted by a company called Quectel, and Quectel is the manufacturer of the Wifi and Bluetooth chips for the Steam Deck 1010 and 1030 models.
Lynch said that the new Steam Deck model (1030) will be an upgraded version. Quectel applied for a secondary change permit that would allow its certified Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth chip, the FC66E, to work on the new Steam Deck model.
Steam Deck currently only supports 2.4/5 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 functions. Does this mean that the new version of Steam Deck will support WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 functions? The Verge is skeptical because previously, the 1030 model Steam Deck was only certified for 5Ghz WiFi in South Korea, not 6GHz WiFi.
The Verge speculates that Valve can hide any new features they like behind WiFi chip certification, since these agencies only tend to regulate radio emissions and not other specifications.
This model should only be regarded as a minor revision, because Valve founder Gabe Newell previouslyinterviewWe’ve made it clear that there will be a Steam Deck 2, but it doesn’t seem like they plan to do anything about it anytime soon. Valve engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais told The Verge that they want to update when there is a significant improvement in performance, but they also don’t want to sacrifice battery life for performance.
