One of the Steam Deck’s joysticks. | Photo by Sean Hollister / The Verge
The era of fixing your own gadgets has nearly arrived, and Valve’s Steam Deck handheld gaming PC may be setting the best example yet — not only does it offer a repair-friendly design, but it now looks like almost every part will be sold separately at iFixit.
This evening, the company prematurely revealed a huge collection of its promised repair parts at its website, and we were surprised to see everything down to the motherboard with the AMD Aerith chip at the heart of the Steam Deck will soon be available, admittedly for a pricey $350.
Image: iFixit
The Steam Deck motherboard.
In fact, iFixit will even sell parts that might be considered upgrades for an existing Steam Deck — if you decide you’d rather have the anti-glare screen that only comes with the 512GB model, or the allegedly quieter Huaying fan, you’ll be able to nab those for $95 and $25 respectively. You can pay $5 more for a “Fix Kit” that comes with everything you need to do those repairs — which I’d highly recommend for the screen. If you’ve got a spudger and a screwdriver already, you probably don’t need it for the fan.
Image: iFixit
Among other tools, the screen kit comes with an iOpener microwavable heating tool to loosen the existing screen’s adhesive.
In fact, iFixit was willing to send us a complete US price list for every part it’ll sell in the first wave, 23 distinct parts in all:
GamingOnLinux has a partial list of UK prices as well.
One thing you won’t see right away is the Steam Deck’s battery, however, which is obviously a critical wear part for a battery-powered console that can easily drain in two hours flat. iFixit only has a placeholder link for the battery (and the SSD, thanks u/Fidler_2K @ Reddit).
Here’s what iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens tells The Verge about the battery sitch:
We are building a solution for repairing the Steam Deck that includes all the step-by-step guides and parts that you need to fix your Deck. Our initial release includes the parts and tools to complete most repairs. We don’t have a solution for battery repairs on day one, but we are committed to working with Valve to maintain these devices as they age. Battery replacements are going to be essential to making the Steam Deck stand the test of time.
He couldn’t say when they’ll go on sale beyond “soon.”
Earlier today we published some pages related to our upcoming parts launch with Valve. These went live earlier than we planned, so we ended up taking them down. If you did get a parts order in, we’ll honor it.
Stay tuned for the real launch soon!
— iFixit (@iFixit) May 21, 2022
There’s also no touchpads, D-pads or buttons on the list yet, though iFixit will sell the rubber membranes that go underneath them. And no internal metal frame, EM shields, or flexible ribbon cables. So it’s not like you could build a complete Deck from parts. But if you crack the plastic front panel, it might be an easy $25 fix, and you can’t say that about most gadgets.
Image: iFixit
The Steam Deck’s front and back panels cost $25 each.
It’s fairly easy to get into the Steam Deck, by the way: when my thumbstick got a little sticky, I was able to get it out for cleaning by removing three screws (after the eight screws for the back case and snapping open its tricky little plastic clips, I admit).
By the way: if you’re interested in right-to-repair and official parts, I’ve got another story this morning that you might like to read.
Correction, 1:38PM ET: It’s 11 screws total to open the case and remove a joystick, not 7 as I originally said.