Valve’s Steam Deck comes in three storage options—64 GB eMMC (PCIe Gen 2 x1), 256 GB NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4), and 512 GB high-speed NVMe SSD (PCIe Gen 3 x4)—but owners of the portable, handheld PC who are willing to open the unit up and endanger its warranty might be able to increase its storage with larger SSDs. This is according to Steam Deck’s updated specifications page, which now clarifies that the device leverages M.2 2230 slots for its storage options. Valve has warned that the Steam Deck’s socketed 2230 M.2 modules are “not intended for end-user replacement,” but users have already discovered the location of the slot. Apparently, it’s accessible once the user gets past the Steam Deck’s EMI and thermal shielding.
as i suspected: pic.twitter.com/44AKOpMlSo
— lashman (@RobotBrush) July 16, 2021
[…] it requires opening the hardware in unsupported ways, so warranty is in your hands at that point. The slot is behind EMI and thermal shielding, so it’s not really “user-replaceable” like a regular M.2 tray on a laptop.
Sources: Valve, RobotBrush (via r/hardware)