Valve has confirmed that replacement parts for the Steam Deck will be available from iFixit after the handheld PC’s official release, offering an easier way for clumsy or unfortunate owners to restore their systems to their original states and intended functionality.
As noted by Valve in a new blog post, the partnership with iFixit fulfills the company’s previous promise of making Steam Deck replacement parts available for purchase. Replacement parts for the Valve Index, Valve’s VR headset, will also be available from the how-to website’s parts store, which already offers parts for devices ranging from iPhones to Xbox consoles.
Complementing Valve’s announcement is iFixit’s own teardown of the Steam Deck, which was published today on YouTube. The system received a 7 out of 10 on iFixit’s repairability scale due to some challenges such as a hard-to-remove battery.
Steam Deck: Replacement Parts (Valve)
- Hope everyone’s doing well – 10 days and counting until launch day! We have some exciting news to share. If you watched our Take a look inside Steam Deck video (aka the “please don’t do this” video), you may remember we said certain Steam Deck replacement parts would be available for purchase.
- Today, we’re announcing that iFixit will be one of the authorized sellers of Steam Deck replacement parts – as well as replacement parts for the Valve Index VR products. We are still hammering out the details, and will be sharing more info on this soon.
- And in case you missed it, don’t forget to check out iFixit’s teardown of Steam Deck just posted today.
Steam Deck Teardown: Everything Valve Said Not to Do! (iFixIt)
- The Steam Deck is mercifully uncomplicated to open up. If you’re used to working on PCs, you’ll be fairly comfortable here: remove eight Phillips screws, pry apart some plastic clips, and … that’s it, you’re inside—no messy adhesives, no exotic screws. This thing is simplicity itself.
- We do have some significant gripes—the battery is a missed opportunity, and we would have preferred a more modular charge port. […] Our best advice for this procedure is to drain the battery below 25% before you start, to prevent thermal runaway—and then use plenty of heat to soften the adhesive, and pry it out mainly from the bottom edge. Just watch out for the antenna hardware.
- But, we also found a lot to like. The opening procedure is simple and straightforward; there’s above-average modularity for most components; and you only need one Phillips screwdriver for all your repairs. And the storage solution here outclasses a lot of current laptops. Overall the Steam Deck nets a 7 out of 10 on our repairability scale.