Here's what the Steam Deck UI will look like on your desktop
SteamOS 3 has leaked, following the release of dev kits.
The Steam Deck user interface will serve as a replacement for Steam Big Picture mode, but we've yet to see how it looks on a big screen. Well, now we've caught a glimpse of it, and it looks exactly like what you'd expect: the Steam Deck UI, on a big screen.
That's according to screenshots released by Pavel Djundik, creator of SteamDB. According to Djundik, SteamOS 3 has leaked, and some users have started installing the operating system on other portable PCs (things like the GPD Win 3, or the Aya Neo—all existing Steam Deck alternatives, basically). The shots posted by Djundik were taken in Windows, though.
Steam Deck UI, it's basically the desktop library just reformatted a bit.There is no way to access the store at the moment. pic.twitter.com/mI2dgAPpckSeptember 15, 2021
As Djundik points out, the UI is still a work-in-progress—this has its origins in a dev kit, after all—so you shouldn't take these shots as an indication of the final product. Still, it pretty much looks like what we've already seen on the Steam Deck itself, so it's probably not far from what we'll get come December.
Valve confirmed earlier this week that Steam Deck dev kits are being distributed, so expect to see a lot more leaks in the coming weeks and months. Wes went hands on with the Steam Deck last month and you can read his impressions here. Given the reservation situation, the vast majority of users probably won't get their hands on the handheld PC gaming device until well into 2022.
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Shaun Prescott is the Australian editor of PC Gamer. With over ten years experience covering the games industry, his work has appeared on GamesRadar+, TechRadar, The Guardian, PLAY Magazine, the Sydney Morning Herald, and more. Specific interests include indie games, obscure Metroidvanias, speedrunning, experimental games and FPSs. He thinks Lulu by Metallica and Lou Reed is an all-time classic that will receive its due critical reappraisal one day.