According to a recent report from PC Gamer, which references a couple of videos from reviewers, the Steam Deck has been seen running games using both the built-in SSD and a micro SD. The results show that, while they aren’t always perfectly in-sync, there’s very little difference in loading times, suggesting that anyone who wishes to use an external storage device won’t really suffer from slow loading when compared to the solid state hard drive.

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In one video, Linus Tech Tips shows two identical Decks side-by-side. They then simultaneously load up Control on both, and whether using an SD card or the internal SSD, the game loaded up quickly with very little, if any, discretion between them. Another video showed a similar experiment, and while Valve’s own Portal 2 did take a little longer to boot into the opening cut scene using the micros SD, around 13 seconds in fact, there was not much difference between overall loading times.

This should be good news for a lot of people who have been waiting in the wings for the device to finally get released. With the cheapest Steam Deck model having 64 GB of storage, some may have been concerned that it would quickly run out of space, especially given that the operating system allegedly uses around 10 GB of said storage. Having the ability to insert external storage should provide a way to ease such concerns and, at least according to these tests, should not have any significant impact on loading times.

Originally, Valve was due to launch its handheld PC late last year, but had to delay it due to the ongoing tech shortages. Luckily, that delay didn’t last too long, and the Steam Deck was finally announced for a February release. All the while, people have been hearing about what it’s capable of, and the praise lavished upon it by studios. It only remains to be seen how the general public will perceive it, but there’s not long to wait now to find out.

The Steam Deck is due out on February 25.

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Source: PC Gamer