There is finally official news about the Smach Zero, the portable SteamOS based console planned for 2016 (as per our earlier post). It seems like the right timing since the official launch of Steam Machines was yesterday. Let me break down the info for you:

First, the console will be called Smach Z instead of Smach Zero.

Specs have been bumped up, with a 1080p screen and 64Gb of internal storage. 1080 p is not such a good idea since it will eat the battery faster, make text harder to read on such a small format, and obviously make framerates go down significantly versus 720p…

You will be able to play DOTA2 and TF2 on this hardware.

In-Home Streaming will work from a Windows Host machine.

Windows Installation will not be supported but they won’t prevent users from doing so if they wish.

It’s unclear yet if the machine can be used as a PC controller to pair with a desktop PC…

A Dpad design will be added on top of the two Trackpads already planned.

Not just SteamOS will be included, they want to provide emulators as well as more addons.

The price will be 299 euros for those who reserved it first but actual price will be higher later on.

Pre-orders will start in November 2015, and shipments from October 2016.

They just launched a crowdfunding campaign at Thunderclap (never heard of this site before – apparently it’s for “social crowdfunding”, to spread the word at once on several twitter/facebook accounts to spread the word).

BoilingSteam lets you access our content for free, but writing articles is a constant investment. We don't use ads or sponsporship, help us make our activities sustainable by donating via Patreon or LiberaPay if you prefer it anonymous. Note that Patreon supporters get the weekly or twice-a-week Proton Deals Newsletter to help them save time and money when buying games for Linux. You can follow what we do via our newsletter, our RSS feed, our Mastodon profile or our Twitter feed. We also have Peertube and Youtube channels. If you'd like to chat, you can also find us on #boilingsteam:matrix.org.