The Steam Deck is a wonderful games console, but it's also quite an expensive one – so if you're counting the pennies or just want to pay less so you can buy more games, the new Valve Certified Refurbished programme will be good news, because it means significant savings on Steam Decks.
That's the good news. The bad news is that you'll need to move quickly: when I checked UK stock this morning stocks were very limited and many Steam Decks had already been sold, so at the time of writing only the biggest, 512GB Steam Deck was available. That's not unusual for refurbs, which tend to sell quickly.
Refurbished products are products that have been returned and can't be resold as brand new; if there are faults they're fixed, tested and guaranteed for a certain period of time. There may also be minor cosmetic imperfections such as scratches, but nothing so serious as to affect your enjoyment of your games.
The programme was announced on the official Steam Deck Twitter account, which noted that "Supplies are limited and expect these to come in and out of stock as available". The store page is here.
What savings can you get with a refurbished Steam Deck?
At the time of writing a lot of these deals are already gone, but they give you an idea of how much you can expect to save.
- Steam Deck 64GB - £279 (normally £349)
- Steam Deck 256GB - £369 (normally £459)
- Steam Deck 512GB - £459 (normally £569)
As you can see, the savings are significant – and all refurbished products bought from the Steam store come with a year's warranty, or longer if consumer law where you live is stronger. According to Valve, "Every device goes through a complete factory reset, software update, and an extensive examination involving over 100 tests at one of Valve's facilities. Among the tests are all controller inputs, the audio system, the screen, and internals. Battery health is also assessed to ensure proper functionality and longevity."
If you can catch a deal, I'd really recommend this: I've bought refurbished everythings from computers to coffee machines for years now, and it's saved me a fortune. Even the most affordable refurbished Steam Deck is coming in at a saving of £70. That'll pay for a lot of Steam games.
