SteamBoy Handheld Is Now SMACH Zero, Hardware Specs Revealed

[Atmos Duality]

Keyword there is "internal". It says it also comes with an SD card slot, so assuming it's microSD you can increase it by another 128/256Gb or so.

True, as long as you're willing to find high performance cards.
Access rates (read/write) are a potentially nasty bottleneck, and avoiding that is going to cost a fair bit extra.

Personally I'm liking the idea of a handheld that links to Steam, and where I've already bought the games I want for it. I'll definitely be giving this a go if it comes out.

I can see a few games being great on the go (FTL springs to mind) though my main issues (besides storage) are controls and pricing. Still, like I said before, this looks more promising to me solely because I'm quite tired of the Nintendo trickle on the 3DS, and the Vita was DoA.
That, and I have a reasonably solid Steam library, assuming the machine can hack it.

 

[RicoADF]

Sorry, but I don't see the appeal. The nVidia Shield and TegraZone has already shown us that the Source and other engines can be ported to Android, and there are several Android gaming-centered platforms (GPD, JXD, Much, etc.) - plus, you can plug almost every controller to a rooted Android.

So why would anyone pick a handheld which runs a proprietary Linux OS instead of a rooted Android, with the appeal of a support community, game ports and emulation? Valve seems like it's deliberately going against the flow here, and I'm kind of puzzled as to why.

Only a few games will run on the Shield etc (without streaming), where as this will run any Linux compatible game locally on the device itself (which there are already thousands) that meet the system requirements. I could see myself getting one of these to use alongside my Vita.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

Neat, even though I wonder if it'll catch on.
The vita has already shown that people generally don't want to play full "AAA" games on handhelds.

I don't think the Vita showed that, I think it was more that the Vita's proprietary memory was absurdly expensive which is why it still struggles even now.

 

[Made in China]

Only a few games will run on the Shield etc (without streaming), where as this will run any Linux compatible game locally on the device itself (which there are already thousands) that meet the system requirements. I could see myself getting one of these to use alongside my Vita.

The key phrase here is "Linux compatible". Many major releases aren't Linux compatible, and that impacts the actual library of games you'll be able to play on the Steamboy if you're primarily using Windows.
Not to mention, Android IS Linux. The engine might need some conversions and optimizations to fit the ARM specs, but most of the code can be used as-is. Again, it was shown in the nVidia Shield Portable, where they minimally converted Trine 2 as its launch title. If I recall correctly, they even boasted that the rendering engine was left almost untouched from the OpenGL version.

 

[Subbies]

Well I know I'm gonna be using it to go through my gigantic backlog of humble bundle indie platformers and puzzle games.

 

[TelHybrid]

This interests me purely for the huge ass backlog of indie games on my steam list with very little in regard to system requirements. I'd rather save my AAA games for my home PC on full settings. On the go I want simpler stuff.