When AMD announced its Z2 chip during its CES 2025 keynote, many thought that we’d see it appear in a fresh version of the Steam Deck. However, a Valve programmer cut those rumors short, stating: “There is and will be no Z2 Steam Deck.” This is especially surprising given that AMD itself implied that such a Steam Deck would one day become a reality.
AMD shared a slide that talks about its new Z2 range and shows three gaming handhelds that use AMD chips — the Steam Deck, the Lenovo Legion Go, and the Asus ROG Ally. That alone would be enough to give people the idea that a Z2 Steam Deck (perhaps a Steam Deck 2) is in the works. However, AMD has actually said that the Ryzen Z2 is “coming to market from a number of partners — the Legion Go, the ROG Ally, [and] the Steam Deck.”
Whatever speculation this may have stirred up was very short-lived. Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais took to BlueSky to deny that such a product is (or ever will be) in the works. Griffais also added: “Guessing the slide was meant to say the series is meant for products like that, not announcing anything specific.”
The Steam Deck currently runs on a custom AMD processor with four Zen 2 cores, but both Lenovo and Asus use the Z1 chip in their handhelds. Even the Z1 was able to outperform the Steam Deck, and the Z2 is expected to be an improvement; on the other hand, many enjoy the feel of Valve’s SteamOS, so it’s not a direct comparison.
AMD’s Z2 is also a bit of a mystery right now. We got some specs — which is more than can be said about RDNA 4 — but there’s no telling how much better these processors will be. AMD also promises better battery life, but with a higher TDP, that might be difficult to achieve.
We’ll have to see how the Z2 performs once it’s out in the wild, but one thing is for sure: It won’t be in the Steam Deck 2.
Mozilla is giving Firefox’s Smart Window two new tricks. If you haven’t tried it yet, Smart Window is an optional AI mode in Firefox with a built-in chat that helps you get things done while you browse. With this update, it can fill out online forms using details from your tabs and keep an eye on websites for you.
Tired of typing the same details into every form?
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.