I tried this modded Steam Deck and it’s the handheld I dreamed of as a kid

The Steam Deck has been nothing short of a revolution in the year and a half that it’s been available, completely changing many people’s relationship with PC gaming.

While Valve offers a few different configurations of the Steam Deck based on specs, it hasn’t really dipped its toe into offering customised versions visually, which is where Mega Modz has stepped in, offering totally custom builds. I kitted one out to see how it compares to the original – and it turned out to be a pretty nostalgic experience.

Choosing your configuration

The Deck that you can buy from Mega Modz is very much a normal Steam Deck in some key ways – it comes in Valve’s own packaging, with the included hard case and power supply, and it runs on all the same internal hardware.

You can opt for some upgrades, but they’re basically the same options that Valve offers in the form of more expensive versions, with more storage at slightly quicker speeds, and an anti-glare version of the screen.

Mega Modz says that it’s working on a fully upgraded display that will have a higher resolution, but that’s not available yet, so for now you basically get to choose some options to decide which level of Steam Deck you want in terms of performance.

Possibly the most exciting “internal” upgrade that you can choose, which Valve itself doesn’t offer, is the option to pick electromagnetic analogue sticks, which should be less likely to suffer from stick drift over their lifetime.

From there, it’s all about the body of your Deck, which can be kitted out with almost entirely replacement plastic components to your specification.

This can completely change the look of your Deck, although the dimensions and number of buttons won’t be changeable, since the Steam Deck already has rear buttons and a range of input types.

That means this isn’t a total conversion like the custom PS5 controller I’ve been using from Mega Modz, but rather just a change of shell, broken down into a whole heap of sections.

This basically breaks down into two big options – the main body of the Steam Deck, and then all the buttons, triggers and other little bits. If you want to keep your costs down you can change your body for as little as $40 to get a very good effect and leave it at that.

I went further, of course, tweaking all of the buttons and extras to match, and found myself opting for a classic semi-transparent purple to match the Game Boy Color I got for Christmas that was my pride and joy as a kid.

The good news is that just like its controllers, Mega Modz has a simple and clean interface for building your exact Steam Deck as you like it, and includes a running total to let you see how your choices are impacting its price, which is a really important feature.

So much choice

The variety of finishes available to pick from on Mega Modz’s site is pretty exemplary, with a bunch of metallic options, and a range of very in-vogue transparent ones, too, like mine.

Pretty much the only component you can’t colour-match with your choice of body is the analogue sticks – these are black and white and clearly not at all easy to modify, or I’d imagine they would have been.

All the other buttons can be changed, though, from the face buttons to the menu and view buttons, and even the twin trackpads, which you might have thought were too techy for that sort of swap.

They all look great and feel identical to the stock buttons and triggers in terms of quality and feel, which is really important – you don’t want to feel like your design came at the expense of actual performance.

Probably the only major downside to kitting out your Steam Deck with all these custom button finishes, though, is that each section adds somewhere from $4 to $7 on average to your total price.

That doesn’t sound like a lot and, in isolation, it’s clear that the pricing is fairly reasonable for replacement parts, but it still means that even a base Steam Deck with all these changes will come in at more than $100 more than you first started out at.

So, if budget is a key concern, you’re better off going to Valve directly and perhaps finding some skins you can apply to your Steam Deck from the likes of dbrand – this will be the most cost-effective way to customise things.

If you’re less worried about sticking to a tight budget, though, a skin can’t really match the beautiful transparency I’ve been playing with, and there are any number of alternative options and combinations that you could come up with.

Should you buy it?

Now that it’s no longer too hard to get hold of, the Steam Deck can be found more affordably through Valve, especially if you go refurbished, but that’s not really the point of what Mega Modz offers. It lets you build the Steam Deck of your dreams (within reason) – and my inner six year old is thrilled about that.

With loads of finishes and parts to choose from, while your machine won’t end up any more powerful, it will stand out massively and broadcast your personality way more, making this a solid choice if you want a custom Deck.