Valve says it is taking special measures to prevent bots and resellers from getting their hands on the new portable PC, the Steam Deck, but if you want to get one this year, you'll need to act quickly. Reservations for the portable PCs are now open and will not last long.

You can pre-order the Steam Deck from the Steam Store today, July 16, starting at 10am PT / 1pm EDT / 6pm BST / 7pm CEST. However, you must have a Steam account purchased before June 2021.

All those who have not yet created a Steam account or made a qualifying purchase will be able to pre-order starting Sunday, July 18.

A $5 (£4) fee will be charged for pre-orders, which will place them on the Steam Deck pre-order queue; once the Steam Deck is available, users will be emailed in the order in which they pre-ordered, starting in December. Since it's first-come, first-served, you shouldn't be too relaxed

and who knows how long it will take Valve to process the huge list of reservations.

Reservations will first only be available to customers in the United States, Canada, the European Union, and the United Kingdom, with the rest of the world available sometime in 2022.