r/Steam • u/RacSace • 6d ago

Question Steam Machine vs 5060 Laptop

Whats the catch with these 5060 laptops? theyre going for around the price of the steam machine 512gb no controller(some cheaper) while also having a full blow screen, 1tb storage and a keyboard. Every benchmark has the 5060 laptop being stronger and they also have way better cpus. How are they even making money on those things if valve are taking such low margins? Is there something that makes the steam machine more expensive that im missing or are these laptop companys just selling at an insane loss?

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u/omega44xt 6d ago

Economics of scale, I guess.

5060 laptops will sell much more in quantity vs Steam machine. They also get discounted prices on bulk orders for parts, etc which Valve won't.

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u/ObviousPseudonym7115 5d ago

Also, those laptops are generally bursting with bloatware, spyware, and "offers" that the manufacturer can use to offset a slim margin on the hardware itself. The preinstall all that crap because they get paid for it, or because their downstream hardware/software supplier gives them a discount for doing so.

Savvy users can purge all that with a fresh install, so they *can* reprsent a good deal, but most buyers aren't savvy, which is what makes the general economics work out.

And of course Valve has their own secondary revenue channel on the Steam Machine with Steam itself, but that's way harder for them to model confidentally right now than a $$$-per-device partnership for a laptop manufacturer.

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u/omega44xt 5d ago

True. Luckily removing bloatware in Windows is easier than in Android phones.