This ‘Teardown’ Steam Deck skin is the next best thing to a clear plastic console

First spotted by GamingOnLinux, dbrand has released a Steam Deck skin mimicking the clear plastic electronics of yesteryear.

As we all know, industrial design for personal electronics peaked at some point between 1998 and 2003, and many of our world's problems can be traced to the abandonment of beautiful, translucent plastic shells for our consoles, controllers, and personal computers.

For some time now dbrand has offered the next-best thing: phone cases and skins with high-res photos of devices' interior circuitry printed on them, made in partnership with the popular YouTube teardown channel JerryRigEverything.

The Steam Deck's innards are suitably eye-catching for the treatment, with the back of the unit dominated by the main fan, battery, and copper heat pipe. I especially like the look of the haptic feedback trackpads on the front, with a red wire coming out to wrap around the unit and connect to the main board. It does seem a bit odd to cover up the track pad however—hopefully this wouldn't result in dropped inputs or other loss of functionality.

$50 is a bit steep, but dbrand has a reputation for quality, and this skin has the added benefit of protecting your Deck from scratches and nicks. Additionally, the skin can be removed without damaging the unit, should you ever decide to turn your back on the Y2K aesthetic.

I'm tempted to grab this limited edition skin myself in anticipation of a Steam Deck I will allegedly be allowed to purchase “after Q3 2022.”