The Steam Deck OLED is an expensive bit of tech, so one user has decided to make it trackable using an AirTag at the cost of a full set of functional buttons.
On Reddit, user thetax45 shared their home DIY project, taping an AirTag to the inside of their Steam Deck. In the post, they said: “Just wanted to demo that it's still possible to put an AirTag into the OLED model - I currently can't depress the L4 button, but I barely use it regardless, so I'm comfortable with the compromise.”
They then elaborated that they had to wrap the AirTag in electrical tape to ‘prevent shorting” and had to stack coins on the other side to balance out the weight difference. Not only has this cost them the use of their L4 button (which is the one on the back left of the device), but they will now have to open up their Steam Deck once a year to swap out the AirTag battery.
Should you put an AirTag in your Steam Deck?
No, you probably shouldn’t put an AirTag in your Steam Deck. Not only do you have to take it out and reconfigure once a year or so, but you lose access to a full button, and don’t know what damage that could do long-term to the device.
For a car or some very expensive device, an AirTag may help you to get it back if stolen, but the Steam Deck is likely cheap enough not to warrant law enforcement looking into your case any more than a knock on the door. If the person who stole your Steam Deck is an iPhone user, they will receive a notification of the AirTag, which might make them put the device down, but the same logic applies to a hidden compartment in your case (Like those found in the best AirTag wallets) or a lock on the zips.
Until users can figure out how to sneak an AirTag into devices without impairing their use, it’s probably not worth the effort.
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