Valve has announced that the Steam Deck OLED will be available for purchase with 512 GB ($549) and 1 TB ($649) of storage starting November 16.
Designed as a replacement for the LCD models (“the 64 GB and 512 GB Steam Deck LCD models are being phased out”), this is a new version of the Steam Deck that features an OLED screen, offering what is presumably vastly improved black levels and overall image quality versus the older models.
According to the specs that Valve shared, the new handheld also features a revised, FFVII-inspired APU (6 nm “Sephiroth” vs. 7 nm “Aerith” chip), not to mention a longer-lasting battery and support for a newer version of Wi-Fi. The screen is also a little bit bigger than the older model, featuring a new 90 Hz refresh rate and support for HDR, albeit the resolution is the same (1280 x 800).
Other changes include a thicker heatsink and larger fan.
Here’s how the new OLED models compare to what will be the only remaining LCD version, which is on discount for $399:
One of the editors at The Verge has already gotten his hands on the new Steam Deck OLED, and he seems pretty impressed at how it can run Cyberpunk 2077:
Cyberpunk is running faster, more stable, cooler, quieter, while drawing less power from a larger battery and looking brighter and clearer and better.
Battery life also seems to be a pretty big improvement based on his findings with Control, as well as cooling performance:
I was able to play the graphically intensive Control for just under two hours on my original Steam Deck review unit at 60 frames per second. This past week, I played the same game at up to 80 frames per second for two hours, 11 minutes.
The fan is also whisper-quiet now, fixing one of the biggest issues with the original. The entire handheld runs cooler. It simply doesn’t get uncomfortably hot, even after fully draining the battery with an intensive game.
That said, there may be some refresh rate issues due to the omission of some newer tech, namely, VRR:
Valve display tech expert Jeremy Selan tells me that variable refresh rate (VRR) “didn’t quite make it into this revision,” so the Steam Deck OLED can still easily run into stutter when games can’t keep up with the refresh rate you select. And while you can now select from an incredible range of frame rates all the way from 10fps to 90fps, some of which divide nicely into the refresh rates Valve’s new screen supports, I’m finding it takes a lot of trial and error to see which games work with which refresh options. 30fps should scale beautifully to 90Hz, but I’m only seeing that work in some titles. Even 60/60 wasn’t perfectly smooth in everything I’ve tried.
A limited edition of the Steam Deck OLED will also be available on November 16 for $679, featuring the following specs and goodies:
- 1TB NVMe SSD
- 1280 x 800 HDR OLED display with premium anti-glare etched glass
- 7.4″ Diagonal display size
- 6nm APU
- Wi-Fi 6E
- 50Whr battery; 3-12 hours of gameplay (content-dependent)
- 45W power supply with 2.5m cable
- Limited edition carrying case with removable liner
- Steam profile bundle
- Exclusive startup movie
- Exclusive virtual keyboard theme
“Introducing the Limited Edition Steam Deck OLED, a different colorway for the 1TB Steam Deck OLED. Quantities are highly limited, and are only available in the United States and Canada,” Valve writes.
Discussion (7 replies)
Join Discussion →Valve has really been pushing HDR forward in Linux in the last couple years or so, and now we see one of the reasons why. Now my question is, did SteamOS switch to Wayland? Or is Valve employing some crazy-@ss magic to somehow get 10-bit processing for HDR working in X11?
EDIT:
I saw this stuff posted earlier today, but haven't watched/read yet: [embedded media]
Related article: https://www.eurogamer.net/steam-deck-oled-review-a-beautiful-display-upgrade-and-so-much-more
I still dont get the point.
The entire device is a massive compromise. Why even worry about OLED and its amazing blacks on a screen that is too small to properly enjoy them on?
I'd rather just wait until I get home and can play my game on a proper desktop...
It's awesome for when you are forced to sit and watch retarded TV shows for wife "quality time". Some games are very well suited for the format, and may be even better than on a PC, and some are not - to the point of not being possible to play.
I'd like to have had an OLED, but the screen in my Gen 1 suits and isn't awful. I won't be upgrading just for OLED.
Wow....an OLED. Welcome to 2011 when the PS Vita was introduced with an OLED display.
I have made it very clear I will never again watch a home improvement, house flipping or cooking show, or any other reality show for that matter, ever again. It's a complete and total waste of my time. I have so little free time that I am not going to waste it doing stupid stuff like this :p
From what I can gather from: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/gamescope
It uses an XWayland sandboxed session, private virtual desktop just for the game window alone. Normally XWayland is for running X11 sh1t in Wayland, but here Valve has it kind of existing off on its own. So it's not OS-wide, it's specific to the custom sh1t Valve did in their micro-compositor GameScope, which runs on top of the regular KDE Plasma 5 X11 session. So GameScope is handling HDR, and allows Valve to do that and other things to get beyond the limitations of X11 while continuing to use X11. So yeah the short answer is, Valve custom sh1t. But they did it, they beat everyone else in the Linux community to HDR support, technically. I just hope something in there can be of good use to wider Linux.
Very understandable, but I got a number of friends who find the thing to be extremely handy when they are traveling. I also have a friend who doesn't get much free time at home, and Switch and Steam Deck have been a godsend to him, allowing him to play games at work when he's on break or doesn't have any clients lined up (he's a car salesman).
My brother also used his as a temporary replacement PC when his desktop PC died (another friend of mine did this as well). The thing about the Steam Deck is that you can NOT get a laptop as cheap as a Steam Deck that is as powerful as as Steam Deck. The device is pretty neat too, cuz it feels like having a modded console right from the factory.
I know you only like to play games at home on your desktop PC with your proper setup, and that you only play FPS games. But for those who play other types of games, Steam Deck is a very handy system to carry around to friends' houses, hook it up to their HDTVs, and get some couch co-op/multiplayer going on via controllers. Steam Deck is easier to carry around than a gaming laptop.
My Galaxy Note 4 had an OLED screen, and while I don't use my phones to play games or watch video, I still greatly miss that OLED screen now that I am on a cheap Galaxy A32 with a so-so LCD screen. It's the colors that I especially miss. The drop from 1440p to 1080p is unnoticeable on such a small screen though, so that part I do not mind.
Aside from the OLED screen, there's other interesting sh1t in the refreshed Steam Deck. Sadly still no VRR support. It's got faster RAM now. The APU is now 6nm. While the new screen draws less power, the battery is also bigger. WiFi 6E instead of WiFi 5. Upgraded Bluetooth. Charges faster, resumes from sleep faster. The audio is louder and has more bass. The system runs cooler and quieter. "Valve also cites improved repairability with more durable screws with metal bosses, while the display can be swapped out without having to remove the rear of the unit." The lowest unit is now the 256GB SSD model, rather than the one with 64GB of eMMC flash storage. It's still basically the old model with the LCD screen though. The highest model now has 1TB of storage instead of 512GB. All of the older Steam Decks got a price cut. These are just some of the things I saw from skimming the DF article.
I have a number of friends with Steam Decks and I've messed around with some of their units a few times. It's neat, but my biggest problem with the Steam Deck is that it just plain is not powerful enough. It's about as powerful as a base PS4. I still think it was a mistake to go with only four CPU cores. Steam Deck 2 might be more interesting to me, whenever that shows up. But the current Steam Deck can struggle with 1080p gaming with even last-gen games. Like @Zarathustra said, "the entire device is a massive compromise". Too many compromises for me. Valve made this new 2023 edition better, but I'm still not sold on it. Also I hope these new units are a lot more reliable, cuz I do not know a single person with a Steam Deck who has NOT had to send their unit in for repairs. And when my brother did that for his system, it came back partially broken (well an internal clip for the plastic casing had broken off, and was rattling around inside until he removed it himself). The devices that compete with the Steam Deck have specs a little closer to my liking, but they are overpriced like whoa, and Steam Deck has a better user experience on the software side, and better integration of the software with the hardware.
I'm no stranger to handheld gaming, but I don't roll that way anymore. I was practically raised on it, as my mother (who owned our family's first system the Atari 2600, and our 2nd home console the NES) bought me a Game Boy in '89, which was my first console. My mom, my siblings and I have all had multiple variations of the Game Boy, DS, and 3DS families since. My mom liked to collect handheld Nintendo systems. I also had a blast with my soft-modded PSP (which I played a lot at work along with my DS back in the 2000s), and would still like to get my hands on a PS Vita (OLED version) and mess around with soft-modding that. My Switch will eventually get modded too. I mainly stopped using handheld consoles when I got robbed in 2010 and they stole my DS Lite off me, which is a looooot cheaper than something like a Switch or Steam Deck. So I just plain do not carry handheld consoles around with me anymore. Also I'm getting old and handheld system screens don't work out so well for me anymore (though I did spend a lot of time with my 3DS XL in 2022 cuz my bro helped me soft-mod it at the end of 2021, which is incredibly easy to do, and we've since modded the 3DSes of other friends). As someone who does not travel and does almost all of his gaming at home, handheld systems don't really have a use for me anymore. Emulation has eliminated the need for many of them, and it is waaaaaaaaay better to play those games on a much larger display like a monitor or TV, and with a real, comfortable controller. In the end the only reason I ever got handheld consoles in the past was the same as why anyone would get any other console, for the exclusive games. That's something we no longer have to deal with, mainly thanks to emulation. Like Switch games, f*ck playing those on the Switch hardware. When you play those games on PC via emulation, you get to use a much higher resolution, and the framerate is better (often double or more). Not to mention mods that can fix graphical issues or improve image quality. And you can use the controller of your choice.
A friend borrowed an OLED Switch from a coworker when his girlfriend's son went to see his fiance in Canada, and took his regular Switch with him. So I got to check it out. It's pretty nice I guess, but it was harder to use in the sun (like when riding in a car in the daytime, which is how I checked it out - though I don't play games or read when riding in vehicles anyways, cuz it makes me very sick), and the Switch is something I rarely use in handheld mode anyways, so the unit's screen being upgraded isn't of any real concern to me. Plus the OLED screen is still just 720p and 60Hz like the LCD screen (not that Switch needs a screen with a higher refresh rate, cuz you'll be lucky to encounter a game that even runs at 60fps on Switch, though some do exist). Like the refreshed Steam Deck, nothing was improved about the OLED Switch's performance, so in the end it was still kind of a waste. But I had been wondering why the Switch didn't launch with an OLED screen, so they finally corrected that (although with a different model that costs more). At least the OLED screen is bigger than the LCD one, but eh, still too small for us old guys.