The Steam Deck OLED improves much more than its screen
www.polygon.com
A better battery, faster refresh rate, and many tiny tweaks make the Steam Deck OLED hard to resist

This is the best coverage of the new Deck that I’ve seen yet.

Upgraded:

  • 7.4" OLED HDR screen with a 90hz refresh rate and 600 nits brightness(with 1000 nits peak brightness), (old screen 7" LCD with 60hz refresh and 400 nits brightness). Touchscreen accuracy and responsiveness is reportedly improved.

  • Longer battery life. Improvements to software and hardware are supposed to increase the battery life by 30-50%. New battery is 50wh vs original 40. Original decks will see some of this improvement thanks to software/bios updates, but not as much as the new Decks. The new Deck charges faster as well, charge from 20 to 80% battery in 45 min.

  • 6E wifi module for improved wifi speed.

  • Dedicated bluetooth module, allowing better audio quality over bluetooth and the option to wake the steam deck from a bluetooth controller. Will also support more controllers at once for multiplayer.

  • Faster RAM, 6400 MT/s vs 5500 MT/s on original.

  • More repairable. The screws are now torx, and all thread into metal screw holes. Should prevent stripped screws that were the most common issues with SSD replacements.

  • New carrying case, for the 1TB model, there’s an insert case inside the full size case. The insert can be pulled out and used as a slim carrying case when you don’t need full protection.

  • Weighs 5% less.

Prices:

$649 - 1TB OLED

$529 - 512GB OLED

$399 - 256GB LCD

For a limited time, Valve will sell a special edition 1TB OLED with a translucent shell for $679, only in the US and Canada. Expected to sell out quickly.

Note: I’m updating this as I get more information, so the written out info will change as I learn more.

  • bc3114
    2·
    7 months ago

    Original switch screen was rubbish, to put it mildly. While original Steam deck screen is in fact quite decent. It gets bright enough for indoor usage, has large viewing angle, color is ok. I can happily play my original steam deck for another one or two years. I only play on my original switch with it plugged in to a TV.

    • SatanicNotMessianic
      2·
      7 months ago

      Fair point. I never tried the original switch. I only bought one once the OLED came out and everyone was raving about it, despite the fact that Nintendo didn’t give it the full 2.0 treatment. I had packed away my pc for a move and just never got around to unpacking it, and wanted something to play on. When I saw it had games like Diablo and Disco as well as Mario Cart, I decided to pull the trigger.

      I ended up liking it enough that I went out and got the deck to try to work through my games backlog. Because of steam sales, I have dozens of games I’ve played for less than a couple of hours and some I’ve never even opened.

      Of course, right after buying it I ended up buying Stray, BG3, and a couple of others, and still haven’t made progress on my backlog…