Valve has today announced the brand new Steam Deck OLED model with some great sounding upgrades inside so here's the details.
This is the same basics as the original Steam Deck models but comes with an HDR OLED screen, a longer lasting 50Whr battery, faster WiFi, and a slew of tweaks and improvements across the board. Valve say the HDR OLED was "designed from the ground up for gaming", gives you "30-50% longer battery life", has WiFi 6E and gives improved thermals with a bigger fan while being 5% lighter than the original models. Oh, the OLED screen is also bigger at 7.4" (from 7.0") and goes up to 90Hz!
It will also come with a brand new carrying case for the 1TB models that has a removable liner, better touch-screen, easier repairs with Torx type screws that go into metal threads, so no messing up the structural integrity and Valve say the internal components are "now easier to access, and Steam Deck OLED replacement parts will be coming to iFixit soon". Even the APU was upgraded to 6nm for better efficiency, and the memory was updated to 6400 MT/s, improving latency and power management.
Not just that, you're also getting lower-priced models with the original LCD screen.
- Steam Deck 256GB LCD: Now $399 / £349 (effective immediately)
- Steam Deck 512GB OLED: $549 / £479
- Steam Deck 1TB OLED: $649 / £569
- Steam Deck 1TB OLED Limited Edition (translucent colorway): $679 (US/Canada only)
Steam Deck OLED will be available November 16th at 10 AM Pacific / 6PM UTC in USA, Canada, United Kingdom, and European Union, as well as Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong via KOMODO.
However, the 64GB and 512GB LCD models are now being phased-out so they have a permanent discount until they are gone so while supplies last (prices effective immediately):
- Steam Deck 64GB LCD: Now $349 / £309
- Steam Deck 512GB LCD: Now $449 / £389
Direct Link
In their tech specs, it even mentions it has "support for wake from Bluetooth controllers", which I'm sure will be exciting to anyone who plans to regularly dock it.
The Docking Station is now priced at $79 / £69.
See more on the Steam Deck Store and the refreshed Steam Deck Website.
I do have a review unit on the way, which is supposed to arrive today. So stay tuned for my thoughts and comparisons on it. Exciting times to be a Linux gaming fan!
Last edited by Salvatos on 10 November 2023 at 2:02 am UTC
Quoting: ShmerlThe "best" handheld PCs right now use the Ryzen 7840U which is at best 20% better performance at 30W. Deck targets 15W, and Valve worked closely with AMD to dial in a spec for their RDNA2 chipset used in the Deck. It's part of the secret sauce behind the Deck's continued performance.Quoting: preludelinuxI'm very surprised not refreshing the cpu/gpu so this is more of a basic refresh. they might be holding off to all the new apu's get released though and get bugs and thermals sorted before a major upgrade though.
I also wonder why it takes them longer than to AMD in laptops to refresh the APU. AMD are already shipping Zen 4 / RDNA 3 laptop APUs.
The other reason is there simply isn't anything to upgrade to right now. AMD probably has something coming down the pipe, but Valve have gone on record saying they want devs to know the hardware spec to aim for for several years in advance. Hence we won't see SD 2.0 until 2026, at my guess.
I'm not a writer, and I'm not in the know as much as Liam and the wider tech community, but we really need someone to write an article explaining to people why Valve "doesn't just ship a real upgrade". There's myriad reasons.
Quoting: Purple Library GuyWell, this may not be a Steam Deck 2, but it seems at any rate something around Steam Deck 1.2 or so.
valve will think twice before they launch the deck 2, after all , tey dont know how to count to 3
At least they're bringing battery life and other optimizations to the LCD models as well.
I just realised how much fun it is to say "Deck OLED" out loud. Much better than Switch OLED.
Now back to pondering if I´m gonna take this upgrade or not...
Last edited by RavenWings on 10 November 2023 at 8:06 am UTC
Quoting: PenglingI hope that they keep LCD as an option when the Steam Deck 2 eventually comes along. OLEDs hurt my eyes no matter how much you can change the brightness, and I also don't want to waste money on hardware that's guaranteed to die due to the organic components, so they're always a dealbreaker for me, unfortunately!Also, I prefer to have a LCD option as long as its cheaper. I went for the cheapest option with my current Steam Deck since SD storage is all I need.
Quoting: elmapulRelax, they will simply release a Steam Deck 2: Episode 2 😛Quoting: Purple Library GuyWell, this may not be a Steam Deck 2, but it seems at any rate something around Steam Deck 1.2 or so.
valve will think twice before they launch the deck 2, after all , tey dont know how to count to 3
Quoting: hardpenguinQuoting: elmapulRelax, they will simply release a Steam Deck 2: Episode 2 😛Quoting: Purple Library GuyWell, this may not be a Steam Deck 2, but it seems at any rate something around Steam Deck 1.2 or so.
valve will think twice before they launch the deck 2, after all , tey dont know how to count to 3
lol
See more from me