Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Steam Deck OLED fixes the worst part of Valve’s handheld

By
Valve's Steam Deck OLED.
Valve

Valve just announced the Steam Deck OLED, which is an updated model of the original Steam Deck featuring a new OLED screen. Unlike the previous model, Valve is only selling two versions of the Steam Deck OLED, one with 512GB of storage and another with 1TB of storage for $550 and $650, respectively.

Although the OLED screen is the star of the show, Valve is making some upgrades elsewhere, too. The new design is now based on a 6nm APU, as opposed to the 7nm APU in the previous model, and it supports Wi-Fi 6E. The previous model only supported Wi-Fi 5.

Recommended Videos

The bump in wireless connectivity allows the OLED model to have downloads up to three times faster than the original Steam Deck, according to Valve. The 6nm chip is the same as the previous model in terms of performance, offering four Zen 2 CPU cores and 8 RDNA2 GPU cores, but it’s much more efficient. Valve says the new design has upwards of 50% better battery life than the original Steam Deck. Combined with a larger 50Whr battery, Valve says you can get up to 12 hours of battery life depending on what games you’re playing.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!
Privacy Policy

As for the display, it’s still using the 1280 x 800 resolution as the original Steam Deck, but with OLED now at the helm, it supports HDR, as well. It’s slightly larger, too, clocking in at 7.4 inches diagonally.

With the new OLED model, Valve is reducing the price of the original Steam Deck. The 64GB model is now $350, the 256GB model is $400, and the 512GB model is $450. The 64GB and 512GB models are being phased out, so they’ll only be available while supplies last.

Both models of the Steam Deck OLED go on sale on November 16 at 10 a.m. PT. At that time, Valve will also release a limited edition model of the 1TB version that comes with stark red contrasts on the vents, power button, and thumb sticks, along with a slightly transparent backplate.

The limited edition Steam Deck OLED.
Valve

Although Deck fans have been waiting for the Steam Deck 2, this is more of a Steam Deck 1.5. You shouldn’t expect huge performance gains over the original model, but with a boost to battery life, better Wi-Fi, and a nicer screen, it’s still a clear upgrade over the original model.

It fixes one of the key issues of the original Steam Deck, too. The screen isn’t very good, which is an area where devices like the ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go have an edge over Valve’s handheld. The OLED model might change that, but we’ll just have to wait until it’s finally here to know for sure.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jacob Roach
Jacob Roach
Lead Reporter, PC Hardware
Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…
The RTX 4090 is more popular on Steam than any AMD GPU
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU.

Despite being easily the fastest graphics card you can buy right now, the RTX 4090 is a niche product. At $1,600, it's out of the conversation for the vast majority of gamers. Still, that hasn't stopped the GPU from reaching a high ranking in Steam's hardware survey. According to the latest survey, the RTX 4090 is in 0.96% of gaming PCs running Steam -- more than any individual AMD GPU.

Although it's no surprise that Nvidia tops the charts in the Steam hardware survey -- the most recent report says Nvidia is represented in 76.59% of PCs compared to AMD's 15.79% -- it's shocking to see such an expensive GPU rank so highly. Compared to last month, the RTX 4090 even gained 0.11%, despite only being available above list price.

Read more
A Redditor ‘didn’t know’ about the Steam Deck, so they built their own
The homemade Ryzen Deck sitting on a desk.

It's hard to imagine that anyone interested in portable gaming hasn't heard of the Steam Deck, but one Redditor says they "didn't know" it existed. And because of that, they decided to build their own.

The 3D-printed contraption comes from Raven0606, who shared images of the completed handheld on the r/SBCGaming subreddit, which is dedicated to handheld emulators. The build took nine months to complete, and Raven0606 dubbed it the Ryzen Deck in honor of the Steam Deck (they found out about Valve's handheld halfway through the build process).

Read more
Buying a Steam Deck has never been cheaper
Steam Deck over a pink background.

Valve is serving up huge price cuts on the Steam Deck, but there's a catch -- the consoles are refurbished. Part of the Certified Refurbished Steam Deck program, these handhelds have been fixed up by Valve to reportedly run like new -- and they're significantly cheaper. You can save up to $90, but is this too good to be true? It doesn't have to be.

Buying refurbished devices and hardware can be scary, but when the goodies come directly from the manufacturer, it becomes less risky. This is the case with Valve, which is now selling all three models of the LCD Steam Deck, refurbished and at a price cut. If this sounds good, you can now grab the base model for $279 instead of $349 ($70 savings), while the 256GB NVMe model costs $319 instead of $399 when purchased new. Lastly, the top handheld in the lineup with 512GB of storage costs just $359 instead of $449, which is $90 in savings.

Read more