In a surprise reveal, an OLED Steam Deck has been revealed as the official refresh of the original model. While rumors were rife that changes were coming, the fact Valve dropped the news so suddenly and the new, improved Steam Deck OLED model would be available next week was quite the shock.
Despite only being two years old, Valve’s announcement of the OLED Steam Deck still caught some owners off guard. While the screen’s quality wasn’t necessarily questioned, other aspects of the OG Steam Deck had come under fire, including its poor battery life and limited base storage options.
In this refreshed model, the screen resolution stays the same at 1280×800 but moves from an LCD display to an HDR OLED one. It’s a considerable upgrade and anyone familiar with the clarity and color accuracy OLED offers will know that this change was a no-brainer. The screen has also been upped to 180Hz touchscreen response with lower latency, making for a more responsive touchscreen.
While the overall power of the OLED Steam Deck largely remains the same – there’s no update to an AMD Ryzen Z1 or AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme as seen on Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go – there are some architectural changes that have opened the door for some minor, but incredibly useful improvements. The APU is moving from 7nm to 6nm to improve power efficiency and a larger fan is being used to improve cooling. If you struggle with the trackpad, this is also receiving an upgrade with improved edge detection and generally higher fidelity.
All these improvements are coming in the form of 512GB and 1TB SSD model. As a result, the Steam Deck OLED price is $549 / £479 and $649 / £569 for the 512GB and 1TB models, respectively.
The only downside to the OLED Steam Deck reveal is that the OG 64GB and 512GB eMMC storage models are being phased out, meaning it’s just the 256GB SSD model that will continue to be sold as a cheaper option. Fortunately, the price on all the older models has dropped considerably, so there’s never been a better time to jump on the handheld bandwagon.
If you already have a Steam Deck, or are looking to purchase the new OLED model, our friends over at PCGamesN can show you the best Steam Deck games that are perfect for the Valve handheld.
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