Thursday, November 9th 2023
Valve Updates the Steam Deck with OLED Display, Overhauled Internals
Valve has announced an updated version of the Steam Deck and the headline feature is the new 7.4-inch OLED display. That's a mere 0.4-inches bigger than the original Steam Deck LCD display and it retains the same 1280 x 800 resolution. However, everything else related to the display has been improved and the refresh rate is now 90 Hz rather than 60 Hz. The display is also a lot brighter, with an SDR rating of 600 nits and an HDR rating of 1000 nits. Valve also claims a 110 percent P3 colour gamut, a one million to one contrast ratio and a sub 0.1 ms response time. On top of that, Valve has added what the company calls "high performance touch" which is said to improve the responsiveness of the display.
It's not just the display that has been improved, as Valve has moved to a 6 nm AMD Zen 2 based SoC which seems to allow the GPU to run at 1.6 GHz at all times, as Valve no longer lists a frequency range for the GPU. The power envelope remains the same though, with a range of 4-15 Watts. Paired with the new SoC is faster LPDDR5 memory at 6400 MT/s, up from 5500 MT/s, which should provide a small boost in gaming performance. An improved cooling solution is also part of the package, which is also likely a reason for the more constant GPU clocks. Gone are the entry level storage SKUs and the OLED version of the Steam Deck only comes with 512 GB or 1 TB of internal storage. The WiFi and Bluetooth module has also been overhauled and now supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The battery has also been boosted from a 40 Whr pack to a 50 Whr pack and Valve now claims three to 12 hours of battery life during gaming, as well as faster charging times. Finally the weight has dropped by 29 grams, which might not be much, but still impressive considering the larger battery pack. The downside you ask? That would be the price, as Valve is asking for US$549/€569 for the 512 GB version, with the 1 TB coming at US$649/€679 when it becomes available on the 16th of November.
Source:
Valve
It's not just the display that has been improved, as Valve has moved to a 6 nm AMD Zen 2 based SoC which seems to allow the GPU to run at 1.6 GHz at all times, as Valve no longer lists a frequency range for the GPU. The power envelope remains the same though, with a range of 4-15 Watts. Paired with the new SoC is faster LPDDR5 memory at 6400 MT/s, up from 5500 MT/s, which should provide a small boost in gaming performance. An improved cooling solution is also part of the package, which is also likely a reason for the more constant GPU clocks. Gone are the entry level storage SKUs and the OLED version of the Steam Deck only comes with 512 GB or 1 TB of internal storage. The WiFi and Bluetooth module has also been overhauled and now supports WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. The battery has also been boosted from a 40 Whr pack to a 50 Whr pack and Valve now claims three to 12 hours of battery life during gaming, as well as faster charging times. Finally the weight has dropped by 29 grams, which might not be much, but still impressive considering the larger battery pack. The downside you ask? That would be the price, as Valve is asking for US$549/€569 for the 512 GB version, with the 1 TB coming at US$649/€679 when it becomes available on the 16th of November.
124 Comments on Valve Updates the Steam Deck with OLED Display, Overhauled Internals
Also note that there's a long list of other, minor improvements from new material choices to torx screws that screw into metal threads in the housing and overall better serviceability.
Because it works.
- 1280 x 800 HDR OLED display with premium anti-glare etched glass
- Carrying case with removable liner
- Steam profile bundle
- Exclusive startup movie
- Exclusive virtual keyboard theme
- 1 TB SSD
Is the extra $100 worth the above? Probably not, but the difference between a 512GB and 1TB 2230 M.2 NVMe is around $100 (based off of the Micron 2400's pricing), so I would put the blame more on the parts manufacturer.EDIT: Grammar
To note, the ROG Ally models with both the Z1 and Z1 Extreme was even more scummy ($100 difference), but this was expected since its ASUS.
The Legion Go launch was actually OK, with just a $50 difference between the 512 GB and 1TB models, but no other additions or bonuses with the more expensive one.
Would a 1080p display have been that much more expensive ?
I appreciate that some people will spend a huge amount of time with these things but for me it is just a travel toy and occasionally sat in bed playing something simple like Brotato or STFU. The battery life of the base model has always been good, the IPS screen is perfectly serviceable - and I shoved a 512GB SSD in there for under £20.
A 7" display really doesn't work well for AAA console games designed to be experienced on a TV. Yes, the Deck can run most of them but you'll get mediocre performance, fan noise, and battery life anxiety. For 16-bit to 64-bit emulation, the thousands of 5-star indie games on Steam, and a CPU powerful enough to run those sorts of things for half a day on battery, I'm not sure it really needs a spec upgrade. The ROG Ally, if anything, has proved that spending much more money for higher performance really doesn't do much to improve the experience - with at least as many additional disadvantages as there are benefits to having a slightly better display and more performance on tap.
The problem of 1080p is the processing power required to drive the pixels and then there goes the battery life
Good approach for the ecosystem's overall health, imo.Wouldn't make much sense with the hardware.