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
steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/0/3874844033653187602/You can still wire your deck to your TV and make use of LFC. And theoretically with a refresh rate of 90 Hz the new OLED screen could still use LFC. So not really pointless.
Frankly not much of a downside when you consider the original prices and how much better this is.
Not a single game at the settings I like goes over 60fps.
www.steamdeck.com/en/tech/deck
An article on the issue in the Switch OLED:
www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/10/psa-sensitive-to-pwm-flicker-youll-want-to-keep-the-switch-oleds-screen-nice-and-bright
The Phawx on YouTube talks about this at 5:05.
Then again, if it does, for lower-framerate content it would actually strengthen the double image effect, for example when using 40 FPS at 80 Hz. That's what happens if I use BFI at 60 Hz and there's a 30 FPS cutscene.
I also want to know what the actual flicker frequency is. The Phawx said that the OLED screen on the Deck can go down to 45Hz, but my peripheral vision can see 60Hz Christmas lights flickering. But the 60Hz lights are easier to see because they follow half of an AC wave, starting dim then getting really bright for a moment then getting dim again, before turning off entirely for 1/120th of a second. Now that I think about it, there was one CRT monitor which I could discern flickering on, and it was a second monitor so I always saw it in my peripheral vision. That was annoying to use. I don't remember if it gave me a headache though.
I have the XG mobile 6850m XT and if I need to play more demanding games that the ROG ALLY can’t handle, forget a desktop and plug it into the XG mobile and done.
But man, that Steam Deck with the OLED screen just keeps my interest. I just wish Valve gave it internal storage with the ability to expand it with an SSD and not just microSD.
It's closer to the DPI scaling setting in windows, than anything else
All the displays pixels are still powered and lit up when the screen is on (unless its black, ofc), it's changing the 3D render resolution rather than the display resolution.
I did see some phone reviews that it slightly does increase battery life. In my line of wok, sometimes I carry around a tool belt with phone attached to the belt, I dont want to carry around an extra battery pack to charge the phone.