Steam Deck OLED Screen Update is not Simple as it Sounds

[GFreeman]

As the Steam Deck turned out to be a big success, and has pretty much revived the handheld gaming market, there were so many questions about the future hardware upgrades, or even the second generation. In the latest interview, Valve's engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais said that while Valve certainly wants to make the Steam Deck better and is "looking at all avenues," upgrading the Steam Deck to OLED screen might not be that simple.

Earlier, Valve's designer Lawrence Yang and engineer Pierre-Loup Griffais have pretty much confirmed that a new and more powerful Steam Deck will not be coming in at least the next few years. In the latest interview, Griffais shed a bit more light on how complex some upgrades could be, especially the screen. Talking to PC Gamer, Griffais said that Valve "understands the limitations of the current tech that's in the Deck, in terms of the screen."



"I think people are looking at things like an incremental version and assume that it's an easy drop-in," he added. "But in reality, the screen's at the core of the device. Everything is anchored to it. Basically, everything is architected around everything when you're talking about a device that small. I think it would be a bigger amount of work than people are assuming it would be."

That said, it appears that while Valve is not scraping the minor hardware upgrade idea, it might be just too complex and it pretty unlikely that we will see an incremental update similar to the Nintendo Switch OLED, but rather a proper successor with upgrades across the board.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I’m not an engineer, but I would think OLED would be a better option for a portable device since they are usually thinner than LED displays, right?

 

[Mindweaver]

The IPS screen is just fine. It looks great I would not want to spend more for an OLed model. I bought the oled switch and I never play it. I much prefer my Steam Deck over it any day.

 

[qlum]

I’m not an engineer, but I would think OLED would be a better option for a portable device since they are usually thinner than LED displays, right?

The drawback of OLED is that you are either going to use an off-the-selve one which are generally higher resolution and vertical, which is not ideal and also more expensive.
Or you order your own production line, like Nintendo has done for their OLED switch.
At the sales numbers the Deck is pulling now that may be viable, but that was definitely not certain when they initially started.
The same goes for the switch which also used lcd's for quite some time.

 

[Solaris17]

I’m not an engineer, but I would think OLED would be a better option for a portable device since they are usually thinner than LED displays, right?

I mean the issue will stem from a lot of standpoints.

The engineering team is probably alloted $X worth of spend. a year/quarter. R&D into these things take engineering time and have the potential to push back releases.

Then you have the sourcing aspect. Where are you going to get the screens? Who are you going to contract? how much will it be? How fast is ramp up?

Are you contractually obligated to buy X amount of screens from other provider? Do you just pay the difference? What are the capx/tax implementations to such a thing?

Does the screen require a different connector? its OLED do we need to program the backlight zones? debug it? Is it supported in every game? How do we ignore it if not? How do we detect if it is?

Whats the battery strain? Is the glass strong? does it pass QC physical check? Can we make it stronger? Does it affect usability or clarity?

Do we have space for a new connector on the PCB? Do we need a different driver chip?

How much did it cost to figure this all out? Are we over budget? Is it even worth it? Can we even ship on time now?

It gets wild.

 

[Space Lynx]

the Sabrent company has a video on how to upgrade the storage in the steam deck, his positive energy is next level, dude literally makes me want to buy Sabrent products now lol

im 99% buying a steam deck this week. the fact I can play FFXIV mmo simply by going into steam settings and turning on proton is bonkers to me. I had no idea it was that easy. can't wait to sit on a hammock and play FFXIV

any Sabrent reps out there that see this post, give that guy in the video a raise, cause he sold me on buying your storage. in a world of misery, its nice to see someone so genuinely cheerful. rock on mates

 

[1freedude]

I love OLED, i first used it back in 2010, and still use it. My son contemplates getting the OLED Switch, but I talk him out of it. The biggest and only reason not to do it....power required to light it up. It is a battery hog. But damn, that image is outstanding.itit

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

the Sabrent company has a video on how to upgrade the storage in the steam deck, his positive energy is next level, dude literally makes me want to buy Sabrent products now lol

im 99% buying a steam deck this week. the fact I can play FFXIV mmo simply by going into steam settings and turning on proton is bonkers to me. I had no idea it was that easy. can't wait to sit on a hammock and play FFXIV

any Sabrent reps out there that see this post, give that guy in the video a raise, cause he sold me on buying your storage. in a world of misery, its nice to see someone so genuinely cheerful. rock on mates

Proton works pretty well. It helps to have Valves deep pockets helping it along, I’m sure. What sucks is there are games that should be able to run through Proton, but if they are MP games, you might get permanently banned because the dummy anticheat software thinks you’re cheating. Destiny 2 is one example. It should easily be able to run in Linux, but I’ve heard rumors of folks getting banned when doing so.

 

[konga]

I love OLED, i first used it back in 2010, and still use it. My son contemplates getting the OLED Switch, but I talk him out of it. The biggest and only reason not to do it....power required to light it up. It is a battery hog. But damn, that image is outstanding.itit

The OLED Switch has a longer battery life than the regular switch, so that's not a very good reason to avoid getting one.

Nintendo Switch OLED battery life tested — here’s how it stacks up

The Nintendo Switch OLED may offer a bit more battery life than expected

www.tomsguide.com

 

[1freedude]

The OLED Switch has a longer battery life than the regular switch, so that's not a very good reason to avoid getting one.

Nintendo Switch OLED battery life tested — here’s how it stacks up

The Nintendo Switch OLED may offer a bit more battery life than expected

www.tomsguide.com

Shhhhh, dont tell that to the kid. He really wants a PC, so that's a more worthwhile goal, than a slight improvement over Switch v2. Thanks for clarification, anyway.

 

[evernessince]

The OLED Switch has a longer battery life than the regular switch, so that's not a very good reason to avoid getting one.

Nintendo Switch OLED battery life tested — here’s how it stacks up

The Nintendo Switch OLED may offer a bit more battery life than expected

www.tomsguide.com

If you read that article though:

"At the same time, our test wasn’t rigorously scientific, so it’s hard to say whether the OLED will have better battery life for every single game"

They tested it in metroid dread, which is a dark game and typically the only scenario where a OLED will use less power than an LCD. Otherwise you can see the new OLED desktop displays using twice as much energy in high brightness scenarios. It also gets less bright according to the article, another drawback of OLEDs

I would take the consistency and brightness of the LCD over the OLED. This is a mobile device, which means you are naturally going to want that brightness as it will be used in high ambient light conditions.

 

[Nordic]

The steam deck was masterfully engineered. It has just enough performance to play nearly all modern games well enough at 720p in an ergonomic form.

 

[Vayra86]

If you read that article though:

"At the same time, our test wasn’t rigorously scientific, so it’s hard to say whether the OLED will have better battery life for every single game"

They tested it in metroid dread, which is a dark game and typically the only scenario where a OLED will use less power than an LCD. Otherwise you can see the new OLED desktop displays using twice as much energy in high brightness scenarios. It also gets less bright according to the article, another drawback of OLEDs

I would take the consistency and brightness of the LCD over the OLED. This is a mobile device, which means you are naturally going to want that brightness as it will be used in high ambient light conditions.

Yep and you'll never see pure blacks proper anyway

 

[medi01]

I’m not an engineer, but I would think OLED would be a better option for a portable device since they are usually thinner than LED displays, right?

The point being made is that they'd need to move thing around (although, if it's thinner... why not have an empty box of the same size? Perhaps thermals).


I've grabbed 512GB version last Feb. It has some fancy "anti glare" tech built into screen, lowering the contrast a bit.

It's a very fine screen, I've never thought "hey, where is my OLED".


It is other components that are problematic. E.g. that shitty whiny cooler by Delta.

 

[Space Lynx]

The point being made is that they'd need to move thing around (although, if it's thinner... why not have an empty box of the same size? Perhaps thermals).


I've grabbed 512GB version last Feb. It has some fancy "anti glare" tech built into screen, lowering the contrast a bit.

It's a very fine screen, I've never thought "hey, where is my OLED".


It is other components that are problematic. E.g. that shitty whiny cooler by Delta.

I thought the newer Steam Decks use a better fan?

 

[Ferrum Master]

What kinda BS those dudes ar babbling about?

There are absolutely no issues doing it. I mean it... zero, none, null... call Samsung and order it. Even china offers DIY OLED MIPI screens these days. And it is not that hard... not sure where it even came form...

 

[Mindweaver]

the Sabrent company has a video on how to upgrade the storage in the steam deck, his positive energy is next level, dude literally makes me want to buy Sabrent products now lol

im 99% buying a steam deck this week. the fact I can play FFXIV mmo simply by going into steam settings and turning on proton is bonkers to me. I had no idea it was that easy. can't wait to sit on a hammock and play FFXIV

any Sabrent reps out there that see this post, give that guy in the video a raise, cause he sold me on buying your storage. in a world of misery, its nice to see someone so genuinely cheerful. rock on mates

I bought the 512gb model to replace the 64gb eMMC drive and it is really nice. I've always liked Sabrent. The number one thing I like about the 512gb is that it doesn't use anymore power. Plus, it's single sided like the original Steam Deck drive. Surprisingly enough I was very impressed at how well the micro SD cart works. If you get a fast enough micro SD card then it's a good option as well. I'm using the m.2 512gb and a 512 micro sd card. I can't say enough good things about the Steam Deck. If mine were to stop working today then I would buy another one. It's so easy to mod. It only took a few minutes to put the new m.2 drive it. Then another couple of minutes I upgraded the apu's thermal pad with a frost sheet.

Now, I'm really starting derail this thread.. lol Go check out the Steam Deck club forum.

EDIT: Just to be clear I'm not saying that the 1tb model uses anymore power or isn't single sided. Sabrent built these drive for Steam Deck. I would have bought a 1tb if the price was right.

 

[dick_cheney]

the Sabrent company has a video on how to upgrade the storage in the steam deck, his positive energy is next level, dude literally makes me want to buy Sabrent products now lol

im 99% buying a steam deck this week. the fact I can play FFXIV mmo simply by going into steam settings and turning on proton is bonkers to me. I had no idea it was that easy. can't wait to sit on a hammock and play FFXIV

any Sabrent reps out there that see this post, give that guy in the video a raise, cause he sold me on buying your storage. in a world of misery, its nice to see someone so genuinely cheerful. rock on mates

FYSA steam deck is on sale (10% off) this week for the steam spring sale.

 

[JimmyDoogs]

I love the steam deck. I use it several hours per week. It's almost entirely replaced my Switch, or at least until the Switch 2 comes out. If you guys are savvy enough I'd recommend the lowest end version and just upgrading the internal storage. I put a 1TB SD card in it a year ago but now I'm actually looking to upgrade the internal SSD. I got the 512GB model and the anti-glare screen is not worth it in my opinion either. It's matte and the lower end model is a glossy screen. It's only a slight difference but it's just my preference with computer monitors. For me glossy screens give you a more crystal clear image.