Valve Updates the Steam Deck with OLED Display, Overhauled Internals

[Squared]

Don't think you can just change the soc without breaking compatibility with the OG deck. Would be nice if you could.

I don't think it's a compatibility issue. Games and Steam OS ought to work fine on newer AMD hardware, and I think even the drivers would work pretty similarly. I think Valve is sticking with Zen 2 and RDNA 2 in order to force game developers to continue supporting the original Deck.

 

[Makaveli]

I don't think it's a compatibility issue. Games and Steam OS ought to work fine on newer AMD hardware, and I think even the drivers would work pretty similarly. I think Valve is sticking with Zen 2 and RDNA 2 in order to force game developers to continue supporting the original Deck.

I don't think you can just slap the Soc from the rog Ally into a deck and things will just work it surely would require some work from Valve. I agree with your later point with the devs.

And I would assume they are thinking we would rather do all that for the Deck 2 which may come with Zen 5/6 APU.

 

[Canned Noodles]

The OLED screen with higher refresh rate has me sold

 

[A&P211]

As someone who is nearing 100 hours in FFX HD Remaster on my Steam Deck, I can confirm the 800p resolution looks fantastic on this game, its still very sharp to my eyes.

100% buying this other Deck, I plan to use both and want both in my life long collection as well as the future Steam Deck 2. SteamOS is a game changer in my eyes. I am so happy they went with 800p 90hz, so many games can actually run that and still look great natively!!! This thing checks all my boxes.

Can you emulate other games like that company in Japan that makes the Mario games or other consoles?
*cant be said on here

 

[mechtech]

put a sim card and a camera in it and id buy it over an iphone

 

[Gooigi's Ex]

clunky bloated OS, horrible battery life, games that won't run as well cause 1080p still on APU at end day... I'll take Steam Deck any day over that. 800p OLED 90hz is literally the perfect trio for this form factor and APU. i am playing FFX HD Remaster at 5 watts and incredible 4-5 hr battery life... it took 10 seconds to dial in the watt usage needed. how long does that take on Ally?

Ewwww…this disgusting mindset still exist. “Clunky OS” that still has more games than Linux that doesn’t require tinkering, can choose to limit themselves and run Linux until it finally catches up in games, games that can run 1080p 60hz BEAUTIFULLY and under 12 watts(Steam Deck fails to do this) and can plug in to get more power or plug in another GPU to get more performance(which again the Steam Deck fails to do)

Playing Warhammer Darktide in 1080p 60hz due to swapping out the ROG ALLY’s ram with not only 32GB of RAM but FASTER RAM at 7500mt/s. May be not at 12 watts but the fact that it’s doable is impressive. Next upgrade I’m gonna do is put in a bigger battery to compensate that horrible battery life.

Cute OLED screen tho and 90hz is neat! Too bad AYANEO already did that(minus the 90hz) so it’s not that impressive but good to Valve CATCH UP.

 

[Space Lynx]

Ewwww…this disgusting mindset still exist. “Clunky OS” that still has more games than Linux that doesn’t require tinkering, can choose to limit themselves and run Linux until it finally catches up in games, games that can run 1080p 60hz BEAUTIFULLY and under 12 watts(Steam Deck fails to do this) and can plug in to get more power or plug in another GPU to get more performance(which again the Steam Deck fails to do)

Playing Warhammer Darktide in 1080p 60hz due to swapping out the ROG ALLY’s ram with not only 32GB of RAM but FASTER RAM at 7500mt/s. May be not at 12 watts but the fact that it’s doable is impressive. Next upgrade I’m gonna do is put in a bigger battery to compensate that horrible battery life.

Cute OLED screen tho and 90hz is neat! Too bad AYANEO already did that(minus the 90hz) so it’s not that impressive but good to Valve CATCH UP.

SteamOS obliterates Windows, and 80% of my Steam Library is compatible with Steam Deck, so this will vary person to person, for me SteamOS and Steam Deck OLED are the way to go, looks like Ally is the way for you, have fun mate.

Diminishing returns yes, but Tim from Hardware Unboxed will certainly disagree with you after testing a 540Hz Asus panel. I get it we are talking about a handheld. I think 90 is the sweet spot for smoothness too. Anything under 90 just doesn't "feel" right.

the entire library of 3 games that can run at 540 fps yep with a rtx 4090... neat.

 

[Dwarden]

next to Wifi 6 this has BT 5.3 so that gives another small buff to less power wasted compared to old Steam Deck ...

generally this feels like what Steam Deck was supposed to be (how i wanted it) ...

next refresh would be nice with Zen 4 and RDNA 3, bit sad it isn't already , but that shall come up with at least 1080p or better 1440p screen

 

[Klemc]

Will it be a limited in time edition, bc i searched and i found nothing with OLED at a good price (1000+) ?

Also i'd use it with Windows instead.

 

[shadad]

Everything is boosted on this version!! update is less than what is happening here
waiting is good. I told myself the gold words of Magneto (X-Men) when he said once:

In Chess,the Pawns go first​

 

[Nordic]

Do you know if these are hall effect joysticks? I am just curious, its not a big deal either way. My only other concern is the anti-glare screen on the LCD model imo dims the colors (I am glad I got the glossy version), I wonder if this is the same case here... maybe I should stick with $549 model for better colors, I think the matte coating will dim that OLED "pop" @TheLostSwede @Nordic what are your thoughts on this? As of right now I am leaning towards the $549 version.

Also, PCgamer has review up: gave it a 89/100

Steam Deck OLED review

Valve's refreshed Steam Deck is what handheld PC gaming was meant to be.

www.pcgamer.com

clunky bloated OS, horrible battery life, games that won't run as well cause 1080p still on APU at end day... I'll take Steam Deck any day over that. 800p OLED 90hz is literally the perfect trio for this form factor and APU. i am playing FFX HD Remaster at 5 watts and incredible 4-5 hr battery life... it took 10 seconds to dial in the watt usage needed. how long does that take on Ally?

Get the glossy. It sounds like that is what you want. I am happy with my matte screen. Both are good.

 

[TheDeeGee]

Do they mention if they changed the sticks to hall effect ones?

Electromagnetic Joystick Module for Steam Deck-GuliKit

 

[Kyan]

Can you emulate other games like that company in Japan that makes the Mario games or other consoles?
*cant be said on here

Yes you can and the community around it have made it easy to install emulator. That's how I play BotW and it works like a charm, you can twinker it as you please with mods and go past the 30fps.

Electromagnetic Joystick Module for Steam Deck-GuliKit

Just to make it clear, it's for the LCD version, the OLED don't have the same board for sticks. But i'm sure gulikit will make a OLED version as soon as possible.

 

[Chrispy_]

You don't think I would've mentioned that if it was something that was listed?

View attachment 320902

Watching the LTT video on it, they (presumably Anthony Emily) talked to Valve about hall-effect sensors and was told that Valve had reliability concerns, which makes perfect sense. You likely be able to upgrade them to hall effect modules yourself once they hit the market and the default sticks are both decent and easy to replace like-for-like, based on Valve's current track record.

 

[kapone32]

Until they change the 2230 drive slot to something bigger and allows more flexible upgrade options, this is just a stopgap/sidegrade solution.

We are getting more and more 2230 drives so the reverse is happening.

 

[SCP-001]

Watching the LTT video on it, they (presumably Anthony Emily) talked to Valve about hall-effect sensors and was told that Valve had reliability concerns, which makes perfect sense. You likely be able to upgrade them to hall effect modules yourself once they hit the market and the default sticks are both decent and easy to replace like-for-like, based on Valve's current track record.

I'll have to watch that at some point because aren't hall effect sensors more reliable than their potentiometer joystick counter parts? I wonder what reliability concerns they had. I have the OG Steamdeck (256gb version) and upgraded the sticks as soon as I could get my hands on the guili kit.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Meanwhile Valve never bothered releasing the Deck here in Brazil. Whatever, the ROG Ally walks on this thing anyway.

 

[Chrispy_]

I'll have to watch that at some point because aren't hall effect sensors more reliable than their potentiometer joystick counter parts? I wonder what reliability concerns they had. I have the OG Steamdeck (256gb version) and upgraded the sticks as soon as I could get my hands on the guili kit.

There's not a lot of additional information in the LTT video, other than that one-liner.

I can believe Valve though, since Hall-effect sensors are quite complex, requiring microcontrollers and many more parts each of which is prone to failure and when mass-produced down to a price rather than built up to a quality, could easily be an RMA nightmare for Valve.

Regular analogue sensors are just super-simple potentiometers. They are a single two-piece component with one moving part. They may have a finite lifespan, but that lifespan is pretty decent and the metrics for reliability per cost are likely very difficult to beat. I'm not saying they're perfect, but I have used 25-year-old PS2 dual-shock controllers that still work fine, thanks to voltage drift being something that's easy to measure and automatically recalibrate. The deadzones might be a bit larger but they're still passable to provide enough analogue control to distinguish between creep/walk/run/sprint and it's a gamepad, not a life-or-death keyhole surgery controller

 

[theouto]

According to early reviews, it's a bit hit and miss.

Well, still an important stepping stone.
I am happy it's there at all, as it means valve is likely to look more into it and make sure it's good

 

[CyberCT]

WHY NO VRR VALVE? WHY?!

OK, you want to keep the pricing the same. But how much more would a VRR screen have cost? $50 each? Well worth the cost. The Deck absolutely needs it for any game that's not indie or older.

That being said, I still love my Steam Deck. VRR OLED would have made me actually upgrade.

And 1280x800 is fine for the screen size. For older or indie games that are absolutely not demanding ... under a game's settings in the Steam Deck, you can chose the "native resolution" of any game. So in essence, you have built in SSAA. I use it and it significantly reduces or eliminates jaggies.

 

[Random_User]

This is actually great, that Valve doesn't sit idle and brings the fixes and enhancements to the existing product, before the Steam Deck 2 arrival. Thus, in touch with the market. Still feels like this has to be the original Steam Deck.

Hence, the valid question - is the screen is prone to the burn-in at the same scale as TV's and monitors? If no, than this is the reason of "delay" for OLED Steam Deck. Since Valve might be experimenting until they got truly reliable result. This might explain, why they hold the "refresh/facelift" of OLED screen to pair it with the die shrink. The fact that they discontinue "lower" LCD variants, might be a sign of their confidence. But let's see how it goes over time.

Another great thing is, that Valve actually discounts the older version, instead of stacking they newer ones with prices above current (looking you , the "green" company). And I consider such handheld devices, much more complex, than slapping the GPU and some memory over existing PCB and fat-ass previous gen cooler surplus.

The only concern, is that it missing the huge chunk of market. Especially in countries with low income, where this device could be a great alternative to existing low-end desktops, which are hugely abundant.

Thus ˅˅˅

Meanwhile Valve never bothered releasing the Deck here in Brazil. Whatever, the ROG Ally walks on this thing anyway.

You're not alone, mister. There are quite big amount of countries who don't and won't have Steam Deck, despite having advertisements and redirects to its page. Such a silly tease. Kinda creates the impression, of being not eligible to buy "first world" stuff, due to being "filthy third world Untermensch". Tons of stuff on Steam and other platforms not being sold here ever, as well.
Yet people buy Stem Decks illegally from other countries, as much as using the "workarounds" to get the unavailable games on their lists. And this seems completely fine for Valve.
Once Valve singlehandedly reduced piracy to zero, and now doing otherwise with stupid restrictions.

Wow, I can't wait for a newer version with an updated SoC. That's what making me wait for a newer version.

This is basically the same chip, but shrunk a bit. But the most notable changes are from thinner and more efficient screen, thus bigger battery and longer use, and also a thicker and quieter fan (theoretically).

 

[FeelinFroggy]

Wow, I can't wait for a newer version with an updated SoC. That's what making me wait for a newer version.

Well by the time the next deck with an updated SoC comes out there will be something else that's better on the horizon (the next gen extreme chip). No point in waiting forever for a golden goose when there is a big bucket of fried chicken in front of you.

 

[RayneYoruka]

Well by the time the next deck with an updated SoC comes out there will be something else that's better on the horizon (the next gen extreme chip). No point in waiting forever for a golden goose when there is a big bucket of fried chicken in front of you.

Most likely there will be, I'm not in a hurry. I'll be sticking with the deck simply because it runs Linux. The rog ally looked promising until all the issues where shown, what a disappointment.

 

[Octavean]

Retail pricing isn't the same as what Valve would be paying though, since they buy the drives directly from the manufacturer.

Good point. Although that isn’t necessarily the only calculation at hand. Clearly Valve concluded that a cheaper entry level 64GB OLED version wasn’t economically sound,…….for them. That is a bit of a problem for perspective buyers looking for the similar great deal that was on offer with the entry level LCD version.

Overall though, I’d say the Steam Deck still provides a good value even considering the new OLED version it just could have been a better value.

I guess we should be thankful that the Steam Deck even has serviceable parts. In todays day and age, pulling an Apple would mean everything is integrated into one proprietary chip with no storage upgrade option at all.

 

[Nordic]

Wow, I can't wait for a newer version with an updated SoC. That's what making me wait for a newer version.

What games would you play on the Deck? Very few games perform too bad at 800p on the custom APU Valve chose. Take a look at the most popular games on the deck. Some are very performance heavy.

I personally wouldn't play heavy games like Elden Ring or Cyberpunk on my Deck. I have a nice desktop. That doesn't stop hundreds of thousands of other gamers.

Valve chose a custom APU that is specially tuned to perform better at low power. If you look at benchmarks comparing the Deck to the Z1 and Z1 extreme, the Deck performs definitively better at 10w and below. It isn't until you get to 15w where the Z1 begins to perform better in some games.