This is the best coverage of the new Deck that I’ve seen yet.
Upgraded:
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7.4" OLED HDR screen with a 90hz refresh rate and 600 nits brightness(with 1000 nits peak brightness), (old screen 7" LCD with 60hz refresh and 400 nits brightness). Touchscreen accuracy and responsiveness is reportedly improved.
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Longer battery life. Improvements to software and hardware are supposed to increase the battery life by 30-50%. New battery is 50wh vs original 40. Original decks will see some of this improvement thanks to software/bios updates, but not as much as the new Decks. The new Deck charges faster as well, charge from 20 to 80% battery in 45 min.
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6E wifi module for improved wifi speed.
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Dedicated bluetooth module, allowing better audio quality over bluetooth and the option to wake the steam deck from a bluetooth controller. Will also support more controllers at once for multiplayer.
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Faster RAM, 6400 MT/s vs 5500 MT/s on original.
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More repairable. The screws are now torx, and all thread into metal screw holes. Should prevent stripped screws that were the most common issues with SSD replacements.
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New carrying case, for the 1TB model, there’s an insert case inside the full size case. The insert can be pulled out and used as a slim carrying case when you don’t need full protection.
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Weighs 5% less.
Prices:
$649 - 1TB OLED
$529 - 512GB OLED
$399 - 256GB LCD
For a limited time, Valve will sell a special edition 1TB OLED with a translucent shell for $679, only in the US and Canada. Expected to sell out quickly.
Note: I’m updating this as I get more information, so the written out info will change as I learn more.
I don’t need a new Steam Deck I don’t need a new Steam Deck I don’t need a new Steam Deck I don’t need a new Steam Deck
I am feeling you. I spent for the high end partially for the screen and it was hard to play on the balcony but maybe thats because I did not have oled :)
it was hard to play on the balcony
OLED should be better but I believe it’ll draw a lot of power at peak brightness so playtime is quite limited without a (huge)powerbank
When the OLED Switch came out, I ordered one as soon as they became available. It was my first handheld, and the advice at the time was that you didn’t need it if you already had one, but if you didn’t the OLED was the one to get. I enjoyed the switch, and ended up buying a deck not long after that.
I’m going to treat this update to the same advice that they made for the switch. Since I already have one, and since the internals are essentially the same, it doesn’t make sense to update after less than a year, and it’s not worth the hassle of trying to sell the old one.
Original switch screen was rubbish, to put it mildly. While original Steam deck screen is in fact quite decent. It gets bright enough for indoor usage, has large viewing angle, color is ok. I can happily play my original steam deck for another one or two years. I only play on my original switch with it plugged in to a TV.
Fair point. I never tried the original switch. I only bought one once the OLED came out and everyone was raving about it, despite the fact that Nintendo didn’t give it the full 2.0 treatment. I had packed away my pc for a move and just never got around to unpacking it, and wanted something to play on. When I saw it had games like Diablo and Disco as well as Mario Cart, I decided to pull the trigger.
I ended up liking it enough that I went out and got the deck to try to work through my games backlog. Because of steam sales, I have dozens of games I’ve played for less than a couple of hours and some I’ve never even opened.
Of course, right after buying it I ended up buying Stray, BG3, and a couple of others, and still haven’t made progress on my backlog…
Attention> the $399/256GB is the same old model with no improvement, only cheaper price. Just to be clear.
That’s an excellent point, I updated my summary to show that. Sorry for any confusion.
On one hand this is super cool.
On the other hand, I already have a Steam Deck goddammit
That’s the whole point. They had to walk a thin line between making an attractive upgrade and pissing off the existing users. If they had made the deck more powerful, the old ones would suddenly have been obsolete. I think they did a good job of that. And no, I’m not buying the new one either.
If they had made the deck more powerful, the old ones would suddenly have been obsolete.
I’m pretty sure it has more to do with current chip technology not actually changing that much in the, what, 2 years since the deck first released?
Also obsolete is a pretty strong word for what - if it had stronger internals - would likely end up being more expensive than current models.
I think it’s two things.
Firstly, the landscape hasn’t changed that much as you said. People will say the Z1 Extreme/7840U is available and while that’s a lot more powerful, the difference isn’t night and day to what the Deck’s APU offers at lower wattages. I wouldn’t be surprised to see another custom APU made in cooperation with AMD. The Z1 Extreme is basically an 7840U, a chip made for notebooks, and usually not gaming notebooks. Sure, even the GPU it comes with is faster than what’s in the Deck, but I don’t think CPU/GPU power is balanced well for gaming. With a custom chip design, they’d be able to strip away unnecessary pieces of the silicon, like excess PCIe lanes and probably some other stuff, resulting in a smaller die, which then results in less power draw.
Secondly, there’s compatibility. Developers often include a graphics preset specifically for Steam Deck in their games nowadays, and having two hardware configurations with a huge gap in performance would mean they’d have to include two. Sure, people in this community are mostly fine with setting their own graphics preferences, but I’d imagine there are many people out there who just want to start playing as soon as the game has downloaded.
I’m just hoping once the new screen goes up on ifixit that it’s compatible with older models. That way I don’t have to buy a whole new deck if I want the screen, I can just upgrade my launch model.
It’s officially not compatible. gamers nexus video
I am sure it can be done, as people also solder other memory onto steam decks
Yes but they accomplished that by reducing the size of the bezels, like what Nintendo did with the OLED switch. The screen unit itself has the same footprint as the old one
If it has the same footprint why would they need to make the bezels smaller? The screen is 7.4". I think the old one is 7.0". If we can replace the whole front and the glass then we should be able to upgrade.
I really want a Deck but I’m not sure how much I’ll play it :/
What’s funny for me is I have two gaming PCs and yet I play more games on the deck. It’s just easier for me to pop into games for an hour or so and suspend it when I’m done. So far I’ve beaten the Trails In The Sky trilogy (with each game taking me about 3-4 months to beat) and it’s been such a wonderful experience on the deck.
It’s funny because I was at a point where I wasn’t playing games at all really, not on my big PC, phone, or anywhere.
I had pre-ordered the steam deck for my wife, and she used it a bit but when TotK came out that took all her attention playing on switch.
I had poked around on the deck, played a few games, but didn’t love using a controller instead of mouse and keyboard.
Then we had a gig where we had to sit in a car for 8 hours, and she convinced me to try playing horizon ZD. I had never played it, but I ended up really liking it. And the convenience of having it on the deck was great! I ended up playing it all the time, and beating it, and now I’m emulating BotW, playing it for the first time, and enjoying it.
Now I’ve gone full crazy, I’m emulating a couple dozen games, got a bunch of others installed and waiting. I upgraded my SSD to 2tb, replaced my fan, and am eyeballing that clear back with RGB.
My advice, if you can afford it, get it and just see what you think. You might like it!
Or, if you don’t like it, you can resell it. The value of these things seems to stay reasonably high. Though I imagine we might see a drop in price with the flood of LCD models about to hit the market.
Funny. I had bought one for my ex when we were together and played it a little. I really enjoyed playing games and messing with it. I had plans to do some emulation on it too.
But now she’s gone and the Deck was a gift so it is too.
I want one but i just don’t game much and i would never actually sell it. Lol
