Tweet
Key Takeaways
- Valve’s Steam Deck OLED is not a generational shift but rather an upgraded version with a higher-quality screen and small improvements in thermals and battery life.
- Despite targeting the same performance as the original Steam Deck, Valve is planning a Steam Deck 2 with next-generation performance, which will be released in a couple of years.
- Valve’s commitment to the handheld gaming space is evident through their listening to gamers’ feedback and making improvements based on user preferences, as seen in the OLED upgrade and pricing options for the Steam Deck.
Valve’s Steam Deck set off a massive chain reaction in the gaming world, with handheld consoles arriving in droves to the market from the likes of Asus, Ayaneo, and Lenovo. While these excellent Steam Deck alternatives typically outclass Valve’s option in performance, Valve has the benefit of SteamOS, a custom-made operating system built on Arch Linux alongside Proton. As a result, it’s been sold very well, and the company recently unveiled a Steam Deck OLED, a surprise to pretty much everybody who has been keeping up with the industry and the system
However, it’s important to recognize that the Steam Deck OLED is not a Steam Deck 2. In fact, it’s more analogous to the Switch OLED compared to the original Switch. It runs the same games, has the same OS, and has the same dimensions. Sure, it has a higher-quality screen, but Valve says it targets the same performance as the original Steam Deck. However, thanks to the small but impactful changes that were made, I’m even more excited about a possible Steam Deck 2 than I’ve ever been before.
Valve’s Steam Deck 2 will target ‘next-generation performance’
It’s still a few years away, though
When promoting the launch of the OLED Steam Deck, Valve product designer Lawrence Yang confirmed to Bloomberg that the company was targeting a release with next-generation performance a couple of years from now. This means that while you may get good performance out of your Steam Deck now, games to come will still target the performance from the original Steam Deck.
Having said that, the OLED model is still quite interesting. The Steam Deck has had a number of critiques leveled against it, primarily regarding thermals, display, battery, and weight, and a lot of those have been addressed. This revision packs an OLED display that’s leaps and bounds above the previous one, along with a CPU that’s been fabricated on a 6nm process, down from 7nm, which brings efficiency improvements.
Valve is clearly listening to gamers and what they want.
However, the biggest changes are with thermals and battery life. The decrease in fabrication size improves efficiency, but the battery also got 25% bigger, going from 40Whr to 50Whr. Even better is that, according to Gamers Nexus, Valve improved how thermal load dissipates over the device, so heat is spread out more evenly and runs cooler as a whole.
The Steam Deck is good now, and the Steam Deck 2 will be even better
I have faith in Valve
All of this shows that Valve is listening. That much is obvious, and the improvements made here will likely go on to formulate some of the basis for the next generation. Valve is already learning what works and what doesn’t in portable gaming handhelds, and the changes made to the main board, along with performance improvements elsewhere, show that Valve is working on improvements specifically for the users.
Even better is the pricing. The Steam Deck OLED with 512GB of storage starts at the same price as the regular 512GB Steam Deck while also going up to 1TB in storage, something you can only get by upgrading your Steam Deck’s storage yourself. Valve is clearly listening to gamers and what they want, which is great given the success of the Steam Deck. I love mine, and it gets the job done, but it’s not perfect and has been outclassed in some aspects by competitors.
Valve has shown with the OLED that it’s committed to the handheld gaming space. The Steam Deck wasn’t just a flash in the pan of greatness; Valve’s in it for the long haul, and with the OLED being such a great upgrade, I fully expect the Steam Deck 2 to be the upgrade gamers will welcome.
Steam Deck OLED
The all-new Steam Deck from Valve features some key upgrades, like an OLED display, HDR support, better battery life, faster downloads, and even a higher refresh rate. If you liked the Steam Deck, there’s even more to love with the Steam Deck OLED.
** (Disclaimer: This video content is intended for educational and informational purposes only) **
More...
