Review: Steam Deck OLED’s brilliant screen fixes the portable’s biggest flaw

New upgrade packs plenty of quality-of-life improvements but no power boost.

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[Mechjaz]

How does it run Hollow Knight? I need it to run poorly. Tell me it runs poorly, I beg of you.

On the other hand, my daughter could really make good use of one...

 

[jeffreywedwards]

The new unit, which goes on sale starting today

It's not on sale until the 16th.

 

[DerrickB]

the Steam Deck OLED’s official battery capacity is 25 percent bigger than its predecessor (50 MWh vs. 40)

Damn, they need to figure out how to put these batteries into EVs

 

[habilain]

The only thing that's really missing from the Steam Deck OLED is proper VRR (which would likely be FreeSync here). Hopefully that's not absent from a future Steam Deck 2 - it's a feature that makes a lot of sense at lower refresh rates, which is always going to be the case for at least some games on a portable.

 

[Kyle Orland]

Dupe

 

[Caven]

How does it run Hollow Knight? I need it to run poorly. Tell me it runs poorly, I beg of you.

On the other hand, my daughter could really make good use of one...

Ok, the framerate is so low that you'd think you were looking at the screenshot slide show on the game's store page.

There. Did you fall for it?

 

[ERIFNOMI]

How does it run Hollow Knight? I need it to run poorly. Tell me it runs poorly, I beg of you.

On the other hand, my daughter could really make good use of one...

I haven't played it myself, but it's a Deck Verified game so it should run fine. Given my experience with similar games, I bet it's fantastic.

 

[JustYourAverageJDP]

I already own the previous model Steam Deck and I wont be upgrading.

I will heavily endorse anyone interested in portable PC gaming to jump on the OLED model. I love my Steam Deck, I am a console gamer primarily coming from the Nintendo Switch and PS4. I have tinkered a little bit but running PC games is pretty easy with minimal configuration to play popular games. I never gamed on PC prior.

I wish I could justify this upgrade but I skipped the OLED switch as well, mortgage and groceries come first especially since my existing Steam Deck works great still. Looking forward to the generational leap in a few years.

 

[ERIFNOMI]

I'm having such a hard time convincing myself I don't need the upgrade. The Deck is already fantastic and these improvements seem perfect for a mid life refresh.

 

[NH]

I always found that the sleep mode sips more battery than I expect, so now I always keep it plugged in, anyone else experience this?

 

[HiroTheProtagonist]

I'm having such a hard time convincing myself I don't need the upgrade. The Deck is already fantastic and these improvements seem perfect for a mid life refresh.

Same here. I have a large OLED monitor on my desk, so I know how good the picture quality can be, but I can't justify spending another $500+ just so I can have a slightly better display on my portable device that I often use plugged into another display. But yeah, if one hasn't already gotten a Deck, this is easily the best time to buy in.

 

[a5ehren]

I use my LCD Deck a ton, so I am selling it and buying the OLED on day 1. They fixed literally every problem I had with the original model.

 

[SirBedwyr]

I always found that the sleep mode sips more battery than I expect, so now I always keep it plugged in, anyone else experience this?

It is very good, but yeah. Not quite as good as the Switch's sleep state.

 

[acetothermus]

Is anyone else intensely uncomfortable with the pictures of these devices on the grass or on rocks?

 

[April King]

I don't know if the Steam Deck's "pixel pushing" is particularly dated.

At the Steam Deck's chosen 15W power envelope, newer systems (such as the ROG Ally) with the Z1 Extreme are about 30% faster. While that's certainly significant, it's also not a generational leap like I expect to see with the Switch 2.

It makes sense to me that Valve would want to maintain a stable performance target, so that game developers continue to target the original Steam Deck for at least several more years.

 

[Mechjaz]

Ok, the framerate is so low that you'd think you were looking at the screenshot slide show on the game's store page.

There. Did you fall for it?

Hey that's great news, my money is safe-

I'm having such a hard time convincing myself I don't need the upgrade. The Deck is already fantastic and these improvements seem perfect for a mid life refresh.

Nooooooooooooooo

The most silly part is that I'm wanting to use it for a faster Switch - not just the form factor, but games I own multiplatform that are just miles better on any remotely capable hardware. I'm glad the OLED it's getting good reviews, so it feels substantial. It might finally be time.

I've already been warned BattleTech runs well

 

[Azdle]

I'm having such a hard time convincing myself I don't need the upgrade. The Deck is already fantastic and these improvements seem perfect for a mid life refresh.

And here I'm having a hard time convincing myself I do need the upgrade. I lust for the limited edition, but the screen on my current LCD model just doesn't really bother me. Now, if they had added HDMI-CEC or a way to wake the deck w/ a bluetooth controller....

 

[DStaal]

How does it run Hollow Knight? I need it to run poorly. Tell me it runs poorly, I beg of you.

On the other hand, my daughter could really make good use of one...

You can limit frame rate and processor power on a per-game basis in the OS. Set it to 15 FPS and minimum TPW and you might be able to degrade it's performance fairly well.

 

[Voytrekk]

This is a fantastic upgrade, but I don't think I can justify the upgrade at this time. Everything points at being nicer to use, but I think I will wait for the next iteration that should come with a bump in power and hopefully even more improvements including VRR for the screen.

 

[ERIFNOMI]

Hey that's great news, my money is safe-

Nooooooooooooooo

The most silly part is that I'm wanting to use it for a faster Switch - not just the form factor, but games I own multiplatform that are just miles better on any remotely capable hardware. I'm glad the OLED it's getting good reviews, so it feels substantial. It might finally be time.

I've already been warned BattleTech runs well

I have a Switch as well but I never liked it. Games that I have on both run so much better on the Deck. Plus the more flexible input really helps in some games. I got Civ VI for the Switch but the controller UI isn't great and it absolutely fucking struggles past the early game. I've played multiple multiplayer games with my wife with us both playing on Decks on the couch and it's been a much nicer experience. I don't think I ever even finished a full game on Switch. Plus you can get Civ VI and all the DLC for peanuts on Steam vs being bent over every which way for all the DLC on the Nintendo store.

 

[ERIFNOMI]

And here I'm having a hard time convincing myself I do need the upgrade. I lust for the limited edition, but the screen on my current LCD model just doesn't really bother me. Now, if they had added HDMI-CEC or a way to wake the deck w/ a bluetooth controller....

I actually don't mind the screen on the LCD Deck. And I don't really care too much about the battery life. Most of the time I've spent on my Deck has been sitting inside my house where I have no trouble plugging in.

But I wouldn't say no to an improved Deck.

However, the new Deck does support wake by BT, so you might be interested in it for that.

 

[danbert2000]

The screen was the one reason I picked switch versions for some games. They've gone above and beyond by making it HDR too. I've always desired a cinema class display on an open handheld. This would open up putting HDR movies on it for travel.

 

[sword_9mm]

I'm close to moving off the fence to day 1 purchase.

Mostly since my library is older stuff (new stuff goes to PS5 so I don't care how that does on a portable) and emulation (PS2 mainly as mine doesn't work too well).

550$ is pricey and I don't NEED it or anything so we'll see.

 

[Fuzzypiggy]

"...the new version of Valve’s handheld should arouse plenty of jealousy in those stuck with a now-outdated LCD unit."

Stupid statements like this are why we're drowning in e-waste 'cos some people seem to have taken "Consume 'product' and now get excited to consume next 'product'." to heart!

As someone who's been gaming since 1982 I can honestly say there are few pieces of hardware that ever impressed so much as the SteamDeck I bought last year. The last time I was this blown away was when I first got my XBOX360. The SteamDeck has changed my gaming habits and if anything will get me to replace my SteamDeck it's likely to be that I've worn it out using it death. I'm playing it now roughly 4-5 hours a day minimum as I can play on my 2 hour commute, lunch times at work, I played it for 14 hours straight Sunday just gone!

I'm extremely glad that Valve are not resting on their laurels and are going full on to keep the SteamDeck up to date and relevant and maybe in a 12-18 months when my current SteamDeck has lived a good life, I'll retire it gracefully and get a new one but the idea that I simply throw my current one in the bin just to get a shinier, glossy, more colourful screen is just stupid.

 

[Voldenuit]

I'd really like a handheld that can run Armored Core 6 at a steady (realistically) 720p 60 fps on Medium.

The Steam Deck isn't there, RPS measured ~45 fps on Low and ~35 fps on Medium. I don't think the Ryzen Z1 portables like the ROG Ally or Legion Go are there, either, as they are only about 30-50% faster than the Steam Deck on paper, and a much less polished user experience due to running Win11 rather than SteamOS (as well as Asus and lenovo bundling their, well, less than optimal device/game management softwares).

So it looks as though I'd be waiting for a Steam Deck 2/Legion Go 2, but by the time they come out, I'd have finished NG+ and NG++ on AC6, and who knows what the performance requirements or performance targets for the next game to catch my fancy would be. For all I know, my performance requirements might even go down, since 90% of my gaming is usually on 2D and indie titles, but there's always the occasional tentpole big budget game that hooks me (Elden Ring, Returnal, BG3, AC6) for months at a time.

 

[ObjectiveTruthExists]

Good review except for this part:

The new, larger fan in the OLED model is supposed to be quieter, for instance, but it didn’t seem noticeably so to my ears during testing. Only when we conducted a microphone measurement did the slight difference become apparent—46 dB on the OLED model versus 50 dB on the LCD (measured right next to the vent with the fan running at about 5,000 RPM).

Fan noise is a function of a lot of things, but I would argue here that the most relevant one is cooling capacity. The larger fan is not "quieter" because they changed the laws of physics when the fans are pushed to 5,000 RPM -- although they do appear to be using a better fan as it runs 2 dB quieter, which is nice. The larger fan is noticeably less noisy than the one on the old Steam Deck because a) the new deck doesn't produce as much heat thanks to the die shrink and b) the larger fan produces the same amount of cooling capacity at lower RPMs.

What I want to know is how loud is the new Deck compared to the old one running a demanding game at the same settings.

 

[SirBedwyr]

I have a Switch as well but I never liked it. Games that I have on both run so much better on the Deck. Plus the more flexible input really helps in some games. I got Civ VI for the Switch but the controller UI isn't great and it absolutely fucking struggles past the early game. I've played multiple multiplayer games with my wife with us both playing on Decks on the couch and it's been a much nicer experience. I don't think I ever even finished a full game on Switch. Plus you can get Civ VI and all the DLC for peanuts on Steam vs being bent over every which way for all the DLC on the Nintendo store.

I think what I've noticed is that the game the Deck really handles poorly are large display asset games like Cities Skylines I. It takes real work to get that thing even running on the Deck, let alone with ok framerates. The DLC just seems to bring the Deck to its knees. This is probably why the Switch version of C:S has zero DLC.

 

[Architect_of_Insanity]

Wow that screen in beautiful - glad I waited to buy one. There's no question that OLED is worth the price.

 

[xLaYN]

Valve’s promise to run “the entire Steam library” at 30-plus fps. Today, that promise is looking unfulfilled when it comes to modern titles like Starfield and Cities: Skylines 2,

Skylines 2 is the new "does it run crysis?" with publications saying they had problems running it with the almighty GTX 4090, are you saying you expect the steam deck to run it at over 30fps? are you picking on the most demanding game to set the bar for the steam deck?

Nobody will buy the steam deck, the legion go or rog ally to expect those games running at -whatever you set as the goalpost for fulfilling the promise- because they are mobile gaming solutions.

 

[apoclypse]

It's a good update and while a newer APU would have been nice, it isn't essential yet.

OLED is great too, but it isn't as amazing as too many are claiming. Compared to a good LCD (which the Deck does not have), OLED isn't much better and burn-in is an issue.

Comparisons with the Switch are moot, as they mostly serve different niches/markets.

The only comparable thing to OLED in the LCD space is Mini-LED and even then OLED imo is better. Where OLED (and the new SD) shine is HDR. That's the real seller of the device imo.

 

[TROPtastic]

Then there’s the faster memory, which Valve says “improves latency.” In most games, I could barely detect a difference in loading times or performance. But then there were titles like The Making of Karateka, where HD video that was stuttery and unwatchable on my original Steam Deck played perfectly smoothly on the new hardware.

That makes sense. Some commenters in other articles were claiming that there would be noticeable performance increases across the board, but that always seemed implausible given how most PC games work (they aren't limited by memory speed).

Two years ago, the Steam Deck’s AMD system on a chip was powerful enough to more or less fulfill Valve’s promise to run “the entire Steam library” at 30-plus fps. Today, that promise is looking unfulfilled when it comes to modern titles like Starfield and Cities: Skylines 2, to name just a few.

Can't speak for Starfield, but Cities: Skylines 2 has notoriously terrible optimization. If a 4090 can't run a mass-market game at 1440p60, something is very wrong with the game's performance. Paradox and Colossal Order delayed the console versions because of how bad CS2 is, so by spring next year the game should be much more playable on the Steam Deck.

 

[niwax]

I don't know if the Steam Deck's "pixel pushing" is particularly dated.

At the Steam Deck's chosen 15W power envelope, newer systems (such as the ROG Ally) with the Z1 Extreme are about 30% faster. While that's certainly significant, it's also not a generational leap like I expect to see with the Switch 2.

It makes sense to me that Valve would want to maintain a stable performance target, so that game developers continue to target the original Steam Deck for at least several more years.

Contrary to what the article claims, they did a die shrink from 7nm to 6nm, so this version while not as fast should catch up quite a bit in efficiency. From other reviews, it seems the 30-50% runtime increase is real even with the brighter screen and only 25% more battery capacity.

 

[April King]

That makes sense. Some commenters in other articles were claiming that there would be noticeable performance increases across the board, but that always seemed implausible given how most PC games work (they aren't limited by memory speed).

Performance testing I've seen is showing a 3-5% uplift if anything, but most of the benefit seems to be around having a more stable framerate and less around having a higher maximum framerate.

 

[DStaal]

I think what I've noticed is that the game the Deck really handles poorly are large display asset games like Cities Skylines I. It takes real work to get that thing even running on the Deck, let alone with ok framerates. The DLC just seems to bring the Deck to its knees. This is probably why the Switch version of C:S has zero DLC.

Does the CryoUtilities VRAM adjustment help here?

 

[almitydave]

It's not on sale until the 16th.

Whoops, lost track of what day it was. Fixed.

I'm not seeing the fix. As far as I can tell today is still the 14th.

 

[Mostly Ignorant]

I already own the previous model Steam Deck and I wont be upgrading.

I will heavily endorse anyone interested in portable PC gaming to jump on the OLED model. I love my Steam Deck, I am a console gamer primarily coming from the Nintendo Switch and PS4. I have tinkered a little bit but running PC games is pretty easy with minimal configuration to play popular games. I never gamed on PC prior.

I wish I could justify this upgrade but I skipped the OLED switch as well, mortgage and groceries come first especially since my existing Steam Deck works great still. Looking forward to the generational leap in a few years.

So I'm in a similar boat. I've never been a PC gamer, console only, but this form factor intrigues me enough to consider it. Is the 512 GB storage model workable in your experience? Any other thoughts for someone like me looking to make the plunge?

 

[HisDivineOrder]

The Steam Deck OLED looks great.

But the number of reviewers screeching about the Steam Deck's LCD screen being worse than a Switch are just showing off how they only used the review unit they were provided. If they'd bothered to use a normal glass screen instead of the etched glass, they'd find the Steam Deck LCD a passable and certainly better than Switch LCD.

But yeah. OLED's better, I'm sure.