Valve has just announced the Steam Deck OLED, an updated model of the original Steam Deck featuring a new OLED screen. Unlike previous models, Valve is only selling two versions of the Steam Deck OLED, one with 512GB of storage and another with 1TB of storage for $550 and $650 respectively.
Although the OLED screen is the star of the show, Valve is making some upgrades elsewhere as well. The new design is now based on a 6nm APU as opposed to the 7nm APU of the previous model, and it supports Wi-Fi 6E. The previous model only supported Wi-Fi 5.
According to Valve, the boost in wireless connectivity allows the OLED model to download up to three times faster than the original Steam deck. The 6nm chip is similar to the previous model in terms of performance, offering four Zen 2 CPU cores and 8 RDNA 2 GPU cores, but it is much more efficient. Valve says the new design has 50% better battery life than the original Steam Deck. With a large 50Whr battery, Valve says you can get up to 12 hours of battery life, depending on the game you’re playing.
As far as the display goes, it’s still using the same 1280 x 800 resolution as the original Steam Deck, but now with OLED, it also supports HDR. It is also slightly larger, with a diagonal of 7.4 inches.
With the new OLED model, Valve is lowering the price of the original Steam Deck. The 64GB model is now $350, the 256GB model is $400, and the 512GB model is $450. The 64GB and 512GB models are being phased out, so they’ll only be available while supplies last.
Both models of the Steam Deck OLED will go on sale on November 16 at 10am PT. At that time, Valve will also release a limited edition model of the 1TB version that comes with a slightly transparent backplate with dark red contrast on the vents, power button, and thumb stick.
Although deck fans have been waiting for Steam Deck 2, it is more than Steam Deck 1.5. You shouldn’t expect big performance gains over the original model, but with increased battery life, better Wi-Fi, and a nice screen, it’s still a clear upgrade over the original model.
It also fixes one of the major issues with the original Steam Deck. The screen isn’t great, which is one area where devices like the ROG Ellie and Lenovo Legion Go have the edge over Valve’s handheld. The OLED model could change that, but we’ll have to wait until it’s finally out to know for sure.
