It’s been about two years since the first handheld gaming PC from Valve came out. Now, the company has introduced a refresh, the Steam Deck OLED.
As the name suggests, the new Steam Deck OLED gets a more vibrant and contrasty display, complete with HDR support with 1000 nits of peak brightness. It also has a high 90Hz refresh rate, a slightly larger active area of 7.4 inches (from 7 inches), and better 180Hz touch sampling for responsiveness.
It also has an upgraded 6nm (from 7nm) AMD Zen 2 APU for better efficiency, paired with an RDNA 2 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and an option between 512GB and 1TB of NVMe SSD storage.
With a more efficient CPU and a bigger 50Whr (from 40Whr) battery, Valve claims that the new OLED version has 30-50% more battery life. That translates to, as per the product’s webpage, 3-12hours of gameplay depending on the game you’re playing.
It also has faster connectivity thanks to WiFi 6E, has a bigger fan for better cooling, is about 5% lighter thanks to the new screen, and is easier to repair now that the rear case uses Torx screws.
Other notable improvements are the improved memory to 6400MT/s, support for Bluetooth 5.3 for aptX HD and aptX low-latency, better speaker bass response, and simultaneous use of the onboard mic and headphone mic.
The Steam Deck OLED also has many improvements on the analog sticks like better material and shape for improved grip and dust build-up resistance. Plus, better tactility and responsiveness on the shoulder buttons, a better D-pad snap ratio, a redesigned trackpad for improved edge detection and fidelity as well as the precision and feel of the haptics.
Valve has also improved the carrying case, albeit exclusive to the 1TB and Limited Edition models only. It has a removable liner, so you don’t always have to have the entire hard case if you want to travel light.
Oh, and yes, there’s also a special Limited Edition version for the 1TB that features a translucent body with contrasting orange accents on the grills, power button, and analog sticks.
The Steam Deck OLED has a price of USD549 (~Php30,700) for the 512GB model and USD649 (~Php36,300) for the 1TB. Meanwhile, the non-OLED version will get a price cut, albeit only the 256GB model will stay, now priced at USD399 (~Php22,300). The 64GB and 512GB LCD models will be phased out.
Steam Deck OLED Specs
- SteamOS 3
- 7.4-inch OLED display, 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, 203ppi
- HDR, 1000nits peak brightness
- 110% P3, 90Hz refresh rate, 180Hz touch sampling
- <0.1ms response time
- 6nm AM Zen 2 APU, 4 cores, 8 threads, 2.4GHz-3.5GHz
- up to 448 GFlops FP32
- RDNA 2 GPU, 2 CUs, 1.6GHz, 1.6 TFlops FP32
- 4-15W APU power
- 16GB LPDDR5 RAM, 6400MT/s quad 32-bit channels
- 512GB/1TB NVMe SSD, expandable via microSD
- Dual ambient light sensors
- Stereo speakers
- Dual microphone array
- WiFi 6e, tri-band, 2×2 MIMO
- Bluetooth 5.3
- 3.5mm headphone/mic combo jack
- USB-C port (DisplayPort up to 8K@60Hz or 4K@120Hz)
- HD haptics, 6-axis IMU
- ABXY, D-pad, L&R analog triggers and bumpers
- View & Menu buttons, 4x programmable grip buttons
- 2x full-size analog sticks with capacitive touch
- 2x 32.5mm pressure-sensitive trackpads with haptic feedback
- Dimensions: 298 x 117 x 49mm
- Weight: 640g
- 50Whr battery, 45W PD 3.0 USB-C power supply