Whether you’re playing games locally or from a cloud service, Valve’s Steam Deck has really shaped the market in terms of gaming handhelds and, now, it’s getting a refresh with an OLED display and more.
Launching November 16, the Steam Deck OLED is based on the same hardware as the existing model, but with a few key tweaks. First and foremost is the screen itself, which swaps out the LCD panel for an OLED display. It’s still 1280 x 800 but now supports HDR and should be much more vibrant compared to the original LCD which was largely considered pretty underwhelming. It’s also now a 90Hz display and peaks at 1,000 nits of brightness.
The new display is also slightly larger at 7.4-inches versus the 7-inch panel on the regular model, and the whole package is 5% lighter in weight.
Valve is also adding an updated chipset, now based on a 6nm process, and there’s also support for faster Wi-Fi 6E. That should fix a lot of the cloud gaming complaints which many have noticed in the past. The battery is also bigger, with a 50Whr capacity that Valve says will last from 3-12 hours depending on what you’re playing, up from 2-8 hours.
Valve further adds that the touchscreen is now faster, and that the build has been updated to be more easily repairable and moddable.
This new OLED version will only be available on 512GB and 1TB models, with the 256GB version sticking with LCD and getting a lower price of $399. The 512GB and 1TB OLED models will be $549 and $649 respectively, while remaining stock of 64GB LCD models drops to $349 and 512GB LCD to $449.
A limited edition Steam Deck OLED will also be briefly available with a transparent body and red accents, as seen below, for $679.
More on Gaming:
- How the Steam Deck has filled the void left by Stadia
- GeForce Now teases future support for more controllers, improvements on Steam Deck
- Review: Backbone One PlayStation Edition is the essential controller for PS5 owners
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