Valve has refreshed its now iconic handheld PC, the Steam Deck, to include a new screen, bigger battery, and more.
In a surprise move, Valve has announced its refreshed Steam Deck, joining the three original models. The new Steam Deck OLED comes with a faster refresh rate of 90Hz and an OLED panel. It’s a bigger screen thanks to the bezels being reduced. You’ll also find the OLED panel makes things much brighter.
With more power being drawn from the screen, the battery has also been increased and now includes faster charging. Interestingly, the size of the device hasn’t been changed with all these new upgrades.
There are no upgrades to the internals in terms of performance, however. Wi-Fi 6e has been implemented for better wireless speeds. However, most performance enhancements will be coming through SteamOS 3.5, which fixes a multitude of bugs persisting through the hardware and the beta has seen a massive improvement for certain titles.
Evidence of a new piece of hardware from Valve was first spotted a few weeks ago after a South Korean regulatory body approved a new Wi-Fi card. However, speculation still points to a new VR headset from Valve.
Despite saying that there wouldn’t be a Steam Deck 2 until there’s a significant upgrade, this doesn’t seem to have stopped Valve from following suit with Nintendo and Sony.
Nintendo saw a massive success with its Switch OLED model, while Sony has just refreshed its PS5 console with a smaller version. Apple has also just released its refresh of MacBooks to include the new M3 series chip.
Steam Deck OLED price
The new Steam Deck will come in at $549 for the 51GB and $649 for the 1TB model and will be phasing out the LCD models. The limited edition one will be $679.
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Valve’s CEO, Gabe Newell, went on record as saying that the company took a hit on the low cost of the Steam Deck at launch.
Now that they’re refreshing with an OLED panel and bigger battery, it’s assumed that the price of the parts has come down enough to balance things out.
Steam Deck OLED specs
| Valve Steam Deck OLED | Valve Steam Deck |
|---|---|
| Custom AMD Van Gogh (Aerith) | Custom AMD Van Gogh (Aerith) |
| 6nm | 7nm |
| AMD Zen 2 | AMD Zen 2 |
| 2.4 – 3.5GHz | 2.4 – 3.5GHz |
| 4 | 8 | 4 | 8 |
| AMD RDNA 2 | AMD RDNA 2 |
| 1 – 1.6GHz | 1 – 1.6GHz |
| 512 | 512 |
| 16GB quad channel LPDDR5 @ 5,500MT/s | 16GB quad channel LPDDR5 @ 5,500MT/s |
| 512GB NVMe | 1TB NVMe | 64GB eMMC | 256GB NVMe SSD | 512GB NVMe SSD |
| 7.4-inch OLED touchscreen | 7-inch LCD touchscreen |
| 1280 x 800 | 1280 x 800 |
| 90Hz | 60Hz |
| Stereo speakers, 3.5mm jack, dual mics | Stereo speakers, 3.5mm jack, dual mics |
| Wi-Fi 6e, Bluetooth, 1x USB Type-C with DisplayPort 1.4 support | Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth, 1x USB Type-C with DisplayPort 1.4 support |
| 50Whr | 5,313mAh | 40Whr | 5,313mAh |
| 11.7 x 4.6 x 1.8-inch (298 x 117 x 49mm) | 11.7 x 4.6 x 1.8-inch (298 x 117 x 49mm) |
| 1.41lbs (640g) | 1.47lbs (669g) |
When does the Steam Deck OLED release?
Valve has said that we can expect the Steam Deck OLED from November 16 – at least for the special edition. This special edition is only available in Canada and the US.
While the Steam Deck was originally delayed, and spent months out of stock, Valve’s manufacturing partners managed to get around this and the device has rarely been out of stock since.
However, there’s still no news on when the hardware will launch in some regions, like Australia.
The Steam Deck has made major waves in the gaming industry, with Lenovo and Asus both following up with their own Windows-powered devices.
