Decked out — Review: Steam Deck OLEDs brilliant screen fixes the portables biggest flaw New upgrade packs plenty of quality-of-life improvements but no power boost.

Kyle Orland – Nov 14, 2023 5:45 pm UTC Enlarge / The Steam Deck OLED (bottom) sunbathing with its older brother. reader comments 82 with

Further ReadingSteam Deck: The comprehensive Ars Technica reviewWhen the Steam Deck first launched, our extensive review specifically called out the “ho-hum” LCD screen as the system’s biggest heartbreak. The washed-out color reproduction and obvious light bleed were among the more obvious effects of Valve cut[ting] corners to save cash on the Decks 7-inch LCD panel.

In the many months since that launch, Valve has offered frequent software updates to fix other early issues in areas like game compatibility, stability, and system-level features. But that lackluster LCD screen has remained the Steam Decks biggest flaw, a headache that users need to tolerate to enjoy a portable PC gaming experience that’s otherwise quite low on compromises.

With the Steam Deck OLED, Valve is ready to eliminate that issue. The new unit, which goes on sale later this week, sports a brilliant screen thats finally on par with the one Nintendo provided to eager Switch owners over two years ago. Paired with a handful of other small quality-of-life hardware upgrades, the new version of Valves handheld should arouse plenty of jealousy in those stuck with a now-outdated LCD unit. Enlarge / The red power button is pretty much the only way to tell the OLED version from the old LCD version from the outside.

Further ReadingWhy we had to wait nearly two years for an OLED Steam DeckAs nice as those upgrades are, though, they dont touch the Steam Decks core pixel-pushing specs, which are already starting to look a bit dated in the shadow of upstart competitors with beefier chips. Whether those quickly aging internals are enough to last until the planned launch of a true Steam Deck 2.0 in a few years depends largely on what kinds of games you expect to play on the handheld. Bright and smooth

Weve been touting the benefits of OLED vs. standard LCD screens here at Ars since at least 2016, so the major improvements in the Steam Deck OLED are pretty familiar by now. Deeper blacks, better contrast, brighter colors, less blurringits all here. Advertisement

If anything, the OLED improvements are even more impressive because of just how lousy the screen was on the original Steam Deck. When the Nintendo Switch introduced an OLED model in 2021, we deemed the upgrade nonessential, in large part because the original Switch screen was already pretty decent. Jumping from the Steam Deck to the Steam Deck OLED, on the other hand, is akin to moving from a view through frosted glass to a view through expertly tailored prescription glasses. Enlarge / The brightness of the OLED screen (bottom) really shines over the old LCD screen (top) when viewed in direct sunlight.Kyle Orland

The visual pop is most apparent in games designed to make full use of the HDR color gamut. By now, gamers with decent TVs or monitors are very familiar with the impact of, say, a brilliant HDR sunrise shining through the skyscrapers in a game like Spider-Man: Miles Morales. And while smartphone gamers have been enjoying this kind of effect on select games for a while now, theres still a certain wow factor to seeing these colors on the relatively large screen of a dedicated gaming handheld. Page: 1 2 3 Next → reader comments 82 with Kyle Orland Kyle Orland has been the Senior Gaming Editor at Ars Technica since 2012, writing primarily about the business, tech, and culture behind video games. He has journalism and computer science degrees from University of Maryland. He once wrote a whole book about Minesweeper. Advertisement Promoted Comments 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. November 14, 2023 at 6:06 pm 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. November 14, 2023 at 6:34 pm Channel Ars Technica ← Previous story Next story → Related Stories Today on Ars