The Steam Deck (How Steam Deck Has Changed Your Gaming – Good, Bad and Ugly) was this author’s most favorite hardware purchase of 2022. Totally don’t regret it one bit, over a year later. It’s a Nintendo Switch on steroids and any Steam gamer can’t go wrong fitting into their gameplay rotation, especially gamers on the road. One thing the Switch had that the Steam Deck could use was an OLED screen, but Valve has fixed that by coming out with a Steam Deck OLED model (https://www.steamdeck.com/en/oled) that starts shipping November 16, 2023 for $549.
The Verge has more details on the Steam Deck OLED:
the new Steam Deck OLED is designed to be the ultimate version of the original Steam Deck, the device that Valve would have liked to originally ship. Valve is promising the “first handheld with HDR OLED” with a larger 7.4-inch, 90Hz, 1,000-nit screen and up to 50 percent longer battery life.
Also, faster Wi-Fi (WiFi 6) with up to 3x faster downloads. There is definitely more to this than the screen.
Definitely thumbs up on the battery life which is one of the few weak points on the Steam Deck. Another isn’t really solved by this model, which is the somewhat bulky feel in the hands if you play for any length of time. This is solved by playing it with a controller and using a screen.
Those interested in the Steam Deck OLED can wishiist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck
There is a temporary price reduction on the classic Steam Deck models, so this could be a great time to pick one of the LCD models:
Valve is saying the Steam Deck OLED “quantities are highly limited” and only available in the United States and Canada. Here comes the magic question: are you planning on buying one of these new OLED models? If you already own one, are you going to upgrade to this? Let’s discuss. Feel free to use the comments.