12 mo. ago • 98%

Steam Deck OLED promises better screen, longer battery life, and faster Wi-Fi

arstechnica.com Steam Deck OLED promises better screen, longer battery life, and faster Wi-Fi

Available Nov. 16 in "highly limited" quantities, plus discounts on LCD models.

21 comments

I am praying that they do trade ins and i can get an oled without having to buy a whole new one

14
- this is my thought as well. im considering just selling mine to a friend for a good pricr so they can get in on the fun too
  
  5
- Why wouldn't it just be a direct replacement for the old one? Is it a different size? If they sell replacement screens it should just drop in.
  
  3
  
  The OLED is larger in size so I doubt it's a direct replacement.
  
  5
- I don't think that's gonna be possible, they slightly revised the whole board layout. Maybe if you're lucky.
  
  2
  
  By trade-ins I think they mean exchange. We all love the repairability but I don't think this person was wanting to manually install the upgrades.
  
  6
Apparently "highly limited quantities" is about the Limited Edition model and not all of the OLED models.

9
Of course they announce this the week I intend on opening mine up and upgrading to a 2tb drive. Was going to dual boot Windows so I could get Gamepass games natively running on it. The screen update gives me pause though. I really love the OLED screen on my Switch, and the LCD on the Steam Deck has been one of my biggest gripes about the system.

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How is it getting better battery life? Are OLEDs more energy efficient or does it have a bigger battery?

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- Bigger battery> 6nm processor (less energy)> OLEDs more energy efficient> Better cooling (new bigger quiet fan)> Faster wifi 6 --- from 30% to 60% more battery life (variable)
  
  13
- Aside from the bigger battery, the APU got a die shrink (7nm to 6nm). With the same performance target it directly translates to better efficiency.
  
  10
- Bigger battery. From 40mah to 50mah.
  
  7
This is the best summary I could come up with:

An update to Valve's handheld PC gaming system, a "Limited Edition" Steam Deck OLED, will be available next week.

The new version improves the screen quality, the amount of battery, and the Wi-Fi capacity, plus a "6nm APU."

Starting at $549 for the 512GB storage version, the OLED Decks are available beginning November 16, with "highly limited" quantities.

LCD models of the Steam Deck are also being phased out, with discounts on the 64GB and 512 GB versions while supplies last.

Valve claims the Steam Deck OLED will offer "brighter colors, blacker blacks," with "amazing motion rendition," shoring up one of the major nitpicks about the Deck's launch version.

The OLED model also touts 30–50 percent more battery life, weighs 30 g less than the original, and can download up to three times faster.

The original article contains 145 words, the summary contains 134 words. Saved 8%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

3
Would this be the equivalent of having the current years cellphone and then the next years cellphone is in production?

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- No
  
  2
Lovely! I am considering buying one for a while now. I think I’ll wait for the first end user reviews, but given that there is a whole Linux desktop behind it, it might double as a PC for school for my kids.

2

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