November 10, 2023, 5:38 p.m. |
Reading time: 2 minutes
With the Steam Deck, manufacturer Valve continues to try to position itself in the hotly contested console market. A version has now been announced that promises, among other things, an improved screen and battery.
In February 2022, Valve launched its own model with its handheld console Steam Deck. A big advantage of the handheld console is the connection to the Steam gaming platform, which is very popular with PC gamers. With the console you can access the same media library and therefore don’t have to buy the games twice for the different media. After months of rumors, the Steam Deck OLED has now been improved Console version announced. TECHBOOK gives an overview.
What the Steam Deck OLED offers
According to Valve, it is explicitly not a successor, i.e. a Steam Deck 2/Pro. Following the example of the Nintendo Switch, they decided to use a Steam Deck OLED.
The most obvious change is in the name: OLED. Instead of the LCD panels previously used, the new Steam Deck gets an OLED screen. This improves the image especially in the areas of color accuracy and black levels. With a constant resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels, the display also increases from 7 to 7.4 inches (i.e. by just under a centimeter) and the refresh rate is now 90 Hertz instead of the previous 60 Hertz. The brightness is between 600 and 1000 nits – depending on whether the SDR or HDR mode is used.
In addition, the RAM calculates a little faster, even if the capacity remains the same at 16 GB. Valve has also improved the battery capacity for the OLED model compared to the previous Steam Deck. 50 watt hours are now possible, which according to the manufacturer means a playing time of 3 to 12 hours. Nevertheless, the new model is slightly lighter at 639 grams. Bluetooth 5.3 and Wifi 6E are also on board.
Our assessment of the Steam Deck can be found in the video:
Price and availability of the Steam Deck OLED
In fact, the new version of the console should be available for pre-order from November 16th at 7 p.m. However, it is not yet known when it will actually appear and be delivered.
Two models have also been announced that differ in their storage size: 512 GB and 1 TB. The smaller Steam Deck OLED costs 570 euros, while the larger version is available for 680 euros.
Valve no longer offers the LCD model with 64 GB of memory. Apparently there wasn’t enough demand; There is still a sale going on at the moment. However, the Steam Deck LCD with 256 GB is still available.