After sitting back and watching some of the big name laptop developers enter the handheld gaming space Valve has emerged with the first major update to its Steam Deck handheld gaming device that fixes a lot of the issues with the device – Steam Deck OLED.
This new upgrade replaces the current Steam Deck’s 7-inch screen with a superior 7.4-inch HDR OLED screen offering those brighter colours, darker darks and significantly improved low-light visuals.
Surprisingly the OLED models will feature a boost in battery life of 30-50%, an updated AMD APU, Wifi 6E support, and a bigger fan that makes the new system “cooler and lighter”.
The current LCD model will be phased out and will be replaced by the new OLED that will also boast larger storage in a 512Gb and 1Tb OLED models priced at $549usd and $649usd. However they will hang on to the 256Gb LCD model will become the entry point option available at only $399usd.
In Australia some sites are displaying that the console will sell for around $1,299rrp for the 512gb model and $1,499rrp for the 1TB model. For comparison the ASUS ROG Ally is only $1299 and the Lenovo Legion Go is $1499.
You can Preorder the Steam Deck OLED from November 16th.
As a bonus there’s also a $679usd limited edition transparent version that will be made available only in North America, so that’s annoying for gamers in Australia, but also, the standard black is much more impressive in my opinion.
While this upgrade might seem fairly significant the boost in features is more akin to the recent OLED upgrade to the Nintendo Switch.
The most impressive thing is how Valve have managed to keep the price down for the consumer. These new variants wont be as versatile or powerful as the ASUS ROG Ally or the Lenovo Legion Go, but are a well built alternative that could be better for a casual PC gamer as they are pretty much ready to go out of the box and the battery life is handled really well.
