Gear Improved Steam Deck OLED Unveiled with Enhanced Screen and Battery Life

Valve has announced a revamped model of the Steam Deck with various enhancements, including a higher-quality HDR OLED display, better battery life, increased portability, and faster downloads. This updated version, referred to as the "Steam Deck OLED," still falls within the "first-generation" Steam Deck family in terms of its internal hardware specs, but it offers several improvements. Preorders for the Steam Deck OLED are set to begin on November 16.
Key features of the Steam Deck OLED include:

1. HDR OLED Display: The Steam Deck OLED boasts a new HDR OLED display, making it the first handheld device to feature such a screen. This display is capable of showcasing games with native HDR support without requiring additional developer patches. It has a larger 7.4-inch screen (up from 7 inches) thanks to a reduced bezel, a 90Hz refresh rate (up from 60Hz), and a 1000 nit peak brightness (up from 400 nits). The 1TB and Limited Edition models come with an anti-glare etched-glass finish.
2. Improved Battery Life: The Steam Deck OLED comes with a larger 50Whr battery, an increase from the 40Whr battery in the previous LCD model. Along with this, an updated AMD APU contributes to better battery life, although specific details regarding improvements weren't provided.
3. Lighter and More Portable: The updated Steam Deck is about 5% lighter than the LCD model, with an average weight of around 640 grams. It features dimensions of 298mm x 117mm x 50mm. The 1TB version includes a new case with a removable inner shell for enhanced portability.
4. Faster Downloads: The Steam Deck OLED incorporates improvements to connectivity and download speed, including a Wi-Fi 6E module that enables the use of the 6GHz spectrum for download speeds 2-3 times faster than the LCD model.
5. Additional Specs: The updated APU now uses a 6nm chip, which, along with an improved thermal performance due to a larger fan, results in games resuming roughly 30% faster. The touchscreen offers improved responsiveness with a higher polling rate (180Hz) and lower latency. Bluetooth support includes BT 5.3 with a dedicated antenna for better performance when using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi simultaneously. The device also now supports additional audio codecs and wake via Bluetooth controller. Haptics are improved for higher fidelity, and the trackpad has been redesigned for better accuracy and edge detection. Louder speakers with improved bass are incorporated, and the onboard mic can be used simultaneously with the headphone jack.

Models, Pricing, and Preorders:
The Steam Deck OLED comes in three configurations:

• 512GB Steam Deck OLED: $549
• 1TB Steam Deck OLED: $649
• 1TB Steam Deck Limited Edition (US and Canada only): $679

Either way, you can expand the storage with a memory card or modify the storage up to 61 terabytes, as one user from StorageReview did.

Preorders for the Steam Deck OLED start on November 16 at 10 AM PT, with shipping expected to commence immediately.
Additionally, the previous LCD models have received price drops:

• 64GB Steam Deck LCD: $349 (was $399)
• 256GB Steam Deck LCD: $399 (was $529)
• 512GB Steam Deck LCD: $449 (was $649)

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