Game console
Management is overjoyed: “Take an old product and slap a new badge on for more money?” Tyler Colp likes his job too much to correct them.
If the Steam Deck was a beta, the Steam Deck OLED I is your finished form. It’s not a sequel, not a beefed-up ‘pro’ version, and not a major redesign. You can’t even tell the difference between the old model and the new one when you sit them next to each other – save for the new orange accents. The Steam Deck OLED, which replaces most of the current models at the same price, is the ultimate form of one of the best handheld gaming PCs available.
The differences between the original Deck and the Steam Deck OLED are largely invisible, but they refine what was already a fantastic way to play PC games wherever you want. There are clear improvements with its most crucial stats: it has noticeably better battery life, more storage, a sharper, brighter screen, and weighs a tad less. But there are surprises, too: the touchscreen is way more responsive, the thumbsticks have an improved grip, and the bigger fan purrs much softer than before. You won’t want to go back to the original Steam Deck now. You don’t hate it, but the OLED captures the promise of the original in ways you didn’t initially expect. And while you don’t think there’s a sensible reason to upgrade if you’ve already bought one, the Steam Deck OLED cements Valve’s device as the most accessible handheld gaming PC you can buy right now.
Your favourite games radiate on your new Deck’s slightly larger 7.4-inch screen. The OLED panel can push 1,000 nits of brightness, so when you take your first steps into Elden Ring’s pastoral opening region without properly adjusting your settings, it’s like someone flipped on light mode. And with an impressive 110% of the DCI- P3 gamut, the colours on your Deck OLED are deliciously vibrant. Given your Deck’s modest resolution – it’s still 1280x800 – the colour accuracy combined with the sharp 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio distracts you from the fuzziness of playing games below 1080p.
When it’s on, HDR clarifies the extremes of a scene, revealing detail in the darkest blacks and brightest whites. Neon signs pierce through the dim bar in one of Cyberpunk 2077’s intros without clouding the shape of the letters with bloom, and the brilliant deserts in Diablo 4 don’t swallow your character whole. On such a small screen, that level of clarity meaning
