Steam Deck OLED Review - Blinded By The Light

16.12.2023 - 16:15 / mmorpg.com / Deck

Ever since the first Steam Deck came out, I’ve been a fan. I bought the Deck in the first wave of units, getting mine a few weeks after it initially launched in 2022, and it has certainly been put through its paces with me. I’ve traveled the world with my Steam library following me wherever I went, from Iceland, Canada and more. I’ve loved this device, even with its limitations.

However, it wasn’t perfect. The Steam Deck is heavy over long periods of use and had a tendency to get rather warm if playing a heavy triple-A game over time. Since I bought the cheapest version, its internal memory was snapped up quickly, meaning I constantly swapped out SD cards for storage. The screen always left a bit to be desired, especially after I experienced the incredible display found on the ASUS ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme) I reviewed a few months back.

However, theSteam Deck OLED is here and has addressed quite a few of the nagging issues I’ve had, and in almost every way, it feels like a true upgrade over the base variant of Steam Deck.

When the Steam Deck OLED arrived on my doorstep, I was reminded of how much I appreciated Valve’s minimalistic packaging the first time I grabbed a Deck from the company. Indeed, this goes way back even to the Steam Link’s physical device and the Steam Controller almost ten years ago, but the Deck has seemingly streamlined that further.

The packaging on the Decks is playful and thankfully made of mostly recyclable materials, which I think every major company should be doing nowadays to limit landfill waste. The case of the Steam Deck itself is a much-appreciated upgrade over the standard Deck’s case, which was never bad, but the OLED case feels a bit more premium. This could be down to the textured Steam Deck logo on the top, as well as a velcro clasp to ensure the case stays closed when, say, a forgetful person might not zip it up all the way in a hurry — like me. The zipper clasps even have rubberized handles, making them easier to grip and hold onto, which is a nice touch.

However, the real star of the show is the Steam Deck OLED itself. While the device really isn’t bigger than the LCD Steam Deck, the larger screen was immediately noticeable. The smaller bezels make the 7.4” OLED screen feel massive compared to the standard 7” LCD on the old model, even though it still boasts the same 800p resolution. 

The screen isn’t just an OLED upgrade either, but it also allows for HDR gaming, as well as a 90hz refresh rate, an upgrade over the LCD’s 60hz limit. The OLED is rated for a peak brightness of up to 1000 nits for that HDR coverage, and it also covers 110% of the P3 color gamut, making it incredibly accurate. The touchscreen itself is also upgraded over the standard LCD screen, making