Valve Announces The Steam Deck OLED With Upgraded Display, 6nm APU & Larger Battery

[TemplarGR]

It is a game console. Having a more recent Zen architecture doesn't bring much to the table in terms of performance. If you want more gaming performance, you need a far better gpu and faster RAM. Even larger disk storage is of far more importance that the miniscule IPC gains of each Zen generation. The reasons for the 6nm node are battery consumption and probably better availability. No reason to upgrade if you own one already. but obviously good for those buying new.

[TemplarGR]

if Qualcomm is able to push Windows on ARM in 2 years, then maybe arm chip for long battery life

And no game compatibility at all.....

[moilami]

Will maybe buy this, need handheld at work. Currently rooted 3DS works more than great, but want to support Valve Linux ecosystem.

[Lysius]

I have about 1000 hours of Tap Ninja on my Deck. If my Deck had an OLED display, there would likely be severe burnin of the fixed GUI elements by now.

[Teggs]

It looks like Valve have been doing exactly what they should, looking at all parts of the design and improving them.

Zen 4c cores would've been nice. Maybe in two years.

In two years, why not Zen 5c cores? Valve might also want one or two full-fat cores to boost high for games, and more (RDNA4) CUs for what I guess will be a 1920x1080 screen. Of course, it takes more power, but I don't think they should make another borderline device when it's possible to move up the ladder a bit. It will be interesting to see what they pick among power, performance, and what parts AMD actually makes. If AMD continues their current strategy of only pairing more graphics with more CPU cores, the APUs available may not match what Valve needs.

Valve's strategy of opening Steam OS to other handheld makers seems to have failed, anyway, so Steam Deck 2 will be necessary. Unless Micrsoft Gaming division implodes.

[fallingcats]

I find it hilarious that they even upgraded the cable length.

HDR should even start working in desktop mode once Plasma 6 is released btw

[bple2137]

HDR should even start working in desktop mode once Plasma 6 is released btw

That statement is a bit of a stretch. It is only true if we talk games + a game must be wrapped in Gamescope and it's not fully done yet from what I understand. But yes, there will be a functional HDR some time in the 6.x cycle.

[NeoMorpheus]

And no game compatibility at all.....

And thanks to qualcomm being the dicks they are, your device will have a lifespan of 3 years.

[Eudyptula]

Many small strategic improvements across the boards makes for a big overall improvement.

- 25 % higher energy capacity, but 30 - 50 % longer battery life. In part due to the more efficient display (which is also a lot brighter, mind you) but also the more efficient APU.

- The APU TDP remains the same. Though, the same workload will draw less power and perform better.

- The GPU clock is listed as 1.6 GHz versus 1.0-1.6 GHz. Can this be interpreted as less GPU throttling due to increased headroom from the improved efficiency (and possibly also the improved cooling solution)?

- Memory speed is now 6400 MTs (vs 5500 MT/s).

- Faster storage

- Display now supports 90 Hz refresh rate (up from 60 Hz) and 110 % P3 color gamut (no data on the old display). 1000 nits peak brightness (up from 400 nits).

- High performance touch (are they referring to the increased polling rate of 180 Hz?). Might improve touch keyboard experience.

- Improved haptics and new trackpads

- BT 5.3 (vs 5.0), Wi-Fi 6E (vs Wi-Fi 5)

- Better speakers

- The spec sheet doesn't say, but the old Deck models except 64 GB model had NVMe SSDs as well (as opposed to eMMC which was only for the 64 GB model). The new SSDs should perform better.


This OLED HDR display update at this time is not some "spur of the moment" thing. I see it as a good sign. Not only an indication of progression but also an indication of intent. They would surely update the display regardless, but to market HDR capabilities in this manner only makes sense depending on the state of HDR development and their ambitions for HDR. There is a snowball effect happening right now and it's nice to see.


All in all a very logical and fruitful hardware refresh. The many small improvements come from many smart decisions resulting in a more cost-effective product. Effectively making room for new capabilities while maintaining what is likely to be a similarly beneficial price. We all know it's not a profit machine, but that's only true in isolation without accounting for the larger picture.

But I cannot justify purchasing another, even if the display is HDR. I can only hope they'll release an upgrade kit or something.

It really doesn't make sense to replace the old model, these are small changes (although very nice ones).

An upgrade kit makes no sense as you'd have to replace the entire motherboard and for all we know the new cooling solution means they've changed up the internal design in a way that isn't backwards compatible with the old internals. Either way, the only thing that would seem reasonably possible is a screen upgrade. But then again, does the old hardware support it? Does the new front casing fit? Do they even have enough parts and is there even demand for it?

I've been a steam hater since steam existed. But I'm so amazed, what Valve did for Linux. I installed Steam 2 Weeks ago on some throwaway Email to test the FSR3 Forspoken Demo and ... thats it. I'm registering a proper account and will buy this thing. Please let the Oled display have VRR. *edit* Ok, just seen the LTT review and he says no VRR. He even asked Valve, they said because they use MIPI instead of eDP they can't support it... ;_(

Out of curiousity, why have you been a Steam hater?

Regarding MIPI display. I'm guessing it's due to the display size and specifications. As far as I can gather, MIPI is more common in smaller and lower resolution displays. As well as being cheaper than eDP. If that is indeed the case I think it's reasonable to wish for eDP with the Steam Deck 2, likely featuring a higher resolution display.

Personally, I find the resolution as of now to be too low (it would be beneficial for less demanding games and usage outside gaming, incl. video playback). As much as I dislike the low resolution, I understand the decision. In relation to the limited hardware power it's a sensible decision considering they need to make the most of the budget and they know people will judge the performance by how it runs in maximum resolution.

Will they now care about Kwin having good HDR support or they will still care only about Gamescope?
It would be nice if they would give grants to both KDE and Mozilla to bring and polish HDR support on their sides!
Maybe they can do it as Christmas gifts.

As far as I know they have put resources where it makes sense. KDE is already hard at work on getting HDR working. There have been contributions in relation to HDR by Valve employees, if I'm not mistaken. Red Hat, I believe Gnome and of course other contributors have been working on it from different angles.

I don't have an accurate overview over who's done what, but I know there has been a lot of effort from different camps in different areas.

It doesn't necessarily make sense for Valve to work on kwin and stuff is happening there anyway. There are certain pieces of the puzzle that needs to be in place first before the picture can be fully completed, so it's not strange for me that we are first now seeing this great snowball effect.

[moriel5]

From my searches, it seems that the WiFi/Bluetooth module is a Quectel FC66E which is probably, though not definitely a Qualcomm module.

What is particularly neat, is that not only does it support WiFi 6E, but also 160Mhz channels, on both WiFi 5 and 6/6E, so up to 1.76Gbps (instead of up to 866Mbps) on WiFi 5, and up to 2.4Gbps (instead of up to 1.8Gbps) on 5Ghz WiFi 6/WiFi 6E.