Valve Unveils OLED Model For Steam Deck

Your Steam Deck isn’t obsolete yet, but it’s getting there. Valve Corporation decided to pull a Switch and refresh the current Deck with a fancier screen. The announcement was made out of nowhere this morning.

The Steam Deck OLED, as it’s officially named, has an OLED screen that pushes brighter colors and more vivid details. Is that it? Well, there’s also an improved battery that lasts a bit longer and a slightly stronger wi-fi module inside. And it’s approximately 30 grams lighter. You decide if all that is enough to upgrade.

Like the original model, the Steam Deck OLED will come in three varieties: 256GB, 512GB and 1TB. Preorders are not live, but Steam is currently clearing out the 256GB model of the LCD screen Deck for $399, which is a reduced price. They’re also planning a “limited edition” model of the 1TB OLED with a slightly translucent shell and red accents, which will cost $30 more.

There are actually improvements in the works for the Deck that apply to all models: when the OLED ships it will support refresh rates up to 90FPS — and so will the regular Deck, after a firmware update. That update will also add HDR support and frame doubling when the Deck is connected to an external monitor like a TV.

When is a “real” Steam Deck 2 coming? Valve knows if they don’t answer this now, they’re going to keep having to dodge the question over and over, so they got it out of the way: it will be at least “two to three years” before the true next generation of Decks will be ready. According to Valve, some of the parts they’d need don’t even exist yet.

Preorders for the Steam Deck OLED will go live November 16 on this page.