The Steam Deck OLED looks as good as it can get, at least until the real sequel

Enlarge (credit: Valve)

Valve has said they do not plan to update their handheld PC gaming system, the Steam Deck, in any way that gives one Deck a performance advantage over another, both for developers and customers. A true sequel, with more power, is “a few years” away. Valve is keeping their word. Despite the appearance of a new Steam Deck model on the way last month, today’s announcement of a “Limited Edition” Steam Deck OLED is very much an incremental update, despite the absolute wealth of little improvements it offers.

The new OLED Steam Decks will be available at 10 a.m. Pacific (1 p.m. Eastern) on Nov. 16. A 512GB version at $549 replaces its LCD predecessor with the same storage, and a $679 1TB “Limited Edition” version, with anti-glare etched glass and a distinct smoky red colorway, is available, though “Quantities are highly limited” of the latter. A $399, 256GB LCD Steam Deck will stick around, while the 64 and 512GB versions of the LCD model are a bit cheaper while supplies last.

There’s a heck of a lot that’s improved in the OLED Steam Deck, minus one core thing: the core powers of its chips. Sharp eyes will catch on the spec sheet that the LCD Deck has a 7nm AMD APU package, with the CPU running 2.4-3.5GHz, and the GPU 1.0-1.6GHz. The OLED Deck sports a 6nm APU, but removes the GPU range, instead implying a consistent 1.6GHz output. Memory bandwidth has also been boosted from 5500 to 6400 MT/s, a 15% jump. It’s more sustained peak performance, and a bit more RAM for frame-rate boosting, but with compatibility maintained.