- Valve’s refurbished Steam Deck OLED is now more affordable than a new LCD model
- It is now 20% cheaper than brand new OLED models
- Stock is likely low in the US and already out of stock in the UK
Valve’s Steam Deck OLED models compete with the likes of the Asus ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go – and now the competition is growing with refurbished OLED models that are much cheaper than new options, and almost as cheap as the only remaining LCD -model.
According to Tom’s Hardwarethe Steam Deck OLED is now 20% cheaper than the new 512GB and 1TB models, with the former costing $439 and the latter $519. This is via Valve certified refurbished programwith devices that are fully tested and functional, along with the one year warranty you would get on a new model (more depending on your region).
While the Steam Deck OLED isn’t nearly as powerful as the ROG Ally or Lenovo Legion Go (both use the Z1 Extreme APU), it remains a competent device in multiple games – it has a 90Hz display with additional HDR support and the ability of 1000 nits peak brightness, compared to the LCD screen’s 600 nits.
Although these refurbished options are available in the UK and US, all options (including LCD) are currently out of stock in the UK. If you live in the US, the only refurbished models available are the two 512GB and 1TB OLED options. Depending on how quickly this went out of stock in the UK, you might want to act now before it’s too late.
What does this mean for competition with other portable gaming PCs?
As I mentioned earlier, the Steam Deck LCD and OLED don’t really come close to delivering the same level of performance as other more recent portable gaming PCs – both the Asus ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go outperform the device at a higher 1080p resolution, and this is even more the case with the Ally
If you’re not too concerned about getting high performance on a handheld, and are more concerned about display quality, then the Steam Deck OLED or the Lenovo Legion Go are the two devices to consider. However, with this price drop on the refurbished OLED models, I would more than likely opt for Valve’s popular gaming system over Lenovo’s expensive Legion Go at MSRP.
There’s no word on whether there will be a successor to the Steam Deck, but if it ever does, I hope the processor used can match or at least come close to the offerings from Asus, Lenovo, and MSI.