Valve has announced the Steam Deck OLED, a new model of their popular Steam Deck handheld PC with a host of welcome hardware improvements.
The original Steam Deck, released in 2022, was an absolute game changer in the world of portable PC gaming. While there were other portable PCs already on the market, such as the Anbernic RG552, the Steam Deck offered fantastic performance and a much more polished software experience when it came to playing your library of Steam games.
However, this older model did have its flaws, such as the extremely short battery life. Our tests showed this during gameplay God of War: Ragnarokthe handheld could barely hold more than an hour and a half of power before running out of power, which undeniably hampered our dream of spending hours in the bath playing the best PC games.
Fortunately, Valve clearly took these complaints into consideration when creating this upcoming revised model. Announced on the Steam Deck page of the Steam storeLaunching on November 16, the Steam Deck OLED features a more vibrant OLED screen, a 30-50% larger battery, and Wi-Fi 6E support for up to 3x faster game downloads.
All this in addition to “renewed thermals” under the hood, which should ensure that the handheld remains cooler during more intensive gaming sessions. The Steam Deck carrying case, which comes with more expensive models, has also received some tweaks, including the addition of a removable liner that provides a thinner and lighter way to protect your system.
There are currently two main models of the Steam Deck OLED on the horizon: the $549/£479 512GB model and the $649/£569 1TB model. A premium limited edition version with a unique paint scheme will be available later on November 16 for $679, although it will only be available in very limited quantities exclusively in the US and Canada.
The older edition of the Steam Deck, now called the LCD model, has also received a price reduction. It now costs just $399 / £349 for the 256GB model, potentially making it a good option for those looking to save some money. However, this is now the only version of the LCD model available, as the 64GB and 512GB configurations have been completely discontinued. While stock is still available now at heavily discounted prices through the Steam Store, such models will not be restocked in the future.
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