I’m pretty sure most here expected improved cooling, not an entirely new device.
The SteamDeck isnt a console, its a PC. You literally have generational updates in the desktop CPU space where the only changes are efficiency and higher clock rates, even if marginal improvement.
Unlike consoles, SteamDeck OLED isn’t going to cap frames or frequencies to maintain parity. It will push those as high as it can, like all PCs do.
“But bro, only 5% improvement, why u mad?”
For handhelds, its not just fps (where even a seemingly marginal change can mean the difference between inconsistent 25fps to locked 30 - which is a huge perceptual difference) but also battery life, which with the steam deck an extra 10wh can lead to more than an hour, which is a 25%Plus improvement. These all add up to a significantly improved experience for the same price. Not just a revision.
To pretend it’s simply a display and efficiency change is being dishonest.
To put it simply, if they tried to make a steamdeck 2, they couldn’t do much better than this. OG steamdeck already competes with the latest ryzen apu at reasonable wattage. Resolution is optimal (people criticized DeckHD for increasing resolution). Now make it more efficient, increase battery size by 25%, give it high refresh OLED, and faster RAM in an APU and you have a new, upgraded machine, not just a refined version of the original.
I’m still going to get one, but sucks for those who got the steamdeck with the understanding that there would be no upgrades, just revisions till at least 2025 per statements from Valve
If valve never said anything, then yeah it is what it is, but they did and should own up to it since its simply not a revision, like it was heavily implied. There were plenty of posts here where people asked if they should wait and got the reply “why?, valve said nothing major until at least 2025”
Literally people here and on discords thought any revisions would be better cooling (the mythical black backplate) and at most more efficient APU.
Definitely not a bigger battery (biggest among the major handhelds) definitely not faster ram, and most definitely not an OLED for the same price.
If you don’t want Valve to become a scummy company, like many other cherished companies in the past, you have to call them out for scummy practices like this. If valve didn’t say anything about 2025 earlier, then fine, but unfortunately they did and if it mislead any, which I’m sure they did, then they should do something.
I say all this because fans who turn a blind eye to obviously bad practices and then ask “oh what happened” when a profit focused company does the inevitable are the most annoying people on Earth. I like valve, please don’t let a mistake become a malignancy.
Offer trade ins.
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I didn’t buy a 2070 when it came out. I didn’t buy a 3070 when it came out. I didn’t buy the 4070 when it came out.
Sure those may seem like huge improvements generationally, but my 1070 is still capable. Sure a 4070 is nice, but my 1070 still works well.
Once ever half decade I have enough money saved up for new PC stuff and this last five years went to the steam deck.
Im gonna skip this one, but i really hope the next stronger steamdeck comes with an OLED and 1TB option. They should not go backwards
I think it’s cool and fine they did upgrades! But yeah my only qualm is they went on the record recently about not doing a big hardware update for 2 yrs
I literally unboxed mine 12 days ago, but because it arrived 15 days ago, I’m screwed. I literally pulled the trigger on the RECENT news there would be no updates. This is a very serious lie of omission. I’m really not happy about it, and I, until now, thought better of valve.
You knew there was a revision on the way (based on your other comments) and you decided to get one anyways on a TWO YEAR OLD piece of consumer electronics.
Unlike consoles, SteamDeck OLED isn’t going to cap frames or frequencies to maintain parity. It will push those as high as it can, like all PCs do.
To pretend it’s simply a display and efficiency change is being dishonest.
The clockspeeds are the same between models. This means performance is the same.
The screen is nicer. The battery is bigger and the chip is more efficient so you have more time on battery. The wifi is better if you happen to have a wifi 6 or 6e router at home.
It’s the exact same situation as with the Switch -> Switch OLED just with added wifi improvement too. My brother in Christ get a grip on yourself. Games aren’t playing better. Your LCD Deck is not lesser than it was yesterday. It still plays games very well.
This.
It is just a revision. Minute gains if you’re a ‘pro’ user maybe. Great for the platform as a whole that resolution and clock speed hasn’t changed as it will just expand the user base that game developers need to ensure reasonable performance on.
Hopefully it’ll get people that haven’t bought it to buy a steamdeck.
No one loses here; it means another two possibly three or four years of solid support from Valve for both models due to hardware similarity, and long term support from developers.
Performance has been shown to be improved by the early reviewers. Additionally, temps are way down too. This means the savvy users can get even more performance gains.
I agree with this but using the OLED Switch is a bad example. With both jailbroken, the OLED can reach higher clock speeds.
This isn’t intended as a gotcha because again, I agree with you since there’s no way Valve would limit the Deck like Nintendo does the Switch, but more a fun fact for anyone who might be interested.
The faster, more powerful second version of the Switch was secretly released by Nintendo as the OLED