Wrong. See above. Here is my 1tb oled etched deck compared to my original. The etched doesn’t ruin the oled in anyway. You get the perks of oled and the benefits of anti glare. There’s a reason valve put it on the top model. This argument is put to bed, forever. Etched is superior. Drops mic

Damn you might be right and I hadn’t thought of it at all. I was just gonna buy the 1tb version, but this makes me want the cheaper one. This is the same reason I’m using the LG C2 as a monitor instead of an oled monitor with a matte screen. The glossy just looks so much better

Monitors are usually in fixed positions and often users can fix light reflections, but not always. The steam deck is portable and would be subject to more possibilities of light reflection. Also, you can slap a screen protector on top and it makes the anti glare moot.

You can still buy a limited model and just put a protective glass cover to fix that, though.

I want the limited edition so bad but I might just get the 512gb old version just because the etched feels like such a misplay. I have a non etched rn and got a 35$ matte screen protector and I was so disappointed with how it looked I went back to a glass screen protector. Then I saw my friends 512gb with etched and he asked me why my screen looked better 💀. Can’t imagine the difference with OLED. Feel like you’d be losing fidelity of the big thing you’re paying for. :/

He also said screen protector solved that issue.

Maybe Dave2D is a bit overiacting about something he observed, that you can only observe if they are side by side and he isn’t considering the benefits enough. We need more reviewers before we make any conclusions.

The etched screen also means you cant put on a screen protector.

Just as with the LCD version - it is visually and practically the WORST choice. And always has been.

I allways go for the TOP TIER version. I absolutly HATE the glare on my colleaques deck

All these discussions on the display made me go and revisit the anti-glare protector that I had on my 256 GB Deck. The moment I took it off, I could immediately tell the difference in contrast and text clarity. Sure there’s more glare, but the colors just pop so much more and the blacks are so much better. This re-affirms my decision on going with the 512GB OLED Deck. If the reflections bother me for some reason, I can just add an anti-gloss coating in the future, but it is impossible to get the clarity of the non-coated screen if I want that. Based on my experiences with my LG C2 OLED, it is hard to go back from true black levels I’m used to seeing and you can never get that with the etched screen and applying any sort of glossy protector on top.

I would never replace the storage myself on a device. That’s why i want the larger storage out of the box. I use my etched steamdeck original daily. It absolutely is not blurry lol. The screen looks great, and its just LCD. It will be even better with oled. It also is essentially unscratchable. For a lot of people, even small scratches on their devices is a big deal. My etched deck doesn’t have one single scratch after two years of heavy use and even drops. I don’t want to have to mess with a screen protector. How much this is being blown out of proportion is crazy. You get a lot of benefits with etched - more storage, anti glare, freedom to play anywhere, more durable screen, most premium model. with the one tradeoff of BARELY noticable color downgrade. You would think from all these comments that the etched glass makes games unplayable. I played my deck yesterday. First in the living room with all the lights on. My son was playing his oled switch. My screen was perfect, his was filled with glare. then i played later in the dark, and my screen looked excellent. Once you get the device, you are never going to notice or care about a tiny downgrade in screen brightness or blacks. But you will notice the glare, the ability to play anywhere anytime, and the fact that the etched is so durable the screen will not scratch. If someone wants to buy the cheaper model because of the savings, then that makes sense. But trying to twist this argument into saying that glossy version is a better device is simply untrue. When i’m traveling or going anywhere, i dont have to give it a second thought about my lighting environments. It’s a portable device, thats why Valve chose to put etched on their top model. Anyone with the glossy has to plan and think about how to make it work when they play in different light environments. In the end, the obsession over making the screen look 5% better, is going to be such a moot point compared to all the benefits of etched.