If you look at the 3 console manufacturers, you’ll notice a pattern. Switch OLED was announced 3 months before release. Ps4 pro was announced 2 months before its release. Xbox one x was announced 5 months before release.
The steam deck OLED? 7 days
The reason that manufacturers give consumers at least a couple months before a release of a new device is so they can feel they made an informed decision on their purchase, and not feel burned when the next iteration is released. No, the device they currently have doesn’t lose inherent value to them. However, knowing that the next thing is coming out in just a couple weeks could make informed consumers hold off for the sale of the now outdated model.
Also inb4 people say “but it’s not a console…”, PC manufacturers have pretty consistent hardware release schedules as well, so the comparison stands.
The fact is this is an established norm for other manufacturers and that valve went against just comes across as anti consumer. And I think that just surprised a lot of people since Gabe’s whole “piracy is almost always a service problem…” Take and the return policy on games make the company appear as super consumer centric, however this release feels out of character.
Taking into account that we get the same performance. I’m not mad at all. If this was a whole new generation then yes. I would see how this can be “anti-consumer” but with this refresh. If anything it just makes me happy that my current deck will keep running games for at least another 2y before I really need to upgrade.
Valve went the switch route and i couldn’t be happier since that means that devs will have to stop ignoring the deck market and actually optimize their games to it. Heck. If companies can do it for switch. They can definitely do it for the deck.
Hoping for SD 2 to be released later than sooner.
Yes, the performance is only marginally better, but I think the 90hz screen will still make it a noticeably better experience.
Probably. But taking into account that most AAA games don’t even run at 45fps stable. I find it hard to find the real advantage of 90hz screen.
The OLED screen is great. The bigger battery and additional hour of play time is superb. But the rest is pretty much the same.
Performance is similar but you will be getting better image quality with an Oled.
Someone on Youtube compiled a full list of differences:
Feels substantial enough for me to understand why people are annoyed who bought it recently when you consider they paid a similar price for what is pretty objectively an inferior product with not enough time to feel like they actually got any milage out of said product. In a way I find it ironic that they did a good thing by keeping the price of the new product down low, but that is the same factor that makes people who just bought the old one feel like they’ve been ripped off.
Really comes down to personal preference. While this is a nice long list of improvements. At the end of the day I compare my experience with one deck vs another. And what I can see as a perceivable difference.
For me it looks like Switch vs Switch OLED. And as much as the OLED screen looks nice, I never thought about upgrading my switch.