I think the term Mura is being misused as I’m not seeing splotchy panels reported, the Samsung panel just seems a bit grainy on solid colour backgrounds but I can’t say I’ve seen it in games yet tbh. Even in menus you kind of have to look for it IME.
I wonder what screens review units had as I’ve not seen it mentioned at all in official channels? You’d assume Samsung since they were all non-LE but if they were pre-production units then who knows?
I’m waiting for a future where some sort of egpu support is possible before I can treat the Deck as a primary console as I like my eye candy but that is where I hope things will go.
A ROG Ally with an XG Mobile is a very expensive and somewhat compromised sneak peak at this concept but I hope it catches on and continues to be improved!
It’s very very easy, basically like any other console at this point. You may have to tweak settings in some games to get them to run as you like but many have default Steam Deck settings for plug and play. If you’re interested in getting into PC gaming but find it daunting it’s a great stepping stone and may give you the confidence to get into Windows/desktop gaming further down the line.
All that being said I’m still not sure I’d personally recommend it as a completely stand alone console if you have zero interest in PC gaming outside of the Deck, for me it’s a companion device to a PC. This may change if Steam OS evolves to desktop machines and we start seeing Steam like consoles, or alternatively eGPU like docks for future Steam Deck models etc. That’s where I’d like to see Valve eventually take this.
Unless he wants to start investing in the PC gaming eco system I’d advise against it, a Steam Deck is a great companion to a PC gamer with a decent Steam library but I’d find it difficult to really recommend to a console gamer, especially as a surprise gift. He’d need to know what he’s getting into before purchasing IMO.
I’d been using mine without noticing this before reading it, now it’s been mentioned I can hear a very low level hum/static when no audio is playing but it’s so quiet it hadn’t even really registered without consciously listening for it.
I’d wager this affects all OLED Decks and the severity varies depending on your headphones.
I have a dock connected to my TV via HDMI, when I plug the Deck into it the screen goes off as if it’s re-routing to the TV even if the TV is off or on a different input so this is how I do long downloads.
Leave game open when sleeping 80% of the time maybe, always make sure there’s a recent save though to be safe.
All of them….all of the games.
It’s as comfortable as a device of this size and weight possibly could be IMO, it’s very obvious they spent a lot of time on ergonomics.
No right or wrong answer here, the OLED is a big enough upgrade to warrant it if you feel it justifies the cost. The LCD is still good enough that you don’t need to feel bad about it if you don’t, it’s still a very relevant device and hasn’t been remotely obsoleted by the OLED.
Very well measured product by Valve, they threaded the needle perfectly. (Full disclosure: I upgraded)
Of course there will be defective Samsung panels, no electronics manufacturer has a 0% failure rate. It’s undeniable from the small sample size we’ve seen so far though that it’s much more common to have an issue with a BOE panel, nothing definitive can be derived from this but there’s enough evidence that it warrants talking about.
It still may be a minority but there’s already enough anecdotal evidence on here to suggest there’s some kind of QC control issue with the BOE panel vs the Samsung panel. I don’t think I’ve read one report of a dead pixel on a Samsung but they are already numerous with the BOE.
Whatever happens though don’t worry, Valve are a very pro-consumer company compared to the norm in the tech world and I’m confident they will make it right for anyone affected, if this does turn out to be a widespread problem I wouldn’t put it past them to offer screen replacements on all LE models down the line.
UK - 1TB OLED with a Samsung panel. No dead pixels to report!
UK here, mine’s coming today! Shipped Tues evening and got Parcel Force email yesterday instructing delivery today.
UK here, mine is being delivered tomorrow. Stay strong everyone, your time will come!
These OLED upgrade excuse stories are getting wild…
I play a lot of games at 40-45 fps on Deck and knew there would be decent input lag reductions to be had at those refresh rates as soon as I heard about the 90hz screen, it’s one of the things that sold me into upgrading (I may not have bothered if it was just 60hz OLED).
Something else I’m interested to see develop which I’ve not seen discussed is how viable 90hz will make FSR3/frame generation on Deck. I’d wager it’s completely unplayable at 30>60hz but 45>90hz is very playable on my desktop 4080 rig with Nvidia’s implementation and the smaller screen will surely hide any imperfections of the AI frames as long as input lag is acceptable.
I stream on Moonlight in the house too so 90hz again will have big input lag wins in that application along with now being able to stream in HDR. So many potentially game changing upgrades for me, excited to get tinkering!
It depends what kind of games you play. Old games and emulation sure, newer games not so much.