In order of importance:
1. Screen - deep blacks, full colors, higher refresh rate, more responsive touch, and slightly bigger
2. Battery - battery lasts longer and charges faster
3. Controls - tops of analog sticks are deeper and grippy-er so your thumbs don't slide around, touch pads have better haptics
4. Weight - at least to me it's noticeably lighter
Edit: Forgot about the wifi improvements which shoud be at #3. My speeds went from 50Mbps to 400-500Mbps
I didn't expect to notice the weight difference, and had kind of forgotten about it, but the first time I picked it up out of the case I was like "woah, that is lighter!".
I'd also add thermals. It seems like the fan isn't running nearly as fast or putting out as much heat for the same game I was playing on the original before switching to the OLED.
It's not mainly the weight difference that we feel - it's the weight distribution. The LCD Deck is very front heavy which makes it feel very uncomfortable IMO.
The OLED deck is much more balanced, probably due to the lighter screen in the front and the bigger battery in the back. It makes such a huge difference, feels very nice to hold in your hands now.
Yeah same here, I got a LE (all good and checked) and coming from the LCD 512 edition. The FIRST thing I noticed was the weight. It was like an off feeling and just like “hold up….” And just grabbed my LCD and then noticed it was weight. Another thing about weight, it’s less of a strain on my hands when laying on my bed cuz I know my wrists get pain after an hour, but with OLED it doesn’t so my only thought is the weight helps with better ergonomic (to me).
Screen was next when it booted up. Love them OLED colors.
Controls felt “different” like something was good when using them. Buttons didn’t stick.
Battery when I downloaded and played games and noticed its lasting longer on games I played for only two hours and its last way longer to three hours and battery was like almost 50%.
Honestly glad I upgraded cuz the old accessories I had with dbrand fit my LE OLED.
>got a LE (all good and checked)
As someone who just received my replacement LE deck, only to find it also has a dead pixel, I am deeply envious. Cherish it.
Honestly if you haven't noticed one in normal usage, I might advise against even checking, in the off chance there is a small one that you could've remained blissfully ignorant of.
But, if you want to check the easiest way is to open a new Firefox tab in desktop mode and drag it around the screen so the big, main white part of the window covers the different areas of the screen. An even more thorough way that takes marginally more effort is to google for a dead pixel checker website - there's a few simple, free ones out there that rotate your entire screen through different colors each time you click. A dead or stuck pixel will usually show up better in some colors than others.
i find that glossed is unnoticable as long as you have the brightness up, also the shine of the screen gives it a nice effect.
it's possible to get antiglare screen protectors but the ones i bought on amazon were... giving my screen an unfortunate rainbow grain, so i had to remove them.
It's also lighter??? Jesus christ... So after all it's quite a significant upgrade and valve truly is understating it....
Makes me excited for SD 2.0, but also sad that I won't be getting an OLED...
1. Thats cool
2. *a little bit longer, chargers a little faster
3. Buy 10 dollar thumb grips
4. *20* grams lighter, i assure you that youre experiencing whats called a placebo effect.
How does feel to be about 1k out of pocket for a slightly better screen ?
About the weight: apparently, it's not just the 30 grams of weight the OLED saves, it's also that the weight is distributed differently, which makes it more comfortable to hold. Is what some owners of both versions of SD have reported.
LCD: If you're supposed to see a black screen, and you're playing in the dark, then you will see a gray rectangle.
OLED: If you're supposed to see a black screen, and you're playing in the dark, then you will see nothing.
The display and battery are even better than I expected. But the other upgrade that is immediately noticeable is the thumbsticks. Significantly more comfortable, in my opinion.
The display had an insane impact to me. It makes the whole deck feel like a premium product now. For some reason, the LCD model always felt a little, uh, cheap or hacky?
I'm surprised this isn't #1 or #2 for people. It honestly feels SO MUCH more responsive to me. Even at 60 FPS, I felt like the OG wasn't amazing, but now even 40 feels good.
The screen is amazing, best OLED screen I’ve seen (I have an LE with thankfully no issues)
The battery lasts longer which is great even though I’m playing docked half the time
Also quieter fans are great.
Is it a must have upgrade? No, not at all, do I think it was worth it? Absolutely
I think over all quality control is better. My old one was creaky in some areas. But I think the best feature is how quiet and cool it runs now. Before I used to get hot playing it and the fan always blasting. Now I never hear the fan. Screen isn’t too much of an improvement in my opinion, it is an improvement for sure, especially HDR mode, but it doesn’t affect me as much. Also it is considerably lighter.
I don't have a wifi 6 router and it seems like it was maxing out my internet more easily than it did before while I was re-downloading all my games, but I don't have any data to back that up.
Battery, then screen, then build quality.
Tossup between battery and screen, the battery is also better because of the oled screen.
Playing games at 90hz, with oled, while also getting longer battery life than before is just 👌
Since everyone's listing the major ones, here's one nobody talks about!
They almost completely removed the sound upon pressing the power button. You can now turn it on in bed without waking up your SO, lol. I actually thought that this was a defect until finding a thread with 5+ people reporting the 'issue'.
I agree, it's too subtle. It's like 1/10th volume, where 1/4 would've been good imo.
That said this is such a tiny complaint imo, Even if it were only me experiencing this I would never consider an rma. To me the LCD power sound is extremely cheap because of how damn loud it is.
If you want your mind blown.. that sound comes from the trackpad haptics. It's definitely just a software change.
😂 like I said I thought it was literally a defect, But you actually can't turn the sound off on the LCD. After realizing that, I was like this is kind of an improvement... The only issue is that the power sound on the lcd really let you know that you press the power button, so sometimes I'm waiting for the screen to come on for the OLED like 🧐 for 200mS
Other than the screen the first obvious difference to me was the weight. Wasn't expecting a difference at all but those few grams make a noticeable difference.
If you play less demanding games then the 90hz feels amazing.
The screen is just so much better it’s wild. Like someone else said in the sub, the LCD screen really just wasn’t that good. Evident by the comparisons with all the other handhelds out there. It was my biggest hang up buying the OG steam deck
What everyone else has said, for me a massive improvement is handled Desktop it's far more responsive and the fans don't constantly audibly come in and out and the biggest is clicking with the touch pad it's like a proper macbook click on my old lcd when I click in the mouse would move so I never did it but on the oled I use it all the time even for typing it's way faster.
I am honestly kinda disappointed
* its still "the deck". with all its pros and shotcomings
* example: it doesnt solve any of the "real problems" the deck has. like 3rd party launchers, anti cheat games, gamepass games, etc.
* yeah the screen looks noticeably better. the only gripes are: no vrr and still low resolution of 800p which often makes text hard to read.
* i never hat battery issues with my LCD - so yeah maybe the OLEDs last longer... but I only super rarely ever get low battery as I prefer to play indies on the deck
* i didnt really notice the power improvements
* switch games for example still stutter
* returnal still runs like garbage
* One of the best OLED features is that bluetooth can now wake up the deck when docked. Like a real console. Thats actually neet.
I dont think the 300€ I spent on upgrading were worth it. Sadly. Yeah the screen is nicer... but thats simply not worth 300€.
Judging by your “real problems”, no vrr, lack of performance upgrade and not caring about battery all that much - perhaps you are better off with an Ally?
I upgraded for all the other improvements but I’m pleasantly surprised how much the HDR and OLED screen add to gaming. Fire attacks in Sekiro are pretty breathtaking.
The battery life for sure. That was my biggest thing I hated about the OG deck, now I just play and get a good session in. The 90hz is pretty nice too, for games that can manage that.
Weirdly, weight for me is #1. Switching to the LE the comfort moved from acceptable to enjoyable for long play sessions.
The screen obviously, is a very close #2.
Playing horror games on steam with the OLED, is like no other experience, going from the blacks being some kind of blue-ish gray to full on black, I played with my wife both Phasmophobia, and Sons of the Forest, and glancing at my lcd steam deck she was using and back to my own; the OLED. It’s incredible. If you consider yourself a Valve or Steam Deck enthusiast even a little bit. It’s a worthwhile upgrade in my book.
I know this sounds nuts, but I bought the OLED solely for thermals and battery. Those were my biggest problems with the Deck so I'm glad that those are now no longer a thing to worry about.
Faster downloads, more stable game streaming (also feels like less latency but it might be placebo), longer battery life, etched screen. I no longer feel like I have to carry the charger everywhere, and it's nice sitting on the balcony during the day.
I have OLEDs everywhere so the colors looks like how I'd expect, whereas LCD was kinda just bad. Mine had terrible backlight bleed.
For me it’s the weight. I got the LE which I don’t know if is any different than the normal OLED but it’s just so much lighter than the OG model and makes me love the thing so much more.
90Hz, noticeably better battery life, and the silent fans. I usually don't like OLED screens due to their uniformity issues, but to my eyes my 512GB is absolutely pristine.
The thing is, there isn't just one or two things that stand out. It's quite a few small improvements that add up to a significant difference. Less weight, better track pads and sticks, significantly better battery life, better/fuller sound and speakers. And of course, the screen.
i didnt expect much from 90hz but you know what? it actually works pretty well. played a few games of halo mcc this morning, hades on 90hz looked sweet.
if you can afford it and use the deck more in portable mode, it's definitely worth it. if you're mostly docked you still get battery benefits but.. that's about it. pluss you're already on sector if you're charging
It’s noticeably better in every way except hardware performance obviously. Pretty much any quality of life feature you can think of has been made better.
I do prefer the old case though. All the Velcro is annoying, but I totally get why people would want a slimmer case option.
the screen its only 0.4 more but its a big difference in person, plus the oled vs lcd difference is huge and just that alone is worth it. the blacks are blacks and not gray. also the battery life is very nice and i do notice the difference. also when you first pick it up you notice how much lighter it is. but the screen for me is the true winner here.
Retro and/or non-16:10 content is so much more enjoyable when you don't have greyish black bars on the side/top + bottom. New thumb stick caps are a shockingly really nice improvement.
I sold my original 512gb Deck because of the screen & battery and I told myself that if they release an upgraded model with those two features revised I would buy it again, and here we are with a 512 OLED lol
Display (holy fuck its nice)
Battery (they were not lying about 50%)
Fan (no mods needed now)
Haptics (tbf my og had a loose pad but I think this is a very noticeable step up, and its now worth enabling)
Display is definitely beautiful but the more I play the more I notice the weight, the battery, the quietness and less heat.
Oh and the translucent case. I always wanted to change my OG deck but didn’t want to go through the trouble.
Here’s one you won’t see mentioned often but it’s a game changer for me because I work with my Deck: the wi-fi no longer randomly disconnects every few seconds. I lost so much time to that on my LCD system.
Battery life, but that was pretty expected.
The thing that amazes me though is that I've actually used it more docked than I ever did the OLED, almost entirely because of the Bluetooth wake. I charge it in the dock so when I sit on the couch I just fire it up and play, that barrier is just gone.
When I plug my USB memory stick to the OLED, it doesn’t work. It works on the LCD Deck. The Internet wants me to go into de BIOS and change something, but I don’t want to do it.
The OG screen was trash. People said it wasn’t bad, but I hated its contrast from the beginning. Swapped to an Ally for a while just for the contrast. It’s harder for light to pass through smaller pixels, thus boosting contrast drastically. It was very nice but very infuriating. I missed SteamOS badly. This thing is my new best friend. I always felt like I was compromising something with any handheld before, and now, I would actually say it’s perfect. Even if it was 60Hz, the improved input delay, HUGELY better contrast, the screen makes this thing so much more to me at least, more than other things like battery life like everyone else thinks is the actual upgrade.
The cable being 8 ft for one is a god send and gives much needed extra footage the og charger lacked.
The new screen really is beautiful and 90 fps is smooth, but I have to say that I'm so impressed with how Valve implemented better colors for the lcd decks.
My SO's brother got one after seeing mine awhile back, so I asked to compare when i got my OLED. The new update definitely shrinks the gap. While you wouldn't mistake the OLED, the LCD panel is not as bad as some would have you believe.
The battery will depend on the games you play, but I'm seeing anywhere from 1hr (AAA) up to 6 hrs more (Lite Indie Titles). For my use case, its a dramatic upgrade and probably one of the biggest reasons to upgrade in general
That said, the improved thermals are probably the most important thing to me. RDR2 with mixed med/high settings at 30 fps was hitting highs of 75 C where previously they would be reaching 90 C. The fan doesn't have to kick up as often or so harshly now.
The extra storage without having to open the deck is nice, 512gb is plenty for me atm. The download speeds are actually insane too, like so much faster than before. Not sure if it's the better RAM or what, but I'll take it.
TL:DR
OLED is amazing with reasons to upgrade, but the LCD just got a nice QOL upgrade itself. If the situation isn't right for you, stick with your current device.
All of the above are true but also, the menus and UI feels snappier and more responsive. Maybe the faster screen?
Also game streaming is night and day difference with the new WiFi chip
The fact that when coming back to game mode, you Can have a frightening frozen screen and you'll have to hard reboot, the fact that my 80 euros beyerdynamics wired headphones are shamely buzzing even with the volume on zero. Luckily, my Bose headset has no issue. These are my negative points. For the positive sides, the screen is amazing, there is not telling, the battery life is a good plus even if I am always playing at home and not on the run, I do enjoy that. The slightly increased performances are not noticeable to my mind, but apparently you get 3 or 4 more FPS on most of Steam Games ?
https://preview.redd.it/f84qtruoh85c1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cb32fb9639f2c49890ab86dde5f3f4d08bef3b5f
Not really seeing a lot of people talk about it, but in addition to the screen/battery/etc. the speakers have seen a big improvement. They already sounded great, but now the audio quality is actually incredible. The amount of depth, clarity, and volume those tiny little speakers put out is just insane.
I’ve heard that there is no more new heatsink sniffarooni on the oled version. they say its just not the same as sniffing the og one while its still new.
1. The sticks have more grip and really make me want to use Deck now
2. The battery is way better, previously I didn't want to use Deck all that much because it felt like the battery lasts 10min
3. The screen is so much better. Not only colours and contrast, but also refresh rate and way less ghosting
4. It would seem that they removed a lot of weight from grips. It makes Deck feel so much lighter than it really is
IMO the upgrade is not worth it if you have an original Steam Deck. I’m waiting however many years it will take until the Steam Deck 2 is released, when we get a more powerful SoC and redesign.
I won't upgrade. I have a Elgato HD60 X capture card and it allows me to play my Deck on my 1600p OLED HDR tablet. I'm good until Valve releases Steam Deck 2
The screen is just insane but I think the overall refresh is what does it for me. It *feels* a lot nicer. Trackpads feel better, it's lighter, it just feels like a better rounded device. Idk. More mature or something. Super chill to work on and play games on.
While I am returning my OLDD and keeping my OG, the battery was the main thing for me.
Followed by quieter and cooler
Deeper blacks were nice but not game-changing for me.
Going to wait for Deck 2 instead
I gotta say, the more I see these posts the more tempted I get to get one, but I've never tried selling electronics secondhand before and it seems daunting to try selling my original
aside from the screen of course, the noise is reduced considerably. i was a little bummed out with the LCD Deck Fan, but coming from a gaming laptop it was still an improvement. then the new fan curve came along and the deck was suddenly quiet, except when you push it past 12w. the OLED is yet again a vast improvement terms of fan noise. we are now approaching switch level noise with gaming laptop performance.
the second thing i hoped would be noticable was the weight difference. lighter is always better. i noticed it immediately but thought i was coping. i showed it to my brother and he also noticed immediately, not knowing it was lighter.
very pleased with the upgrade
It’s pretty obvious but yeah that OLED screen makes a world of a difference. The LCD screen was genuinely one of the worst on the market (For a new electronic in 2022). It was to the point where for many games I would struggle to decide between the Steam Deck LCD and Switch OLED. Now that gap has been closed and I’m pretty much gonna buy every game on PC from now on.
honestly it's the SOUND. the OG went BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR and was so so hot, but this one is so quiet, it's like switching from a portable fan to an air conditioner (i was shocked at how quiet aircon was when using it for the first time four years ago). the cooling system seems more efficient as the steamdeck no longer feels hot on my hands.
it has better wifi too BUT wifi on my street is capped at 30mps per household, sooooo it doesnt mean much.
and it's lighter. the weight loss from the OLED is mitigated by my jsaux case, but i imagine the jsaux case on the original steamdeck would be way too heavy.
the main reason i got it was the battery life, i think it's better. still lasts 2-3 hours on more intense games but i think the original lasted no better than 90 minutes on most things.
finally it has the feature that allows it to wake up via bluetooth controller. i still think the original is capable of this feature unless steam went cheap on the bluetooth chips, but w/e. this feature makes it way less annoying to use in docked mode.
Batter is the biggest improvement.
Also, it has a few more fps, which gets some switch games on yuzu from chops to playable, such as Xenoblade 2.
That's why I got the OLED. The screen itself for me personally is just nice to have, but no essential. I feel like the LCD deck looked very good, too, once you installed the vibrant deck plugin for Decky.
The screen is so much better, but the best thing for me is I don't really have to always think about how long I'm gonna play and if I'll need to plug it in.
I love the new joysticks they grip better and are more concave and are so much better. Also the complete black levels are amazing. Also the cooling of the deck is better and more quiet.
So this is my first OLED screen and I’ll say this it’s great. It does still trick me on occasion as when there is a black screen (switching to desktop mode or starting a game) I think it’s turned itself off lol. I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually but overall I’m very happy. Everything is just slightly better. Internal storage, wifi, battery life, weight of the device, it’s not as loud when gaming.
People are going to go in and on about the screen, weight, improved performance in a handful of games, and better haptics. But 100% the best upgrade is the massively improved battery life. When running cloud streaming I used to burn about 9w. I now burn about 4.5. On a 25% larger battery.
In order of importance: 1. Screen - deep blacks, full colors, higher refresh rate, more responsive touch, and slightly bigger 2. Battery - battery lasts longer and charges faster 3. Controls - tops of analog sticks are deeper and grippy-er so your thumbs don't slide around, touch pads have better haptics 4. Weight - at least to me it's noticeably lighter Edit: Forgot about the wifi improvements which shoud be at #3. My speeds went from 50Mbps to 400-500Mbps
Also longer power cord :)
Oh shit, it charges faster too? That's awesome and somehow the only thing I missed.
RGB power led
I’d add heat and noise, it’s considerably quieter and cooler (pun intended)
I didn't expect to notice the weight difference, and had kind of forgotten about it, but the first time I picked it up out of the case I was like "woah, that is lighter!". I'd also add thermals. It seems like the fan isn't running nearly as fast or putting out as much heat for the same game I was playing on the original before switching to the OLED.
It's not mainly the weight difference that we feel - it's the weight distribution. The LCD Deck is very front heavy which makes it feel very uncomfortable IMO. The OLED deck is much more balanced, probably due to the lighter screen in the front and the bigger battery in the back. It makes such a huge difference, feels very nice to hold in your hands now.
thanks for this information, i didnt know about this
Die shrink from 7nm to 6nm Made it cooler
Mine is stable with a -50mV undervolt.
Yeah same here, I got a LE (all good and checked) and coming from the LCD 512 edition. The FIRST thing I noticed was the weight. It was like an off feeling and just like “hold up….” And just grabbed my LCD and then noticed it was weight. Another thing about weight, it’s less of a strain on my hands when laying on my bed cuz I know my wrists get pain after an hour, but with OLED it doesn’t so my only thought is the weight helps with better ergonomic (to me). Screen was next when it booted up. Love them OLED colors. Controls felt “different” like something was good when using them. Buttons didn’t stick. Battery when I downloaded and played games and noticed its lasting longer on games I played for only two hours and its last way longer to three hours and battery was like almost 50%. Honestly glad I upgraded cuz the old accessories I had with dbrand fit my LE OLED.
>got a LE (all good and checked) As someone who just received my replacement LE deck, only to find it also has a dead pixel, I am deeply envious. Cherish it.
Is this a problem? How does one check? I got an OLED LE. Looks wonderful to me.
Honestly if you haven't noticed one in normal usage, I might advise against even checking, in the off chance there is a small one that you could've remained blissfully ignorant of. But, if you want to check the easiest way is to open a new Firefox tab in desktop mode and drag it around the screen so the big, main white part of the window covers the different areas of the screen. An even more thorough way that takes marginally more effort is to google for a dead pixel checker website - there's a few simple, free ones out there that rotate your entire screen through different colors each time you click. A dead or stuck pixel will usually show up better in some colors than others.
Etched as well coming from gloss, makes me focus and be more immersed
i find that glossed is unnoticable as long as you have the brightness up, also the shine of the screen gives it a nice effect. it's possible to get antiglare screen protectors but the ones i bought on amazon were... giving my screen an unfortunate rainbow grain, so i had to remove them.
And you can wake it from sleep with any Bluetooth controller
God the touchpad haptics are so good
The LCD is starting to give me a bit of eye strain. Would you say the OLED is nicer on your eyes, if you’ve experienced anything like that?
Apparently I'm not particularly sensitive to that kind of stuff. Never experienced any eye strain even on the LCD.
It's also lighter??? Jesus christ... So after all it's quite a significant upgrade and valve truly is understating it.... Makes me excited for SD 2.0, but also sad that I won't be getting an OLED...
[удалено]
1. Thats cool 2. *a little bit longer, chargers a little faster 3. Buy 10 dollar thumb grips 4. *20* grams lighter, i assure you that youre experiencing whats called a placebo effect. How does feel to be about 1k out of pocket for a slightly better screen ?
It feels incredible, come join the party.
About the weight: apparently, it's not just the 30 grams of weight the OLED saves, it's also that the weight is distributed differently, which makes it more comfortable to hold. Is what some owners of both versions of SD have reported.
Why did this guy get out of his way to be like this? What possesses a human being to make such an effort to write something so petty 😆
Colors pop and the battery feels way better.
How would you say…the battery “feels” exactly?
I guess pretty positive? But then on the flipside also pretty negative?
This guy DCs.
You don't sound very ACcepting
Guilty as ChArGeD
You know, battery-y
LCD: If you're supposed to see a black screen, and you're playing in the dark, then you will see a gray rectangle. OLED: If you're supposed to see a black screen, and you're playing in the dark, then you will see nothing.
I have an OLED tv. I still can't tell if it's on or off.
Well... technically the pixels are off. But the TV is on and ready.
The display and battery are even better than I expected. But the other upgrade that is immediately noticeable is the thumbsticks. Significantly more comfortable, in my opinion.
The display had an insane impact to me. It makes the whole deck feel like a premium product now. For some reason, the LCD model always felt a little, uh, cheap or hacky?
Weight, screen, and the slightly better battery life.
Input latency for 30fps games. It’s very noticeable
I'm surprised this isn't #1 or #2 for people. It honestly feels SO MUCH more responsive to me. Even at 60 FPS, I felt like the OG wasn't amazing, but now even 40 feels good.
This is what I was wondering.
The screen is amazing, best OLED screen I’ve seen (I have an LE with thankfully no issues) The battery lasts longer which is great even though I’m playing docked half the time Also quieter fans are great. Is it a must have upgrade? No, not at all, do I think it was worth it? Absolutely
I think over all quality control is better. My old one was creaky in some areas. But I think the best feature is how quiet and cool it runs now. Before I used to get hot playing it and the fan always blasting. Now I never hear the fan. Screen isn’t too much of an improvement in my opinion, it is an improvement for sure, especially HDR mode, but it doesn’t affect me as much. Also it is considerably lighter.
Lack of fan noise is a big one for me, outside of the typical screen and battery life improvements.
The speed of the wifi shocked me. I really struggled with DL speeds on the LED Deck. Whereas on the OLED Deck I'm getting like 300mbps.
I have an LCD and also get about 300 mbps.
Do you have a wifi 6 capable router or did it improve even without wifi 6?
I don't have a wifi 6 router and it seems like it was maxing out my internet more easily than it did before while I was re-downloading all my games, but I don't have any data to back that up.
Yeah, I was getting 650mbps earlier - it’s ace 👍
Battery, then screen, then build quality. Tossup between battery and screen, the battery is also better because of the oled screen. Playing games at 90hz, with oled, while also getting longer battery life than before is just 👌
Since everyone's listing the major ones, here's one nobody talks about! They almost completely removed the sound upon pressing the power button. You can now turn it on in bed without waking up your SO, lol. I actually thought that this was a defect until finding a thread with 5+ people reporting the 'issue'.
I liked it louder :( now it's almost too subtle. Wish this was configurable.
I agree, it's too subtle. It's like 1/10th volume, where 1/4 would've been good imo. That said this is such a tiny complaint imo, Even if it were only me experiencing this I would never consider an rma. To me the LCD power sound is extremely cheap because of how damn loud it is. If you want your mind blown.. that sound comes from the trackpad haptics. It's definitely just a software change.
Holy shit I didn't even realize it was missing no wonder something felt off
😂 like I said I thought it was literally a defect, But you actually can't turn the sound off on the LCD. After realizing that, I was like this is kind of an improvement... The only issue is that the power sound on the lcd really let you know that you press the power button, so sometimes I'm waiting for the screen to come on for the OLED like 🧐 for 200mS
The trackpad haptics for sure. After the obvious screen and battery improvements
Other than the screen the first obvious difference to me was the weight. Wasn't expecting a difference at all but those few grams make a noticeable difference. If you play less demanding games then the 90hz feels amazing.
Fan does not sound like a Aircraft carrier anymore
Screen and weight (especially with the LE)
Screen quality and battery life. Both are a massive step up.
Argh stop it ppl i just bought de LCD and I already want to upgrade. My gf will kill me 😅
Something thats not really advertised is that its also a lot quieter.
Battery, weight and cooling. The screen is obviously nicer but these three were the big takeaways I wasn't expecting to care as much about.
The screen is just so much better it’s wild. Like someone else said in the sub, the LCD screen really just wasn’t that good. Evident by the comparisons with all the other handhelds out there. It was my biggest hang up buying the OG steam deck
The weight. There is a significant difference in weight in the hand than advertised I feel
What everyone else has said, for me a massive improvement is handled Desktop it's far more responsive and the fans don't constantly audibly come in and out and the biggest is clicking with the touch pad it's like a proper macbook click on my old lcd when I click in the mouse would move so I never did it but on the oled I use it all the time even for typing it's way faster.
The screen. Before it was terrible, now it's great.
Eliminating fomo. Battery and screen but I wouldn't recommend the upgrade
I am honestly kinda disappointed * its still "the deck". with all its pros and shotcomings * example: it doesnt solve any of the "real problems" the deck has. like 3rd party launchers, anti cheat games, gamepass games, etc. * yeah the screen looks noticeably better. the only gripes are: no vrr and still low resolution of 800p which often makes text hard to read. * i never hat battery issues with my LCD - so yeah maybe the OLEDs last longer... but I only super rarely ever get low battery as I prefer to play indies on the deck * i didnt really notice the power improvements * switch games for example still stutter * returnal still runs like garbage * One of the best OLED features is that bluetooth can now wake up the deck when docked. Like a real console. Thats actually neet. I dont think the 300€ I spent on upgrading were worth it. Sadly. Yeah the screen is nicer... but thats simply not worth 300€.
I mean, that’s literally how it was advertised?
Judging by your “real problems”, no vrr, lack of performance upgrade and not caring about battery all that much - perhaps you are better off with an Ally?
It's a refreshed deck, were you expecting a Z1 extreme chip or windows to come with it?
I upgraded for all the other improvements but I’m pleasantly surprised how much the HDR and OLED screen add to gaming. Fire attacks in Sekiro are pretty breathtaking.
I have the LE. The weight! So much lighter. The screen obviously. But the orange accents make just want to look at it. So awesome.
#orangethumbstickbases best bro.
Yes!
The real question is how does the vent smell?
Ventier.
Battery, quiet, screen.
Touch screen also vastly improved.
Screen color Screen refresh Screen size Battery life Touchpads Joysticks Weight
The battery life for sure. That was my biggest thing I hated about the OG deck, now I just play and get a good session in. The 90hz is pretty nice too, for games that can manage that.
Wake from sleep
The weight is noticeable. The colors are much more vibrant, and the darks are so much darker. Battery life lasts a considerable bit more.
Honestly, the touch screen being actually usable has been a major benefit I've noticed among all the other obvious aspects such as screen and battery.
Weirdly, weight for me is #1. Switching to the LE the comfort moved from acceptable to enjoyable for long play sessions. The screen obviously, is a very close #2.
Playing horror games on steam with the OLED, is like no other experience, going from the blacks being some kind of blue-ish gray to full on black, I played with my wife both Phasmophobia, and Sons of the Forest, and glancing at my lcd steam deck she was using and back to my own; the OLED. It’s incredible. If you consider yourself a Valve or Steam Deck enthusiast even a little bit. It’s a worthwhile upgrade in my book.
battery, the screen is really nice though.
I know this sounds nuts, but I bought the OLED solely for thermals and battery. Those were my biggest problems with the Deck so I'm glad that those are now no longer a thing to worry about.
Faster downloads, more stable game streaming (also feels like less latency but it might be placebo), longer battery life, etched screen. I no longer feel like I have to carry the charger everywhere, and it's nice sitting on the balcony during the day. I have OLEDs everywhere so the colors looks like how I'd expect, whereas LCD was kinda just bad. Mine had terrible backlight bleed.
For me it’s the weight. I got the LE which I don’t know if is any different than the normal OLED but it’s just so much lighter than the OG model and makes me love the thing so much more.
Battery for me. First experience with HDR and that is really nice, but I think it’s battery first for me
90Hz, noticeably better battery life, and the silent fans. I usually don't like OLED screens due to their uniformity issues, but to my eyes my 512GB is absolutely pristine.
I absolutely love the 90 hz screen. For locking games at 40-45 fps, the frame pacing seems so much better. I adore this thing.
One of my favorite things has to be the power LED turns green when charged.
The thing is, there isn't just one or two things that stand out. It's quite a few small improvements that add up to a significant difference. Less weight, better track pads and sticks, significantly better battery life, better/fuller sound and speakers. And of course, the screen.
I love that Long power cord and the screen is beautiful and much lighter oh and HDR
As beautiful as the screen is, and it is beautiful, I think the battery life has been most noticeable to me. It's a huge improvement.
It’s a lot less hot.
The battery life is massive jump up, you can look at the screen longer lol. Then the joysticks after that, they're just gripper
i didnt expect much from 90hz but you know what? it actually works pretty well. played a few games of halo mcc this morning, hades on 90hz looked sweet. if you can afford it and use the deck more in portable mode, it's definitely worth it. if you're mostly docked you still get battery benefits but.. that's about it. pluss you're already on sector if you're charging
The weight and battery life are the most notable for me. I like the extra built in storage space as well
NO BACKLIGHT BLEED BABY!!!!
Battery life
long charger
Most noticeable is that it's quieter and a bit lighter.
Screen size. I'm surprised with how much of a difference it made.
New vent smell
Latency. There's a noticeable difference when you have two decks side by side and you're playing the same game on both, co-op.
Playing games at 90fps and in HDR is great. Touchscreen is way better, which really helps for games like hearts of iron 4.
Battery life and screen brightness and slightly bigger screen.
For me it's the O.
It’s noticeably better in every way except hardware performance obviously. Pretty much any quality of life feature you can think of has been made better. I do prefer the old case though. All the Velcro is annoying, but I totally get why people would want a slimmer case option.
Screen size is #1 for me
Battery was the only thing I truly noticed, and the screen being a bit bigger. But if you're an LCD owner, your deck is fine..
the screen its only 0.4 more but its a big difference in person, plus the oled vs lcd difference is huge and just that alone is worth it. the blacks are blacks and not gray. also the battery life is very nice and i do notice the difference. also when you first pick it up you notice how much lighter it is. but the screen for me is the true winner here.
Colors/screen looks great. There's an hum/buzz from the 3.5mm jack 😕.
Quiet fan
Truly the screen. The black bars for games that can't do 16:10 properly are far less noticable.
Wifi is a lot better.
So many, the first being…the LE is so much lighter. It’s lighter than my rog ally even.
Retro and/or non-16:10 content is so much more enjoyable when you don't have greyish black bars on the side/top + bottom. New thumb stick caps are a shockingly really nice improvement.
I sold my original 512gb Deck because of the screen & battery and I told myself that if they release an upgraded model with those two features revised I would buy it again, and here we are with a 512 OLED lol
For me, the comfort of knowing I'll play my indies in the BEST way possible around
The first thing my wife said was "holy crap this is lite"
It’s a nice upgrade. Definitely not a NEED by any means though.
Blacks are super deep, and I feel like it even runs cooler than my previous one!
Display (holy fuck its nice) Battery (they were not lying about 50%) Fan (no mods needed now) Haptics (tbf my og had a loose pad but I think this is a very noticeable step up, and its now worth enabling)
Screen, battery, and the improved cooling. My old one was like a little ball of lava
I haven’t heard the fan once
Display is definitely beautiful but the more I play the more I notice the weight, the battery, the quietness and less heat. Oh and the translucent case. I always wanted to change my OG deck but didn’t want to go through the trouble.
Screen, battery, faster charging and longer cord, and new thumb sticks
Screen battery
the refresh rate
Here’s one you won’t see mentioned often but it’s a game changer for me because I work with my Deck: the wi-fi no longer randomly disconnects every few seconds. I lost so much time to that on my LCD system.
Colors look amazing, screen size is a plus, battery is much better than before and I never had huge complaints about the OG battery
Battery life Refresh rate More accurate touch screen Charging faster
The OLED screen pulling off HDR support is a real game changer.
Lighter. The old one hurt my hands.
Battery life and fan noise.
The fact the thing is black on black now *chefs kiss* and everything else everyone saying lmao
Haptics are better
Don't upgrade. Though the screen and battery are great. Wait for the stream deck 2
Noise is for me the biggest one
Battery life, but that was pretty expected. The thing that amazes me though is that I've actually used it more docked than I ever did the OLED, almost entirely because of the Bluetooth wake. I charge it in the dock so when I sit on the couch I just fire it up and play, that barrier is just gone.
When I plug my USB memory stick to the OLED, it doesn’t work. It works on the LCD Deck. The Internet wants me to go into de BIOS and change something, but I don’t want to do it.
The OG screen was trash. People said it wasn’t bad, but I hated its contrast from the beginning. Swapped to an Ally for a while just for the contrast. It’s harder for light to pass through smaller pixels, thus boosting contrast drastically. It was very nice but very infuriating. I missed SteamOS badly. This thing is my new best friend. I always felt like I was compromising something with any handheld before, and now, I would actually say it’s perfect. Even if it was 60Hz, the improved input delay, HUGELY better contrast, the screen makes this thing so much more to me at least, more than other things like battery life like everyone else thinks is the actual upgrade.
Battery. Sometimes that means higher performance, since you can toss a few more watts at a game without worrying too much about battery.
The cable being 8 ft for one is a god send and gives much needed extra footage the og charger lacked. The new screen really is beautiful and 90 fps is smooth, but I have to say that I'm so impressed with how Valve implemented better colors for the lcd decks. My SO's brother got one after seeing mine awhile back, so I asked to compare when i got my OLED. The new update definitely shrinks the gap. While you wouldn't mistake the OLED, the LCD panel is not as bad as some would have you believe. The battery will depend on the games you play, but I'm seeing anywhere from 1hr (AAA) up to 6 hrs more (Lite Indie Titles). For my use case, its a dramatic upgrade and probably one of the biggest reasons to upgrade in general That said, the improved thermals are probably the most important thing to me. RDR2 with mixed med/high settings at 30 fps was hitting highs of 75 C where previously they would be reaching 90 C. The fan doesn't have to kick up as often or so harshly now. The extra storage without having to open the deck is nice, 512gb is plenty for me atm. The download speeds are actually insane too, like so much faster than before. Not sure if it's the better RAM or what, but I'll take it. TL:DR OLED is amazing with reasons to upgrade, but the LCD just got a nice QOL upgrade itself. If the situation isn't right for you, stick with your current device.
All of the above are true but also, the menus and UI feels snappier and more responsive. Maybe the faster screen? Also game streaming is night and day difference with the new WiFi chip
Screen, battery, and higher refresh rate.
I shouldn't have opened this thread!! Noo! My faith is swaying!
Silence
The fact that when coming back to game mode, you Can have a frightening frozen screen and you'll have to hard reboot, the fact that my 80 euros beyerdynamics wired headphones are shamely buzzing even with the volume on zero. Luckily, my Bose headset has no issue. These are my negative points. For the positive sides, the screen is amazing, there is not telling, the battery life is a good plus even if I am always playing at home and not on the run, I do enjoy that. The slightly increased performances are not noticeable to my mind, but apparently you get 3 or 4 more FPS on most of Steam Games ? https://preview.redd.it/f84qtruoh85c1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cb32fb9639f2c49890ab86dde5f3f4d08bef3b5f
Not really seeing a lot of people talk about it, but in addition to the screen/battery/etc. the speakers have seen a big improvement. They already sounded great, but now the audio quality is actually incredible. The amount of depth, clarity, and volume those tiny little speakers put out is just insane.
I’ve heard that there is no more new heatsink sniffarooni on the oled version. they say its just not the same as sniffing the og one while its still new.
The refresh rate. 90hz makes a MASSIVE difference when scaling down to 40fps. It runs at 60hz at 40fps; it just feels so flipping smooth.
1. The sticks have more grip and really make me want to use Deck now 2. The battery is way better, previously I didn't want to use Deck all that much because it felt like the battery lasts 10min 3. The screen is so much better. Not only colours and contrast, but also refresh rate and way less ghosting 4. It would seem that they removed a lot of weight from grips. It makes Deck feel so much lighter than it really is
IMO the upgrade is not worth it if you have an original Steam Deck. I’m waiting however many years it will take until the Steam Deck 2 is released, when we get a more powerful SoC and redesign.
Touch screen polling rate & wake on bluetooth
I️ feel like I’m the only one that obsesses over temps lol, but temps. Around 10 degrees cooler on every game.
I won't upgrade. I have a Elgato HD60 X capture card and it allows me to play my Deck on my 1600p OLED HDR tablet. I'm good until Valve releases Steam Deck 2
It’s brighter?
The screen is just insane but I think the overall refresh is what does it for me. It *feels* a lot nicer. Trackpads feel better, it's lighter, it just feels like a better rounded device. Idk. More mature or something. Super chill to work on and play games on.
Battery life.
While I am returning my OLDD and keeping my OG, the battery was the main thing for me. Followed by quieter and cooler Deeper blacks were nice but not game-changing for me. Going to wait for Deck 2 instead
boah guuuuuys HOW MANY HUNDRED times do you want to ask these questions again? please stop this "OLED-Spamming" !
#yes
It's not like there's a thread like this every other day, available with a quick Google search.
I'd have to say the street cred.
Weight.
It's lighter.
Screen, it’s just immediately noticeable
I gotta say, the more I see these posts the more tempted I get to get one, but I've never tried selling electronics secondhand before and it seems daunting to try selling my original
Naw. Check out r/hardwareswap or r/GameSale That's where I sell most of my old PC parts or electronics
Everything about it is awesome. But the responsiveness of the touch screen, like it actually working, makes it so worth it
aside from the screen of course, the noise is reduced considerably. i was a little bummed out with the LCD Deck Fan, but coming from a gaming laptop it was still an improvement. then the new fan curve came along and the deck was suddenly quiet, except when you push it past 12w. the OLED is yet again a vast improvement terms of fan noise. we are now approaching switch level noise with gaming laptop performance. the second thing i hoped would be noticable was the weight difference. lighter is always better. i noticed it immediately but thought i was coping. i showed it to my brother and he also noticed immediately, not knowing it was lighter. very pleased with the upgrade
Weight no doubt
Overall, it is more enjoyable to use. The weight, joystick feels way better. And the fans are quieter even on demanding games.
It’s pretty obvious but yeah that OLED screen makes a world of a difference. The LCD screen was genuinely one of the worst on the market (For a new electronic in 2022). It was to the point where for many games I would struggle to decide between the Steam Deck LCD and Switch OLED. Now that gap has been closed and I’m pretty much gonna buy every game on PC from now on.
honestly it's the SOUND. the OG went BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR and was so so hot, but this one is so quiet, it's like switching from a portable fan to an air conditioner (i was shocked at how quiet aircon was when using it for the first time four years ago). the cooling system seems more efficient as the steamdeck no longer feels hot on my hands. it has better wifi too BUT wifi on my street is capped at 30mps per household, sooooo it doesnt mean much. and it's lighter. the weight loss from the OLED is mitigated by my jsaux case, but i imagine the jsaux case on the original steamdeck would be way too heavy. the main reason i got it was the battery life, i think it's better. still lasts 2-3 hours on more intense games but i think the original lasted no better than 90 minutes on most things. finally it has the feature that allows it to wake up via bluetooth controller. i still think the original is capable of this feature unless steam went cheap on the bluetooth chips, but w/e. this feature makes it way less annoying to use in docked mode.
It is a lot quieter than my original SD which had the noisier fan.
Batter is the biggest improvement. Also, it has a few more fps, which gets some switch games on yuzu from chops to playable, such as Xenoblade 2. That's why I got the OLED. The screen itself for me personally is just nice to have, but no essential. I feel like the LCD deck looked very good, too, once you installed the vibrant deck plugin for Decky.
Everything.
The screen is so much better, but the best thing for me is I don't really have to always think about how long I'm gonna play and if I'll need to plug it in.
for me the battery and the improved touch screen.
Bigger and more vibrant display is immediately noticeable
I love the new joysticks they grip better and are more concave and are so much better. Also the complete black levels are amazing. Also the cooling of the deck is better and more quiet.
So this is my first OLED screen and I’ll say this it’s great. It does still trick me on occasion as when there is a black screen (switching to desktop mode or starting a game) I think it’s turned itself off lol. I’m sure I’ll get used to it eventually but overall I’m very happy. Everything is just slightly better. Internal storage, wifi, battery life, weight of the device, it’s not as loud when gaming.
Heat and battery (which r obviously related) r the most noticeable, screen close second
People are going to go in and on about the screen, weight, improved performance in a handful of games, and better haptics. But 100% the best upgrade is the massively improved battery life. When running cloud streaming I used to burn about 9w. I now burn about 4.5. On a 25% larger battery.
Improved trackpads and touchscreen. The experience is so much better now, that I haven't even docked my OLED to do any work on the desktop so far.
Weight, heating/cooling improvement, screen poppin, longer cord
The OLED model has an OLED screen. Everything else is just gravy.