Valve’s Steam Deck OLED comes to market Thursday with an HDR OLED display that sprawls 7.4 inches, better audio, and a huge boost in battery life. Lighter, cooler, and promising faster downloads, the Steam Deck OLED comes in two storage configurations: 512GB and 1TB, priced at $549 and $649, respectively. As with its predecessor, Steam Deck OLED features a microSD card slot. A $79.95 Steam Deck Docking Station is also available to connect to external displays, wired networking, USB peripherals, and power. The release date is set for November 16.

While the new OLED screen represents only a minor increase from the 7-inch LCD touchscreen display on the original model, the new 90Hz, 1,000-nit OLED offers “more colors, pure blacks and amazing motion rendition,” claims Valve, promising “you’ll see your games in a new light.”

The Verge calls it “a massive refresh — not a Steam Deck 2.” The OLED model represents “an overhauled version of Valve’s handheld gaming PC” that aims to be “the ultimate version of the original Steam Deck” that Valve would have liked to ship in 2022 when it sent the first handheld model to market in North America and Europe.

That being the case, “the company is sticking with its plan not to produce a faster handheld for the next couple of years,” The Verge adds.

Another big change with Steam Deck OLED is the battery life, with the new 50Whr battery a significant improvement over the 40Whr launch version. Valve says the new battery offers an improvement of anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent over its predecessor.

“It’s a standout addition for the new model, not the least because battery performance was a sore spot for the Steam Deck at launch, and Valve claims it will charge faster, too,” IGN writes.

Other improvements include a 110 percent DCI-P3 color gamut display (up from about 67 percent sRGB), quieter fan and larger heatsink, more robust speakers “with improved bass” and higher fidelity haptics, notes The Verge.

Bloomberg reports the company “has so far sold ‘multiple millions’” of the original handheld units. Used to play a variety of PC games, titles by Epic Games and others on the go, the Steam Deck “has proved to be appealing with multitaskers, parents of small children and commuters.”

Related:
Steam Deck OLED Review: Better, Not Faster, The Verge, 11/9/23
Review: Valve Steam Deck OLED, Wired, 11/9/23
Valve Says It Has Sold ‘Multiple Millions’ of Steam Decks, The Verge, 11/9/23
Valve Says Steam Deck 2 Is Still Years Away, GameSpot, 11/9/23
Valve Comments on Steam Deck 2 Development Following Steam Deck OLED Reveal, Game Rant, 11/9/23