Comprehensive list of differences between LCD and OLED Steam Deck

[Warrior at the Edge of Time]

Hey! Since I'm in the market for Steam Deck I dug some info on the differences OLED Deck brought to the table and decided to share it with you in a convenient way. If I'm missing something - feel free to corect me. So, let's get to it!

On the November, 9 Valve announced updated version of it's handheld, which features lots of big and small changes. Let's start with the big ones:
Bigger screen - 7.4 in OLED vs 7.0 in LCD -> slimmer bezels (dimensions are the same) 
Higher refresh rate - 90 Hz vs 60 Hz
Touchscreen improvement - polling now at 180 Hz = quicker response and accuracy
Wider color gamut - 101.8% PCI-D3 vs 48,5% (source: anandtech). It’s not as bad on LCD Deck as you think since the screen is well-calibrated but still OLED is a big jump.
Brighter - 600 nits (SDR) vs 400 nits on LCD, but OLED Deck can go up to 1,000 nits peak brightness when watching HDR
Lighter - 640 g vs 669 for LCD Deck
Higher ram clocks - 6400 MHz vs 5500 MHz
More power-efficient CPU - 6 nm APU vs 7 nm APU (old). While the CPU keeps the same clocks the GPU clocks on OLED model is consistent 1,6 Ghz vs 1,0-1,6 Ghz on LCD.
Better cooling - fan blades and fin stack are thicker resulting in better airflow and increased cooling surface -> hotspots are 35-37° vs 43° and APU is approx 67° vs 79°.
Small gains in performance - all of the aforementioned results in 2-9% gains (you get 1-5 more frames), but what really matters here is more consistent frametime = less stutters.
Battery life - 50 watt-hour battery vs the original 40 Whr -> 2-8 hours vs 3-12 (heavy load would get you easily 2 hours vs less than 1,5 on original Deck, Remote Play gets you 9,5 hours vs 6,5).
Faster charging - from 20% to 80% in 45 mins on OLED. Only found that LCD charged to 80% in 100 mins, so I guess twice as fast. Also charger module no longer overheats (resulted in cases of fried Decks)
WiFi 6E vs WiFi 5. I've seen claims of twice as fast download speeds since the OLED Deck module allows for 3000 Mbps, but facts say that it's usually less (like 8 mins vs 10 mins)
Bluetooth 5.3 with dedicated antenna vs 5.0 -> better connectivity, especially while docked + Bluetooth controllers can now wake the device,
Sticks are less flat for better grip, they are also 1 mm higher and have higher endurance switches inside.
Trackpads have sharper tactile response and better edge detection
Speakers are louder and have more bass
Power button is orange vs black on LCD. Also the LED Indicator is RGB on OLED Deck
Better repairability - Torx screws on OLED Deck makes it easier to disassemble, there’s no need to remove backplate to change the screen. Switches and trackpads are easier to take apart/replace,
Small details - Less pronounced colouring of buttons on OLED, they look more like grey vs white on LCD

P.S: 1 TB model ships with a 2-layer case - inner velcro-like case is slimmer and more convenient to carry. Also OLED case has orange dot instead of blue.

Hope that helps in choosing whether you want heavily discounted LCD version or the OLED one.  

[@R+5]

cool, thanks for the update.

imo, one of the biggest changes listed is that the touchscreen will be more precise. i think if the original version worked better, i still wouldnt care much if it is or isnt oled, even if oled is obv better.

[deaddoof]

Dont forget, they move the bumper buttons onto the thumbstick. Those bumper buttons are the most fragile part of the OG steam deck. Valve does not sell replacement daughter boards. Now, those bumpers are moved to a much cheaper part and easier to repair.

Bluetooth controllers can now wake the steam deck.

[@R+5]

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Dont forget, they move the bumper buttons onto the thumbstick.

what do you mean? are they going to be placed elsewhere, or are you implying the stick click now replaces bumper buttons, because that would mean two less buttons, which is pretty bad.

[Warrior at the Edge of Time]

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Dont forget, they move the bumper buttons onto the thumbstick. Those bumper buttons are the most fragile part of the OG steam deck. Valve does not sell replacement daughter boards. Now, those bumpers are moved to a much cheaper part and easier to repair.

Bluetooth controllers can now wake the steam deck.

Forgot about wake part, thanks!

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by @R+5:

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Dont forget, they move the bumper buttons onto the thumbstick.

what do you mean? are they going to be placed elsewhere, or are you implying the stick click now replaces bumper buttons, because that would mean two less buttons, which is pretty bad.

https://youtu.be/9jhRh11bTRA?t=1055

Those bumpers are the weaker part of the steam deck. Most people will probably break the bumper here whether its wear and tear or dropping. Well, Valve doesn't sell the daughter boards on Ifix it. You will need to solder a new button.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RLAUuKGcp84

https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/13dzu66/steam_deck_revision_compatibility/

They created multiple revisions too of the board. I think the designers realize they made a design mistake and move the button onto the same board as the sticks.

[@R+5]

Originally posted by deaddoof:

They created multiple revisions too of the board. I think the designers realize they made a design mistake and move the button onto the same board as the sticks.

interesting, will check the videos.
thanks for sharing

update:
now i get what meant. engineers changed the form of the part of the mobo where bumper buttons were placed, and also upgraded the buttons to better ones, so they are less likely to break, but even if they become damaged they are also easier to replace.

[kilésengati]

Thanks for the list. Unfortunately, it will be a hard sell to me. The improvements are only incremental the OLED still lacks analogue buttons all around, RAM options and a way to connect an eGPU for when it's docked.
More battery life and a faster and colourful screen sure are great, but the bigger screen also means a lower pixel density.

[ingramli]

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Thanks for the list. Unfortunately, it will be a hard sell to me. The improvements are only incremental the OLED still lacks analogue buttons all around, RAM options and a way to connect an eGPU for when it's docked.
More battery life and a faster and colourful screen sure are great, but the bigger screen also means a lower pixel density.

Get a ROG or whatever you want, Deck is probably not for you.

Seriously, for gaming handheld, eGPU is nothing but a gimmick, not only a powerful eGPU is expensive (cost more than their standard desktop equivalent), it suffers performance penalty due to the bandwidth bottleneck and higher latency, also eGPU does nothing when the game is CPU bounded, which is the case for plenty of latest 3A titles, such as BG3, to the point where, no matter how much the graphic quality or rendering resolution is lowered, the game simply won't attain stable 40 FPS.

If you are really into the "docked" 60 FPS performance that does not exist IRL, the closest thing I guess is a high end gaming notebook, nothing today will run the latest 3A titles at stable 60 FPS @1080P under a 20W or even 30W power limit, adding eGPU alone will not do the trick either, u need much more powerful CPU than the Z1E/7840U, which are nowhere close to a 12900K, something I would consider a baseline for stable 60 FPS for latest titles in 2023.