OLED vs. LCD: Early Access & Shrinkflation – A Comparative Review

[kilésengati]

G’day everyone,

I’ve got some time with my OLED now and wanted to write a little review. Unfortunately, Valve still doesn’t have reviews on physical sales, which is why I write it here. Also, I think I didn’t got enough time with the Steam Deck OLED, because of some device-breaking issues I ran into.
I’ll compare it to my early-revision LCD (“OG”) model anyway, because that’s the state I got my OLED at.

The OLED is the 1 TB model. The LCD is an early 512 GB model.

Delivery:

In Europe, Valve still uses GLS. Bottom-tier parcel service. Simple as! Didn’t rung the bell on delivery nor left a pickup notice. Later I found out they moved the parcel to a shop on the other side of town. Wasted some good time on a sunny Saturday I would’ve liked to work in the garden. But alas, I got mine. Could’ve been worse.

The Carry Case:

The new carry case is quite similar, but the liner can be removed and is attached with hook-and-loop fasteners on three points on the inside. I don‘t see myself using that feature, the Deck seems more protected in the whole package anyway. But it saves some space in a bag.
One thing that annoys me is this flap on the front. It gets in the way when opening the case and I‘m extra careful to not let it slide over the screen when opening.

First Startup:

Obviously, I was first greeted by downloading system software. With a prompt notifying me mine is one of the first Decks ever produced. First batch? Let’s find out if that’s a good thing.
Everything went smooth. But I connected to the Internet through my phone and not the home router.
I think however, at first startup, the device should be on mute, or at least not as loud. And on boot in general, the screen should be at the least brightest setting, because that OLED can really flash you if you are in a dark environment (in both a positive and negative sense).
But those are only minor criticisms. First startup took a while, but was fine.

Internal Hardware:

There’s not much to say really. In that regard, almost everything is as advertised. However, I don’t find the speakers to be of higher quality or anything, they are just different, a wee more bass-biased. I think this renders the sound muddy and not truthful at all, but that’s totally subjective. If you like kiddie headphones like Beats, you sure will like those. I think a configurable software EQ could help out with that a bit. Similar with the haptics, which even on the lowest settings act way too strong and sudden, making it tiresome to use and the entire device feel unrefined, contributing to the cheapness impression.
The Steam Deck OLED is somewhat lighter. I really enjoyed it running much quieter, particularly on low-power applications, like watching videos. The true blacks of the OLED are quite nice to have. And the battery doesn’t drain as fast as well.
But I think they could’ve done better: All-analogue buttons, faster SD card reader, more RAM, PCIe connectivity, etc. Hopefully, we’ll see such upgrades with the next Steam Deck.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t really benchmark it, because of device-breaking issues I’ll close in later on.

Software:

Well, it’s still SteamOS 3. It works most of the time, but sometimes crashes. Not the best Linux distro I’ve ever seen, but it’s doing its job, and that this device is made with Linux in mind is still great.
I also found out that you can transfer game data between Decks. Which is great and should save time, but I couldn’t use it due to connectivity issues.

Ergonomics:

It still has the same shape as the OG Deck. Not much to add to that.
Again, not enough analogue buttons, but everything else, in concept, is still superiour to any other handheld device and controller I know. I still love the departure from making controllers for tiny hands that need to claw onto the hardware. It sits well into mine and I can reach everything easily. I barely have to grip it and can use it for hours on end. In that sense, it's the best handheld and controller I've ever used, period. I hope they never change that.
Unfortunately, that amazing design is only ruined by the…

Build Quality:

This is were the problems start.
Overall, I think Valve seriously cut corners and in the wrong places, too.
The buttons feel hollow and the plastic shell feels worse than some Tupperware knockoffs now. On top of that, edges around the screen and SD card slot are simply too sharp. In the case of the SD card slot they’re almost cutting edge. I know, the plastic shell never was that great, but this is even worse. At least the seams between the front and back panel on the grips are smoother now, which is were you touch the Deck most of the time. But the plastic still feels cheaper than it already was on the OG model.
Analogue back buttons giveth or taketh, those smooth rubber caps feel pretty disgusting, which turned out to be much more important to my experience. I not only like the material of the OG Steam Deck’s caps much more, I seriously dislike the OLED’s. They just don’t feel right, they feel wrong. *barf*

Connectivity Issues:

This is were the problems grow big.
The Steam Deck OLED simply doesn’t work with my home network setup. It’s all standard vanilla stuff. Nothing fancy, just the router my ISP provided. Totally standard issue stuff. I think it’s a Sagemcom router, and I don’t have much of a choice but to use that either. All other devices, including my old Steam Deck work with it out-of-the-box.
Connecting the Steam Deck OLED to my home network appears to brick the internal network device and renders the Deck pretty much useless.
It’s a real shame and it shouldn’t happen at that price point and coming from a company that has a fair bunch of experience with hardware now. As my network works with all other devices, including the old Deck, I don’t see a reason to change anything about it. At almost 700 eurobucks, it’s fair to expect the OLED Deck to work as well. Changing anything about the otherwise working network would be like buying a new car, because it doesn’t have an AUX-in.
Massive blunder, Valve.

Conclusion:

Overall, the changes are incremental, and given the many issues it has the new Steam Deck OLED is not worth the price. The new OLED Steam Deck seems a bit like an early access title and falls in line with current AAA games being released unfinished. It obviously suffers from the current economic “shrinkflation” situation as well (mid-to-late 70s cars were pretty rubbish, too). If this would be Valve’s first handheld PC, I would have had some understanding for it, but this is the x-th revision of tried-and-true hardware. The connectivity issue makes the entire thing unusable to me. For almost 700 eurobucks and being a recreational device, I don’t see a reason to adapt my network to it, when everything else works fine. It’s clearly the Steam Deck OLED that’s the issue here. As of now, compared to the LCD, it’s one very expensive paperweight to me.

If I could I’d give this one a thumbs-down. I will return my Steam Deck OLED. Maybe I’ll re-order one in half a year or so, when there hopefully be a sale or something.

As of now, however, I’m in the market for an OLED, SSD and battery upgrade kit for my current Deck. The better screen, greater storage and longer battery life are truly the best things about the new Steam Deck. An upgrade kit seems much more reasonable than what the OLED has to offer for its price for now.
But who knows what stuff third-parties come up with soon or never.

If you haven’t had a Steam Deck already, it’s the best Deck you could get from Valve now, though the Deck’s initial success spawned some mainstream competition to take into consideration first.
But if you already have one, it’s an incremental upgrade at best and likely a waste of money better spent on a larger SSD or aftermarket screen… or a really nice bread from your local bakery.


Feel free to discuss. Cheers!

[Haruspex]

Fair and well written, even if I don't 100% agree on some of the points made. Cheers.

[kilésengati]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Fair and well written, even if I don't 100% agree on some of the points made. Cheers.

Thanks. Would be cool to know where you differ.

Change Log:
– Fixed minor writing errors.
– Added "Ergonomics" section. Forgot about that, sorry.

[Toast]

This is pretty much how I feel as well. My LE is just going to go to my collector shelf.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Thanks. Would be cool to know where you differ.

Sure.

I've had a different experience with software and connectivity myself, though I understand there are variables at play here that might be different from person to person. I don't think I've ever experienced a single crash on Steam Deck, and for me connectivity has been just fine. I can use my home wifi, my cellphone hotspot, and even a few public wifi instances haven't been a problem. I've had two different LCD models now which currently belong to my wife and son, and I have a 512 GB OLED for myself. (Soon to be upgraded to 2 TB.)

Where my opinion differs is in the build quality. For a gaming device, it feels premium to me. Tolerances feel tight. The material is plastic but has a very nice texture to it, and there's no discernible flex or creaking sound when you handle it like I've experienced with other Chinese handhelds and cheap controllers. Thumbsticks on the OLED are a little different, but I don't think they feel any better or worse than the LCD model, and as sticks they feel as good as any good controller I've used. Face buttons feel nice to me with a good action to them, not rattly like you sometimes get on cheap controllers. The D-Pad is solid, and they've improved the pivot and diagonals compared to the LCD. I'm comfortable doing Street Fighter moves on it. The edges don't feel particularly sharp to me, at least where it counts. The seam around the edges where the top of the shell meets the bottom is uniform and I don't notice it during long play sessions. The bumper buttons feel nice with a satisfying click. The analog triggers move smoothly and silently with a nice soft touch at the end of their travel. The back buttons have a very tactile click to them so you know for sure you've activated them, without them being too easy to activate by accident.

You're right in that it is an incremental update. Most people who already have an LCD Deck should probably just stick with their LCD Deck. The OLED is an improvement in almost every single respect, but I don't think it's enough of an improvement for most people to justify the extra cost.

That being said for some people, it might be worth it. It certainly was for me, and I don't regret it at all. For first time buyers, they should absolutely look at an OLED, unless they're really looking for a bargain in which case they can get a really good deal on an LCD now.

[kilésengati]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Originally posted by kilésengati:

Thanks. Would be cool to know where you differ.

Sure.

I've had a different experience with software and connectivity myself, though I understand there are variables at play here that might be different from person to person. I don't think I've ever experienced a single crash on Steam Deck, and for me connectivity has been just fine. I can use my home wifi, my cellphone hotspot, and even a few public wifi instances haven't been a problem. I've had two different LCD models now which currently belong to my wife and son, and I have a 512 GB OLED for myself. (Soon to be upgraded to 2 TB.)

Where my opinion differs is in the build quality. For a gaming device, it feels premium to me. Tolerances feel tight. The material is plastic but has a very nice texture to it, and there's no discernible flex or creaking sound when you handle it like I've experienced with other Chinese handhelds and cheap controllers. Thumbsticks on the OLED are a little different, but I don't think they feel any better or worse than the LCD model, and as sticks they feel as good as any good controller I've used. Face buttons feel nice to me with a good action to them, not rattly like you sometimes get on cheap controllers. The D-Pad is solid, and they've improved the pivot and diagonals compared to the LCD. I'm comfortable doing Street Fighter moves on it. The edges don't feel particularly sharp to me, at least where it counts. The seam around the edges where the top of the shell meets the bottom is uniform and I don't notice it during long play sessions. The bumper buttons feel nice with a satisfying click. The analog triggers move smoothly and silently with a nice soft touch at the end of their travel. The back buttons have a very tactile click to them so you know for sure you've activated them, without them being too easy to activate by accident.

Glad that you and others don't have these issues with your OLEDs. Maybe mine came from a different production line.
I don't have these crowdfunded handhelds as a reference. Followed those closely, but never bought one, anticipating some mainstream company will jump on that bandwagon eventually. They were simply too expensive and always came off as vapourware a bit. Thankfully, Valve changed that.

I only have my early LCD Steam Deck and the OLED Steam Deck as a reference, and unfortunately, in my case, there's a stark difference in build quality between the two. Which on its own is ignoreable or even fixable to some extend. There are probably higher quality third-party shells out there and maybe even some way to make the joystick caps like the LCD ones again.
But then of course there are the connectivity issues, which are an absolute deal breaker. Thankfully, we have strong consumer rights here in Germany and I can get mine refunded.

Originally posted by Haruspex:

You're right in that it is an incremental update. Most people who already have an LCD Deck should probably just stick with their LCD Deck. The OLED is an improvement in almost every single respect, but I don't think it's enough of an improvement for most people to justify the extra cost.

That being said for some people, it might be worth it. It certainly was for me, and I don't regret it at all. For first time buyers, they should absolutely look at an OLED, unless they're really looking for a bargain in which case they can get a really good deal on an LCD now.

As I've mentioned before, the OLED was a big selling point to me, alongside with the longer battery life and it being quieter. And it doesn't disappoint there at all. Having travelled with the LCD Deck and finding it too dim for brightly lit areas, annoying to have it plugged into the wall or powerbank almost all the time and too noisy for the public. But then again, the counterpoints for me add up to a degree where I really have to ask myself: "Is it worth it?"
And with the grave malfunctions I've encountered, that decision was made for me.

[Lil B_999]

Well written! Should people who already have the "OG" deck upgrade to the OLED version?

[Jenaverse]

Originally posted by kilésengati:

I've mentioned before, the OLED was a big selling point to me.

Have you checked out DeckHD screen? Read some are happy with it on their lcd if you’re not planning on keeping your oled and sticking to your lcd deck and upgrading it.

I see there is a review section for SD with less than a handful of customer reviews. I haven’t figured out how to actually leave my own review there, I get no options to.

Like Haruspex, I’m also happy with my oled purchase and feel the unit I received was built far better than I had expected (way better than my Q1 OG LCD).

[Jenaverse]

Originally posted by element109:

If you had accepted my friend request I could have told you how to do a :sd: review.

I don’t deserve you as a friend, you can find better.

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by Jenaverse:

...
I see there is a review section for SD with less than a handful of customer reviews. I haven’t figured out how to actually leave my own review there, I get no options to...

Where do you see any reviews?

If you go to the reviews section for the Steam Deck it just shows

No more content. So sad.
You can help: share a screenshot, make a video, or start a new discussion!

Same with Guides. AFAIK the way the Hardware (for Steam Deck and Index) store pages are setup do not work with reviews or guides. The original Steam Controller page works so it is an issue with how they setup the pages for Steam Deck, Index, and HTC Vive as none of those work with reviews afaik.

[Jenaverse]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

Originally posted by Jenaverse:

...
I see there is a review section for SD with less than a handful of customer reviews. I haven’t figured out how to actually leave my own review there, I get no options to...

Where do you see any reviews?

If you go to the reviews section for the Steam Deck it just shows

No more content. So sad.
You can help: share a screenshot, make a video, or start a new discussion!

Same with Guides. AFAIK the way the Hardware (for Steam Deck and Index) store pages are setup do not work with reviews or guides. The original Steam Controller page works so it is an issue with how they setup the pages for Steam Deck, Index, and HTC Vive as none of those work with reviews afaik.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/reviews/?p=1&browsefilter=toprated

[Jenaverse]

I’m using mobile app and been playing on my SD. I’ll figure it out on my desktop eventually.

[kilésengati]

Originally posted by Lil B_999:

Well written! Should people who already have the "OG" deck upgrade to the OLED version?

Personally, having tested the OLED against the LCD the best I could, I won't for now. But at the end of the day, everyone has to decide for themselves.

Originally posted by Jenaverse:

Originally posted by kilésengati:

I've mentioned before, the OLED was a big selling point to me.

Have you checked out DeckHD screen? Read some are happy with it on their lcd if you’re not planning on keeping your oled and sticking to your lcd deck and upgrading it.

I see there is a review section for SD with less than a handful of customer reviews. I haven’t figured out how to actually leave my own review there, I get no options to.

Like Haruspex, I’m also happy with my oled purchase and feel the unit I received was built far better than I had expected (way better than my Q1 OG LCD).

The DeckHD kit seemed nice and I've taken it into consideration, but since Gamescope is only supporting 800p and 1200p is not an integer of that, I decided against it and am not interested still. It would need a 1600p screen for a pixel-perfect image, otherwise it would result in a blurry image. Just using desktop mode with Big Picture is only a quick and dirty fix to this, but it produces much more overhead and lacks certain features of Gamescope. The best solution would be for Valve to just implement other resolutions to Gamescope, but for some reason they don't, despite this being a much-requested feature because people want to turn their PCs into DIY Steam Machines.
As long as Valve holds on to the fixed resolution in Gamescope, I'd rather take an 800p OLED kit rather than a higher-res but non-integer LCD kit. For the same reason I went with an OG resolution screen instead of a "fancy" one when I retrofitted a backlit screen to my GBA a while back. Given how great the price difference between the entire OLED Deck and just a screen is, it's probably just a matter of time until someone releases an OLED kit for the OG Deck.

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by kilésengati:

...but since Gamescope is only supporting 800p and 1200p is not an integer of that, I decided against it and am not interested still. It would need a 1600p screen for a pixel-perfect image, otherwise it would result in a blurry image. Just using desktop mode with Big Picture is only a quick and dirty fix to this, but it produces much more overhead and lacks certain features of Gamescope. The best solution would be for Valve to just implement other resolutions to Gamescope, but for some reason they don't, despite this being a much-requested feature because people want to turn their PCs into DIY Steam Machines.
As long as Valve holds on to the fixed resolution in Gamescope, I'd rather take an 800p OLED kit rather than a higher-res but non-integer LCD kit....

Not sure where you are getting that Gamescope only supports 800p. Gamescope supports other resolutions including 1080p and 1200p.

[TheWolf_Brigade]

Well written, but calling it a paperweight is a bit drastic. I think you are comparing it to the LCD version too much. It's only a refreshed model, but a damn good refresh, one of the best refreshes I've ever seen:

Better battery life, better screen, upgraded fan/noise reduction, 7nm > 6nm processor, faster Ram, upgraded joysticks, upgraded wifi/bluetooth module, faster charging, improved resume time by 30%, new torx screws on back panel, and weight decrease.

If you already have a Steam Deck then obviously you don't need the OLED refresh, but the device itself is pretty amazing as it stands.

Digital Foundry has a good review on it too:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1KLj06fn2s&ab_channel=DigitalFoundry

[PopinFRESH]

Originally posted by kilésengati:

As of now, however, I’m in the market for an OLED, SSD and battery upgrade kit for my current Deck. The better screen, greater storage and longer battery life are truly the best things about the new Steam Deck. An upgrade kit seems much more reasonable than what the OLED has to offer for its price for now.

This is the part that doesn't make sense to me.

OLED Display would be about $99-$130
Bigger battery would be about $110-$120
1TB SSD is about $95

So an upgrade kit for $304 - $345

Sell your current Steam Deck (LCD) for $300
+ $345 that you'd spend on an "upgrade kit"
= Steam Deck (OLED)

I get you had the WiFi issues that people are having but that is definitely something that will be resolved and reading your OP it really seems like most of it stems from your frustration in dealing with the wireless connectivity issue. Temporarily disabling 160MHz channel width isn't that great of a sacrifice while they get things sorted out imo.