Valve released the first LCD Steam Deck at the beginning of 2022. Since then, they have been on the top of the game in the retro handheld space. The phrase “just get a Steam Deck” has become a cliche and joke at this point when any other handheld comes out exceeding the $250 range.
Valve then did a refresh with an OLED screen and other improvements in November of last year. They even made a new refresh this year with just an updated white color for the OLED. The screen is gorgeous, the battery life is better, and the triggers and sticks feel better. With all the chaos of constant handheld releases, is the Steam Deck OLED still worth it a year later?
Steam Deck OLED: The Screen
The biggest selling of the OLED model for the Steam Deck OLED is of course the screen. It is absolutely gorgeous as well. Another small thing that Valve did with the OLED model was shrink the bezels a bit as well. This way you are really taking advantage of this nice huge display.
In my opinion, though the screen is 720p on the Steam Deck, I think it looks better than the 1080p of the ROG Ally X. The Steam Deck is just so much more vibrant and some games are just stunning to look at. If you look at the image above, you can see the difference for yourself. I don’t have any saturation of vibrancy settings on either, this is just running the default settings on both.
The Steam Deck OLED has 2 different models. One has 512GB of storage and a glossy screen. The other has 1TB of storage with an anti-glare etched screen. I only have the non-etched glass screen, but Stubbs did a great comparison of the 2 different models above.
The Comfort
When I first got the Steam Deck OLED, I could not believe how light it was. It is a huge improvement over the original LCD system. Again, comparing it to my ROG Ally X (it is the only comparable system I have), the weight of the OLED is way more manageable in my opinion.
As someone with larger hands, I find the Steam Deck to be one of, if not the most comfortable device I own. The way the grips fit in my hand along with how easy it is to reach the sticks and buttons just can’t be beat. I have only had 1 instance of being uncomfortable, and that was when I noticed my hands going numb playing Katamari Damacy, but this could be from the dual-stick nature of the game and my not playing many of those kinds of games.
The Controls
One of the highlights of the Steam Deck is the trackpads, and the OLED ones feel great with their haptic feedback. They are very responsive and I have adapted to using them more for games that need it. It is one thing that I wish more handheld PCs would take advantage of.
The analog sticks are also an improvement on the OLED model. They just feel smoother and have a more tactile grip on top. One of our writers even compared it to hall sticks and preferred the original OLED sticks more! Read more about that experience here.
The rest of the controls are fine. Back buttons are good, and triggers and face buttons are all fine too. My big complaint has to be the D-pad though. I absolutely hate the Steam Deck dpad and the OLED model did little to fix it. It is hard to pinpoint what I don’t like about it, but it is just my biggest issue with the device.
Performance
This is one area where the Steam Deck is starting to get surpassed by other handheld PCs on the market. The performance is still fantastic on the Steam Deck, but you will see better performance and FPS on the ROG Ally, Lenovo Legion Go, and the like.
Even with that, I am still amazed at how well I can optimize different games to run on the Steam Deck. I have played through all of Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War (2018), Horizon Forbidden West, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and more. There were some stutters and FPS drops of course, but it was the best option I had at the time and it was still a fantastic experience.
On the OLED, running your favorite indie games at 90 FPS is a fantastic experience. With the screen and battery life, it is my favorite handheld to play my indie games and even a lot of my JRPGs that I can’t run on a smaller handheld. However, the ROG Ally X is replacing it in the world of playing my AAA games.
SteamOS
SteamOS is such a great experience. As someone who has never had a gaming PC, it made the transition so easy for me. I know there are options like Bazzite available for Windows handhelds, but it is hard to beat the original. So much so, that it is said Valve is thinking of releasing it officially for PC handhelds in the future.
One drawback though is that some launchers are a pain to get to play nicely. Epic, GOG, Ubisoft, EA, and more require some extra tweaking. This may not be ideal for someone who is newer to other scenes and does not want to mess with all the extra steps.
This is no fault of the Steam Deck, but some games have made it impossible to play with their implementation of anti-cheat. It is good to be aware of which games this includes so you don’t purchase or download them with hopes of playing on your Deck.
Finally, I wish there was an easier way to play Game Pass games like on the ROG Ally/X. It is so easy to download games straight to the device and play them. Sadly, with the Steam Deck you either have to use Cloud gaming through the Edge browser of XBPlay. XBPlay is a great experience, but not as much so if you could download the games straight to the Steam Deck.
Overall
Is the Steam Deck OLED still worth it in 2024? In my opinion, absolutely! Even with the constant price drops of the LCD Deck, I think that is worth it too. The screen and battery life alone make the Steam Deck OLED worth it over the LCD though in my opinion.
Compared to other devices on the market, the Deck is slowly starting to show its age, but user experience can’t be beat. Valve and the community are constantly supporting the Deck, and that makes it worth it alone. The ROG Ally X has been the only thing that has made me second-guess my Deck, but I still use my Deck more than any device.
We here at RH are eagerly awaiting to see what Valve does next. The phrase, “Just get a Steam Deck” may never go away, because it is just that good, even 2 years later.
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