Steam Deck OLED Review - 1 MONTH Later... is it worth it?

I have to be honest I never really loved the original steam deck controversial I know but the somewhat dull display and the pretty rubbish battery life meant I didn't really enjoy gaming on it all that much I know it was the first one out the gate and it spawned these guys but I'm here to talk about this the new steam deck OLED I've been using it for the best part of a month now and it is so much better I absolutely love this to the point where despite the orig Ally and the Lenovo Legion go here offering better performance and new bells and whistles and yes even a kickstand which I am very jealous of I think this still may be the best one to go for so think of this as the steam deck 1.5 valve have tweaked or upgraded almost every part and while we still get basically the same chunky plastic design this new one fixes most of my issues I had with the original this new OLED screen is absolutely gorgeous I mean it's OLED for a start rather than LCD so you get those nice deep Inky blacks as the cliche goes it's brighter it supports HDR and they bump the refresh rate from 60 to 90 HZ which makes everything feel a whole lot smoother well assuming the game you're playing does actually hit 90 FPS which is easier said than done battery life is just ridiculously better like up to 50% better thanks to the bigger 50w hour battery and a more power efficient display and 6 nanm processor and while on paper performance should be roughly the same as before it's using the same chip even if it's a slightly more efficient version of it and it does not compete with the much faster Z1 extreme from AMD that we get in the r Alli and Legion go sadly these are more powerful we'll talk more about that in a minute actually the frame rates on this are actually far more stable than before meaning fewer frame drops and just a much smoother overall experience plus it's cooler it's quieter it's about 5% lighter they redesigned the thumb sticks which make them more comfortable and what else we got Wi-Fi 6E is quite a nice jump from Wi-Fi 5 that we had on the old one there is also a new Bluetooth antenna which supports multiple controllers so you can play split screen on here and it also now means you can use your Bluetooth earphones or headphones uh as a microphone for chatting in game which bizarrely you can't on that and most importantly the power button is now orange so it's a genuine endtoend refinement and just makes this feel a bit well prototype in comparison this is what it should have been the whole time I understand that it just wasn't possible to get a good 90 HZ OLED screen uh back well when this launched a few years ago but it just feels like this has unlocked the potential the steam deck always had now you have a couple of options there's a 512 GB or 1 TB OLED option and also the updated LCD version which now gets a 256 gig SSD which is a massive upgrade from the base 64 gig emmc that we used to have and that's kept the same price as before so storage on the new oleds has doubled versus last year with only a 20ish bump on the mid speec and the same price at the top spec which now gets a much more usable 1 tbte and to be honest I think that's pretty good value but still for me I would go with one tbte as it's only about 90 more for double the storage plus you get this anti-glare etched glass and you also get this carry case which inside has a much more compact liner that you can pull out which makes this whole thing a lot less cumbersome to carry around whichever model you go for though you can expand the storage via micro SD but that will be slower than the internal storage and also still cost you a few quids so probably best just to go for the one tbte so like the oldest steam deck this is a handheld gaming PC to basically just play your steam library and given the gaming performance is solid if not perhaps amazing it's better suited for Indie Games especially if you want to hit that 90 HZ or AAA titles if you're happy to hit 30 to 40 FPS or maybe some console emulation of your old favorites now the fact that this runs Steam OS is both the best thing and possibly the worst thing about it it's based on Linux and Steam OS is incredibly slick and easy to use but it does only give you access to your steam light Library although if you're happy to get your hands dirty uh you can access and install other game libraries via the Linux desktop via the power menu but it's a bit clunky and not nearly as easy as accessing other game stores on these guys which one which one which run Windows 11 on the other hand Steam OS easily beats windows with an app overlay for ease of use and bugs this thing is responsive everything is easy to find and you do still have a few options to tweak performance scaling and frame rate locks but if you just want an easy life to play your steam library then this definitely makes sense although not all games play nicely with the decks controls by default so there's a handy deck verified playable and unsupported labels to tell you how well each game works verified or playable games remap controls to the deck's layout automatically and it gives you a nice overview of the controls as you launch each game but then games that have been untested are listed as unknown although you can then build a custom layout yourself but let's talk about this gorgeous OLED display now as I say I've got the one terab here so it's got that etched glass so it does cut down Reflections a little bit it's pretty similar actually to the original steam deck compared with the LCD on the regular deck the colors the blacks the extra Clarity especially off angle the viewing angles are much improved the screen is a massive upgrade but you do kind of need to see it with your own eyes I feel like the difference just doesn't come across that well on camera it's also brighter going from 400 to 600 nits in SDR and also now with a 1000 nit option for HDR although of course the brighter you go the faster it will drain your battery and also for any game that can match out that 90 HZ refresh rate or at least get say anything over 60 FPS that extra smoothness on top of the OLED image quality bump is a night and day difference and the response times are also 10 milliseconds faster on this Ola display compared to the previous LCD and also the reduced system input lag makes everything just feel a lot snappier so OLED is obviously very nice but it doesn't have a 120 or 144 HZ refresh rate like we do with these guys also these support vrr or variable refresh rates which can help smooth out your frame rate so while this is more stable and will come to Performance in a second it would have been nice to have a vrr screen so in some ways these are better gaming displays even if they're not OLED but then they also have that beier Z1 extreme processor to really take advantage of that higher refresh and on the steam deck you can make everything feel more consistent by locking the frame rate to 30 or 60 also the new HDR mode especially in games like Spider-Man remastered is where this new panel looks its absolute best the problem is though HDR is limited to HDR enabled games which is disappointing as there on a ton of these on PC in terms of Design This hasn't really changed much compared to this guy yes we have the orange power button and slightly refined uh joyad thumbstick things but on the outside it's largely the same and in terms of size it's pretty much a halfway house between the Rog Ally and the L lenino Lenovo Legion go uh this is a big boy although I would say in terms of what feels most premium I think I have to give it to the Ally it's got that sort of compact size it's got the nice RG GB lighting it just feels a bit nicer to hold and of course the Lenovo is a bit of a monster actually we've got the biggest screen and you can also detach the controllers on the legion go which gives you a bit more well versatility if you want a game like this so between the three I think the Ori play my favorite in terms of design and feel but the steam deck is close behind and while it is a bit sort of plasticky and engineer prototype feeling it is very comfortable to hold in your hand and I do appreciate how much cooler and quieter it is now compared to the one the new steam deck is also 27 G lighter which is just about noticeable and while the thumb sticks have had a bit of a redesign to be a little bit chunky and grippier the touchpads and the buttons are all the same as the old deck my B button did stick sometimes and I would like a bit more haptic feedback they're also using new Torx screws which makes it much simpler for opening this up for modding or repairing and you can even replace the M2 drive if you want more or faster storage instead of bunging in a Micro SD let's see what this can do and how much faster it is if at all than the old one my main takeaway is that performance is a lot more consistent with fewer frame drops in more demanding games like Boulders Gate 3 or cyberpunk but the big surprise for me was how this does give you a few extra FPS and that's down to having 16% more memory bandwidth and also the more efficient 6 nanom processor which uses less power so it can maintain higher GPU clock speeds for longer less throttling in Boulders Gate 3 I averaged a couple of FPS higher at Native 800p but it was the lack of Stu and frame drops that was the most obvious although considering the orig Ally with the Z1 extreme chip can hit similar FPS at TTP shows just how much more power that thing has to offer the new steam deol Leed also averaged a 12% High frame rate in Spider-Man remastered and as with Boulders Gate 3 FSR 2 upscaling is great to keep things feeling smooth in cyber punk I only got one extra FPS although I'll take it but again less data means it doesn't feel like it's struggling so much and this thing looks awesome running what was a PC breaking game just a couple of years ago but one of the biggest differences was in Street Fighter where the steam deck OLED managed a consistent 60fps while the older model only averaged 53 this is the kind of game where the deck OLED shines and also going from 60 to 90 HZ means you get an automatic 50% boost in performance and in f122 the high refreshment I averaged 86 FPS rather than being locked to 60 and again it's just unlocking the potential the steam deck always had like in rocket League where the jumping playability is huge I mean sure the Ally and the legion get closer to 100 FPS at the same settings but if you are leaning towards the deck this is another reason to grab the OLED model and as with the original you can use this Frame limit slider to limit your FPS to minimize stutter and it will automatically double if you play below 30 FPS so it's a much smoother gaming experience but the other big upgrade is with the battery somehow despite being the same design overall they've crowned in a 25% bigger battery and improved heat sink and cooling which is why this runs quieter and feels cooler as well the screen draws half a watt less than the LCD and in my tests the CPU drew around 2 to three Watts less than the old deck depending on the game all that means the OLED lasted between 25 and 50% longer case in point it managed 3 and 1 half hours of recfest versus just 2 hours on the regular deck 50% longer and it lasted just over 25% longer in rocket league and that was running at 90 FPS so with 50% more frames now I am also going to do a full comparison video comparing the three handheld gaming PCs uh because there are pros and cons for each of them I think if you want the best most powerful gaming experience the most versatility the highest frame rate the best performance probably the most future proofing as well just in terms of the specs these two possibly are a better option the main issue I have with the legion go as nice as it is it's just too expensive it's just come out so actually Rog have discounted this and it's like a couple1 cheaper than the ghost so without jumping too far ahead of my upcoming comparison video my personal opinion is that it's between these two uh and I don't think you can go wrong with either but suddenly for a simpler less clunky just easier experience the steam Deco lead is probably the one to go for so to wrap up the steam Deco lead looks better it runs better it runs for longer even at higher FPS downloads are faster it's cooler it's quieter it's lighter it's a heck of a midlife upgrade and it just doesn't feel as compromised as the original and it's enough that I actually want to pick it up and play every time I see it it does have some tough competition and for the most recent AAA games if you want higher settings you are going to have to get used to 30 FPS and I would also very much like an auto resume feature on this as currently you have to do a full cold boot every time you open a new game but what do you think are you tempted to buy one of these have you already bought one and if so let me know what your experiences below or would you be tempted by one of these thank you so much for watching guys if you did enjoy this video a like And subscribe would be fantastic and I'll see you next time right here on the tech chat all right let's play some Monkey Island

Channel: The Tech Chap

Views: 250,872

Keywords: steam deck, steam deck oled, steam deck 2, steam deck oled review, steam deck unboxing, steam deck review, lenovo legion go, steam deck vs rog ally, steamdeck oled, legion go, rog ally, steam deck games, steam deck oled vs rog ally, steam deck oled vs lcd, steam deck oled vs legion go, steam deck oled baldurs gate 3, steam deck oled gameplay, steam deck oled games, steam deck review 2023, steam deck vs rog ally vs legion go, best handheld pc, steam deck vs, asus rog ally

Id: zFLKcwYEUSY

Length: 12min 3sec (723 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 20 2023