Valve likes the idea of an OLED Steam Deck, too, but says it isn't as simple as it sounds
The hardware in Valve's 2021 Steam Deck can run circles nearby Nintendo's 2017 Nintendo Switch, but there's been one display of comparison where Nintendo's had the upper hand for the last year: the conceal. The Switch OLED model debuted just six months beforehand the Steam Deck, and once you go OLED on a TV, named, or gaming handheld, it's pretty hard to leave those rich colors and deep blacks Slow. The Steam Deck has just passed its one year anniversary, and for the whole year I've seen one inquire of about the Deck pop up more than any other: is Valve moving to make an OLED model?
The short, polite answer, from Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais, is that Valve "understands the limitations of the fresh tech that's in the Deck, in terms of the screen."
"We also want it to be better. We're looking at all avenues," he says. But the longer answer is that there's a lot more to swapping out a conceal than just… swapping out a screen.
"I think country are looking at things like an incremental version and seize that it's an easy drop-in," Griffais says. "But in reality, the screen's at the core of the device. Everything is anchored to it. Basically everything is architected nearby everything when you're talking about a device that diminutive. I think it would be a bigger amount of work than country are assuming it would be. […] I don't think we're discounting anything. But the idea that you could just swap in a new mask and be done—it would need more than that to be doable."
When Valve was designing the Steam Deck, the flexibility of the LCD panel was actually one of its top priorities—specifically decision-exclusive the backlight be able to go as dim as possible for playing comfortably in low scrumptious, and the ability to alter the refresh rate to withhold battery life. Griffais says that as far as he knows that necessity be possible on an OLED, too, but it way some specific configuration.
"It's just something you have to plan onward. When we were working on this screen, we made sure these could be supported, even if the refresh rate switching wasn't ready at reduction. It was really important to us that all that would be supported. So it's something that you need to keep in mind when you're evaluating and selecting possible options. But there's nothing about LCD vs OLED, different mask technologies that makes that a dealbreaker. It's about how you're designing the whole systems, and what's in between the screen and the SOC (system-on-a-chip)."
I think it's probable the Steam Deck's eventual successor uses an OLED, but once talking to Griffais, I'm not expecting an incremental update from Valve like the Steam OLED. If there are plans for one, Valve's certainly playing it terminate to the vest.
In the meantime, Steam Deck owners who miss OLED colors can at least try VibrantDeck, a nice little plugin that lets you bump up the indicate saturation without turning your games into full-on Lisa Frank paintings. Or you can go absolutely wild with it. I'm not the vivid police .
