Steam Deck - SteamOS, Zen2 4C/8T, RDNA2 1.0-1.6 TF, 16 GB LPDDR5 88 GB/s, starting at $399 [2021-12]

[arandomguy]

Yeah it hits almost all the the stuff you'd want to revise and manages to do so in the same shell externally. No VRR is probably the biggest disappointment and then followed by 120hz. I can quibble with maybe wanting a bit more display size, or things like hall effect sticks but that's just being nit picky. Or maybe something slightly controversial like a higher resolution.

But importantly the addresses to the two biggest weaknesses in the

1) the Display. It now arguably has the best display on the market.

2) Battery life and also efficiency (which affects things like noise).

What'll be interesting to see if there's perf games normalized to the same power limits given the efficiency, even though there's no actual peak figure changes on the SoC.

An actual Deck 2 though could be something like 2+ years out.

Rich at Digital Foundry has a quick look. Quieter thanks to the new process and larger fan and about 3-8% faster thanks to 10% more bandwidth. He says it's the best handheld out there. I assume that includes the ROG Ally. I don't think he mentioned if the display had VRR, but apparently Linus's video mentioned it can't because of the display connector they used.

$30 extra for the limited edition one seems like a no-brainer if you're going for the 1TB model.

I believe they using a mobile connection standard that doesn't support VRR and I'm guessing that wasn't changed for this revision.

That limited edition is enticing but the markup of the 1TB does add to the price. Would be an extra $180 CAD but for 512GB of storage and etched glass as well. Also it'll be interesting to see how the etched glass interacts with the OLED display.

 

[arandomguy]

Interview on Steam Deck OLED development and some insights on the future - https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-...alve-reveals-how-the-oled-model-came-together

So why do this instead of the Steam Deck 2?

Shaw: It's a great question. We are interested in the Steam Deck 2 once we believe that there is a generational leap available to us in terms of performance. We don't see that yet, so we are not looking at Steam Deck 2 yet. As time goes on, of course we'll continue to innovate and look at different possibilities. But this was always the Steam Deck that we dreamed of making. We really wanted to have an OLED display. We really wanted to have, all of the things that we have now as really kind of the definitive first-generation Steam Deck. Yeah.

You say this is the one you've wanted to make. When did you start making this version versus the original?

Jeremy Selan, Designer: Yeah, we started on this immediately after shipping the first. In fact, even the display technology for the HDR display, we kicked that off prior to even having shipped the first. So it's been over two years now that we've been working on this.

J. Selan: Yeah, the color gamut is also very impressive. It has 110% of the DCIP three-color gamut.

Did you consider changing the form factor at all? I know this device is lighter because of the improvements on the internals, but did you discuss changing the form factor at all?

Shaw: Not for this generation. Not at all. That was one of the things we really wanted to do was keep the form factor. We're happy with it, we found the customers are really happy with it. So potentially way down the line if we find some interesting way in which the form factor should change, I'm sure we would look at that, but we definitely weren't looking at it for this release.

Selan: Yeah, it's also worth noting, I believe we've made resume faster on this device.

Shaw: That is true. That is absolutely true. Resume is faster on this device. Yeah, we were able to do that. Was it purely through software, right?

Selan: I'm not sure.

Shaw: Okay. Not 100% sure. But we do know it works because as a customer of this device, I have noticed that my resume is considerably faster. It wasn't slow before, so it was kind of nice.

 

[cheapchips]

The screen is fully RGB striped and has a minimum brightness of 2 nits. Nice!

 

[Pressure]

Linus mentioned that the sub pixel arrangement of the OLED display matches that of the Nintendo Switch OLED, so they speculate that they are sourced from the same company.

 

[cheapchips]

Linus mentioned that the sub pixel arrangement of the OLED display matches that of the Nintendo Switch OLED, so they speculate that they are sourced from the same company.

The Deck's OLED is dual sourced from Samsung and BoE (don't know who Nintendo use)

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Interview on Steam Deck OLED development and some insights on the future - https://www.ign.com/articles/steam-...alve-reveals-how-the-oled-model-came-together

So why do this instead of the Steam Deck 2?

Shaw: It's a great question. We are interested in the Steam Deck 2 once we believe that there is a generational leap available to us in terms of performance. We don't see that yet, so we are not looking at Steam Deck 2 yet. As time goes on, of course we'll continue to innovate and look at different possibilities. But this was always the Steam Deck that we dreamed of making. We really wanted to have an OLED display. We really wanted to have, all of the things that we have now as really kind of the definitive first-generation Steam Deck. Yeah.

To me, this statement feels like Valve are thinking more about the desirability of Steam Deck 2 for those who bought the original, but I'm someone who doesn't own a device in this category. The Steam Deck isn't an option for me because I want something that will play games decently for the next 3-4 years, and I'm not convinced four-year Zen2 portable hardware is going to do that. This is only going to get worse over time because the rest of the tech industry is moving forward and Steam Deck is standing still.

 

[cheapchips]

To me, this statement feels like Valve are thinking more about the desirability of Steam Deck 2 for those who bought the original, but I'm someone who doesn't own a device in this category. The Steam Deck isn't an option for me because I want something that will play games decently for the next 3-4 years, and I'm not convinced four-year Zen2 portable hardware is going to do that. This is only going to get worse over time because the rest of the tech industry is moving forward and Steam Deck is standing still.

There's no handheld SoC that's moved on from the Deck's in a meaningful way. A Z1 extreme isn't going to run titles pushing the XSX/PS5 better than the Deck without setting on fire, lasting 30 minutes or blowing so much air your ears pop. Probably all three.

You'll be waiting a good couple of years for a device that is performant as you want. Or you could jump in now and have a device that plays the majority of a truly massive catalogue pretty well.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

There's no handheld SoC that's moved on from the Deck's in a meaningful way. A Z1 extreme isn't going to run titles pushing the XSX/PS5 better than the Deck without setting on fire, lasting 30 minutes or blowing so much air your ears pop. Probably all three.

Did you not see the Richard's DF video on the ROG Ally from earlier this year? It was outperforming the SteamDeck in all tests, significantly in many. The Zen4 part is vastly better in every respect and things shows despite the SteamDeck have much better optimisations, OS and software and the ROG Ally having a ton of other software issues. Unless I'm greatly mis-remembering!

 

[cheapchips]

Did you not see the Richard's DF video on the ROG Ally from earlier this year? It was outperforming the SteamDeck in all tests, significantly in many. The Zen4 part is vastly better in every respect and things shows despite the SteamDeck have much better optimisations, OS and software and the ROG Ally having a ton of other software issues. Unless I'm greatly mis-remembering!

it's not that the Ally or other Z1E machine aren't more powerful. The z1E still doesn't get you a device that'll comfortably play anything coming out over the next few years. It's marginal improvements in fps over the Deck at the cost of battery, fan noise and cost. The Deck is a well balanced machine and they've made it even more balanced by keeping the same performance at 6nm. Appreciate that it's not quite what you're after. A V2 Deck or 3nm another handheld is probably your jumping on point?

 

[Deleted member 11852]

it's not that the Ally or other Z1E machine aren't more powerful. The z1E still doesn't get you a device that'll comfortably play anything coming out over the next few years.

Modern chipsets used in devices like the Ally will run games better than the chipset used in the Deck. That's my own consideration for something I buy now. In your previous post you presented a scenario of mobile devices not running games better than those that are pushing the PS5/Series X. I'm not asking for that, I'm wanting longevity for any device I buy now, that was launched 18 months ago and uses 4 year-old technology.

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Richard's Digital Foundry analysis of the ROG Ally shows how far AMD's mobile tech has moved on. The ROG Ally is far from perfect, yet the core technology is massively ahead of that in the SteamDeck. If you've survive off only what the battery can service then the proposition is less appealing, but why on earth would I want to buy a four-year old 2019 Zen2 based device when we're almost in 2024 and Zen4 tech is simply better?

 

[cheapchips]

I'm not asking for that, I'm wanting longevity for any device I buy now

It sounded like it wasn't longevity you were after, but the ability to play anything new released?

I wasn't suggesting power great than current gen consoles, just enough grunt to run anything the consoles can at 800p/30 (or at least with a nice enough looking image on a 7" screen).

The Zen4 based APUs aren't performant enough for that, anymore than Van Gugh is. Wait a couple (few?) years and we should have something that can do the job.

 

[Seanspeed]

It seems like a fantastic upgrade to an already pretty nice device, truly, but anybody who bought a Steam Deck recently after Valve claimed there would not be a Steam Deck 2 anytime soon can rightfully be pissed off. Obviously this isn't technically a 'Steam Deck 2', but making it seem like there'd be no new hardware for a long while was incredibly misleading.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It sounded like it wasn't longevity you were after, but the ability to play anything new released?

I think perhaps you mis-read my first post.

 

[cheapchips]

@DSoup By new releases I meant new released along that 3-4 years you're after. Make more sense or have I missed something else!

 

[Pete]

That limited edition is enticing but the markup of the 1TB does add to the price. Would be an extra $180 CAD but for 512GB of storage and etched glass as well. Also it'll be interesting to see how the etched glass interacts with the OLED display.

Dave2D said (towards the end, IIRC) he thinks it blunts OLED's blacks, but that can be sidestepped by applying a screen protector.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

@DSoup By new releases I meant new released along that 3-4 years you're after. Make more sense or have I missed something else!

Again, you said this, not me. You think you're representing my view but you're not. You are then arguing with me about why your view is not what you think it might be. What fresh hell in internet debating is this?

 

[cheapchips]

Again, you said this, not me. You think you're representing my view but you're not. You are then arguing with me about why your view is not what you think it might be. What fresh hell in internet debating is this?

Im also spinning. i really can't get your OP. I will shake hands and move on!

 

[Remij]

Deck at 720p is ~ the same experience as the Ally at 1080p. Aside from that, the user experience of the Deck is just superior. It has a far better, and more active community around it which are constantly improving it.

I've said it before and I'll say it here as well.. Devices like the Ally and Ayaneo and other Windows based handheld PCs are just biding their time until SteamOS is supported on devices other than the Deck. They will never be able to keep up with the improvements and features that Valve can do with SteamOS. Once Valve has it ready, I almost guarantee you that all these new devices from these other manufacturers will ditch Windows and jump on SteamOS. It's just a superior experience for this form factor.

So I'll stick with my Deck until the Deck 2 releases. Though I wish they would have offered an official OLED panel which could be user replaceable for OG Deck owners in the meantime.

 

[Seanspeed]

Deck at 720p is ~ the same experience as the Ally at 1080p. Aside from that, the user experience of the Deck is just superior. It has a far better, and more active community around it which are constantly improving it.

I've said it before and I'll say it here as well.. Devices like the Ally and Ayaneo and other Windows based handheld PCs are just biding their time until SteamOS is supported on devices other than the Deck. They will never be able to keep up with the improvements and features that Valve can do with SteamOS. Once Valve has it ready, I almost guarantee you that all these new devices from these other manufacturers will ditch Windows and jump on SteamOS. It's just a superior experience for this form factor.

So I'll stick with my Deck until the Deck 2 releases. Though I wish they would have offered an official OLED panel which could be user replaceable for OG Deck owners in the meantime.

Asking for them to make a display that you can buy separately and implement yourself seems pretty unrealistic man.

Also, the real advantage for Valve is simply their pricing/value, not SteamOS. I think most people would ultimately probably prefer it if Steam Deck was Windows-based, all else being equal.

 

[Remij]

Asking for them to make a display that you can buy separately and implement yourself seems pretty unrealistic man.

Also, the real advantage for Valve is simply their pricing/value, not SteamOS. I think most people would ultimately probably prefer it if Steam Deck was Windows-based, all else being equal.

I mean, no... They offer replacement displays.. and there are upgraded LCD displays you can install in the deck. The display they made already fits in the OG Deck... They're simply choosing not to support it to encourage people to buy the new model instead of just upgrading.

What do you think allows Valve to hit that price/value? SteamOS. SteamOS guarantees people spend money in their ecosystem. Windows based handhelds have to license Windows, which raises costs.. and since they're only selling hardware, they have to mark it up to make profit..

And no.. lmfao.. What in the world makes you think that Deck owners would want it to be Windows based? They already can do that.. and the people who actually DO use Windows on the Steam Deck undoubtedly dual-boot. It's a tiny insignificant number.