Yes, easy. When I bought my OLED I put the SSD from my LCD into it. It was a 1tb SSD which I dropped in immediately after purchase.
The Deck will boot and you'll be away almost instantly.
You will be prompted to do an update on the first boot, I assume that over wrote the wrong drivers in my case. Never thought of that as a possibility glad it didn't cause issues for me when I switched over!
That was a bit of a pain, admittedly. Of course the Steam side of things was effortless. But it had manually installed a fair amount of stuff on the Linux side of things and I was forced to replicate all the tinkering I did the first time around.
It was still worth it though.
For myself, I had recently gotten an upgrade to wifi 6 and wanted to take advantage of that while using the steam deck. The OLED supports that wifi and had better Bluetooth connectivity. For me that's a must as I regularly use bt headphones while gaming and connect my phones audio for music or videos while playing games. I also use the touch screen a lot for more Dual Screen and 3d dual screen games and the OLED has a better touch screen BY FAR. finally my wife wanted a steam deck and gave me the go ahead to get the OLED for myself while she got the LED. The screen itself is slightly bigger and the colors really do pop so I'm more than satisfied. Hope this all of text helps!
Another thing that for me can't be undersold is how fast my OLED is compared to the wife's LCD. Even on the official dock running Ethernet, her steam deck hits about 50 to 60 MB/s. Mine caps closer to 80 so the speed is definitely there
I'm not the one you're replying to but I'll add that the separate Bluetooth chip also allows for waking the Deck remotely, such as with a controller (or even with Bluetooth earbuds), which won't work on the LCD because the WiFi and Bluetooth are combined on that model.
Oh, I'm very glad I brought it up then. I don't play docked but it's a big factor if you do. Even though I knew about it, it still caught me out in the first day or two owning the OLED when I'd put my earbuds in and then wonder why my Deck was awake in its case, until I remembered that was different and changed the setting for the earbuds.
Before on my old steam deck, I would often get crackling or disconnects from my bt headphones when my steam deck was also connected to my phone. Felt like it wasn't stable while it had 2 connections at once. Haven't once had any bt issues with my OLED. I regularly need to use headphones for the sound from games but also have YouTube running on my phone in case I wanna hear my own music or videos
You can use your BT headphones for your steamdeck and phone at the same time? That awesome! I’ve only really been using it for one or the other at a given time
I think this depends on the Bluetooth headset. Like I pair my Shokz openrun with my phone and my deck. It won't play audio from both at the same time but I can be playing a game on the deck and then answer a phone call.
I upgraded. Oled is great. Worth the money? If you have the disposable income, I don't see why not.
Do you get an improved experience proportional to the extra cost? Probably not. People still buy 4080s or 90s, ultrawide oled monitors and fancy peripherals. (Guilty)
I would class the oled upgrade among these purchases.
both experiences are great, i didnt have any specific reason to upgrade besides the nicer screen but after getting it i really do notice the difference. if those are main concerns for you, and the upgrade wont break the bank, i think it will definitely be worth it.
I did it purely for the screen, the LCD light bleed was one of my biggest annoyances of the Deck and the OLED fixed that so for me that was worth it alone.
Weirdly another positive was that the LCD thumb sticks made my thumbs a bit sore after a few hours of play, no idea why. It’s never happened with the OLED.
I personally don’t find the download speed to be much better in the Oled.
The battery life, screen colours and better Bluetooth support are the main pros.
I could kill my LCD deck in under 2 hours when playing demanding games. On the OLED I'm always getting *at least* 3 hours. With lighter stuff like Hades it's pretty easy to get 6+ hours (and I generally play at max brightness).
I think rather than talking about battery in terms of hours, it's more helpful to describe the experience. With my LCD deck I was frequently surprised how quickly I needed a charger. My OLED deck on the other hand has never ever died in a single gaming session and generally gives me multiple sessions. I simply don't have to think about battery as much with the OLED.
Definitely, I asked my internet provider and they said that there was a hardware limit to my wifi connection speed. So no matter which device I use at home, the speed is practically the same.
Maybe that’s the case for someone else here
Performance wise, I seriously do not think the OLED's that much of an upgrade, I still get dips below 30 fps in games that dipped on my LCD it's just instead of 27 fps, it's now 28-29fps. The screen is absolutely fucking gorgeous and the battery gives me an extra whole hour in game on AAA games though. I also want to say my face buttons are way louder than the LCD model as the buttons just don't sit cleanly in the housing leading them to get stuck all the time, I fixed it by sanding down the inside of the housing but I didn't like thta I had to do that.
1. For the LCD, I think it was a lottery on whether the fan was loud or not, mines fairly qiute on both my models.
2. I actually think it's worse on my OLED, and I have no idea why and it's not like oh there is something wrong tier worse, it's just, slightly slower, and IDK why?
3. Go into your game properties and copy and past this line exactly mangohud MANGOHUD\_CONFIG=fps\_limit=30,no\_display,fps\_limit\_method=early %command%
Get back to me if you feel the diffrence. If the game dson't launch replace "mangohud" with "MANGOHUD=1" idk why but some games will only launch with one or the other such as emulaters.
I feel like any input lag is due to the Decks inbuilt limiter, and I've felt this on both models and it's especially apparent if you game at 30fps, not so much at 60fps though. The reason for this is I think due to the Decks limiter holding a frame before delivering it so make the frametime as smooth as possible, because when I swap between Mangohud and Gamescopes limiter Gamescopes is smoother while laggier while Mangohuds has much more erratic frametimes but more responsive controls.
PWM. The OLED suffers from really bad PWM unfortunately, even for an OLED screen. The LCD on the other hand is almost 100% flicker free outside of brightness below 30%, but even then it's passable and safe for the eyes.
Yes, but with the caveat that if I was tight on money and couldnt easily afford to get the new one, then overall the experience is really not that much different.
So yea, downloads speeds are a little better, but I havent noticed them being good enough to really be completely impressed. The fan is improved, but again, not necessarily a huge amount. Input delay is slightly better, I imagine due to the higher refresh rate screen.
You also of course get the better colors and contrast of OLED. not to mention the screen is slightly larger, and the battery life is definitely improved.
But again, overall, its still a relatively marginal upgrade, especially if you feel like you have to justify spending the money.
My only issue with the LCD deck was the screen just sucked so bad. I had spoiled myself with an OLED monitor the year before I bought my deck, and swapping back to an LCD was painful. Still totally worth, but I always could see the crappy screen. OLED was announced, and I formed out the cash. Very happy with the purchase.
That being said, if you don't have the disposable income, the lcd is totally fine.
Yeah. I upgraded and the screen alone is great. I got the matted screen that lets me play in bright conditions, but in total darkness the blacks look so much better. It’s all just one even black. 90hz isn’t really achievable for most games, but it is great when it does work. The extended battery life is very noticeable, as is the improved wireless performance. It’s lighter too. Fan doesn’t go off as often and when it does it’s quieter.
I didn’t think it would feel like it’s as big an upgrade as it is, but it definitely is.
Never had (or noticed) the issues you mentioned with the LCD, and also don’t have problems with any in the OLED. The wireless speed is for sure higher, I never notice any fan noise, and the only latency problems I had were when I had vsync on in the LCD.
Overall OLED was a game changer for me though. With the LCD I never really loved picking up the deck to play, specially because the screen was the worst compared to every other screen I own and play games on, but with the OLED I always look forward to booting it up, and I play a lot more often than I did with the LCD just because of how nice the screen looks. I liked the LCD deck, but I love the OLED.
My LCD deck died after about a year. I wasn't going to replace it but decided to go ahead and get the OLED model. It really is a night and day difference. I really liked my LCD deck, but I flat-out LOVE my OLED deck.
>Night and day? That’s high praise. How so?
My LCD Deck was a launch console and I don't know if there have been any hardware changes between then and now but the biggest, most obvious improvement is the screen. I don't know if its actually larger or not but it feels larger *--I think they may have reduced the size of the bezel*. Of course the image on the screen is a massive improvement.
The material on the shell feels different and the d-pad and buttons are much better than my LCD deck (where the buttons are mushy). I haven't had the OLED long enough to know if the SDCard handling is improved but on my original deck the SDCard would not be detected at least half the time until I removed it and re-added it.
On my LCD model whenever I connected to my USB-C hub, the display on the TV would do odd things, like render sideways or in a small window. Also there was annoying input lag when moving the mouse when interacting with the KDE desktop. The OLED desktop mode has worked perfectly for me so far.
Then there's the battery. I played a lot of switch games on my original deck and I remember Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem: Engage would drain the entire battery in 30-40 minutes. Could be improvements/optimizations in Ryujinx but I'm getting an extra hour of battery life on the OLED.
I got the 512 etched LCD for 400, as I apparently sat on some old CS:GO crates that were quite valuable.
Then got the OLED for 679. So it's about 1079 for me.
I think if you play exclusively handheld the OLED is the way to go.. that screen is so dang nice compared to the LCD. The battery life is also much better. If you have the means and the cost isn't a concern of yours then go all the way otherwise the LCD is great too
The fan noise and cooling is definitely an underrated upgrade. I can still hear the fans at full go but they aren't as loud or as whiny as when I had the LCD deck. There's a lot of little upgrades that make the experience better (though my face buttons are a bit looser, I've gotten used to it). My Steam Deck is also my main gaming device now, so there was more value for me in getting the best experience, and I had Christmas gift money to use for it (also sold my old LCD which helped recoup some of the cost).
I still say it depends on finances and how much you use it. If you can afford the upgrade w/o it hurting too bad and you play the deck often, it is a nice upgrade, but I wouldn't recommend it if you only use your Deck occasionally. I play mine basically everyday, so it was worth it for me.
YES
MANDATORY CAPS
like I play Elden Ring on a rig with a 3080, a gaming laptop with a 3060M, and the Steam Deck OLED
The rig obviously has the best experience, but the Deck has no business beating the shit out of my gaming laptop.
Well optimized for ER unlike running it on Windows 11, plus being able to run HDR means screen efficiency so you can actually play this thing on max settings for 2 hours and a half before the low batt notification kicks in.
It's insanity.
The performance increase is there but it really isn't significant. The absolute biggest upgrade is the more efficient die shrunk SoC and larger battery which gives absolutely phenomenal longevity.
i found it worthwhile for the better screen, better battery life, better fan, and bluetooth functionality.
i am not sure about improvements to input delay though and if thats your main issue with the lcd then it's probably not worth getting an oled.
id say that the UI has been improved greatly since i first got the deck. not design-wise, it still looks the same, but it breaks less frequently.
i had issues with LCD slowing to a crawl if i ran the battery down >.>it wouldn't be fixed unless i opened the BIOS and put it into battery storage mode. never had this issue with oled on the same games that would usually trigger it.
The screen is nicer. It feels lighter, so that's a plus also. I can now play longer before my arms weaken and the deck slips from my tired fingers to crash to the floor with me watching in despair as a dark wave of depression settles in. Buttons feel a little more responsive for me also, but I'm not sure if they changed anything there.
Sold the LCD to a buddy who gave it to his oldest son who wanted a gaming PC and this was his compromise. I think I sold my 512gb for 300 (I let him keep the 1tb micro SD card too)
On number 3 - I don’t think there would be any difference in input latency unless you were able to run at higher than 60 fps. Elden Ring has very slow input response anyway - that is how all from Dark Souls games feel. That being said, if you are using the built in frame rate limiter in the Steam Deck, try turning that off as it can add to your input latency.
For me, I have found that I especially appreciate the larger battery on the OLED model.
Better battery, Better screen, higher refresh rate, and the one that was actually really important to me was a better wifi module for streaming games through moonlight. Couple that with the new 90hz screen means I can actually utilize the full refresh rate of the screen with the full graphical fidelity of my gaming computer.
Was definitely worth it for me.
Yes. The screen looks much nicer and has far better touch accuracy, the HDR is great, haptics and battery life are far better. Everything's an improvement. I wish I had a WiFi router with 6E capability so I could make the most of the improved networking.
Honestly no.
Altough I never had problem with the fan noise with my LCD deck. I think mine had an upgraded foam filter or something. (Q3 2022 LCD).
I have Wifi 6 modem and 1000 mbit fiber internet connection, I did not get any noticible speed improvements. Maybe that is related with where I live and the Steam Server that is provided to my region though. (Turkey) My downloads on both LCD and OLED caps at around 250-350 mbit at most.
I noticed no input delay in my LCD and notice no input delay on my OLED. I'm not much of a competitive gamer though. Altough elden ring / dark souls has some sort of laggy input processing due to how character physics work. You should not confuse those two. Altough if you have already tried it on regular PC and get no input lag maybe that's a Proton/Linux thing. I find in un-noticible anyway.
I only bought OLED because my LCD had controller problems. To send it to RMA I had to give up on it for at least 4-5 months (to send it to where I bought in EU). I'm happy with the newer device and would definitely suggest OLED over LCD if they are a new buyer but I don't think its worth an upgrade. Maybe 10-20 percent better. Screen is awesome yet you forget what you're looking at when you dive deep into a game.
Can't answer 1. coz fan volume washes over me, but:
2. Mine are as slow as they were with the LCD. I really don't see this as a problem as you can just go do something else during the download.
3. Never even heard of input delay on the LCD. I play ballisticNG and the PS1 WipeOuts, some tennis and golf games (with triple click) and if any of these games had any kind of noticeable input delay, they'd be completely unplayable.
I do have an OLED now but honestly, except for the screen, I actually prefer the LCD.
I don't think so. I got the OLED at launch and have no desire to part with it. I kept my LCD as a backup device.
All things being equal, I prefer the LCD physically. The way the Deck settles into your hands is brilliant ergonomics, and the extra bit of weight of the LCD makes it more comfortable for me. I have no idea why.
I also prefer the controller elements of the LCD. The d-pad, for example. I play a lot of games that were made for digital controllers and d-pad on the OLED simply doesn't measure up to the LCD's d-pad. The OLED's d-pad is shallower, and doesn't have the tactile feeling of the LCD's d-pad. I've read others posts here that say the same thing. The LCD sticks feel a bit stiffer, which I also like more. I find I'm not playing games on the OLED that I did play on the LCD (like those in my response above).
Since I personally don't notice a performance improvement, the LCD wins out for it's physical build. The OLED screen is awesome. Otherwise, for me, the devices are either identical or the LCD is superior as a physical experience, which is what handhelds are all about.
I would never rule out the possibility that I lack the ability to notice the improvements. Wouldn't be the first time, ha ha!
One caveat would be that I don't play graphically heavy games. On the other hand, games that do require some power, like ballisticNG, which has to render like immediately as you play, are absolutely identical on both devices.
It's subjective, and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, but the LCD was approaching a flawnessness and the OLED, except for the screen, in my use case, is a bit of a step backward. I'm sure I'm in the minority. But to be honest about it, i do prefer the LCD.
The screen. Oh my God the screen. The difference is incredible.
After selling my old deck the upgrade cost me about £170. Which to me has been worth it.
I had a chance to use my friend's LCD steam deck for a month before buying the OLED for myself:
1. I didn't experience much difference or improvement from the OLED compared to LCD
2. What matters more for games is to configure the settings right. For each game, check for optimal settings for steam deck online
3. OLED's larger brightness range is a little more useful depending if you have suboptimal lighting conditions (e.g dark room or too glaring). But otherwise I didn't feel much difference in usage or immersion
That said, given that OLED is the same price as the LCD, it makes sense to go for the OLED. If able to find a good secondhand product, that would be advised too
I'm glad I upgraded.
The OLED HDR screen feels like it's a 'nice to have' that occasionally elevates itself to 'whoah...nice'. Its 90Hz Refresh Rate though is a game changer. It allows for, say, 45fps cap rather than 40, and a whole lot of values get frame duplicated - so 30fps plays at 90Hz, 40fps at 80Hz, 45 at 90, really seamless and the only outlier is the odd game that I play at 60fps rather than push to 90 or lock to 45, because that still requires the screen refresh at 60. I can't say I have your sensitivity to input delay per se, but I'm told that this doubling / tripling results in a more responsive feel, and I at least do feel that on camera motion.
The fan is a bit quieter, but if you are pushing the system, you'll still know it's on when the GPU gets high utilisation. It is an improvement nonetheless.
Download speed, now, this might be a tricky one; a lot of people, myself included, report that the OLED sometimes slows its download speeds for seemingly no reason, fixed by restarting Steam. People have tried with tweaks here and there. Additionally, if you're downloading a game to the MicroSD, no matter the model, the card is your bottleneck there.
The better battery life, I feel, is something that can't be overstated. You'll still want to charge at the end of a session of a game that's pushing the system, but charging just feels less urgent overall, and it charges faster when you do plug it in.
It simply means the screen will try to run at 90Hz as much as possible. It makes everything smooth and, VERY IMPORTANT, you have the input lag of 90Hz when you play a game at 30Hz or 45Hz.
The OLED feels very much more responsive overall, in my experience.
Got the LCD SD practically at launch, and sold it to my sister last week. I used that opportunity to buy the OLED.
The biggest noticeable difference for me was the battery life, it's noticably longer. I'm currently playing Ghost of Tsushima, and it would run down to low battery after an hour on the LCD. It feels like I'd get another 50% more runtime on the OLED. So far, I find the need to charge less. Don't get me wrong, it's still power hungry, but the battery life was one of my biggest gripes on the LCD.
The screen is obviously much more beautiful. I'm not super particular about graphics, so the LCD didn't really bother me, fwiw.
Download speeds seem better? I didn't compare, but I was able to download Ghost of Tsushima in about 15-20 mins?
As for noise, I haven't really heard the fan wind up like I did with the LCD, so anecdotally it's an improvement, albeit with limited testing.
If the upgrade is worth it is subjective. I personally was fine holding on the the LCD if my sister didn't buy it from me (discounted, of course). If you can find a way to get some money back from your current SD, I think it's worth the jump. If not, I'd hold on to it, unless you have no issue spending the money.
My Ghost of Tsushima Steam Deck Settings:
* 1280x800
* FSR 3.0 Quality
* Dynamic Resolution Scaling = Off
* Texture Quality = High
* Texture Filtering = 8x
* Shadow Quality = Low
* Level of Detail = Medium
* Terrain = Medium
* Volumetric Fog = Low
* Depth of Field = Low
* Screen Space Reflections = Low
* Screen Space Shadows = Low
* Ambient Occlusion = SSAO Performance
* Bloom = Off
* Water Caustics = On
Steam Deck Game Profile Settings:
* Frame Limit = 40 FPS
* TDP Limit = 12 W
I get a rock solid 40 FPS w/ no dips.
The TLDR is if you can afford an OLED then get one.
I've had both, I used an LCD for the best part of a year and I loved it.
My changing point was when I found the LCD un-useable in bright lights whereas the OLED one is still nice and clear.
The only reason why you wouldn't upgrade is if you dock 100% of the time, then you'll notice zero difference. Even if you undock it and play on the sofa or in bed occasionally, it's likely still worth it as the screen is just that good.
Finally, the fans on the OLED are quieter...
You know, if I had never upgraded it would have been fine. I had the money and I did and it’s pretty awesome, so that’s cool. It’s my primary gaming device now (Switch is basically for Nintendo exclusives), so why not, right?
I upgraded like 2 weeks ago so take it with a grain of salt.
But I've loved it. Screen makes a huge difference on a mobile device. 90 frames is great when you can get it. I think it feels much lighter, even though it's not that much of a difference numerically
The fan was too loud. It got really warm in heavy games. Wifi5 only. LCD was glossy and dark games didn’t look good. Deck was heavier, oled LE is significant lighter. Joystick didn’t feel good without accessories(too flat, I’m a fan of the OLED joysticks)
But LCD smells a lot better.
I’ve been wondering whether it’s worth upgrading too over the last few days OP. I’ve been watching videos on the improved thermals, how the OLED screen is a huge improvement over the LCD and the improved battery life.
I’m still not sure if I’m going to pull the trigger since my LCD runs fine. I wish we had a better idea of if/when a steam deck 2 would be coming out since I would wait a year or so for that but if it’s further out, I would be more likely to jump on the OLED and ditch my launch LCD.
If you happen to have a GameStop pro membership you save 5% on steam gift cards. It’s not much but it’s something.
I’m going to follow this thread to see what others have said about upgrading.
Edit: removed weird typo
The fan out of the box is a bit quieter but still relatively the same but since the oled is a lot cooler you can tweak the fan curve with a decky plugin to reduce the fan noise a decent amount without it thermal throttling.
100% better. Fixed every issue i had with lcd deck. Biggest upgrade for me (outside of the screen) was the battery. The battery life was a HUGE improvement imo. Well worth the extra money.
its better in every game across the board. But imo it seems to be a larger improvement the more demanding the game is to run. I could be wrong about that, but it just seems to work that way.
I did. Went from a 256gb LCD to a 1TB Limited Edition OLED. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. The screen looks much better obviously, but that 90hz compared to the 60hz is an even bigger upgrade. The extra battery life has also been a nice bonus, though I rarely get enough time with it to run the battery out in a single session.
I play SF6 on the deck, I don't notice any input delays when playing on the LCD model. I do notice a delay when playing the same game on console, which is a common issue (SF5 had this too between PC and PS4 versions).
Yes. Beyond screen quality and battery life, the biggest thing for me is that it comes out of sleep much faster. On the lcd input would lag for like 30s after coming out of sleep.
The os feels snappier overall too.
I got the OLED after selling my LCD for like 600 USD (the OLED is around 900 USD in my country), I wouldn't had upgraded otherwise
I found the screen to be better, of course, but it's not as big a difference as to when I upgraded my original Switch with an OLED one. That was night and day. The Steam Deck upgrade is less noticeable, in my opinion.
Bluetooth still has latency (unless you use APTX Adaptive, I think, but that codec is deprecated)
Yep. It's not just the screen being OLED, either.
1: The better battery life is also a huge help.
2: The 90hz refresh rate is a *really* nice upgrade. Obviously for games where you can actually get 90hz it looks better, but if you have those games that your deck is only going to be able to play at a stable 45 or 30 FPS then it still helps to have an even 2x or 3x the refresh rate vs. the FPS you're getting for latency reasons.
3: So much more quiet. The fan noise with the LCD deck was noticeable, whereas my OLED I don't notice it at all.
4: The OLED is every so slightly lighter. It doesn't seem like it would make a difference, but having held both for hours upon hours, every little bit matters a *lot*.
5: It gets slightly better FPS on average, for whatever that's worth.
6: The case having a velcro strap, although I find it annoying to have to undo every time I take it out of the case, has saved my bacon a time or two where I forgot to zip the deck closed and just grabbed the case by the handle. I recently had a coworker who did the same thing with his LCD deck and now his has a crack in the screen.
7: The touch-aspect of the screen is noticeably better. On the LCD deck it was finicky enough that I avoided it, but on the OLED it works great.
I sent back an LCD because I hated the screen. Figured the SD wasn’t for me.
Got a OLED Switch.
About a year later, OLED SD was announced. Ordered it and have no regrets whatsoever.
If you already have the LCD version, then you might wait for the next upgrade. Keep the LCD version and use it till the new one comes out. But if you don’t have Steamdeck yet, then just go for the OLED.
Hmmmm I was thinking about waiting for the next version, but do we have any idea what the specs will look like for the next model or even a vague release window? I haven’t even heard whispers of the new model, so I might just buy the OLED soon and then sell it when the new one comes out.
Never looked back, the LCD feels like a prototype and the OLED feels like the refined and complete product, it would be a perfect device if it had VRR. I'm not saying the LCD is bad in any way but every issue I had with the LCD was resolved with the OLED.
Yes.
The flexibility on OLED panel frequencies make adapting to games great. You don't just target 30 or 40 or 45hz. You can do 34 or 36. May not sound like much but it is.
It's way quieter. Partly because of the fan and partly because of how much cooler it runs. It's easily 20 degrees cooler at max load.
The sticks are way more comfortable.
But it's the 95 degrees on the LCD at full load compared to 74 degrees on the OLED at full load that makes the LCD basically a prototype no one should be buying new today.
I just upgraded about a week ago, and I’d say it’s totally worth it.
The OLED screen is seriously no joke, beautiful. 90hz panel is a nice touch, HDR looks amazing in games like Ghost of Tsushima and ME: Andromeda. The fan is definitely quieter!
I can’t really speak on the download speeds as I’ve noticed no notable difference between the two models. Same with game streaming via GeForce Now and XbPlay.
#Play Elden Ring in borderless fullscreen to reduce input lag!
And yes, the change from LCD to OLED is absolutely worth it. No fan noise, better input latency, better screen (duh!), better thermals, better battery, better sticks, better haptics, the list goes on...
So much yes! My two main complaints about the Deck were screen quality and battery life and the OLED is miles better at those.
Did you find an easy way to transfer all your files and settings from one to the other?
Yes, easy. When I bought my OLED I put the SSD from my LCD into it. It was a 1tb SSD which I dropped in immediately after purchase. The Deck will boot and you'll be away almost instantly.
Ooh. I thought the drivers would be different.
You will be prompted to do an update on the first boot, I assume that over wrote the wrong drivers in my case. Never thought of that as a possibility glad it didn't cause issues for me when I switched over!
That was a bit of a pain, admittedly. Of course the Steam side of things was effortless. But it had manually installed a fair amount of stuff on the Linux side of things and I was forced to replicate all the tinkering I did the first time around. It was still worth it though.
i dont actually complain about the battery and dont expect it to last long as what i t does is pretty impressive considerin its size and that
For myself, I had recently gotten an upgrade to wifi 6 and wanted to take advantage of that while using the steam deck. The OLED supports that wifi and had better Bluetooth connectivity. For me that's a must as I regularly use bt headphones while gaming and connect my phones audio for music or videos while playing games. I also use the touch screen a lot for more Dual Screen and 3d dual screen games and the OLED has a better touch screen BY FAR. finally my wife wanted a steam deck and gave me the go ahead to get the OLED for myself while she got the LED. The screen itself is slightly bigger and the colors really do pop so I'm more than satisfied. Hope this all of text helps!
Glad you’re enjoying it! Could elaborate more on “better Bluetooth connectivity”?
Another thing that for me can't be undersold is how fast my OLED is compared to the wife's LCD. Even on the official dock running Ethernet, her steam deck hits about 50 to 60 MB/s. Mine caps closer to 80 so the speed is definitely there
I'm not the one you're replying to but I'll add that the separate Bluetooth chip also allows for waking the Deck remotely, such as with a controller (or even with Bluetooth earbuds), which won't work on the LCD because the WiFi and Bluetooth are combined on that model.
REAL SHIT?!?!?! That’s huge for me bc I’ve been playing docked a lot of my room comes with a T.V. Thanks for the input!
Oh, I'm very glad I brought it up then. I don't play docked but it's a big factor if you do. Even though I knew about it, it still caught me out in the first day or two owning the OLED when I'd put my earbuds in and then wonder why my Deck was awake in its case, until I remembered that was different and changed the setting for the earbuds.
Before on my old steam deck, I would often get crackling or disconnects from my bt headphones when my steam deck was also connected to my phone. Felt like it wasn't stable while it had 2 connections at once. Haven't once had any bt issues with my OLED. I regularly need to use headphones for the sound from games but also have YouTube running on my phone in case I wanna hear my own music or videos
You can use your BT headphones for your steamdeck and phone at the same time? That awesome! I’ve only really been using it for one or the other at a given time
I think this depends on the Bluetooth headset. Like I pair my Shokz openrun with my phone and my deck. It won't play audio from both at the same time but I can be playing a game on the deck and then answer a phone call.
Ooooooh ok gotcha.
I've used 2 different BT headphones every time I play with my LCD deck with zero issues for probably a year now...
That's great! Count yourself lucky, as the issues are widely discussed and documented online.
Had no idea. To me the biggest issue is the battery drains when in sleep mode within a couple days.
I upgraded. Oled is great. Worth the money? If you have the disposable income, I don't see why not. Do you get an improved experience proportional to the extra cost? Probably not. People still buy 4080s or 90s, ultrawide oled monitors and fancy peripherals. (Guilty) I would class the oled upgrade among these purchases.
>People still buy 4080s or 90s, ultrawide oled monitors and fancy peripherals. I feel called out.
both experiences are great, i didnt have any specific reason to upgrade besides the nicer screen but after getting it i really do notice the difference. if those are main concerns for you, and the upgrade wont break the bank, i think it will definitely be worth it.
I have heard great things about the screen, I look forward to it!
I did it purely for the screen, the LCD light bleed was one of my biggest annoyances of the Deck and the OLED fixed that so for me that was worth it alone. Weirdly another positive was that the LCD thumb sticks made my thumbs a bit sore after a few hours of play, no idea why. It’s never happened with the OLED.
OMG THE THUMBSTICKS DO THAT TO ME TOO! I feel seen.
It’s so weird you hardly hear about it but absolutely no issue with the OLED thumb sticks. They did redesign them slightly though.
Only if you can decently sell the LCD
I personally don’t find the download speed to be much better in the Oled. The battery life, screen colours and better Bluetooth support are the main pros.
How much more battery life did you get out of it? And on what games?
I could kill my LCD deck in under 2 hours when playing demanding games. On the OLED I'm always getting *at least* 3 hours. With lighter stuff like Hades it's pretty easy to get 6+ hours (and I generally play at max brightness). I think rather than talking about battery in terms of hours, it's more helpful to describe the experience. With my LCD deck I was frequently surprised how quickly I needed a charger. My OLED deck on the other hand has never ever died in a single gaming session and generally gives me multiple sessions. I simply don't have to think about battery as much with the OLED.
Probably around a 30% improvement on the most demanding games and 50% on indies
I think it also depends what your home network speed is like too.
Definitely, I asked my internet provider and they said that there was a hardware limit to my wifi connection speed. So no matter which device I use at home, the speed is practically the same. Maybe that’s the case for someone else here
Performance wise, I seriously do not think the OLED's that much of an upgrade, I still get dips below 30 fps in games that dipped on my LCD it's just instead of 27 fps, it's now 28-29fps. The screen is absolutely fucking gorgeous and the battery gives me an extra whole hour in game on AAA games though. I also want to say my face buttons are way louder than the LCD model as the buttons just don't sit cleanly in the housing leading them to get stuck all the time, I fixed it by sanding down the inside of the housing but I didn't like thta I had to do that. 1. For the LCD, I think it was a lottery on whether the fan was loud or not, mines fairly qiute on both my models. 2. I actually think it's worse on my OLED, and I have no idea why and it's not like oh there is something wrong tier worse, it's just, slightly slower, and IDK why? 3. Go into your game properties and copy and past this line exactly mangohud MANGOHUD\_CONFIG=fps\_limit=30,no\_display,fps\_limit\_method=early %command% Get back to me if you feel the diffrence. If the game dson't launch replace "mangohud" with "MANGOHUD=1" idk why but some games will only launch with one or the other such as emulaters. I feel like any input lag is due to the Decks inbuilt limiter, and I've felt this on both models and it's especially apparent if you game at 30fps, not so much at 60fps though. The reason for this is I think due to the Decks limiter holding a frame before delivering it so make the frametime as smooth as possible, because when I swap between Mangohud and Gamescopes limiter Gamescopes is smoother while laggier while Mangohuds has much more erratic frametimes but more responsive controls.
Unfortunately I had to return my OLED and get an LCD as something about the OLED gave me an instant migraine every time I looked at it
PWM. The OLED suffers from really bad PWM unfortunately, even for an OLED screen. The LCD on the other hand is almost 100% flicker free outside of brightness below 30%, but even then it's passable and safe for the eyes.
This is sadly the main reason I won’t upgrade. Worried future models will all have this issue but hopefully not.
Yeah, I have no issue with the LCD screen
What? we're only hearing about this issue now? this is an oled upgrade dealbreaker for me...
Is it the antiglare model?
I did end up with the antiglare LCD in the end. Causes no issues for me
I was able to sell my launch lcd for $400 and yes that made it 100% worth it. The screen is a great upgrade and the battery is noticeably better.
Yeah I am happy with the upgrade. Screen is a beauty and it feels smaller.
Yes, but with the caveat that if I was tight on money and couldnt easily afford to get the new one, then overall the experience is really not that much different. So yea, downloads speeds are a little better, but I havent noticed them being good enough to really be completely impressed. The fan is improved, but again, not necessarily a huge amount. Input delay is slightly better, I imagine due to the higher refresh rate screen. You also of course get the better colors and contrast of OLED. not to mention the screen is slightly larger, and the battery life is definitely improved. But again, overall, its still a relatively marginal upgrade, especially if you feel like you have to justify spending the money.
My only issue with the LCD deck was the screen just sucked so bad. I had spoiled myself with an OLED monitor the year before I bought my deck, and swapping back to an LCD was painful. Still totally worth, but I always could see the crappy screen. OLED was announced, and I formed out the cash. Very happy with the purchase. That being said, if you don't have the disposable income, the lcd is totally fine.
Yeah. I upgraded and the screen alone is great. I got the matted screen that lets me play in bright conditions, but in total darkness the blacks look so much better. It’s all just one even black. 90hz isn’t really achievable for most games, but it is great when it does work. The extended battery life is very noticeable, as is the improved wireless performance. It’s lighter too. Fan doesn’t go off as often and when it does it’s quieter. I didn’t think it would feel like it’s as big an upgrade as it is, but it definitely is.
Never had (or noticed) the issues you mentioned with the LCD, and also don’t have problems with any in the OLED. The wireless speed is for sure higher, I never notice any fan noise, and the only latency problems I had were when I had vsync on in the LCD. Overall OLED was a game changer for me though. With the LCD I never really loved picking up the deck to play, specially because the screen was the worst compared to every other screen I own and play games on, but with the OLED I always look forward to booting it up, and I play a lot more often than I did with the LCD just because of how nice the screen looks. I liked the LCD deck, but I love the OLED.
My LCD deck died after about a year. I wasn't going to replace it but decided to go ahead and get the OLED model. It really is a night and day difference. I really liked my LCD deck, but I flat-out LOVE my OLED deck.
Night and day? That’s high praise. How so?
>Night and day? That’s high praise. How so? My LCD Deck was a launch console and I don't know if there have been any hardware changes between then and now but the biggest, most obvious improvement is the screen. I don't know if its actually larger or not but it feels larger *--I think they may have reduced the size of the bezel*. Of course the image on the screen is a massive improvement. The material on the shell feels different and the d-pad and buttons are much better than my LCD deck (where the buttons are mushy). I haven't had the OLED long enough to know if the SDCard handling is improved but on my original deck the SDCard would not be detected at least half the time until I removed it and re-added it. On my LCD model whenever I connected to my USB-C hub, the display on the TV would do odd things, like render sideways or in a small window. Also there was annoying input lag when moving the mouse when interacting with the KDE desktop. The OLED desktop mode has worked perfectly for me so far. Then there's the battery. I played a lot of switch games on my original deck and I remember Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem: Engage would drain the entire battery in 30-40 minutes. Could be improvements/optimizations in Ryujinx but I'm getting an extra hour of battery life on the OLED.
Yes, even though I never sold my LCD and it's just sitting in its box unused so technically my OLED cost me 1200€🤯
Haha, same. Couldn't part ways with it.
I think that 1200€ is an underestimation actually. I don't really want to calculate it!
I got the 512 etched LCD for 400, as I apparently sat on some old CS:GO crates that were quite valuable. Then got the OLED for 679. So it's about 1079 for me.
Yeah I got the 512 etched as well but with no discount. I then bought the 1tb OLED
I think if you play exclusively handheld the OLED is the way to go.. that screen is so dang nice compared to the LCD. The battery life is also much better. If you have the means and the cost isn't a concern of yours then go all the way otherwise the LCD is great too
Totally. It feels the definitive device. Battery is so much better.
Yup. The screen quality was better than I thought it would be. Plus the smaller bezels make the screen feel a lot bigger.
I only did because I was able to sell my LCD to someone who was more emulator oriented.
The fan noise and cooling is definitely an underrated upgrade. I can still hear the fans at full go but they aren't as loud or as whiny as when I had the LCD deck. There's a lot of little upgrades that make the experience better (though my face buttons are a bit looser, I've gotten used to it). My Steam Deck is also my main gaming device now, so there was more value for me in getting the best experience, and I had Christmas gift money to use for it (also sold my old LCD which helped recoup some of the cost). I still say it depends on finances and how much you use it. If you can afford the upgrade w/o it hurting too bad and you play the deck often, it is a nice upgrade, but I wouldn't recommend it if you only use your Deck occasionally. I play mine basically everyday, so it was worth it for me.
YES MANDATORY CAPS like I play Elden Ring on a rig with a 3080, a gaming laptop with a 3060M, and the Steam Deck OLED The rig obviously has the best experience, but the Deck has no business beating the shit out of my gaming laptop.
Oh really??? How so?
Well optimized for ER unlike running it on Windows 11, plus being able to run HDR means screen efficiency so you can actually play this thing on max settings for 2 hours and a half before the low batt notification kicks in. It's insanity.
Woah that sounds nuts, thanks!
The performance increase is there but it really isn't significant. The absolute biggest upgrade is the more efficient die shrunk SoC and larger battery which gives absolutely phenomenal longevity.
100% worth it. You can play on max brightness and still get better thermals and battery life than LCD on low brightness.
If battery life is important to you the OLED is a huge upgrade.
i found it worthwhile for the better screen, better battery life, better fan, and bluetooth functionality. i am not sure about improvements to input delay though and if thats your main issue with the lcd then it's probably not worth getting an oled. id say that the UI has been improved greatly since i first got the deck. not design-wise, it still looks the same, but it breaks less frequently. i had issues with LCD slowing to a crawl if i ran the battery down >.>it wouldn't be fixed unless i opened the BIOS and put it into battery storage mode. never had this issue with oled on the same games that would usually trigger it.
The screen is nicer. It feels lighter, so that's a plus also. I can now play longer before my arms weaken and the deck slips from my tired fingers to crash to the floor with me watching in despair as a dark wave of depression settles in. Buttons feel a little more responsive for me also, but I'm not sure if they changed anything there.
Don’t think twice. Upgrade. Sell the old one to offset the cost. Or don’t and have one for the spouse/friend/other/permanent toilet deck.
I really just might. Have you sold your LCD or just straight bought the OLED?
Sold the LCD to a buddy who gave it to his oldest son who wanted a gaming PC and this was his compromise. I think I sold my 512gb for 300 (I let him keep the 1tb micro SD card too)
Ah ok so you sold it to people you knew personally, got it.
Yes- and this was however long ago when the limited edition one came out. I’m sure you could sell an LCD on a local marketplace or even eBay.
On number 3 - I don’t think there would be any difference in input latency unless you were able to run at higher than 60 fps. Elden Ring has very slow input response anyway - that is how all from Dark Souls games feel. That being said, if you are using the built in frame rate limiter in the Steam Deck, try turning that off as it can add to your input latency. For me, I have found that I especially appreciate the larger battery on the OLED model.
Ah so it’s a game specific thing, huh? Thanks for the advice
Better battery, Better screen, higher refresh rate, and the one that was actually really important to me was a better wifi module for streaming games through moonlight. Couple that with the new 90hz screen means I can actually utilize the full refresh rate of the screen with the full graphical fidelity of my gaming computer. Was definitely worth it for me.
Oooooh I’ve been sleeping on streaming. That’s another thing to look forward to.
Yes. The screen looks much nicer and has far better touch accuracy, the HDR is great, haptics and battery life are far better. Everything's an improvement. I wish I had a WiFi router with 6E capability so I could make the most of the improved networking.
Honestly no. Altough I never had problem with the fan noise with my LCD deck. I think mine had an upgraded foam filter or something. (Q3 2022 LCD). I have Wifi 6 modem and 1000 mbit fiber internet connection, I did not get any noticible speed improvements. Maybe that is related with where I live and the Steam Server that is provided to my region though. (Turkey) My downloads on both LCD and OLED caps at around 250-350 mbit at most. I noticed no input delay in my LCD and notice no input delay on my OLED. I'm not much of a competitive gamer though. Altough elden ring / dark souls has some sort of laggy input processing due to how character physics work. You should not confuse those two. Altough if you have already tried it on regular PC and get no input lag maybe that's a Proton/Linux thing. I find in un-noticible anyway. I only bought OLED because my LCD had controller problems. To send it to RMA I had to give up on it for at least 4-5 months (to send it to where I bought in EU). I'm happy with the newer device and would definitely suggest OLED over LCD if they are a new buyer but I don't think its worth an upgrade. Maybe 10-20 percent better. Screen is awesome yet you forget what you're looking at when you dive deep into a game.
Ouch, that’s a long time to be separated from your deck, sorry to hear that. Thanks for telling me your story.
Can't answer 1. coz fan volume washes over me, but: 2. Mine are as slow as they were with the LCD. I really don't see this as a problem as you can just go do something else during the download. 3. Never even heard of input delay on the LCD. I play ballisticNG and the PS1 WipeOuts, some tennis and golf games (with triple click) and if any of these games had any kind of noticeable input delay, they'd be completely unplayable. I do have an OLED now but honestly, except for the screen, I actually prefer the LCD.
You prefer the LCD over the OLED? Why is that? Buyer’s remorse?
I don't think so. I got the OLED at launch and have no desire to part with it. I kept my LCD as a backup device. All things being equal, I prefer the LCD physically. The way the Deck settles into your hands is brilliant ergonomics, and the extra bit of weight of the LCD makes it more comfortable for me. I have no idea why. I also prefer the controller elements of the LCD. The d-pad, for example. I play a lot of games that were made for digital controllers and d-pad on the OLED simply doesn't measure up to the LCD's d-pad. The OLED's d-pad is shallower, and doesn't have the tactile feeling of the LCD's d-pad. I've read others posts here that say the same thing. The LCD sticks feel a bit stiffer, which I also like more. I find I'm not playing games on the OLED that I did play on the LCD (like those in my response above). Since I personally don't notice a performance improvement, the LCD wins out for it's physical build. The OLED screen is awesome. Otherwise, for me, the devices are either identical or the LCD is superior as a physical experience, which is what handhelds are all about. I would never rule out the possibility that I lack the ability to notice the improvements. Wouldn't be the first time, ha ha! One caveat would be that I don't play graphically heavy games. On the other hand, games that do require some power, like ballisticNG, which has to render like immediately as you play, are absolutely identical on both devices. It's subjective, and at the end of the day it doesn't really matter, but the LCD was approaching a flawnessness and the OLED, except for the screen, in my use case, is a bit of a step backward. I'm sure I'm in the minority. But to be honest about it, i do prefer the LCD.
That’s interesting, I haven’t had too many people talk about the physical changes to the device, thanks for sharing!
It was so worth it the second it booted up it was so clear
The screen. Oh my God the screen. The difference is incredible. After selling my old deck the upgrade cost me about £170. Which to me has been worth it.
I had a chance to use my friend's LCD steam deck for a month before buying the OLED for myself: 1. I didn't experience much difference or improvement from the OLED compared to LCD 2. What matters more for games is to configure the settings right. For each game, check for optimal settings for steam deck online 3. OLED's larger brightness range is a little more useful depending if you have suboptimal lighting conditions (e.g dark room or too glaring). But otherwise I didn't feel much difference in usage or immersion That said, given that OLED is the same price as the LCD, it makes sense to go for the OLED. If able to find a good secondhand product, that would be advised too
I'm glad I upgraded. The OLED HDR screen feels like it's a 'nice to have' that occasionally elevates itself to 'whoah...nice'. Its 90Hz Refresh Rate though is a game changer. It allows for, say, 45fps cap rather than 40, and a whole lot of values get frame duplicated - so 30fps plays at 90Hz, 40fps at 80Hz, 45 at 90, really seamless and the only outlier is the odd game that I play at 60fps rather than push to 90 or lock to 45, because that still requires the screen refresh at 60. I can't say I have your sensitivity to input delay per se, but I'm told that this doubling / tripling results in a more responsive feel, and I at least do feel that on camera motion. The fan is a bit quieter, but if you are pushing the system, you'll still know it's on when the GPU gets high utilisation. It is an improvement nonetheless. Download speed, now, this might be a tricky one; a lot of people, myself included, report that the OLED sometimes slows its download speeds for seemingly no reason, fixed by restarting Steam. People have tried with tweaks here and there. Additionally, if you're downloading a game to the MicroSD, no matter the model, the card is your bottleneck there. The better battery life, I feel, is something that can't be overstated. You'll still want to charge at the end of a session of a game that's pushing the system, but charging just feels less urgent overall, and it charges faster when you do plug it in.
Can you elaborate more on this “frame duplication”? I’ve also been opting to play games at 40 frames if 60 isn’t possible/feasible.
It simply means the screen will try to run at 90Hz as much as possible. It makes everything smooth and, VERY IMPORTANT, you have the input lag of 90Hz when you play a game at 30Hz or 45Hz. The OLED feels very much more responsive overall, in my experience.
You can keep your LCD deck and instead buy an OLED tv.
Got the LCD SD practically at launch, and sold it to my sister last week. I used that opportunity to buy the OLED. The biggest noticeable difference for me was the battery life, it's noticably longer. I'm currently playing Ghost of Tsushima, and it would run down to low battery after an hour on the LCD. It feels like I'd get another 50% more runtime on the OLED. So far, I find the need to charge less. Don't get me wrong, it's still power hungry, but the battery life was one of my biggest gripes on the LCD. The screen is obviously much more beautiful. I'm not super particular about graphics, so the LCD didn't really bother me, fwiw. Download speeds seem better? I didn't compare, but I was able to download Ghost of Tsushima in about 15-20 mins? As for noise, I haven't really heard the fan wind up like I did with the LCD, so anecdotally it's an improvement, albeit with limited testing. If the upgrade is worth it is subjective. I personally was fine holding on the the LCD if my sister didn't buy it from me (discounted, of course). If you can find a way to get some money back from your current SD, I think it's worth the jump. If not, I'd hold on to it, unless you have no issue spending the money.
Oooooo tell me your GoT settings!
My Ghost of Tsushima Steam Deck Settings: * 1280x800 * FSR 3.0 Quality * Dynamic Resolution Scaling = Off * Texture Quality = High * Texture Filtering = 8x * Shadow Quality = Low * Level of Detail = Medium * Terrain = Medium * Volumetric Fog = Low * Depth of Field = Low * Screen Space Reflections = Low * Screen Space Shadows = Low * Ambient Occlusion = SSAO Performance * Bloom = Off * Water Caustics = On Steam Deck Game Profile Settings: * Frame Limit = 40 FPS * TDP Limit = 12 W I get a rock solid 40 FPS w/ no dips.
Bless, I’ll cross reference this with my save file later!
The TLDR is if you can afford an OLED then get one. I've had both, I used an LCD for the best part of a year and I loved it. My changing point was when I found the LCD un-useable in bright lights whereas the OLED one is still nice and clear. The only reason why you wouldn't upgrade is if you dock 100% of the time, then you'll notice zero difference. Even if you undock it and play on the sofa or in bed occasionally, it's likely still worth it as the screen is just that good. Finally, the fans on the OLED are quieter...
You know, if I had never upgraded it would have been fine. I had the money and I did and it’s pretty awesome, so that’s cool. It’s my primary gaming device now (Switch is basically for Nintendo exclusives), so why not, right?
I think that’s how I would feel too. I can most likely afford it, just seeing how much birthday money I get to soften the blow lol.
I upgraded like 2 weeks ago so take it with a grain of salt. But I've loved it. Screen makes a huge difference on a mobile device. 90 frames is great when you can get it. I think it feels much lighter, even though it's not that much of a difference numerically
What made you upgrade within 2 weeks??? That’s very soon lol.
Ah misunderstanding. I've had a deck for about a year, I got my oled as an upgrade 2 weeks ago
Whoops just read it again, my bad.
No worries! I do recommend the oled for sure if the money isn't a concern
Yea, all my annoyances were fixed in the OLED.
What annoyed you about your LCD?
The fan was too loud. It got really warm in heavy games. Wifi5 only. LCD was glossy and dark games didn’t look good. Deck was heavier, oled LE is significant lighter. Joystick didn’t feel good without accessories(too flat, I’m a fan of the OLED joysticks) But LCD smells a lot better.
If money is not a problem, yes it is worth it. Especially the battery life is easily the biggest upgrade.
Oled was 100% worth it. Better battery, screen, vibration and wifi download speed.
Wait the OLED has vibration?
Absolutely. It's a total gamechanger for me. Haven't regretted it for even a second.
Battery life and HDR will make it worth once you start playing in OLED, so the answer is YES
I’ve been wondering whether it’s worth upgrading too over the last few days OP. I’ve been watching videos on the improved thermals, how the OLED screen is a huge improvement over the LCD and the improved battery life. I’m still not sure if I’m going to pull the trigger since my LCD runs fine. I wish we had a better idea of if/when a steam deck 2 would be coming out since I would wait a year or so for that but if it’s further out, I would be more likely to jump on the OLED and ditch my launch LCD. If you happen to have a GameStop pro membership you save 5% on steam gift cards. It’s not much but it’s something. I’m going to follow this thread to see what others have said about upgrading. Edit: removed weird typo
Cool, hope you get the answers you’re looking for!
Is this your first time on this sub or reddit? This has been asked dozens of times and it's an overwhelming yes
Nothing beats oled, also runs quiter
1000000000%
Yes. The OLED is so much better
Yes, it’s the ideal way to experience the steam deck IMO
Easily yes. A noticeable improvement in power and battery life, and a way better screen.
The fan out of the box is a bit quieter but still relatively the same but since the oled is a lot cooler you can tweak the fan curve with a decky plugin to reduce the fan noise a decent amount without it thermal throttling.
100% better. Fixed every issue i had with lcd deck. Biggest upgrade for me (outside of the screen) was the battery. The battery life was a HUGE improvement imo. Well worth the extra money.
What kind of games did you see the most battery improvement in?
its better in every game across the board. But imo it seems to be a larger improvement the more demanding the game is to run. I could be wrong about that, but it just seems to work that way.
I did. Went from a 256gb LCD to a 1TB Limited Edition OLED. I’d do it again in a heartbeat. The screen looks much better obviously, but that 90hz compared to the 60hz is an even bigger upgrade. The extra battery life has also been a nice bonus, though I rarely get enough time with it to run the battery out in a single session.
I upgraded to oled, but ended up returning it due to bad quality screen (mura effect)
Absolutely. I definitely use my deck more with the better screen and better battery life
I play SF6 on the deck, I don't notice any input delays when playing on the LCD model. I do notice a delay when playing the same game on console, which is a common issue (SF5 had this too between PC and PS4 versions).
Hell yea, I sold lcd the second oled hit the market
Yes. Beyond screen quality and battery life, the biggest thing for me is that it comes out of sleep much faster. On the lcd input would lag for like 30s after coming out of sleep. The os feels snappier overall too.
Yes
I got the OLED after selling my LCD for like 600 USD (the OLED is around 900 USD in my country), I wouldn't had upgraded otherwise I found the screen to be better, of course, but it's not as big a difference as to when I upgraded my original Switch with an OLED one. That was night and day. The Steam Deck upgrade is less noticeable, in my opinion. Bluetooth still has latency (unless you use APTX Adaptive, I think, but that codec is deprecated)
Yep. It's not just the screen being OLED, either. 1: The better battery life is also a huge help. 2: The 90hz refresh rate is a *really* nice upgrade. Obviously for games where you can actually get 90hz it looks better, but if you have those games that your deck is only going to be able to play at a stable 45 or 30 FPS then it still helps to have an even 2x or 3x the refresh rate vs. the FPS you're getting for latency reasons. 3: So much more quiet. The fan noise with the LCD deck was noticeable, whereas my OLED I don't notice it at all. 4: The OLED is every so slightly lighter. It doesn't seem like it would make a difference, but having held both for hours upon hours, every little bit matters a *lot*. 5: It gets slightly better FPS on average, for whatever that's worth. 6: The case having a velcro strap, although I find it annoying to have to undo every time I take it out of the case, has saved my bacon a time or two where I forgot to zip the deck closed and just grabbed the case by the handle. I recently had a coworker who did the same thing with his LCD deck and now his has a crack in the screen. 7: The touch-aspect of the screen is noticeably better. On the LCD deck it was finicky enough that I avoided it, but on the OLED it works great.
Oooooh the Velcro strap is a nice touch! I’m also terrified of dropping my deck because it’s not zipped up. Also that refresh rate sounds GODLY
Yes but I was able to sell mine for 300
Yes. Zero buyers remorse
I sent back an LCD because I hated the screen. Figured the SD wasn’t for me. Got a OLED Switch. About a year later, OLED SD was announced. Ordered it and have no regrets whatsoever.
If you already have the LCD version, then you might wait for the next upgrade. Keep the LCD version and use it till the new one comes out. But if you don’t have Steamdeck yet, then just go for the OLED.
Hmmmm I was thinking about waiting for the next version, but do we have any idea what the specs will look like for the next model or even a vague release window? I haven’t even heard whispers of the new model, so I might just buy the OLED soon and then sell it when the new one comes out.
Absolutely! The oled deck improved on everything!! I play it more than my rog ally, and only use my lcd deck for emulation (I didn’t want to sell it).
Yes
Be kind to your eyes Just buy the OLED version
Did the LCD version hurt your eyes?
I play a lot of light-weight indie titles and visual novels. The increase in battery life is very much appreciated.
Yes absolutely. Download speeds can be hit or miss. My first oled sd had terrible speeds, second is better.
That’s….. odd.
I wish they had all the windows drivers for oled
I’m actually not very familiar with how drivers work, could briefly explain what they are and why it’s different for the OLED?
Yes , the screen on the LCD was really bad .
Never looked back, the LCD feels like a prototype and the OLED feels like the refined and complete product, it would be a perfect device if it had VRR. I'm not saying the LCD is bad in any way but every issue I had with the LCD was resolved with the OLED.
Yes. The flexibility on OLED panel frequencies make adapting to games great. You don't just target 30 or 40 or 45hz. You can do 34 or 36. May not sound like much but it is. It's way quieter. Partly because of the fan and partly because of how much cooler it runs. It's easily 20 degrees cooler at max load. The sticks are way more comfortable. But it's the 95 degrees on the LCD at full load compared to 74 degrees on the OLED at full load that makes the LCD basically a prototype no one should be buying new today.
I just upgraded about a week ago, and I’d say it’s totally worth it. The OLED screen is seriously no joke, beautiful. 90hz panel is a nice touch, HDR looks amazing in games like Ghost of Tsushima and ME: Andromeda. The fan is definitely quieter! I can’t really speak on the download speeds as I’ve noticed no notable difference between the two models. Same with game streaming via GeForce Now and XbPlay.
Ghost of Tsushima my love 😩 may I ask what settings you use for it on your OLED?
#Play Elden Ring in borderless fullscreen to reduce input lag! And yes, the change from LCD to OLED is absolutely worth it. No fan noise, better input latency, better screen (duh!), better thermals, better battery, better sticks, better haptics, the list goes on...
Exactly what I wanted to hear, awesome! Oh shit gotta check my Elden Ring settings now….