Is the Steam Deck OLED Worth It? 

You don't lose performance with valves proton translation layer, because its not emulating anything, its just translating the game from windows calls to linux. Some games actually run better through proton then windows because the linux proton version has less bloat

I respect the hell out of Valve for keeping the prices the same (well, the mid tier went up $20) but increasing the value by a LOT. Increasing storage alone would have some companies want to increase prices.

You can't just throw words around supposedly saying that games run better on Win Deck than on Steam Deck without showing a single benchmark...some games actually run better on Steam OS than on Windows (using the API Vulkan and DirectX 12 mainly)

Just ordered the new OLED Steam Deck 1TB, super stoked to play on it on the go. I’m always on the go (because of work) so being able to take it with it and get my gaming fix is big time. I haven’t had a PC since I was kid, usually on console, but being now with access to steam I’m rolling down memory lane.

I am a little surprised that you mentioned all the disadvantages of using Windows and having to format the drive to switch from one OS to another, but you do not mention that the huge and awesome SteamOS/Steam Deck/Linux community has resolved most of those issues... I currently have dual boot on my Steam Deck

The cable being a meter longer is a nice touch. I now use the deck charger for my laptop and vice versa. Lying down on the couch with the deck in hand feels great after work

I think Austin does not understand what proton does. I think he needs to really learn more about how steam OS actually works.

I picked up a refurbished 512 GB LCD model for $360 off steam. They suddenly had a flood of stock after the OLED announcement. I'm convinced that sudden stock was them taking existing stock and selling it as "refurbished," mine was completely untouched. Either way, this was insane value for $360. Beyond worth it.

While it's not officially supported, you can absolutely dual boot windows. It's not that hard and only takes a youtube video tutorial or two to figure it out. Highly recommend it.

Lots of old Windows games have issues running on modern Windows compared to Proton so compatibility isn’t necessarily clear win for modern Windows. Performance difference with Proton is very minor. In some cases it can be an improvement because of old DirectX being worse than using Vulkan.

Always trust Austin to put out a misinformed video. Spend more time actually learning about the products you use. Also I got a Steam Deck OLED early with etched glass and I think it's amazing, just as good as my OLED TVs which are glossy. (Bought at Haneda Airport Aloha Market)

The 3.5.5 update was good enough for me to be satisfied with my LCD one. Will definitely upgrade to the 2 though.

Windows support has basically been carried by the WindowsOnDeck community. With custom programs like Steam Deck Tools for Windows, custom AMD windows drivers and WiFi fixes, Windows on the Deck handles just as good if not better than other Windows specific handhelds. The caveat being that it requires tinkering to get working well. I dual booted my OG deck (Clover boot loader lets you dual boot btw) and I plan on doing that to my OLED Steam Deck once it arrives. Hopefully they have drivers so the HDR screen will be recognized in Windows.

im switching from ally to oled deck... ive given the ally 6 months of my time almost and its just unrefined in comparison... the software feels tacked on because it is, the battery life is absolutely terrible, Asus ''fixed'' the SD card failing issue by forcing the fans to 70 percent under any kind of load which comes with the knock on effect of even worse battery, more heat and more noise, its all just a bit of a mess. Ive come to realize aswell that while its for sure more powerful - AAA games still need heavy compromise so on either device its just not great anyway, these things are better for indie games and thankfully there are thousands of them the deck and ally play great and when it comes to indies i think the deck does it better, more efficient, better battery, now the oled screen... i just dont see where the ally is better now besides that extra power and VRR, valve just know what they are doing and know how to make an amazing device.

Only OG’s will remember when this video was titled “Is the Steam Deck OLED worth it?” 😂

I hope you have tried the deck in Desktop mode too! I am pretty satisfied with it! I've been trying to not buy one, but when they introduced the OLED, i couldn't resist anymore. It works like a charm for me, both as a handheld, and as a PC for desktop needs (mind: im using linux exclusively on all my devices, except the laptop i got for work from work, but that's dedicated for that few task where i need that specific device.), so much, that i stopped carrying my personal laptop with me to home and back to work, and just leaving it at work and using my deck instead. (writing this comment for example)

I set up dual boot on Steam Deck when I got my 1tb ssd (by partitioning) many months ago and while it took me a few hours of tinkering to set it up. I have none of the issues you described on Windows. My only issue on Windows is that the SD card reader doesn't work. But I don't really need it. Obviously SteamOS works a lot better since it's actually made for the hardware but Windows on the Deck is alright.

The ribbon colors do matter for the limited edition model with its translucent shell.

I'm a little tight that I haven't even had my Steamdeck a year and there is already a new one with a better screen, and battery with more storage for the same price I paid.

Baldur’s Gate isn’t going to run any better on windows than it already does on Steam OS. Especially if you don’t know about turning your frame buffer up to 4gb from 1gb. That manual option was put there with windows in mind since it can’t automatically allocate needed vram on the spot like in Steam OS. The precached shaders on Steam OS also vastly help with game performance. And yes, some games genuinely run better on Steam OS that’s just a fact. That said, there are unfortunately some games that aren’t compatible at all and require windows.

i been dual booting steamos and windows for months. theres plenty of guides out there to do it. sometimes it breaks when valve updates steamos but is usually fixable pretty quickly.

I bought a steam deck so I DON'T have to deal with Windows.

Good video Austin!

Of course it's fucking worth it. Another well-done job by Valve!

I had the 1st Gen 64 gig and decided to go with the Limited Edition OLED. The purchase email said "2 to 4 weeks" I bought it on the release day and today I received the shipping email. Under promise and over perform, gotta love Valve for doing this and their continue upgrades and support.

I tried the legion go and wasn't impressed at all. I use the dpad a lot in the games I play, and the go's is horrible. The OG deck has absolutely spoiled me with it's control scheme, and I am looking forward to getting the OLED model. It addresses my two biggest complaints with the deck: The screen and the battery life. Moreover, I *really* appreciate how Valve handled allocation for the Limited Editions. I was ready to go at launch, and got as far as adding one to my cart before they seemingly went out of stock. I figured the scalpers' bots had won yet again, but Valve apparently planned ahead for that, and I was able to complete placing an order for one nearly an hour later. I can't say the same for anything else I've tried to get at launch in the last 5+ years

The best of the Steam Deck is, that it DON'T come with Windows! No licensing, registration and activation. No updates over the desktop. No complete Windows which needs memory and ssd space for desktop-programs of a normal Windows. No handheld GUI as program on top of the desktop. Steam OS is the big advantage of the Steam Deck over the other handhelds.

As someone who already owns a deck, switching to OLED for me at this point would must be about aesthetics (that super nice limited edition one) the same way Nintendo dropped the ToTK switch right after I got the oled upgrade. At this point my plan is to just manually customize and upgrade the deck myself since valve did such a good job with making it easy to open and modify/repair.

I'm fairly sure it's been discovered that the screen isn't 100% custom for Valve and is actually most likely the same screen as the Switch OLED as evidenced by the lack of FreeSync support due to the limitations of the connector for the screen not supporting it and the screen having the same less common screen connector as the switch. If the screen was actually custom specifically for the Deck it woukd use DP/HDMI or a connection that supports FreeSync

Pretty sure that SteamOS/Windows dual boot has been a thing for quite a while now. I remember watching tutorials for it out of curiosity when I got my LCD Steam Deck months ago. Not sure why you say otherwise in this video.

I mean.... I dual boot windows and steam OS. I partitioned the internal ssd and used rEFInd to give me a choice of which OS to boot into on startup

It would have been easy for valve to just to slap a new screen, call it a day and cash in. The fact that they made so many small improvements, kudos to the engineers, they care about making a good device.

Steam Deck is an argument against ever needing to touch windows if you want to play pc games. It makes a great case for it imo.

With all the oled craze i managed to buy like new 512gb version of steam deck for £265 on ebay couldnt be happier , everyone is sekling their lcd steam decks for cheap now

Windows on my Steam Deck is amazing. The community on Reddit has been amazing. I have my full library at my disposal. The issues mentioned in this video have almost completely been resolved.

The common definition of Dual Boot Support probably scares people away. I partitioned a 2TB SSD in my Steam Deck for 500GB on Windows and 1.5TB SteamOS. By default if you power cycle the deck it will always boot into Windows first. If you want to get back to SteamOS just shut down the Steam Deck and press and hold the Volume down button while you click the power button once. This will boot into the boot manager screen. You can choose SteamOS or Windows. If for whatever reason it disappears you can repeat the same process and press and hold Volume up button while powering on and it will take you to the bios. You can go into the EFI section and find an alternative way to boot to SteamOS there. I know this method isn’t pretty, but it works consistently and it takes less than 30 seconds to switch between operating systems. When people refer to dual boot they’re usually referring to some kind of pretty screen that comes up each time you power on to select the OS you want boot into. When people say the Steam Deck doesn’t support dual boot people assume that means it’s impossible to have both SteamOS and Windows on the same SSD. It’s not. If you don’t mind just going into the bios each time it’s totally doable and worth it. I mainly installed Windows to play Minecraft Bedrock and the old Halo games (before they made it work in SteamOS) Windows is also good if you want to install streaming service apps. Would be cool to have Netflix, Hulu, etc. in SteamOS eventually.

Austin there are options to duel boot using refind (covered by Deck Wizard) and there is a windows tool called handheld companion that gives an experience closer to Steam OS

I understand why Valve went this direction and decided to wait a few more years for the Steam Deck's successor but in the here and now of today I still wonder how the Steam Deck would fair if it had everything from the Steam Deck OLED but instead upgraded the chip to the Z1 Extreme. Assuming the cooling solution was still good enough I really wonder how great games would work inside of Steam OS on the Deck paired with that beautiful OLED HDR display.

I got my OG Steam Deck in July. Love it. Not interested in the OLED (but it looks nice!). I got my performance and temps down significantly with kryonaut and a cold plate mounted to the internal shroud over the CPU. Brought my temps down 10-15 percent and many times the fan doesnt even kick on!

I appreciate you making a new save to show the baldur's gate 3 gameplay instead of just spoiling your entire audience lol

I haven't really had any issues with my Rog Ally. It works great. Games run amazing and its been awhile since I've used a Steam Deck, but I should be getting the Oled here in a few days.

you can dual boot it... a lot of people already did it... the problem is the medium you can use to store the OS.... mainly the SD card if you want to make it portable still....

11:40 Workaround: Start the game as a 3rd party game over steam with the overlay enabled, then the controller can be configured like any other steam game.

I'll probably be picking up the next model. These upgrades make me want one, but I think the next one will feel like a need.

I've said this before and will say it again. Performance is key for me. Having an OLED SD is nice but if you can't really take advantage of the 90Hz, what's the point? After seeing the ROG Ally and especially the Lenovo Legion Go, I'm more inclined to wait on a 2nd gen version of one of those instead of getting a new SD either an upgrade or a 2nd gen SD.

It’s a good thing I haven’t bought a steam deck yet. This one looks solid for me as I don’t have one yet.

Austin, I have a question, for these handhelds, is there a benefit to something like the tapstrap? if I were to get a steamdeck or other handheld and got a tapstrap to go with it would a little wearable keyboard like that make typing usable?

Have you tried WinDeck for that Windows installation? Maybe that includes all the fixes so that the buttons aren't considered mouse and keyboard etc? I'm looking into dual booting because my next option is a second handheld for Game Pass.

I don’t own a steam deck. But recently decided I’m going to get one. I’ve never been a PC gamer either, so never really heard much about Valve as a company. In my short space of time watching these review videos, I’ve decided that I’m going to purchase one. Purely on the fact they didn’t over sell this, in fact it seems like they undersold it. I love the fact they are not just trying to rip us off like so many gaming publishers. *coughs in EA and Activision* Reviews are opening this thing up and are surprised at what they are finding. Well done Valve.

You can partition the ssd to have windows and steam os installed at the same time. Just need to use the boot manager to switch between os.

@11:05 talking about the onscreen keyboard not popping out, also @11:05 continues to tap outside the Pin Input box and expect that the keyboard screen to pop out.

Ok I've have my deck on windows 10 (external ssd) and it's pretty awesome.....the main thing you want to do is get a program called handheld companion and this will fix almost all of the quirks( for example, my right menu button now brings up the keyboard and windows sees the controls as an xbox controller so you can play game pass). Secondly, install amernime modded drivers for the apu instead of the driver that valve supplies. (this allows you to use the adrenaline software interface) Everything works great!

Just hope someone sells the screen separately for us to upgrade the led later on

Color-matched ribbon cables!!?? Holy shit what an insane upgrade! Truly one of the steam decks of all time!

i was going to get the 1TB one but if the screen dulls the color whats the point of getting OLED so I'm now getting the 512gb one ty

I got my ROG Ally for $550 open box at Best Buy for the Z1 Extreme version. If you're willing to sacrifice warranty, you can get the Ally for just as much as the OLED Steam Deck.

I wouldn't buy a whole new Steam Deck just for the little changes it has, but I would definitely consider putting an oled screen on it if it's compatible.

This is the definitive version of the Steam Deck but the performance holds it back. I want the OLED version but I don’t use my OG since I’ve gotten the Ally. While I agree windows is not made for handhelds if you know how to use windows and set custom keys to manage windows it works perfectly fine.

The only handheld console right now I have is the Switch. It's really starting to show it's age as it hits 7 years. I have quite library of games on steam as well and would love to be able to play them handheld. I am really tempted get a steam deck now.😅

Steam deck has things that most handhelds wont even dream of. its one hell of a versatile machine. i practically use it as my daily driver laptop and music system and gaming box too.

It's tempting but I'll wait for the Deck 2 for a new chip. I'm guessing it'll probably come out 2025 or 26. Edit: I already have the LCD Deck and an Anbernic for older console emulation.

Act 2-3 in BG3 gets tough and almost unplayable in Act 3 on Steam Deck. No updates will improve that, the Deck just needs more power. For now I'll stick to a Legion Go for better a performance

About the overhead of running games on Proton, in the vast majority of cases, it is completely irrelevant due to other optimizations in Proton making the games run better than DirectX native on Windows, as well as the overhead of Windows, which in comparison to Linux based operating systems is extremely heavy on overhead just from running the OS itself. These factors make running games through Proton on Linux in most cases just more performant, and any time someone says that the translation layer is probably slowing things down, it does bother me, since, it really is the opposite.

Austin, I dont know when you are recording this video but as of two months ago I have modded my friends 512 gb steam deck with windows and steamOS, i went into ubuntu and created a partition to install windows to while keeping steamOS, I then installed clover boot manager so he has to option of what to boot from when he turns on the deck.

The real question is, will The Rock finally wrestle his cousin, Roman Reigns for the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship at Wrestlemania 40?

If it had a better APU then it would have been amazing

It's a PC. You don't have to _wait for Valve_ to make a Dual Boot option... Just use rEFInd or Clover Dual Boot, and you can dual/triple/quad whathaveyou boot... I've been dual booting on my LCD Deck since it arrived in April 2022.

I’m so glad I waited been thinking of getting one for a while

I think the ASUS ROG Ally is still a recommended option for me, the OLED is definitely a bit of an improvement. But, it's still not as good as the ROG Ally

A wise man once said play “pc games on pc” -🧙‍♂️

My deck is dual booted. Has been for about a year. I love it.

I have the first thing that I don't have the old lead but I wanted to know Duncan. Where can I get some work done to it? I'll thank you Duncan....😂

It’s not worth it. Just play PC games on your phone. You already have a phone with an OLED screen, might as well use it rather than spend $550 on a separate device.

I have windows and Steam-OS both on the same drive. I had to partition it into 2 Drives and then installed Windows regular. After that, I installed Steam-OS new and when I used the shortcut for selecting the Boot-Image (Minus while powering on) I can select if I want to boot windows or Steam-OS. When I didn't press it, it boots regularly into windows. So it's not “official” but it's like any other laptop dualboot-compatible. For Windows, I recommend installing the helping-software to get the most functions like power-settings and so on. And the default-Boot should be configurable also, but it's right for me, because I Used Windows as desktop and on mobile SteamOS.

I saw that the oled deck has BOE oled? I Don't know what that is, but I already ordered the 1tb on Friday and I'm just now reading that people receiving the BOE oled steam decks are having dead pixels on arrival

good thing that they upgaradded the display. i wonder. does it have the burning issue with the oled panels that the tv's had?

if performance are same, maybe i go with the original because i come short in budget. Does it still good choice?

You say you can’t run steamOS on the windows handhelds…but what’s the difference to just running steam big picture on those?

A classic Austin Evans video

the lcd steamdeck also performs better at lower watts too for some reason . when you reduce the tdp the older one is a bit faster

Is it true that if you put a screen protector on the1TB OLED model, it cancels out the anti-glare coating problems?

Are the thumb sticks grippy enough to not have to use thumb grips on them and not feel annoyingly slippery

So... you failed to specify what BG3 runs at on Windows vs SteamOS.. I bet the performance is quite identical. FYI As a Windows desktop user I use Proton build for windows to convert DX12 to Vulkan and Proton in some cases is even better optimized than the original DX12 implementation :) This is not across the board, but there are cases like this. The SteamDeck Oled is a god sent especially for older games and emulation :D

I didn't realize that the actual display size is bigger on the oled, personally I won't be upgrading and don't see why anyone that's shelled out for gen 1 should for relatively marginal increases, however I love that they're updating and improving, I just hope that this will lead to the steam deck shell becoming it's own case category like ATX perhaps with the ability to upgrade parts over time

for windows install steam deck tools, set ds4 controller for the desktop controller and delete all the the desktop control in the steam desktop profile except for the trackpads and finally turn on enable gyroscope in the desktop profile. Now everything works and you can play gamepass games with gyroscope.

@austin, did u test the 3.5mm headphone jack?

Glosci is an amazing fix for getting steam deck inputs into windows working. Far as i can tell it works in a manner that doesn't even trigger anti cheat systema as well.

I mainly bought my ally just for the accesibility with all my windows apps but the steamdeck looks sick!

I really can't accept the screen thing. When Switch Oled came out people went crazy about the screen, bought a console that costed 100€ more than the normal just for the screen...while the rest is basically the same of any other versio. BUT the Switch Oled at least has a good reason to make people feel like a good buy: the upgraded internal memory. In general...yes the Oled is beautiful screen, but no, if someone has already a steam deck there's no fucking reason to "update" to this model. No hate on Valve, i really admire the love and efforts they put in Steam Deck products but let's be honest, it's not worthing the upgrade, it has more sense to wait for a REAL hardware upgrade with a new and updated deck, not only a slightly different (but basically almost the same) version

Proton is not an emulator. Emulators make your PC believe it is a different system like the Wii or PS2 to run games on it. Proton is more like a translator that lets the system read the software like games.

You actually can dual boot if you partion your drive and boot into the bios you can pick which partition you want to boot

That pun just got me hahaha

I'm currently watching this video, in Windows, on my 2TB Steam Deck, waiting for my OLED to migrate to :) two things wrong with your Windows on Deck segment: 1. You CAN dual boot - I won't get into detail, but you can partition the SSD. I am currently dual-booting Win11 and Steam OS, and swap between them by holding VolUp on boot and switching. I prefer SteamOS where possible, but Win11 mainly for Game Pass. There is even a few commands to run in Steam OS to be able to share the MicroSD card between both OS's 2. For controller issues in Windows, I use a program called Steam Deck Tools. Controller experience is flawless after that :)

I've been dual booting SteamOS and Windows for months and months. Clear instructions and tools are out there.

It's not really for people who have the original it's just a (very good) refresh , for new users though it's a great deal

I'm gonna have a great time with my deck.

Correction- 25% more battery

TBH the next Steam deck you most likely won't even see a difference between windows and steamos/Linux performance as on my Desktop PC the performance difference is not noticeable and alot of times I actually get BETTER performance in Linux using proton/wine then on windows itself.... and also you can add games from any store front just about via Lutris

Ive been running windows 10 and 11 on my deck since I've had it. Once you tune windows and hand held companion and windows runs amazing. Just tune it and your golden.

Dual boot on the Deck with third party tools is very easy this days . Also windows does way more background processes than proton will ever do.