Valve’s Steam Deck won’t have a version with an OLED display, at least not immediately. A part of the manufacturer explains why such a model is complicated to design and that it is not only a question of changing the slab.
Could we one day see an OLED version of the Steam Deck? Maybe, but it’s apparently not for now according to Valve’s Pierre-Loup Griffais, which is expressed in the columns of PC Gamer. Changing screen technology is indeed a fairly enormous technical challenge.
OLED brings many advantages, such as infinite contrast, finer color calibration and even more controlled energy consumption. The Switch OLED showed us that it was possible to offer the same console, but with an OLED panel instead of an LCD screen. But for a terminal like the Steam Deck, things are a bit more complicated than that.
The Steam Deck OLED is not for now
Griffais explains that it is not enough to change the panel to offer an OLED model of Steam Deck. The changes made would be much deeper, given that the terminal is centered around its display:
“In reality, the screen is at the heart of the terminal. Everything is rooted in him. Concretely, everything is linked to everything in such a small product. I think it would be a lot more work than people imagine. I don’t think we’re making any concessions, but the mere thought of switching screens and voila…you’d have to do a lot more than that in reality. »
He adds :
“It’s something you have to plan ahead. When we worked on this LCD panel, we made sure that it could work perfectly (…) It’s about how you harmonize what is between the SoC and the panel. »
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For the moment, the arrival of an OLED Steam Deck does not seem to be in Valve’s plans. However, it is very likely that the American manufacturer will release a new model of its portable console one day, maybe with this embedded technology. It is true that in use, the OLED is much more pleasing to the eye than the LCD, especially for video game use.
Source: PC Gamer