The Steam Deck OLED Has One Enormous Characteristic That The Nintendo Swap 2 By no means Will

The Steam Deck OLED is a hulking handheld gaming console in each measurement and efficiency. It takes every thing Nintendo did proper with the unique Swap and upgrades it, and although there’s a Swap 2 now, the Steam Deck OLED remains to be superior in a single key side: the show.

The Swap 2, regardless of being Nintendo’s most anticipated and costly console within the firm’s historical past, has an abysmal show. You possibly can argue the launch line-up wasn’t nice, or that the Swap 2 is simply extra of the identical that the unique Swap gave us, however you may’t dispute the standard of the display screen. For the reason that console launched, there have been complaints in regards to the high quality of its LCD screens. Whereas rumors of a Nintendo Switch 2 OLED refresh started earlier than the console launched, the dearth of an OLED show was disappointing. However the main concern with the display screen has been efficiency. In a current Monitors Unboxed video, the Swap 2 had the worst response time of all displays examined — and it is even 50% slower than the unique Swap’s show.

Different points with the show are price noting, akin to shade, banding, low brightness for HDR content material, and picture ghosting, which everyone hates the most about their tablets. Compared, the Steam Deck OLED’s display screen is a dream to play on. The show is brilliant, quick, and color-accurate. What’s to not like?

The standout function of the Steam Deck OLED is the OLED show. The 7.4″ diagonal show is able to 600 nits of brightness when enjoying normal dynamic vary (SDR) video games, but it surely shoots as much as 1,000 for top dynamic vary (HDR) content material. That is the perfect brightness for HDR, making colours pop and emphasizing the distinction between the lightest and darkest elements of the picture.

The Steam Deck OLED’s show response time can be excellent. Valve claims the Steam Deck OLED has a response time of lower than 1 millisecond, and that checks out, in line with Monitors Unboxed’s testing. When evaluating shows between the ROG Ally X, Swap, Swap 2, and the Steam Deck OLED, Valve’s handheld stands head and shoulders above the competitors. However why does a quick response time matter? A quicker response time provides you a aggressive edge in video games, akin to shooters, but it surely additionally minimizes movement blur and ghosting.

As a result of the Steam Deck OLED makes use of an OLED show, it’s extra susceptible to burn-in than different display screen varieties. Trendy OLED shows are higher at managing burn-in, however it might probably nonetheless occur, particularly in case you depart the console on a static picture, such because the menu display screen, for lengthy durations. If burn-in does ultimately occur to your Steam Deck OLED show, there’s something you are able to do: exchange the display screen. It is simpler and extra inexpensive than you’d count on.

Tech restore firm iFixit gave the Steam Deck OLED a repairability rating of seven out of 10. It is one of many main positives of proudly owning a Steam Deck console, and it makes changing a display screen very doable. The iFixit guide covers this intimately, however the most effective half is which you could take away the show from the highest of the console, so you will not should open it up and danger breaking the shell or tearing a ribbon cable. You possibly can even purchase the instruments you want and the shows from iFixit for $104.99 and $154.99 for the 512GB and 1TB fashions, respectively — the latter is dearer as a consequence of premium anti-glare etched glass.