I was one of the unfortunate ones with my LE OLED to have dead sub pixels (which I definitely would never have noticed if I didn’t look for them, keep that in mind if you value your sanity). I submitted an RMA request with a photo of the dead pixel on Saturday night, not expecting to hear back until today given the holiday. But on Sunday I received a response immediately approving my RMA, and shortly after the shipping label and RMA instruction sheet! Full credit to Valve for being so quick to respond to this, and for making it absolutely 0 hassle. Bummed I’ll be without my LE OLED for a week or two, but still very glad this was so painless. Thanks Valve!
The “don’t look for them if you can help it” is real. Unfortunately I had one where I did notice it, and once I saw it I couldn’t un-see it. It wasn’t actually too distracting while playing games (it was a dead green subpixel) unless that area was green or white. After doing some screen tests I found 2 more that I didn’t even notice at all before.
I’m RMA’ing it because I don’t mind doing so, I was on the fence about doing it at all since I think the OLED is an awesome all around refresh of the Deck. But I know it’s there, and I know that would bug me personally. Plus I can just use my LCD in the meantime, until I get a perfect LE OLED.
I’m not worried about Valve making things right at all, and I know I am in a better position than some people by having a Deck already, but I will say I am a little disappointed that, at least anecdotally, the LE seems to have a higher level of defects than the normal OLEDs. I know there are likely a lot of reasons why they used the BOE screen, and I know the Samsungs are also not perfect, I guess I am just a little sad about the “top end” model not having “top end” QC. So it goes, and I know when I do eventually get my perfect LE OLED it’s going to be worth the wait.