I was convinced for me it would be the 90hz refresh rate, or the improved touchscreen/haptics - but the moment I picked up the new OLED I knew my answer straight away:

The 30g they removed from the weight.

I’m sure that sounded minimal and inconsequential for a lot of us when we heard about it, but when you pick it up, you feel it immediately.

The original steam deck was always a bit too heavy for me to hold comfortably. Especially as I struggle with a disability which makes me pretty weak in general.

Now the device is so much more comfortable to hold. I can actually pick it up and hold it with one hand now, whereas before it would always overbalance and I could never keep it straight.

What’s the best upgrade from your experience so far, if any of you are lucky enough to have an OLED now?

  • yesitsmeowB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    It is absolutely wild how noticeable 30g is… but WiFi 6E is probably the best upgrade, I don’t have to feel like I need to dock the thing to install a new game <3 Also that fan is a maaaaassive improvement

    • NobodyRulesB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      It is absolutely wild how noticeable 30g is

      When I heard this, I immediately thought this was a big deal. It’s a device we use like a cellphone and I can absolutely tell when a phone got a bit of extra weight compared to the last and it shows pretty quickly.

      I haven’t gotten mine yet, but I’m sure I’ll notice it, if not right away, it will show a bit in terms of just holding the device for a couple of hours.

    • PlanZSmilesB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      The Wifi6E was the tipping point for me, I intend to have this docked in my living room and can’t be bothered to run an Ethernet cord to it. Just need to find a way to position my router closer so that I get a consistent connection since the range for 6GHz is rather ass lol

    • Used-AlarmB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Literally my SD oled wouldn’t connect during out of the box setup because it was trying to associate in 6 GHz where WPA3 is required. Packet capture showed the SD deauthing itself after receiving the Association Response from the AP in 6 GHz.

      When I go and try and setup the network manually it only lists None and WPA2 as security options. It won’t connect when WPA3-Personal is in Transition Mode either. Is your experience different? This seems like Valve completely overlooked the WPA3 requirement for 6 GHz operation.

      Now if you break out of Steam and look underneath, it is running wpa_supplicant version 2.10 so it should have zero problems connecting to WPA3 in 6 GHz. It just seems the network manager on Steam does not support WPA3 period right now.

    • IncredibleGonzoB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      I wonder if it’s something to do with weight distribution. The chunkier battery is right in the middle, weight savings must be elsewhere (from the screen at least in part, I assume). Presumably that makes the weight a bit more concentrated in the center of the device, which I’d think might enhance how noticeable the weight reduction is.