Steam Deck

I'm not upgrading, since it's more a companion to my PC. Majority of my triple a games are on my PC so games I play on my deck are ones where I don't run into issues with battery life and adjusting the vibrancy of the screen to make it less dull was enough for me to be fine with it not being OLED.

You only had it for maybe a year. Let it ride. Spend the money on a 2tb upgrade.

Wait. Your one works fine and sooner rather than later there will be the steam deck 2. Better to upgrade to that!

I upgraded. The new screen was worth it to me. But I’m amazed about how quiet it is. With the old one I routinely reduced the wattage to silence the fans but I didn’t feel the need to do it with new one. The battery life increase is nice but was rarely a problem for me.

I sold my old one to offset the cost.

My consideration was that the Steam Deck is my only gaming rig and I use it daily. It was worth the upgrade. If I would use it less like my Nintendo Switch I wouldn’t. My Switch is still the old LCD model.

Do you love steam deck and have cash to blow and want a better one? Then go for it.

Is $550 very important to you? Maybe hold off.

The big reason isn't the OLED, it's the battery use. So if you aren't currently having battery problems, I'd hold and wait for the next iteration.

I am personally not upgrading. The original handles the types of games I play well. Are you finding lack of functionality with your existing system that would improve with the new version?

I wanted to keep with the anti glare screen no matter what. I had decided the most I'd spend to get the benefits of the oled was going to be about $175. So if I could sell my 512 for enough to spend another $175 for the oled, I'd be happy. If it wouldn't sell for a high enough price to do that, I'd be happy keeping my LCD one. Either way I had a steam deck that I'd be enjoying.

Decide how much extra you'd be willing to pay for the minor upgrades and be happy either way.

I'll probably never use a 90 hz refresh rate on the SD. Most of the games I run at 40 anyhow. I also haven't ever had to play on max brightness and don't find the colors of the lcd screen bother me, so the oled benefits are pretty minor for me. 6e wifi is well beyond the internet ill have for a long time, so thats irrelevant to me. What I do like is the bigger battery and more efficient APU that keeps the SD oled quieter and having the 1TB ssd without having to spend an extra $80 to order a 1TB ssd and install it myself.

Perks worth some money to me, but not a whole lot of money to me.

What kind of games do you play?

If it's mostly lighter colorful indie adventures or emulated classics, the improved battery life at low TDPs is pretty crazy, pushing 8-12 hours. Together with the pretty screen and 90 Hz refresh it's a big quality bump.

If you mostly play heavy gray AAA competitive shooters, the experience will mostly be the same. The black levels on the screen will be much better and you might get another 30-45 mins of playtime but honestly you're probably better off saving money toward the Deck 2 when Valve improves the CPU/GPU performance.

I got the 1TB OLED, I still have the 512Gb LCD. If the screen is not a big deal for you, then don't upgrade.

For me the OLED screen is worth every penny 😁

I Gad the 256GB model and got the base 512 OLED. Screen is much better, those 90hz are sweet, battery lasts roughly 40-50% more and the sticks are much better. But at the end of the day, the games are as much as fun on both systems.

Im in your boat. went full out as a spleurge and now want the new one. not going to do it. its just to much and it functions fine now. Im sure games will work fine on the original until 2 comes out.

I'd probably say no from your replies below to people, OP. The screen alone isn't worth several hundred dollars, and your main concern about portable gaming length seems addressable by an external battery pack and the carrying solution to include it with your Deck out and about for several hundred dollars cheaper.

Really it feels like you're asking, is it worth spending all that extra cash to make your portable rig gaming setup less bulky when you're gaming away from home. For me, the answer would be no and I'd put up with the slightly bulkier set up with the battery pack, and I feel like most people would be at the same place, but I don't know your exact specific circumstances.

How much is the money worth to you? If you absolutely love the Steam Deck and have the disposable income, I'd say go for it. I bought the OLED Limited Edition though I already had two LCD Decks (512GB and 64GB upgraded to 512GB) because I broke my first one but later fixed it. I love what Valve is doing with the Deck and with Linux and I had the disposable income to buy it. I'm happy. However, I would say it isn't the wisest financial decision I could've made and if money is tight the LCD Deck is still a perfectly fine option. The performance is basically the same.

If you find someone to sell your LCD easily I would say Yes.

Bought the 512gb LCD via preorder, got a 2tb for it, upgraded/skinned it with personalizations, then got the LE OLED when it went live.

For me, personally, I thought it was well worth it. However I use it daily. I have a fully functional rig with 3080, but just find myself constantly tinkering with my deck and like being able to take it on work trips constantly with minimal impact to my carry on weight. Beyond the screen, the battery life is the real winner here in combination with the enhancements. But I also had the money to spend on it. If you’re tight for cash, then it’s probably best to wait. Or you could try selling to offset cost. Just really depends on what you want to do for extra battery life and the like.