Deck OLED

1-2 weeks shipping on the LE wound up being 3 business days to UPS's hands. Should be here early next week. For those that recieved their OLEDs are the boxes still screaming VALVE PRODUCT INSIDE and does it require a signature? I can't remember if it did with the original.
 
dr.stevil said:
no, none whatsoever actually. I use sunshine/moonlight on my iPad Pro as well and it runs surprisingly good. The only time I’ve ever noticed any compression artifacts and/or lag is when the network signal isn’t ideal…. But if I’m in an area of the house with a good signal I actually prefer it to playing the games natively believe it or not (90hz and 120hz displays vs 60hz on my desktop and just works better with a duel sense controller).

If only Steam Streaming worked as well :(
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Interesting. What specifically do you prefer about streaming versus native? Compression artifacts are one thing, but I've found HVEC streaming seriously nukes image quality no matter how much bandwidth you use, because of the compression algorithm used. It basically looks like a YouTube video.

Obviously to each their own but I'm surprised people like to use nice screens with such poor source quality on a regular basis. It's almost like tech blasphemy.
 
Wrench said:
1-2 weeks shipping on the LE wound up being 3 business days to UPS's hands. Should be here early next week. For those that recieved their OLEDs are the boxes still screaming VALVE PRODUCT INSIDE and does it require a signature? I can't remember if it did with the original.
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Mine just arrived, the boxes are pretty much the same. The labels are pretty generic but do say Valve is the shipper. The boxes themselves are kinda long, well sealed, plain brown cardboard with many of the usual "icons" for "fragile / don't get wet / don't magnetize etc" that are common on anything vaguely electronic/with batteries included being shipped however next to those there are the same couple of "portal inspired" icons, one with the Companion Cube, one with the Deck logo etc... but to a casual observer it wouldn't be particularly noteworthy. As far as signatures, mine didn't require one strangely - I could have sworn the original Deck did but who knows.

Overall both UPS and most of all Valve did a pretty impressive job with fulfilling these so quickly,especially the Limited Edition and avoiding scalper and other problems. I honestly thought that it would take several months for the first Deck OLEDs to start shipping outside of "special" orders to reviewers and the like.
 
t1337duder said:
Interesting. What specifically do you prefer about streaming versus native? Compression artifacts are one thing, but I've found HVEC streaming seriously nukes image quality no matter how much bandwidth you use, because of the compression algorithm used. It basically looks like a YouTube video.

Obviously to each their own but I'm surprised people like to use nice screens with such poor source quality on a regular basis. It's almost like tech blasphemy.
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I can’t speak for everyone but in my case, it’s not that I “prefer” streaming, it’s just that it’s really convenient. I have access to my entire library anyplace in the house and it just so happens that the displays on my mobile devices are much higher quality than the 32” 60hz VA panel I use in the office.

Perhaps I just have my network dialed in because like I said, the image quality is actually pretty great. Ive had poor experiences with it in the past, even via LAN, but these days I’m hard pressed to tell a difference.
 
Ordered mine Wednesday 11-22 and just got it today! I chose the Deck over Ally just cause I've heard horror stories about Asus' customer support. I've also seen Valve is pretty good with RMAs. I can finally play games while watching football. What a time to be alive.


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Ordered last a week ago and got it today. Shipped Friday.

So just stumbled on the OLED screen "issue" I see no dead pixles running through a couple games. I'm not concerned at this point with Valves CS being on point. Is anyone really worried about a Samsung Vs a BOE OLED screen?
 
Wrench said:
Ordered last a week ago and got it today. Shipped Friday.

So just stumbled on the OLED screen "issue" I see no dead pixles running through a couple games. I'm not concerned at this point with Valves CS being on point. Is anyone really worried about a Samsung Vs a BOE OLED screen?
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Definitely factored into my buying decision. I get the impression the BOE's have lower QC than the Samsung. I recall reading that Apple had issues with them and had to cancel a deal with them in the past.

Customer service for the Deck is less than stellar, especially as far as RMA's go - or at least that's my impression from reading threads on the Deck Reddit. Wasn't uncommon that the RMA models people received also had issues. Gave me good reason to avoid RMA'ing my first Deck altogether despite it having a few issues (which were more or less common anyways).

I think Valve did their customer's dirty with the OLED options this time. Seems pea-brained that they put the glossy model with the better screen as the mid-option, giving people who buy any new model mixed feelings. I'm seeing a lot of buyer's remorse mixed with people seeing validation from YouTubers. They need that influencer to tell them that "everything will be okay".
 
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t1337duder said:
I think Valve did their customer's dirty with the OLED options this time. Seems pea-brained that they put the glossy model with the better screen as the mid-option, giving people who buy any new model mixed feelings.
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So even the Samsung screen is having issues? What annoyed me was I feel bait and switched as the screen was stated by all reviewers as Samsung and "the same as the Switch"

If it fails it fails. As stupid as this sounds. I figure if it comes down to it eventually someone will be selling the Samsung screen as a repair piece.

As to the "influencer" thing. They're all shills imo. Maybe 1-2 being honest. None really factored into my purchase but had I waited a week I would have bought next year.
 
My LE is BOE panel, no dead pixels. Played about an hour of Risk of Rain Returns on it and was happy with how everything was looking.

Got a required update screen when booting for the first time:
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got my steam deck back in July, while it would have been nice to know about the upcoming OLED / other upgrades, meh, I get plenty of use out of mine weekly. I bought the 64GB version on sale and spent the saved $50 to buy a 1TB SSD.. considering how many times they've put the deck on a discount this year I suppose an incremental upgrade isn't a complete surprise, but for a little better battery life and slightly better screen, some supposed reduced input lag reduction, it's not worth the hassle of selling my current one for an upgrade even for a ~15-25% upgrade not worth it... 50%+ is my own personal line ;p; I really don't have any complaints on mine.. in the 5 months I've had it I've maybe twice wished I had longer battery life while traveling and not been near a charger. Steam deck 2 on the other hand... I'll be watching.
 
zrikz said:
got my steam deck back in July, while it would have been nice to know about the upcoming OLED / other upgrades, meh, I get plenty of use out of mine weekly. I bought the 64GB version on sale and spent the saved $50 to buy a 1TB SSD.. considering how many times they've put the deck on a discount this year I suppose an incremental upgrade isn't a complete surprise, but for a little better battery life and slightly better screen, some supposed reduced input lag reduction, it's not worth the hassle of selling my current one for an upgrade even for a ~15-25% upgrade not worth it... 50%+ is my own personal line ;p; I really don't have any complaints on mine.. in the 5 months I've had it I've maybe twice wished I had longer battery life while traveling and not been near a charger. Steam deck 2 on the other hand... I'll be watching.
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I'm not trying to upsell you, and I'm not trying to be mean. But the screen on the OLED Deck isn't "slightly better". It's "massively" better. The LCD screen that comes with the Deck had some perks (variable refresh rate, decent brightness), but those things aside, the screen is terrible. Perhaps I'm spoiled because every display device I've used for the last 7 years has had an OLED screen (phone included), but the contrast on the LCD is crapola. Not only the blacks are gray, but there's also significant light bleed. Going from that to infinite blacks, more vibrant colors, HDR, 90Hz...I mean, it's just a killer uprade.

And the Deck is a beast with the latest performance boosts. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is locked 90 FPS most of the time on high settings, and looks beautiful with HDR on.
 
t1337duder said:
I'm not trying to upsell you, and I'm not trying to be mean. But the screen on the OLED Deck isn't "slightly better". It's "massively" better. The LCD screen that comes with the Deck had some perks (variable refresh rate, decent brightness), but those things aside, the screen is terrible. Perhaps I'm spoiled because every display device I've used for the last 7 years has had an OLED screen (phone included), but the contrast on the LCD is crapola. Not only the blacks are gray, but there's also significant light bleed. Going from that to infinite blacks, more vibrant colors, HDR, 90Hz...I mean, it's just a killer uprade.

And the Deck is a beast with the latest performance boosts. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is locked 90 FPS most of the time on high settings, and looks beautiful with HDR on.
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I'll keep trying to fool myself, I like my cheaper delusion and dull display ;p

If I played it for hours every day and it was my primary gaming system I'd probably suck it up, but I'll hold out.. for now.
 
So I've been keeping my eye on the Deck subreddit a little more closely lately, and at this point I feel fairly confident in saying that anyone considering a new model should highly consider the 512GB over the 1TB. I don't think it's a big deal if you pick one model or the other. But as we learn more about the models and the differences between them, I think it's become more clear which model new buyers should opt for if they're picky about their Deck's picture quality.

Many users are experiencing dead pixels on their BOE panels and trying to go through Valve's less-than-stellar RMA process to get the issue fixed. Dead pixels aside, the 512GB model has the slightly better OLED panel and glossy display.

The anti-glare etching, simply put, isn't good. After spending a couple of years with it on the LCD model - I've grown a distaste for it. It occurred to me when seeing pictures comparing the glossy vs etched AG screen comparisons on Reddit (I'll share one below). I didn't think too hard about it because I knew I wanted 512GB minimum. But after spending time with it and looking at a lot of comparisons - it hit me that that AG model wasn't meaningfully cutting back on glare or reflections. At best it was "dulling" them. Yet it was still more or less unusable in any amount of sunlight of bright setting. Depending on the angle, it can even demonstrate more glare than the glossy model somehow. Not just that, but any light hitting the screen makes it look "cloudy". It looks as if there's a thin layer of Vaseline built into the screen.

So, in other words, the situation you'd theoretically expect the AG to triumph over the glossy every time, turns out to be very different in reality. Take a look at a picture showing the glossy LCD on the left and the anti-glare OLED on the right, and you'll instantly recognize what I'm talking about with my previous two points.

Glossy LCD (left) vs OLED AG (right)
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You can find certain angles and certain lighting settings to show the strengths of one over the other, but I'm telling you from nearly 2 years of first-hand experience that the anti-glare is going to be worse in most real-use situations, and it's not something that will be immediately apparent. Though once I've tuned my eye to what the etching is doing to the screen quality, I became very frustrated with Valve's usage of etched AG screens. According to the video below, it's due to the "etching", where the ROG Ally has an anti-reflective screen without the etched glass, and is much superior.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTRIVZPqUK4

The above video hints at this when talking about text sharpness, but there may be small drawbacks on the BOE due to the subpixel layout, resulting in users with the BOE model are more commonly reporting text fringing.
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As usual, the fun part about watching the Steam Deck Reddit is that all critical observations about the Deck are down-voted by jolly consumers who simply want to feel good about the new product they bought - deluding themselves out of reality because they oh-so-desperately don't want to risk any feelings of buyer's remorse. So just like any subreddit, it's a moronic circle-jerk where the lowest common denominator rules the roost.

As stated before, I don't think it's a big deal if you pick one model or the other. In this instance, I'd urge people to inform themselves before jumping in head-first, because Valve did not make it easy for consumers to decide which model is best for them. Up until this point, we didn't have too much information to go on. But now we have a better idea. Having said that, since the AG model is more expensive - it seems like the real no-brainer is to pick up the 512GB and upgrade the drive if you feel inclined to spend extra cash. In the bluntest and least nice way to put it, you're paying more money to play screen roulette, and if you're not unlucky with dead pixels, you still get a slightly worse screen than if you just bought the 512GB.
 
I'll probably wait for the Deck 2 or some other generational improvement before retiring my very early order without some of the upgrades that came before the OLED version, unless, knock on wood, something happens to it, but I *like* the matte screen. Maybe it's because I have glasses but I hate glossy screens.
 
Axman said:
I'll probably wait for the Deck 2 or some other generational improvement before retiring my very early order without some of the upgrades that came before the OLED version, unless, knock on wood, something happens to it, but I *like* the matte screen. Maybe it's because I have glasses but I hate glossy screens.
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Everyone has their preference, which is fine. I just felt it was important to underline why OLED screens are typically glossy and ill-suited for anti-glare etched glass. And the general fucked-up nature of putting a combination of the lesser panel and antiglare on the higher up models. Really curious what Valve was thinking.

And then when I see threads about people getting unacceptable dead pixels on their LE Steam Decks, sending it back, and stuck with the same deal - It's very difficult to recommend people to go that route. If you prefer AG, your best bet would be to get the 512 model and buy an AG screen protector. Better screen and no panel lottery.
 
gonna hold out with my LCD model. I guess I never understood why ppl hated the screen. I do have a glossy TG overtop my screen. Also with the latest color enhancements it's even less of an issue. Will eagerly await SD 2 to upgrade.
 
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