[@GamersNexus] They Changed Everything: Valve Steam Deck OLED vs. LCD Tear-Down
[@GamersNexus] They Changed Everything: Valve Steam Deck OLED vs. LCD Tear-Down
The new Valve Steam Deck OLED didn't just change the screen: Almost every part of the device has had some sort of revision, from the screws to the power topology of the motherboard. Some of these changes happened silently in the Voyager platform refresh for the Steam Deck, but the majority of large changes are brand new. Memory underwent relocation and now uses better modules, the cooling solution has had its fan flipped and thickened, and the controller component PCBs have had some consolidation and durability improvements. In this tear-down of the new Steam Deck OLED, we'll compare the new Steam Deck vs. the original, old Steam Deck "LCD" model.
Would be interesting in seeing the thermal and fan noise results.
Whilst I have no plans on buying the OLED edition, it did make me question that decision a couple of times watching these reviews come in. The LCD edition, with its quirks, is serving me just fine.
I'm also impressed with how candid Valve is bring with both their system & repairability improvements. Just wish other corporations did the same.
Valve seems to be firmly within the category of enthusiast run company. The heads of EA, Microsoft, etc clearly don’t game. Valve is clearly run by people who do and want their hobby to have a better environment. It’s the only expectation I have for their consistent pro consumer behavior. That or the fact that it’s been wildly profitable so why stop.
The benefits of having decent people running a privately owned company is pretty astounding. Once you go public and have a board that legally has and wants to make as much money as possible, it seems like things are sure to go to shit.
Taki Udon went pretty in-depth with thermals in their review. The already great thermals have been drastically improved. The OLED runs cooler in general and does a better job of keeping the heat away from your hands. The fan is quieter than the old model. I linked to the part of the video where they discuss thermals, but the whole video is pretty interesting.
This looks like a typcial console refresh. Fix the user pain points, find ways to make it cheaper to make, and maintain compatibility with the ecosystem. It's more for new Deck users than as an upgrade for existing users. And it worked: I want one.
I had hoped the OLED screen would be compatible with the LCD Steam Deck, but I understand why they chose to redesign the internals.
I already dread having to replace the battery down the road, since I've got one of the early Decks with a heavily glued in battery.
I've been repairing crap like this for decades. I haven't done the steam deck battery yet but already know an easy enough way to get it done.
Use a plastic playing card, and you may want to cut one in half so it isn't as wide. Get a shallow bowl of 90 or higher iso alcohol to dip a bit of plastic playing card into.
Dip card, hold deck upside down so no access alcohol goes down into the lcd screen (avoids slight chance of issues) and start wedging the card under the battery to eat and peel away the adhesive. Just keep dipping and pushing the card under.
I would honestly not worry too much.
The glue is a mother fucker, no arguments there. There ARE actually very good reasons for it but... it still sucks.
But as long as you aren't going at it with a butter knife For Content, it is mostly just tedious. Get a plastic pryer/splitter and a heat gun and go to town. https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+Battery+Replacement/149070 is the gold standard guide for that.
I've seen some solvents advertised for specifically this use case (remove glued in electronics parts) but I personally wouldn't trust those without a LOT of reviews. Like, if it were that simple, ifixit and the like would already be selling it.
But also? I doubt it is going to be an issue outside of RMA-worthy problems. The days of batteries failing left and right are gone now that basically every device has logic to not over-charge or kill the zero. Think of the Steam Deck like a phone. It has a 2-6 year life cycle at which point it will be "weak enough" to not run anything remotely new and likely have a replacement with MUCH better everything (Valve best keep that audio jack though....). Now, PC gaming gets weird as I think my most played games at this point are Warframe and Dwarf Fortress (and that goes back to the curses only days...) but... yeah.
Now that was an intersting watch. It appears that not one part of the steam deck was untouched.
The outer shell?
The outer shell?
Even the screws were changed.
The grip area actually looks different.
Changed the Steam and ... buttons, changed the color scheme on the joysticks, and the joysticks themselves. Those may or may not count as "outer shell" But the screw sockets definitely do, and they have metal inserts now.
Can't watch the video yet but damn, GN does meme arrow thumbnails these days?
https://dearrow.ajay.app/ might be for you (you can either pay a very tiny amount of money or wait for 24 hours and get a free license automatically).
I guess I don't watch enough videos to have noticed, but are arrows a problem now? I can't imagine them being more annoying than 'thumbnail face'!
At least it's accurate and not some sort of clickbait
The real question is do the fans still smell good when they kick on for the first time? Mine lost its new-factory smell