The original Steam Deck was a surprise hit, even for Valve, which up until the handheld’s launch in 2022 had developed a poor track record with first-party hardware — its Index VR headset is the only other device it still has on the market. The Deck has been so successful, in fact, that there’s now a burgeoning industry of handheld gaming PCs.
To stay relevant, Valve recently announced the Steam Deck OLED, a revision with a number of upgrades. So how does the new model compare against the LCD Steam Deck, which is still on sale at a lower cost? Which one should you actually buy?