Valve’s developer Pierre-Loup Griffais spoke to PC Gamer about the chances of the Steam Deck getting an OLED display in the future. Let’s keep our fingers crossed but in the meantime you can use the Steam Deck plugin VibrantDeck to make the colors on you screen pop.
Is Valve going to make an OLED Steam Deck model?
Valve understands the limitations of the current tech that’s in the Deck, in terms of the screen.
We also want it to be better. We’re looking at all avenues,” he says. But the longer answer is that there’s a lot more to swapping out a screen than just… swapping out a screen.
When Valve was designing the Steam Deck, the flexibility of the LCD panel was actually one of its top priorities—specifically making the backlight be able to go as dim as possible for playing comfortably in low light, and the ability to alter the refresh rate to preserve battery life. Griffais says that as far as he knows that should be possible on an OLED, too, but it requires some specific configuration.
It’s just something you have to plan ahead. When we were working on this screen, we made sure these could be supported, even if the refresh rate switching wasn’t ready at release. It was really important to us that all that would be supported. So it’s something that you need to keep in mind when you’re evaluating and selecting possible options. But there’s nothing about LCD vs OLED, different screen technologies that makes that a dealbreaker. It’s about how you’re designing the whole system, and what’s in between the screen and the SOC (system-on-a-chip).
