[@GamersNexus] They Changed Everything: Valve Steam Deck OLED vs. LCD Tear-Down
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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.
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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.
It makes me sad to think what will happen in the distant future when those people are no longer in charge. But for now, we get to enjoy their reign.
A large portion of the stock is held by employees so that may stay consistent for a good long while. Valve isn’t hurting, they’re able to continue to put out side projects like this and none of their competitors have really stood strong in the face of what they’re doing
The crux is that as long as Steam has no real competitor, Valve will have fuck-you-ima-tinker-with-side-projects money. The Steam Store is an infinite money printer.
Their biggest competitor though they could get 30% market share by giving away free games and signing exclusivity deals, instead of, you know, making a good gamestore. I don't think we need to worry to much.
Well, maybe if GabeN retires, but im still hopeful.
Pro consumer behaviour like refusing to sell the Deck in Australia because of our Consumer protection laws?
Is that really why they don’t sell in Australia? I don’t believe your consumer protections laws are tougher than Europe. I can’t find any stated reason for not selling in AU. I suspect it’s just down to market size. They only recently started selling in Japan and they have 5x as many people.
Valve were fined $3M a few years back for lying to consumers about their rights to refunds per Australian law so it is an ongoing joke that Gabe now hates Australia and refuses to sell the Deck here as punishment.
That said it isn’t an entirely business-led decision to not sell here. Australians spend more on PC gaming than Japan.
I highly doubt Newell is harbouring some kind of grudge. Several countries have ruled against Valve in more onerous ways.
I’m not sure where you got the notion that Japan is a larger market than Australia but the Japanese spend around US$26B/year on video games. Australia is around $US$2.6B. Australia isn’t even in the top 10% worldwide. Now factor in expensive shipping, distribution, and warranty support in Australia, and it seems fairly obviously why they haven’t expanded there yet.
I said it was a joke.
I also specified PC games, which is the only market Valve cares about, and in which Australia spends more money than Japan. Add in localisation and other impediments to getting into the Japanese market and no, it’s not obvious at all.
That didn’t really seem like a joke to me but thanks for clarifying. I guess conveying tone is difficult across text.
I’m not sure if you’ve seen them yet but Steam Decks aren’t PCs. They’re handhelds. They compete with handhelds like the Nintendo Switch. I understand there is category overlap with the Deck but to call it a PC is clearly silly.
Anyone spending money on a game to play on a deck is spending money in the “PC” games market.
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.
Some days, I question why humanity ever allowed public companies to exist. That very concept seems to be creating a lot of societal drawbacks these days.
Seems like a fine idea on paper. Someone has a real good thing going and other people can help bankroll them to expand and share whatever it is all across a country instead of just one little area.
In practice it turned into a hellscape.
The issue is the perpetual ownership.
If I lend you money, you only own me the money I've lended+interest. I'm not going to have a stake on your future businesses, nor have any decision power over you, it isn't in my power to make sure you squeeze the most money possible over your job. You pay the money back and we are done.
The problem with that is lending money to a business that needs money also means you're risking if the business fails that you're never getting your money back. No one wants to risk their $100,000 in hopes of getting back $108,000 a year from now.
Even then you can just add a higher interest rate. You absolutely don't need to held the company hostage until the heat death of the universe.
Are… Are you suggesting that there are potential ways a public company system could’ve actually been handled better, rather than the concept itself being flawed by nature?
I’m not saying I disagree, I’m just saying that possibility never occurred to me for some reason. (Maybe it’s my justice sensitivity complex acting up)
Yesn't?
Like, the whole point of a public traded company is that anyone can come in and give money to the company and, in turn, they get money when the company is doing well, so the money you've paid is, hopefully, not lost.
I don't know about you, but on paper, that sounds like bonds and basically every type of debt in existence.
The difference is the perpetual ownership of the company by shareholders. Consider someone who lent a company 20k, they now have an asset that grew immensely in value, it gives them money quarterly/yearly/whatever, AND they have decision power on the company, despite the fact that they have earned 100x what they lent.
Just changing the idea of stock to be something with an expiration date would remove most of the weirdness of the system, but at that point it isn't really a public-traded company, is it?
Back when corporations were invented, you didn't have the option of trading your stock multiple times a day. Corporations could afford to take the long view, and people held on to the stock.
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.