Steam Deck 2: What's On Our Specs Wishlist?

[@ChewyLoo]

Strawberry flavour fan fumes

[@RetroWolf13]

lol

[@randomyoutubeusername4985]

The only must-have feature if we’re all being honest

[@frankfortfcgoc]

Nah Dude i want Cola

[@soarcheetah]

Why change greatness? Keep the same smell.

[@ericbaker8781]

If they change the fan smell I won’t get the second one

[@Dunestorm333]

I don't want an Nvidia powered Steam Deck because it will double in price and means Jensen gets another leather jacket.

[@Quast]

Next time on stage he'll wear leather pants plus an extra leather turban!

[@peacelove8395]

😂

[@Hybrid225]

True, I hope amd can make fsr slightly better or the performance is better

[@stephenmilazzo2535]

It's the best around.

[@anpan6282]

@@stephenmilazzo2535you mean the jacket is best all around

[@toxicturkeyy]

VRR and a faster APU is really all i want. 800p looks great on 7.4" OLED and I don't think there is a point of going higher than 90hz on a handheld. Wouldn't complain about 1080p though.

[@Belfoxy]

A potential problem with staying at 800p is the many games that will gain little or nothing from the better hardware because they already ran very well. Bumping up to 120 Hz would give a new potential target to aim for with the extra performance. They could maybe also try to do some AI upscaling magic like DLDSR, but when you pick 800p in games, it internally does some upscaling and downsampling to try and get a better looking image.

[@the100ways6]

900p same display size and vrr 90 hz

[@mmpsp693]

​@@Belfoxylonger battery life would be reason enough to keep 800p.

[@CJTheTokay]

@@mmpsp693the Rog ally x gets good battery life with a 1080p screen.

[@kinomanssky]

Yep FHD+ with VRR will be needed. 800p is fine but everyone is used to smartphones pixel density. I have an Ally and I would like a 16:10 FHD+ Oled screen

[@Alexvander10]

1:28 I respectfully disagree here. The form factor doesn't need to change at ALL. It's the only console/controller I can hold for hours out of the box without my hands hurting. Absolutely love the ergonomics on it.

[@s31ACE1252]

I love the form factor too. It has the best position of the thumbsticks/buttons hands down. No cramping of the thumbs. My main complaint is the weight. Would like for it to be lighter.

[@skycloud4802]

Absolutely spot on. I love the large grips. I love the rear macro buttons, the track pads, analogue sticks, face bittons, triggers, touxh screen, gyro, and everything. It's perfect. I'll want nothing sacrificed at all.

[@AyaWetts]

I have tiny hands and wouldn't mind it being smaller, but its good enough as it is. I'd rather them not change it at all over making it worse while attempting to make it better.

[@andriusjautakis7919]

It was kinda heavy, my hands get numb after an hour of playing

[@TakisEnjoyer]

Would be nice to have a Slim/Lite version tho with more "generic" Switch-like controls, had to sell my Steam Deck just because of how uncomfortable it was along with the size.

[@Hatecrewdethrol]

Whatever increases they make to the hardware I hope they keep the screen at 800p I know some will disagree but for a handheld I want lots of battery life, and for how small the screen is 800p is actually a nice sweet spot

[@doomguy979]

You can downgrade resulution

[@Hatecrewdethrol]

@@doomguy979 More physical pixels in the screen drawing power means less battery life regardless of what you set the in game resolution to

[@mmpsp693]

the shimmer and blue from using sub native resolutions is yuck

[@smidlee7747]

The reason The Switch use 720p and Deck 800p on a 7" screen is that is the limit of pixels someone with 20/20 vision can detect. After that it acts as anti-aliasing. One advantage of have more than 800p on a 7" screen is it much harder to detect dead pixels.

[@Hatecrewdethrol]

@@mmpsp693Reply to the wrong comment buddy? I'm not the one saying you should be downgrading resolution thats the person I was replying to

[@Zinkolo]

Gimme an OLED, better battery and more power for 8th gen games and I'll be happy

[@molsen7549]

Add VRR and perhaps a higher resolution to that list and I'd be extremely happy.

[@AdApT3Rx]

Fr

[@pbmonkey484]

@@molsen7549 VRR yes, but at that size I don't think a higher resolution is needed. Lets you leverage any increase in power towards framerate and quality settings.

[@flamestoyershadowkill]

Also a second usb c port, 2280 ssd support, and a 120hz display,

[@bradhaines3142]

@@pbmonkey484 that size would be perfect at 1080p but nothing more. just look at your phone, most phones are 1080 or 1440p, and theyre even smaller. so theres definitely reason for higher res as long as the hardware can handle it.

[@jamsop253]

Literally just performance upgrades in terms of display refresh rate and battery is enough. Must keep the trackpads aswell

[@AdApT3Rx]

Fax

[@flamestoyershadowkill]

And 2280 ssd support

[@Quast]

Higher refresh rate = higher power consumption

[@jamsop253]

@@Quast hopefully they just increase the battery size to compensate

[@Quast]

@@jamsop253 I haven't seen 8" tablet that go beyond 7000mAh, so maybe

[@gorofujita5767]

Hall effect analogues and triggers

[@Modna89]

VRR is by far the most important feature it needs. It will night and day change the feel of the device

[@HNedel]

Why? Isn’t gamescope already taking care of tearing? I have the lcd model, never saw it tearing when below 60fps

[@B1u35ky]

Nah, native landscape screen is the most important thing

[@edwardlashley3572]

I don’t think VRR is what improves a device’s performance. I really think that it’s the RAM. If it has 32 gigs of RAM, it really doesn’t matter if VRR is there or not. 24 gigs would probably do the trick tbh.

[@smidlee7747]

@@HNedel Valve or maybe it's Linux pulls some kind of trick to hide tearing. When I run Windows on the Steam Deck I have seen vertical screen tearing. The downside of VRR on sn OLED screen it can cause flicking so I much rather keep the oled screen.

[@smidlee7747]

@@B1u35ky I rather keep the oled instead of native landscape especially since Linux have a work around to portrait converting to landscape which is how older PC titles that doesn't run on portrait work on the Steam Deck.

[@JonnyLin7]

I think biggest thing is VRR. Otherwise just the standard upgrades to modernize the hardware - using whatever the latest mobile RDNA chipset and 32gb of ram.

[@goldensperm7182]

Also SSSR an upscaling exclusive to Steam Deck

[@smidlee7747]

I rather keep the OLED as VRR on OLED can cause flickering

[@MerryBlind]

VRR is extremely complex and difficult to do properly with an OLED screen. Won’t be common for a long time if ever. Personally I think the flexible FPS/HZ slider on the SD is already a great alternative.

[@Eskoxo]

huh? there are plenty of phones with such oled screens only issue i can see them run into is they are just not big enough so would need custom order that would increase costs.

[@MerryBlind]

@Eskoxo Really? Oled? With actual VRR that can dynamically switch to any refresh rate on the fly automatically? Not just change to specific targets like 60/90/120? At least for TVs, laptops, and monitors it’s difficult to do because the wattage pushed through to power up the pixels needs to be adjusted on the fly to properly keep the gamma stable and that’s difficult without causing distracting gamma shifts whenever the refresh rate changes. Like it’s easily doable yes, but not without gamma “flickering” or “flashing”. I disable G-Sync on my LG OLED because gamma flickering is just too noticeable and distracting.

[@Eskoxo]

@@MerryBlind as far as my limited research VRR is more of an android limitation not sure how its handled on steamos/linux and on my Asus OLED PG42UQ on gsync i do not see any flicker issues but who knows maybe i am not sensitive to it.

[@smidlee7747]

@@Eskoxo The flickering is faint and isn't always there. I had game on my OLED for about 9 months before I noticed the flickering. I was worried at first something was wrong with my TV. IIIRC it had something to do how OLED work and they turn off pixels unlike an lcd.

[@scottvalentine1749]

@@smidlee7747doesn’t the iPhone drop to 1hz when the always on screen is sleeping, and then jump to 120 when scrolling?

[@bellissimo4520]

I prefer longer battery runtime every day over large power increase.

[@lpnp9477]

And I don't care about battery life, I just want to play it on plane rides and in bed when I'm near a charger anyway. Scalable choices are best. I don't like Nintendo leaving power on the table for everyone for the sake of longer battery life.

[@LordXamon]

3D cache could do wonders on a Deck 2

[@ninele7]

Cache requires lots of power. There is a reason, why AMD puts 32mb l3 cache on desktops but only 16mb/20mb on laptops. It increases efficiency when your cores are strong like in high power X3D parts, but on 15w device it would burn most of the power budget without large benefits.

[@ultimategohan1551]

No it wouldn't? The deck(and the z1e handhelds even more so) are rarely cpu bottlenecked. We'd need a biggg uplift in gpu power(and consequently performance per watt or battery life/size) in order for 3d vcache to even make sense.

[@ninele7]

@@ultimategohan1551 3d vcache can be used by both GPU and CPU. AMD already using similar technology on desktop GPUs. But power requirements for large cache would be to high for 15w device.

[@Frencho9]

7.5" 900p OLED VRR display 120hz (narrower bezels), APU that is at minimum 100% faster. Double performance at 15w. Add an 18w/20w plugged in overlocked power mode (plenty of cooling accessories). Otherwise don't bother with an upgrade. Shape and controller is perfect just add UHS-III SD micro reader a second USB type C port for accessories while charging. Also it's gonna need 32GB of the lastest RAM.

[@donjaime_ett]

My wishlist: - 120hz VRR. Keep OLED at 800p. Its good enough for handhelds. - More RAM and a more powerful GPU that can realistically drive 90-120Hz gaming on low-medium settings and potentially enable ray tracing + high settings at 30-60fps. - Make the docked-to-TV experience a proper one with some nice upscaling tech. Sell an add-on dock with active cooling that allows the deck to draw more power to compete with PS5 and stationary consoles and HTPCs.

[@WitherlessLeaf]

EGPU support and more ports are a must! And it'll be cool if they could make the internal storage a larger swappable m.2 such as a 2242

[@SeanFranchise]

Totally agree - this was the deciding factor for me in not buying a Steam Deck v1. Would love to see Steam push to standardize Oculink docking support among the more reputable handheld manufacturers.

[@Spencerwalker21]

2 usb 5 ports for higher bandwidth egpu support. Vrr and 1440p by 900 90hz AMOLED HDR display tdp goes up from 15 to 25 with a slightly bigger 65 watt battery without increasing the size of device. 8 core zen 5 cpu and 32 cus rdna 4 igpu with a 256 bit bus 24gh ram 8500mhz

[@ibelieveinjesusinmyspareti2861]

I agree but for now 32cu igpus Will be definetively a High end option that won't be there, until Intel gives a competitor at least imo.

[@HNedel]

I don’t see valve going for the top specs, rather Asus or Lenovo with their next gen handhelds that will cost $999. valve will likely want to avoid going up in price and stay around $500-700. what I would like to see is a 2280 ssd slot accessible through a dedicated small cover in the back so you don’t have to open the whole thing. Then they can actually offer a 64GB base version again for people who want to save some money and easily upgrade in the future.

[@Spencerwalker21]

@@HNedel I think valve could do what I laid out at 699$ keep the current OLED 512gb model for a budget option

[@NaturalHalfling]

I'd want the Steam Deck 2 to have easily replaceable SSDs similar to the Surface Pro 9 on the back so you don't have to open it and remove parts to access it.

[@manwithoutmercy]

Screw upscaling, Just better raw hardware years down the line

[@MerryBlind]

Love my SD OLED! Here’s what I wish was better on it: - Better performance of course (~30-50% more than current SD would be great) - 120Hz (mostly to allow for even better lower framerate caps flexibility, i.e. 30/40/60fps@120Hz) - Non-clicky L1/R1 more similar to PlayStation buttons - Proper rumble - Slightly looser D-Pad with more precise diagonals - Slightly more resistance on the Sticks and Triggers for better precision - Being able to download stuff in Sleep mode That’s about it. It’s already near perfect.

[@Fezzy976]

30-50% performance really wont cut it at all, the deck 2 needs to be at least 3-4x faster to really compete.

[@MerryBlind]

@@Fezzy976 You’re right for an actual Steam Deck 2 in a few years, it will have to be a lot more powerful. I made my list more from the perspective of “right now” what do I wish my Oled model did a bit better to make my current experience actually perfect.

[@reverieanimates887]

Needs more RAM storage. 16 GB isn’t really cutting it.

[@Bimmerboybobby]

16 gb is more than enough for every game out there

[@hauksart]

I want the Steam Deck as it is, but with more power. I love my deck, it just doesn't run every game I want to play well.

[@horticultural261]

example

[@David-ki2xt]

​@@horticultural261 Returnal, Horizon forbidden west, Alan wake 2, silent hill 2, Baldur's gate 3...

[@ericbaker8781]

@@horticultural261baldurs gate 3 looks like an oil painting on the deck

[@B_Machine]

​@@horticultural261 UE5 games

[@LeeLee-fi7mx]

Alan wake 2, Avatar, Forza Motorsports. There are plenty of games that run fine on Windows handhelds, but look like dog poop on the deck.

[@thoreberlin]

Battery charge limit also for the current Deck. 80% limit for an always connected one. Full Charge only for the go.

[@ninele7]

You don't need to limit charging on fully connected deck. If you use 45w or better PSU, 22.5w goes directly bypassing battery, and if battery is fully charged it isn't utilized.

[@HNedel]

This can be done through software update. Bazzite Linux has this option, i have it set to 80% as i always have my rog ally connected to usb. It’s a smaller 30w psu so it’s kind of weird looking at the battery dropping when the tdp limit is raised a bit 👀

[@thoreberlin]

@@ninele7 Batteries age trough cycles and trough time under high voltage. Your NMC cells in the deck age much faster when kept at 100%, than when kept at 80% for long term storage keeping it at 50% would be even better, but cycling between 80 and 20% is usually the best compromise between very low aging and still using decent capacity.

[@ninele7]

@@thoreberlin There are Nintendo Switch users, who used Switch mostly docked for more than 5 years, and battery is fine. So while what you say is completely correct, it doesn't degrade battery enough to care about it.

[@RipeStories]

Oled, Guaranteed 60fps in 1080p, Integrated Valve made framegen, minimum of 8 cpu cores (and ability to disable them at will to save battery), massive battery, 32gb ram, 2 fans. My prayers!

[@TheFawz]

Launch with OLED 90hz HDR, but this time with VRR support. Otherwise stronger performance (GPU, CPU, RAM, Frame Generation support)

[@smidlee7747]

All phones and tablets have portrait displays. Both Nintendo and Valve used OLEDs that were already engineered. Only Nintendo have high enough handheld sales to afford engineering a landscape OLED for handhelds.

[@KnightMD]

The SteamOS microconsole will mitigate the need for a Steam Deck 2 for quite some time because it will be able to stream 800p AAA games at high settings with suspend/resume support, unlike with Windows streaming.

[@pedrozanon7245]

Steam OS microconsole? What are you talking about it?

[@KnightMD]

@pedrozanon7245 you'll find out over the coming year. A Steam OS home console that can stream to an HMD and Deck or just play locally.

[@shoaibha]

I too expect that valve is expecting arm to mature more along with windows and steam os so that they could bring next gen steam deck. This will save battery and also generate less heat.

[@MajorPickleSwag]

I think if they wait long enough they might switch to an ARM chip. It would be more efficient but would need to be powerful enough to translate and play all of our x86 games. Also because the Switch 2 is also gonna be on an ARM chip theres gonna be more games developed for ARM chips anyway.

[@jeremyfaqiri4005]

A bigger battery 🔋 and support for full size m.2 SSDs And of course the better APU

[@paulc2007]

4k screen 240hz, 2000watt battery, games running at 1w of total power, fsr 4 built in and it works, and it can be rolled up into a ball when not in use, like Liquid Metal steam deck

[@banguseater]

+1 ^^^^ THIS RIGHT HERE. Make sure it hits the 500 dollar range and it’s all good

[@Rhomagus]

Just add universal VR support and we're golden.

[@Ichigo_Live]

Bigger Oled screen (less bezels), more performance and abit more battery life than the oled sd.

[@KingKrouch]

A 120Hz VRR OLED display, an ARM SOC that's more efficient than x86 processors from AMD and Intel (They're contributing to FEX, an open source x86 to ARM translation layer, and they're working on Steam ARM support), Full USB 4 (80GB/s) support. They can keep the 800p display, that's crisp enough with the screen size, I just wish that VRR and 120Hz was there.

[@horticultural261]

that’s gonna cost a lot

[@ninele7]

ARM SOC wont be more efficient when emulating x86. It might be more efficient in ARM native games but not by a lot. Apple's M lineup is ahead of everyone because of top of the line TSMC nodes. Latest Ryzen chips in LCD laptops (14"/16" OLEDs aren't efficient) are comparable in efficiency to M lineup on the same node.

[@zbigniew2628]

120hz is pointless unless for 2D games. Playing at 40hz is best there, coz of battery life and on a small screen fuild gameplay is not a big deal

[@horticultural261]

@@zbigniew2628 for steam yes but for windows handhelds 120hz good for cod , fortnite and other multiplayer games

[@shanroxalot5354]

@@zbigniew2628 VRR means you can lock to any framerate. And I would love to play a bunch of lightweight games at 120fps on the go.

[@5persondude]

I’d still love to get a “mini” Deck that fits in your pocket, maybe PlayStation Vita-sized. Also want it to be more durable; my OLED Deck honestly feels a little flimsy near the face buttons area, at least my unit squeaks and wobbles a tiny bit in that area. Also the Volume Up button isn’t very responsive.

[@shawnmacfarland3828]

1. Wider bandwidth from the GPU components to video memory 2. Effective and flawless integration of SCALE GPGPU approach for CUDA use (may have to be like Valve approach to running Windows) 3. AMD Software Development Application/Kernel/BIOS to be as good or better than NVIDIA and remain open

[@Rhomagus]

More than one USB -C port. I use XR glasses so the screen upgrade matters least to me, but just one more USB-C port would make a huge deal. Larger trackpads, equal to those of the Steam controller. All my Steam controller configurations adapt well to the Deck but finding center without looking directly at the device is cumbersome, unlike the Steam controller, where finding center is natural. It's so close, the trackpads are just like a cm or two too small. The frustrating part is looking at old concept devices and seeing the larger circular trackpads the Steam Controller used. Please do that. Wi-Fi 7. I remote through my Steam Deck all the time. When I'm not playing natively, I'm remote playing either through Steam Link or Moonlight / Sunshine. It's basically my desktop away from home whenever I find a Comcast Wi-Fi hotspot. Making that experience smoother/better will probably give the most bang for the buck. NGL, detachable controls would be amazing. I love the wider grip so much that standard controllers feel weird now, except for wiimotes and VR controllers. The more I can put my hands parallel to my sides the better. An external GPU dock would be great. At that point I wouldn't even need a desktop. I could potentially just use two Steam Decks. One docked at home, the other I'd take with me to remote into the docked one at home. Everything else would just be standard clock speed and RAM increases.

[@jnee]

Anything to make to make it feel slightly more portable would be a bonus. I would take the same battery life if the unit were lighter and a bit thinner. 3rd party grips will always be available to those who want chunkier ergonomics

[@dilir2572]

Steam Deck design is already perfect. Give us more raw performance with a 1080p 120hz oled vrr screen

[@providencez9496]

With 2 mins battery life

[@RETR0_P0CKET]

Couldn’t agree more about Steam OS, Alex. I hope that Deck 2 coincides with the wider release of Steam OS that is hardware agnostic. I want to see someone push Windows to be more than just “good enough”. Microsoft refuses to make great products, instead relying on their deep pockets and political influence to bully their way into relevance whenever they are in trouble. They are too big to fail and I really can’t stand that. So any product or service that makes them uncomfortable is something I want to see.

[@ArielEspanto]

Bump up GPU and CPU obviously. I would love a 1080p screen and OLED by default. Larger screen would be nice; 8-inches with even less bezel. 120 hz with VRR, although I will take 90 hz. Also, bump it up to 32/24 GB of RAM, just to make sure it never is RAM limited. Actually great rumble, since the Steam Deck's is non-existent. Hall-effect sensors; larger battery; external GPU support. I think that's it. 😅

[@ArielEspanto]

I would also like 16:9 and also two USB-C ports!

[@flamestoyershadowkill]

Maybe 1200p

[@fafski1199]

I'd add to to that: - A larger capacity 80Wh battery. - An easly accessible M.2 slot (trapdoor design) that can take the commoner, cheaper and larger capacity (up to 8TB) 2280 SSD's - A second MicroSD Slot. Even some of the dirt cheap retro handhelds now have 2 MicroSD slots. Extra storage is always welcome, plus it would cost Valve peanuts to add an extra one. - It either coming in more colors and/or decal designs or having an easily detachable front panel, so modders can then come up with thier own colors and designs. - It being available from other major retailers and stores, besides Steam. It being locked purely to the Steam Store has undoubtedly killed off a lot of potential customers for Valve.

[@fafski1199]

120hz just offers more options for framerate caps than 90hz. Plus there are some older and indie games that can already get 120fps on the current handhelds, never mind next gen. A bezeless 7' to 8' 1080p 120hz OLED display with VRR & HDR would be absolutely perfect.

[@flamestoyershadowkill]

@@fafski1199 add a 2nd usb c port

[@edwardlashley3572]

Valve won’t jack up the price. One X Player is selling a 144 hertz OLED with VRR & the newest AMD mobile chip on the market. I don’t even think it has an expansive battery. It does have 32 gigs of RAM tho. The device costs $1,330. It costs more than twice what an OLED steam deck goes for. Whatever your expectation is, it’s likely crazy & unattainable when price certainty is entered into the equation.

[@NightParadox]

My total wild dream would be a Deck Lite that was closer to the size of a Vita or a Switch Lite. Something about that form factor is just super appealing to me, although I doubt it would be possible for a few years at least

[@volodymyrspyrydonov]

Well, at current moment wishlist is pretty simple: Keep 800p OLED but add VRR, upgrade to Custom Ryzen 300 with 890M GPU, make it 32Gb 8500, make it slightly smaller but with same battery or larger, make it 2280 SSD unit, and the most important - Give us SteamOS 4.0!!! 🙏

[@564d3]

Yeah they should wait for a real APU improvement to upgrade, there are interesting things on the horizon (1-2 years). Meanwhile I hope they'll release their VR HMD / box combo prototype. On the HMD part it seems they are starting to work on generalized ARM support for standalone use while they have a quite powerful chipset in it (for VR streaming), and the box side don't have the weight/power constraints of handhelds. Latest datamining/leaks about controllers seems like they'll have full standard gamepad input in addition to VR baseline, for dual use. Though all this looks very costly, I don't see the compromises they can do. At best a 700-800$ HMD and the same for the box (PS5 Pro price for PS5 perfs, but more features). Looks like a tough sell, but on the HMD part they should aim for an higher segment of the market than Quest 3 / Pico 4, with eye tracking and ~3k² screens. The Valve Index HMD+controllers are (still) at 800$. Edit: when I think about it, that would be a full line-up ready for any future, all running Linux/SteamOS - HMD: ARM emulation for lightweight 2D games - Handheld:

[@Gustaviustwinkelberry]

One feature i really want that no one is talking about is the ability to connect my pc to the steam deck 2 and use it's screen as a monitor, it would solve the steam deck 2 biggest issue which is performance. So i basically want the rendering done by my PC

[@totogamer6735]

32GB are definitely a necessity considering dedicated VRAM aren’t on APUs.

[@DariusPL]

My wishlist: a larger display, 1080p or 1200p with VRR (preferably OLED), a faster APU, preferably nVidia, HE thumbsticks and triggers, and dual boot out of the box SteamOS/Windows 11 on a large partitioned SSD or two SSDs. Daydreaming, I know.

[@StickerWyck]

2280 size compatibility for SSD Ad-hoc network multiplayer Wireless video/audio output Bottom USB-C slot for better docking Hall effect thumbsticks Solid state cooling Better haptics, maybe even rumble Upgradeability to dual-stage haptic triggers Upgradeability to clam style second display Fix the hardware issues like how certain factors can get hard lock you out of the device Better quality control "Desktop mode" setup as a "gaming mode" steam game VR compatibility

[@MinskUK]

Happy with locking the resolution so not sure VRR is that important but to negate a 50%+ performance uplift would be welcome. Maybe slightly higher res at 1600x900 for text improvements, not sure anything higher is worth the performance hit.

[@dannonyogurt98]

I'm happy with the steam deck. The constant iterations of PC handhelds is actually more annoying than anything.

[@akmalamni]

Other than the expected improvements (better performing APU, larger battery, more RAM, etc), I think having egpu support would be super cool either through an additional USB4 or Oculink (bonus point if Valve manages to simplify the process of docking and undocking the egpu) This would be a far stretch, but a clamshell design would really push that portability aspect of the handheld

[@orian-x]

Nvidia no thanks 😐

[@ZTriggerGaming]

All great points. Most important to me will be the docked experience. Currently, Steam Deck just can’t produce a good looking image on a living room TV. Something as simple as machine learning upscaling could bring us that. I don’t expect high end desktop visuals, I just want good enough. If that’s not feasible, just give us a more powerful Steam Deck with a slightly more fleshed out feature set and bring back Steam Machines as a separate product. I’d jump on that if the price was within reason.

[@brutalwang4106]

Same 800p OLED screen, lots more power.

[@drunksupportcharacter]

I think the purpose of the deck is to optimize much of the feature sets on most platforms and make well known features from other systems be incorporated as a easy standard for the future of gaming and technology, e.g i want to see 32GB Ram, not just for games but the fact it will mean its viable to dock and run what you are playing at a typical monitor resolution, and honestly, i think it would be fine to run on 4 fast cores still in the range from 2.8Ghz to 4.2? the more power the more battery used, so its a balancing act, and the GPU is likely going to be comparable to the 890M, that exists today, i think we are looking at RDNA 4 for a deck anyway, and something of a more efficient optimized chip, all of this has to keep under the 25w mark as well

[@smidlee7747]

I really have little use for Deck 2 since I play older titles to play on the go and save the most demanding titles to play at home on my desktop. The one thing I would like is exchangeable batteries so I can have one battery charging while gaming on the second battery. I want my handhelds cordless.

[@KoolAidManOG]

FSR 4 with AI resolution upscaling and frame-gen. That will be the generational increase that would justify a SD2

[@conza1989]

1200p 120hz oled that's maybe a few fractions of an inch larger, perhaps not (7.5"), in a smaller size if that's doable, I'm ok to lose one of the touchpads but would defer to the community if they really use the left one, keep the right one possibly, and put the USB-C port below, make it thunderbolt maybe? I'm not sure if it's needed, but might be nice to do 4K at higher refresh rates for simpler games (120hz still for modern TVs for example). Bigger battery / longer run time, more storage, 2TB option, potentially support for 2280 M.2s since the device will be physically big enough, and run cooler and quieter. There we go that's a good wishlist, can't think of anything else.

[@banguseater]

All it needs is a 8 core 16th cpu and a GPU 3 times its performance as long the screen is still 800p and 90hz. It would make modern FPS games killer for it since most FPS multiplayer games are still targeting old hardware at good performance

[@7shocker]

Oled, small bezels, 1080 handheld, 2k docked, better dpad. Docking stations with built in e-gpu options

[@Punk661]

VRR OLED Better haptic feedback Smaller uniform bezels Better APU/Battery/ Louder and fuller speakers, (example iphone/ipad I think they can do better than them since they have more space). 2x USB-C ports.

[@tfive24]

I bought my deck a few weeks before the new released version of the deck. I would like a bigger battery.

[@andrewhall4424]

Custom 6-core SoC from AMD with more GPU grunt/vastly improved IPC on CPU side would make a big difference. It’s a lot easier to scale graphics than deal with CPU deficiencies. I still don’t think VRR is the holy grail most people believe it is, specifically on OLED. VRR flicker on OLEDs due to fluctuating framerates is a known issue that has no immediate solution (it’s a byproduct of the interaction between VRR and emissive displays).

[@eamonndoyle4753]

2 x usb-c ports 2280 nvme storage compatibility E-sim mobile data plan option

[@fafski1199]

It taking SIM cards and adding 5G mobile support would be nice, however it would bump up it's price up considerably. You'd need that extra reciever/transmitter inside it, plus the mobile software to run it. So you probably be talking about it costing at very least another $200 extra. Although, I guess they could do a 5G premium model like Razer did with their Edge. However, I doubt it. Besides there no real need for it. In most scenarios, as even when you are out and about, you can always just use the Internet connection on your phone for tour Deck (via WiFi).

[@MacVerick]

For me the only thing would be VRR. But If I am going to be honest, I don't need a SD2 because anything my Deck can't run well isn't a game meant for the deck... Those are games meant for my High end PC Gaming Rig. If the SD isn't powerful enough for someone that doesn't also have a PC, then you should have gotten a ROG AllyX

[@brucevandermescht6957]

The next Steam Deck needs offset sticks man, I dont know what they were thinking putting those sticks right at the top like that.

[@PoeLemic]

I wish that they had dual NVMe's. One for OS and one for game libraries. Also, have a port for OcuLink where you can hook up external GPU with more power for docking at home.

[@nonnygb]

Keep the same form factor & controls.VRR and eGPU support is a must. I would particularly like it they had oculink support & if Valve actually built their own eGPU dock that didn't look like it was built using Lego

[@gustavosanches5674]

I like the form factor. I wish they make bezels even thinner with like 7.7inches… better sound, bigger face buttons (similar to xbox). 1200p oled 120hz with vrr. And like 4 times the performance at least

[@tabkg5802]

Better apu, 1600p 120hz vrr oled (preferably rgb but doubt it will happen), hall effect/tmr sticks and triggers, and maybe change position of sticks/buttons/trackpads to be a bit more diagonal

[@eddiecoker4808]

Gotta keep the OLED that upgrade is amazing.

[@michahojwa8132]

Alex, good job with SteamOS comment.

[@killerdemon562]

The physical feel and design should be mostly if not completely left the same. 1920x1200 90hz oled, 24~32gb lpddr6, 8 core, 16 thread zen 5 (or newer) cpu, rdna 4 (or newer) gpu with no less than 1,024 stream processors. 450 for the 512gb, 550 for 1tb, 650 for 2tb. A good year should be 2026 since that's when lpddr6 will exist. Sort of the main ingredient for a Steam Deck successor since APUs for all these PC handhelds are incredibly held back by low memory bandwidth. 4 years is a good life cycle for a console like the Steam Deck before a Steam Deck 2/Pro is needed. That's how long the OG Xbox lasted.

[@tashaturnips4661]

None of the games I play have handheld performance problems for me. I've only had performance issues as a desktop. I'd like to see more Egpu support to push more res and very high frame rates for monitor usage. either oculink or an even higher bandwidth port in the bottom (in addition to other ports) for a docking station. I would like many pcie lanes there. I think if they try and beat oculink, the connection would have to be proprietary (but should be open so third parties can make docking stations) I think sticking standard pcie x16 slot under the steam deck (besides needing a huge trap door) would make it require a lot of power in the steam deck type c port to power the gpu. Ideally the docking station would power the steam deck instead. If think pcie power would flow the wrong way. So and oculink or maybe an even better proprietary port on bottom to dock holoeffect joysticks and trigger would be appreciated. more than 16 gb of ram because that will become important in it's life cycle They should put in whatever apu they can get when it is made. Might as well

[@urazoktay7940]

Great video as usual, thank you Digital Foundry.

[@reisshep]

Realistically all I want is better performance, OLED from the get go, and a better battery optimization. Unrealistically, I want it to be the size of a Vita.

[@thoreberlin]

VRR is the biggest point for me. Especially for emulation to match different region games TV refresh rates or even 72 and 75 hz DOS games on the fly.

[@GradyKallenbach]

I'd be OK with lowering the resolution to 640 or 720p, or keeping it where it is. I'd love to have a 480hz OLED panel on Steam Deck 2 with lossless scaling built in, or accommodated smoothly into the operating system. I'd settle for a 240hz OLED, but 480 would be super exciting. I just want to be able to play decompiled, recompiled, and emulated games at 4x frame rate. I'm pretty sure my OLED Deck could run wipeout phantom edition at 480fps, so I just want a screen that can display that kind of motion beauty! I don't care too much about anything else. I guess VRR would be nice, but mainly I just want a high hz display.

[@RavenShinyThings]

Steam deck 2 would be alright with a fsr4 and rdna4 ryzen based setup surely?

[@luisdominguez7019]

Seeing that 7600X3D is the best CPU in Frames per watt, I want a 4 cores zen5 with 3D V-Cache. No need for more cores to feed with power. For the GPU 12-16 CUs should be fine. 60wh battery and we are fine. Ah, and for the screen, OLED 1920x1200 a little bigger. Same console size with smaller bezzels.

[@NizarElZarif]

I think 3D-V cache is unlikely on steamdeck or handheld in the near future, that is besides the Asus exclusivity deal with AMD. it also too damn expensive. Also just because 7600x3d is the most efficient when paired with a 4090 at 1080p, it doesn't mean that efficiency benefit or margin would remain with lower end GPU on a mobile chip. for example the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is more efficient that Ryzen 9 7945HX but not by much. I think a better and more efficient solution is what Apple doing with M series or intel with their lunar lake chips, which is putting the Chip on the same package as the DRAM, which improve latency and efficiency, and allows for higher memory bandwidth if desired. The problem is usually the cost.

[@zbigniew2628]

It needs to be the most efficient at ~12-15w, while being max 25w.... They used ZEN 2 cores, not ZEN3, cuz they were more efficient in low power devices. Do not look at top performance, with 6 cores....

[@luisdominguez7019]

@@NizarElZarif but the thing with 3d-v cache is that we are seeing chips with much lower frequencies performing better. For a handheld device this could be a game changer. I agree it is expensive, but thats why I am talking about quad cores. You save some money there with a smaller chip reducing the amount of cores to compensate. What I don't see the point at all is in chips like z1 extreme with 8 cores cpus when the bottleneck is in the GPU. Also, the bigger cache would help in the amount of memory access fron the CPU so there is more bandwidth for the GPU. I see all advantages.

[@OptimumSlinky]

Steam OS would be a non-starter on nVidia due to nVidia being nVidia on Linux. As long as Valve pushes for Steam OS (which it should given it’s far superior for handhelds), then it’ll stay AMD.

[@pedrohenriqueboscofi]

6 face buttons (fightpad style). Wacom drawing screen. All I wanted. Also, I just hope gaben makes nvidia finally not feel like a patch job on linux.

[@justinmackay09]

Steam desktop yes please

[@user-lt3op3uy1w]

Increased CPU and GPU power within the APU is all I want. I just wanna be able to emulate more PS3 games and play MH Wilds. I love everything else about it.

[@XINTSUAI]

1080p 120hz Screen are Really needed for 2D and 2.5D games.

[@rahuldey8539]

People need make mods for each game that runs on steam deck which optimised texture, 3d models, shaders, and other graphics processing so that it can even on 1080p steam deck can run at least 60FPS.

[@Sheepxpy3]

If there is enough of an imrovement in cpu speed to put the ZenC cores to match the 4 zen2 cores in the steam deck. We can keep the same speed and increase battery life or add more cores and keep the same battery life. I would also like to see HBM. Because the smaller we can make the board and soc the more space we can have to put in a bigger battery. It won't happen simply for cost reasons, but it is a wish list.

[@VeryAli]

For me, USB 4 v2 / Thunderbolt 5 80Gbps bandwidth eGPU support.

[@Fezzy976]

Double the RAM fro 16GB to 32GB (at least 8000MHz DDR5, or wait for DDR6 which will be a long way off yet) They could switch to GDDR6 or 7 memory but this would increase cost massively! At least jump to a 6 core 12 thread CPU if not a full 8 core 16 thread CPU. Maybe a custom Zen 5 or 6 (the later is unlikely). For the GPU portion I would want them to at least jump from 8 RDNA2 CU's to at least 32 or 36 RDNA4 CUs but I doubt they would go this high for risk of really bad battery life. So I'd expect around the 28 RDNA4 CU's. Moving to this could allow them to include GDDR6 RAM which would be a massive upgrade. Probably moreso than going with 32/36 CUs with only DDR5 RAM. Then keep the OLED screen, make it VRR compatible, maybe jump to 1080p screen so we can actually run lower FSR modes without it looking like a smeary mess on the screen. Double the battery capacity, and get rid of those god awful trackpads and go with a more traditional xbox controller layout. The trackpads are completely worthless and unusable. Final wish list: Zen 5 CPU (8 core 16 thread, at least 4GHz) 28 CU RDNA4 GPU (at least 2.5GHz) 32GB DDR5 8000MHz 1TB NVME (with a second expansion slot with easier access) 1080p OLED VRR screen, AT LEAST a 12,000mah battery Normal controller layout without stupid trackpads WiFi 7 support.

[@xpeterson]

Steam Deck Dock with EGPU, seamless integration of your GPU of choice

[@DaReapa]

A larger battery, the thin profile is nice but a larger battery would go along way.

[@o0junglist0o93]

VALVE, please DO NOT change the layout of the controls!! Many of us dont care for asymmetric joysticks like XBOX/SWITCH! However, If I were to improve anything for Deck 2... - A better, less mushy dpad - Optional trigger stops for FPS games - 2 x SD card slots - An extra optional SSD slot for dual booting without having to partition existing drive. - The rear buttons on the back of the current deck should be about 4mm higher on the back of the unit. - The rear buttons also hinge the wrong way on the current model, they should move towards the grips, not away from them.

[@chengong388]

The technology for Deck 2 already does exist, An Apple M4 can ~triple the performance of Steam Deck at the same 15w power level.

[@Rashomon20s]

SteamDeck/Valve noobie here. Excited to hear anyone talk about Valve right now *EEEE!!!!!* I’m obsessed w this company at the moment. I just wished Deck came into my life long ago 🥹💜 About to start up Half-life for the first time soon! 🔥

[@korysovec]

What's the reason of having DLSS or what FSR3 on a 7" 800p screen anyways?

[@Vanu-i4o]

I'm just not interested in a Switch 2, I'm not interested in a closed platform that I sigh every time I play a game and I cannot change a simple setting. I also do not want to support Nintendo any more with how much they go after their own fan base.

[@GreatBumi]

Not me cant wait for switch 2 day one buy

[@toxicturkeyy]

Same. It's also really nice to share library between my PC and handheld, like i can with the Steam Deck.

[@gageracer]

PSSR is Amd's implementation locked for Sony for at least a year as Amd needs to release rdna4 chipset for GPU and SoC's. That's when Deck 2 will make sense to make.

[@MGThePro]

Some kind of hardware acceleration for the game download decompression would be nice The fan going at 100% for the entirety of downloads gets quite annoying

[@asmod4n]

PCIe 4 by 8 external connector and a official case for hosting up to 600 watts GPUs. would make any gaming pc obsolete.

[@mariobnc1995]

finally a video where we don't talk about ps5 pro

[@butterflyfilms939]

I guess with the numbers they are selling right now they could get a contract for a truly from the ground up designed chip with AMD. 2 or maybe even 4 3D V-Cache Cores with 2-4 C cores would be a massive upgrade and provide the latency critical performance for high demanding games and the efficiency gains for everything else. They can get maybe 12 RDNA4 CUs compared to the 8 we have now, which could roughly double the GPU performance so we could hit these sweet 60-90 fps on most games. LPDDR6 is a must, 24GB would definitely suffice and maybe we get it in LPCAMM2 so we could easily replace/upgrade it ourselves. The hope would be of course for the TDP to mostly stay at 15W but in my most extreme version it would be at 20W, which still is alright I guess. Screen needs VRR and the option for 120hz would be nice but not many games could benefit from it. A small bump in resolution would be cool to further eliminate AA issues but that could be something FSR4 could tackle. I just hope Valve holds out long enough for being able to deliver a device at least doubling CPU and GPU power without sacrifing on batterylife, weight and price too much.