They Changed Everything: Valve Steam Deck OLED vs. LCD Tear-Down

Sponsor: Lexar Thor DDR5 RAM on Amazon geni.us/AuxUm9
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. Our full review with battery life, thermals, and acoustics will come later.
Check out our Lenovo Legion Go review! • Lenovo Legion Go Handh...
Watch our ASUS Ally Non-Extreme vs. Extreme review here: • ASUS' Weird ROG Ally N...
Or our ASUS Ally Extreme deep-dive vs. the original Steam Deck here: • ASUS ROG Ally Deep-Div...
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Valve Steam Deck OLED Tear-Down
01:15 - The Die Changes
02:25 - Memory Changes
04:56 - VRM & Power Delivery
07:34 - Networking & Back of Motherboard
08:09 - Big Cooling Changes
11:10 - Big Charging Circuit Changes
13:17 - Controls Changes & Repairability Improved
14:57 - Chassis & Screen
16:03 - Wrap-Up
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Host, Writing, Editing: Steve Burke
Tear-Down, Research, Table Art: Jeremy Clayton
Video Editing: Mike Gaglione
Video Production: Vitalii Makhnovets

[@GamersNexus]

Check out our Lenovo Legion Go review! kzbin.info/www/bejne/f2SanquiedZ_qM0 We're running a lot of tests on our (still assembled) Steam Deck OLED RIGHT NOW. We are currently running battery life, thermal, and charge time tests. Battery life can be detailed: Do you have any specific scenarios you want to see battery life tested for? Gaming is on the list as well. What other tests would you like to see? Do you have any specific gaming test requests (especially memory-bound ones)? Check out our ASUS ROG Ally deep-dive review here vs. the original Steam Deck: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hJKUqmp6rqmYaNk And read about the Steam Deck OLED's specs on our newly relaunched website: gamersnexus.net/news/valve-announces-steam-deck-oled-deck-2-works (just the news/specs)

[@vengefulancient]

Talos Principle 2. I'd love to see how UE5 melts it. It's already running so badly on normal PCs thanks to Lumen/Nanite, I'm really curious to see how it would run on the Deck. (Amazing game otherwise though)

[@elecdashi]

I wonder if there is a huge difference in battery life for games that do not require a lot of power and games that do. They claim 3 to 12 hours with the OLED version compared to 2 to 8 on the LCD version, which means that theoretically the difference in battery life for indie games or emulation of retro games compared to recent AAA titles between the LCD and OLED version should be bigger. I'd love for you to test that.

[@xeamek99]

For battery test, watching movies is imo realistic usage scenario; Both streamed from netflix as well as offline playing from the disk. Steam's remote play is also something i'd be interested to know about, in terms of battery life

[@jtland4842]

Testing emulation of older consoles like the N64, PS1, and PS2 would be really great. It would be great to see since so many people buy these to emulate older games and the battery life playing those games would be really important to that. Though I totally understand if you don't want to risk facing the potential backlash from those companies by doing that testing.

[@ev4_gaming]

something like Messenger? light game, so you could test total battery life (valve claims 12hrs), and pixel respons time (the game has tons of locations with light-dark checkerboard patterns, that run very poor on the lcd deck due to the not-so-great pixel respons)

[@victorshopov4913]

As an electrical engineer specializing in PCB design, it's super interesting to see these teardowns. Thank you guys for providing such educational content!

[@GamersNexus]

We'll keep doing more of them! Thank you for sharing your experience, and happy to provide the entertainment & information!

[@Blowfeld20k]

These guys need to start giving due reverence the to the TRUE universal constant ...... The ineffable MAGIC SMOKE. It's not that hard really .... probes go in .... component goes pop...... guys at Linus TT can do this consistently, clearly its not that hard. GM bois need to up their game .... we NEED more magic smoke lads :P

[@GeminiWoods]

​@@Blowfeld20kWtf are you on?

[@shinobusuicide]

@@GeminiWoodsI bet it’s some super funny irony but I don’t get it either 😢

[@thepuddler3771]

​@@GeminiWoodsI'm guessing he's on "Magic Smoke"

[@craigprall9636]

That side-by-side table layout between the two versions is absolutely stellar. It makes the large number of differences easier to see one area at a time. Great comparison. Thanks.

[@jaggsta]

Yeah all those changes still went with slower Zen2 over Zen4 which is in the Legion and Ally for similar price.

[@slaapliedje]

@@jaggsta I wonder how much that cost is taken care of by Microsoft, with both of those devices making an attempt at keeping Windows relevant in the handheld space? They're definitely losing money on selling the hardware otherwise.

[@Voyajer.]

@@jaggsta "similar price" they're 1.5 times the cost with worse battery life even compared to the original LCD deck.

[@Zarcondeegrissom]

sort of reminds me of something 'tested' did with the guts of a laptop, yet GN's vid is slightly more informative about the steam deck.

[@rjc0234]

It is... shame about the LED lights flickering though :(

[@yugo_]

I've never seen a gaming hardware channel cover PCB layouts and routing, datasheets, decoupling capacitors and junction temperature before. This is now my favorite channel.

[@andersjjensen]

Buildzoid from Actually Hardcore Overclocking does a lot of this for motherboards and GPUs too. The only "problem" with Builzoid is that he does one-take videos where he often ends up going out on 17 tangents and ends up rambling for 45 minutes. However, dude has humor, so if you like his style all his "side quests" become part of the appeal.

[@jooplin]

There is a channel called O!Technology who literally does this for every GPU that exists (including all partner models) and makes tier list for everyone of them

[@imeakdo7]

it turns out, many gamers are interested in electronic design

[@jcpahman77]

There are plenty of *good* review channels on YT; I'm going to "pick on" Jayztwocents though for a moment, even he will say that he reviews products from the perspective of the end-user and that if you want the nitty gritty details and numbers to the nth degree that you should watch Steve and company here at Gamers Nexus.

[@tuckerhiggins4336]

Buildzoid bruh

[@randomstuffbychris]

I love that Valve isn't afraid to talk about their hardware so in depth with a reviewer. This is some very interesting info

[@Yoshihara72]

Make a good product and you don't need to be afraid of it, but instead PROUD of it. Granted, I don't have the technical know-how to rate their product on such an engineering level, neither would most people care. But the Steam Deck IS a great product for an even greater price. So as an engineer AND a company, I wouldn't be scared of talking about the details of it. ESPECIALLY since Valve isn't scared about any copycats or the like. They openly embrace repairability and even modding, hardware AND software.

[@Mikelica69]

Well said yess 👍👍 ​@@Yoshihara72

[@Zikar]

Valve: "It's the Steam Deck, but OLED, y'know, like the Switch!" Valve: Actually completely redesigns the entire internals.

[@Notpoop906]

the OLED switch is also a complete redesign inside too....

[@VlazeSkylax]

​@@Notpoop906but no significant hardware upgrade...unlike the switch

[@ethancrosby2573]

​@@VlazeSkylax It has a more efficient SoC, upgraded shell, massively better kickstand, better speakers, double the internal memory. There are a lot of upgrades other than just the screen

[@MasterThief117]

Valve needs to be applauded, yet again. The first Steam Deck was designed with the intention for end-user serviceability and modification. Heck, Valve even wrote guides how to do them. Even more, they told you how to do things they didn't even recommend you do. Like they knew people were going to do it anyway and wanted to give us the best chance of doing it properly. This refresh was Valve going, "You know what? Everyone likes the OLED mods. Let's do that now. Also, let's not only optimize everything else and use better components, let's make it *easier* for people to fix and repair parts." This refresh further kicks in the teeth of other companies (especially Apple) who want to spread the false idea that it's impossible to design and manufacture mobile devices that allow for end-user serviceability. It also goes to show how far out of the way these asshole companies go to intentionally lock down their devices to make them nearly impossible or actually impossible to repair (e.g. component sourcing and encryption). We need to continue calling these companies out and fighting them. We have the right to repair the products we buy. Praise GabeN and all the engineers who dedicated so much time and effort into this! Also huge kudos to Gamers Nexus for yet another high-quality and highly informative video! The fact ya'll got this out so quickly is astounding, but then again I'm not surprised anymore. Ya'll just keep setting the bar higher for *everyone*.

[@dead-claudia]

ngl this made me actually tempted to buy a steam deck now

[@kysierkevin]

of course we have the right to repair. We bought the product hence it's our property asset now

[@Arjun-eb1yc]

It's a cultural difference. Valve has come up through the PC gaming ecosystem. Where freedom, customization and user generated content is valued... Whether that's modding games or building your own PCs or running emulation etc. Apple has come up through a very different ecosystem with a more tightly calibrated end user experience where they expect to be in control of all the variables.

[@nono-hy7gb]

Wish there was an easy way to mod the switch

[@jm56585]

The repairability of their devices as well as how much they contribute to the development of free as well as open source software really makes me love valve.

[@siliril]

Steve I am blown away you were able to get such a thorough video out in less then 24 hours! And Kudos as well to Valve for being responsive to your questions. Really cool to see all of the little enhancements they did. Can't wait to see the test results!

[@GamersNexus]

Huge team effort! Vitalii made a big push on the video editing and Jeremy came in clutch with the table arrangement. Talking to Valve was fun for this - they're remarakbly open.

[@superslash7254]

@@GamersNexus They pretty much always have been. In fact when HL1 was ported to steam they went so far as to ask mod teams if there were any engine level changes they'd appreciate being made when the game was recompiled from source.

[@CreativityNull]

​@@GamersNexus I *loved* the table arangements! Jeremy did an amazing job! Of course Vitalii did a great job too, but he always does... That's not to say Jeremy doesn't also always do a good job... Damn it anxiety, stop ruining my complement

[@CreativityNull]

​​@@superslash7254 they have and they haven't. They've been very communicative with developers and modders historically. However, their communication with the press has been very lacking until the last few years. I'm glad to see they've been actively resolving that problem.

[@Splarkszter]

@@superslash7254 The beauty of having infinite money and not being a publicly traded company.

[@E_Sunbro]

What blows my mind is just how small the motherboard is in the SD. Just remarkable.

[@ca9inec0mic58]

They should sell it as a standalone SBC, could be useful in alot of things, it could destroy lattepanda and their overpriced SBCs completely

[@VanBurenPhilips]

Mini Framework laptop? :D @@ca9inec0mic58

[@niks660097]

@@ca9inec0mic58 Yeah, i would love me some RNDA2 compute for local AI inference, RDNA2 has very good int4/8 performance around 16x of FP32 or 1024/CU..

[@BBWahoo]

​@@ca9inec0mic58 I wouldn't be shocked if they did that eventually, maybe after another steam deck generation

[@Dudewitbow]

@@ca9inec0mic58 the steam deck board doesnt have enough I/O for projects, which is the main buyer market demands. Part of the cost that goes into SBC is the support required to maintain it.

[@KenS1267]

Valve's been doing surprisingly good engineering.

[@bakadoge2046]

All that practice with past hardware made them actually competent in designing and making consumer products.

[@ZacDonald]

They were smart to start with controllers and the link before getting into VR and consoles.

[@sntslilhlpr6601]

They really knocked this thing out of the park. Been fun watching them over the years. Here I am using their controller to browse the internet on my linux HTPC.

[@MH-pe8wj]

As someone who Designs, Builds, and troubleshoots PCB's for a living. All these changes are awsome and well thought out. Impressed yet again by Valve.

[@rawdez_]

YET THEY DON'T IMPROVE THE 1 THING THAT ACTUALLY MATTERS: PERFORMANCE

[@ToTheGAMES]

@@rawdez_ Your caps lock is on

[@sunderkeenin]

@@rawdez_ They said it'd be 2-3 years before a performance uplift. The power efficiency improvements all around the board combined with the node shrink, the dedicated sound processing, 90Hz, better colors+HDR, etc. is a huge improvement for the kind of person who isn't trying to shove a square peg into the round hole. Games which ran at 7-10w on the previous Steam Deck will hit a substantially higher battery life threshold most likely, however that is still subject to testing, and what preliminary tests are out there seem to confirm the Deck is running without factoring in underclocking at the expected proportional efficiency+50w instead of 40w battery levels of battery life, so I'm reasonably optimistic here. If you think the Deck really needs that much more performance try changing up your game selection a bit. Play Helen's Mysterious Castle or Recursed or Astlibra Revision or Casette Beasts or Paquerette Down the Bunburrows(120 FPS at 3 watts) or other games along those lines just to specify a few low-wattage bangers off the top of my head. The Steam Deck is the ultimate machine for indies and AAs and emulation and I'm very happy with the changes they've made for the OLED variant as far as they've been measured so far.

[@rawdez_]

@@sunderkeenin nice marketing bullshit but 0 improvements in performance WHEN ZEN4 / RDNA3 EXIST already for more than a year. what corporations do is they sell THE SAME CRAP TWICE with COSMETIC CHANGES. thats what everything you're mentioning is = just. COSMETIC. CHANGES. milking the market with THE SAME CRAP.

[@rawdez_]

@@ToTheGAMES THNX, MFER

[@Kekeripo]

Whenever a company uses their brain and listens to customers to improve the product, it gives me this good feeling when i buy the product, knowing it isn't just "they way it is" but thought was put in to it.

[@Wrigglevision]

Considering that it's been only 24 hours, it's super impressive that you guys were able to plan out and execute such a neat teardown and display of all the parts from both models, as well as script an entire video around it. That is no small feat.

[@NickPresta]

Thanks, Steve! Appreciate the all-nighter to make this happen.

[@snakeplissken1754]

The poor soul that has to reassemble both afterwards. Appreciate this extremely deep dive tear down.

[@k4l1hm4n]

I have not seen this much dedication to a simple 'refresh' of a product recently. Purely impressive.

[@nothin1456]

Totally

[@falcie7743]

It's always great to see engineers continuing to improve upon their designs, and even better when the company doesn't charge more for it!

[@rawdez_]

even better when next version after almost 2 YEARS HAVE NOTICEABLY BETTER PERFORMANCE. as is they just sell the same crap twice. 0 actual progress = MILKING THE MARKET with the same slow AF crap.

[@bjorn-falkoandreas9472]

The way it is laid out it seems like it is faster and cheaper to manufacture. They might even start making money on these. The better use of the room has allowed for other improvements. This goes way beyond a screen swap and a die shrink. I am very much interested how this performs in the 9-11w range. The SD murderized the competition at lower wattage and basically was optimized for basically being run at 11w. Seeing all that, they must have improved on just that. It seems like they did refine with longer uptime in mind. That's why I believe them saying they have more than just the 20% bigger battery implies and I believe them. For the OLED I will go glossy, tho. Seems worth it. Pity they couldn't source enough 2TB drives.

[@H94R]

@@rawdez_maybe just don’t buy it? bit emotional.

[@rawdez_]

@@H94R no its not emotional, obviously I won't buy it, lol. and I suggest to everyone ignore ALL TECH WITH 0 (or low AF) PROGRESS/dollar. and it is all tech rn. this, GPUs, CPUs, smartphones. corporations are milking the market with cosmetic changes and silly fanboys buy into that supporting corporations milking all the markets. when you buy something with 0 progress after 2-3-5 years you are actually making it worse for yourself. you won't get any meaningful progress in tech anytime in the future because you keep buying 0 progress. every time.

[@rawdez_]

@@H94R what you support by your comments is the status quo of EVERYTHING IS OUTDATED because ALL corporations killed even possibility of any meaningful progress in all tech to milk the market with the same crap year after year. we are technologically stuck in like 2015 if we compare the speed of progress in 2010s-2020s and in 2000s. we have in 10 years the speed of progress that we've had in 1,5-2 years in 2000s. a 15 y.o. Core 2 Duo is only 8 times slower than "modern" Ryzen 5700x but according to Moore's law it should be more like 128 times slower. "the 4060ti" only 5% faster than the 3060ti after 3 years. steamdeck oled is basically the same steamdeck after 2 years and you defend it. GPUs are x3-4 times overpriced when compared to pre-mining prices. and ALL techtubers like GN or LTT or HUB don't really criticize that at all, they are normalizing overprice instead talking about "value" of x3-4-10 times overpriced products comparing it to other overpriced AF products and not comparing to the past 5-10 years at all so they have a fish perspective of progress - not considering what was more than 5 minutes ago. tech tubers are basically shills now working for corporations even if they don't realize that - THEY ARE WHAT DRIVES PRICES UP and what normalizes overprice to viewers. what they make is ads, not reviews.

[@gabrielnilo6101]

That's why I'm a fan of the Steam Deck-they really put in the work and try to make things better! It's not like those companies that just tweak the version number of their products and call it a "new generation."

[@andersjjensen]

Or worse: a penny pincher as found out they can save 4 cents per unit if they just change a couple of things around and then silently push that so 3rd party repair shops can pull out their hair in frustration because now sub-component A-1.06F doesn't go together with board D-7.083T, but you don't notice until it snaps when you screw the lid back on..... Yes HP, I'M LOOKING AT YOU!

[@blackbirdpctech]

This is the only big channel I trust … you guys are passionate, you understand the physics and you look at things in an entertaining way … don’t change, you guys rock.

[@figurativelythedevil5042]

As an electrical engineer, I *love* seeing this level of detail in teardowns and comparisons. Love to see open design iteration from competent engineering teams.

[@nojuanatall3281]

A device I am curious to see the insides of is a new delay pedal that Boss came out with called the DM101. It is digitally controlled with 12 different delay types and is stereo which is uncommon with analog effects. It uses 8 BBD chips so some of the effects have to share those chips. There has to be some wild routing going on. It is expensive and no way am I going to open mine. The whole board could be gooped for all I know.

[@billyeveryteen7328]

Very interesting, especially how open Valve's engineers are with you guys. Looking forward to the testing. One unfortunate side effect of the newly designed stick daughterboards is that the third party hall effect sticks are no longer compatible, but I imagine it won't be too long until Gullikit updates those. As an aside, it's really funny to see Steve sitting in the Vertagear chair, considering how much his staff hate those.

[@Moskeeto]

Elecgear sticks are better since they have a round outer deadzone like the stock sticks which means games will still feel the same and you can shrink the inner deadzones as much as possible. Gulikit's outer deadzone is a square and changes the feel of every game as a result.

[@tehhedger]

@@Moskeetoagreed - I tried both Elecgear and Gulikit sets, and Gulikit was 1) mechanically faulty - one of the sticks wasn't moving evenly and produced squeaky sound when doing full circle rotation 2) had that stupid box-shaped outer deadzone, that cannot be fixed with calibration. It's just coded in the firmware of the stick module, and I have no idea why they hadn't adjusted it in newer batches. Elecgear kit, on the other hand, performs just right - almost circular outer deadzone and no mechanical issues - the only downside is not having the caps soldered out-of-the-box. So I just took them off the Gulikit ones, to keep original sticks intact. With Elecgear, I was able to set inner deadzones to absolute minimum of 2000 - and they are performing great.

[@andersjjensen]

I think Valve has simply woken up to the fact that the PC journalism crowd has gotten so technically proficient that nothing can be hidden anyway, so you might as well just accept that the cat is out of the bag and act accordingly. The second someone like Buildzoid gets his hands on a 3D x-ray imager the last bastion will be broken and stuff like making open source BIOSes for everything will "be trivial".

[@4RT1LL3RY]

@@tehhedger I believe the issues with QC and failure rates with their tested supplier of hall effect joysticks was one of the big reasons Valve listed for not moving to them. It was mentioned in a couple different reviewers questions to valve.

[@LaughingOrange]

Valve doesn't make their money in hardware, so they're not scared of competitors stealing their engineering work. When SteamOS 3.x becomes available for most devices, anyone using it will not be competing with Valve, they'll be helping them. Steam is the center piece of their distro, and that's exactly where they make their money, a 30% cut on anything sold leads to massive revenue with minimal work.

[@jebril]

Valve wins in general not because they come out with something amazing but also because of how they constantly improve and refine those things they make, amazing work.

[@SacredCASHcow]

Valve wins simply because they aren't a publicly traded company

[@THEUrinalCake]

More than enough changes for them to have called it Steam Deck 2.0 but they went super humble just playing it off like a screen upgrade. Saw they also standardized the fasteners to facilitate repairs. Great come ups across the board. I never really cared about the deck before but I'm hyped for it now.

[@werpu12]

Well if they would have called it SD 2.0 they probably would never bring out the next release... 3.0 and Valve....Never happens!

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

Really curious about what changes really got you hyped from indifferent, as to me the OG Steamdeck has basically everything the OLED does to get hyped about. Yes the new revision has some superior features and nice revisions, with the standout being that screen. Which for most will be a very nice improvement, but the OG screen is fine, component replacement repairs on the OG are not really challenging if you can get the parts (and in theory you can) and the form factor performance and cost are all really very much the same between the two. Seems like you should have been hyped for both...

[@dead-claudia]

⁠​⁠@@foldionepapyrus3441the heat changes might mean a reduction in thermal throttling risk too. that and it has a slightly improved battery life

[@dead-claudia]

@@werpu12valve? count to three? impossible 😂

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

@@dead-claudia True, but my point is the difference between the OG and this is really quite minor. A slight bit more polish from a really good base shouldn't jump you from 'I don't care' to 'really hyped'.

[@thatroykid]

Thank you to all of you over at GN for getting this out so quickly. It's interesting to see how much changed with this refresh.

[@jumpman1213]

166.05 mm² down to 132.65 mm² is more than 20% die shrink, which I think is remarkable considering N7->N6 will only net you like 18% more logic density iirc. N6 is said to be easy to transition from N7, but there might have also been some design changes at play here. Interesting stuff.

[@dead-claudia]

that'd be based on amd cpu design, tho it's very interesting to see such a larger reduction

[@the_retag]

i heard the original chip had some unnecessary stuff, supposedly because it wass originally a microsoft project

[@jumpman1213]

@@the_retag Wow, I never knew that! That may explain the huge reduction. Thanks for the detail, now I really want those annotated die shots side by side lol Steve, please make it happen!!1!1!!

[@andersjjensen]

@@the_retag The original chip was a generic laptop chip, so it probably had a lot more I/O than what the Steam Deck needed (like SATA).

[@the_retag]

@@andersjjensen no it was certainly not a regular laptop chip, definitely custom.

[@MrMoogle]

When Valve announced the updated OLED Steam Deck, one of my first thoughts was, "I bet GN does a deep dive into the hardware changes on this one. Hope it's before the preorders." As always, you didn't disappoint! Very cool of Valve to provide so much detail.

[@NootNoot.]

TSMC's N7 to N6, got around a ~18-20% reduction in die size, interesting!

[@DAVISION-YT]

This change of the Shoulder Buttons is crucial! I dropped my Deck on Day One of Having it on its shoulder. Not heavy drop just on carped from 70cm. But the Shoulder Button wasn’t working anymore. Came out I broke it of the board. Looked for replacements and this daughter board on what it was, was Not available. No chance changing this part. I reconfigured the back buttons to shoulder. And later changed the switch by myself what was a big pain in the ass. Not it’s replaceable with the sticks. Thats so great! I love to see so much things improved!

[@iamdarkyoshi]

I work in electronics assembly and testing as a repair tech, so I do a lot of rework and component level troubleshooting every day. They've made a massive change in this thing, which is extremely encouraging as it tells me they've been selling very well to make it worth them redesigning it

[@Raffeldy]

Nintendo: here, have the same device with a better screen. Valve: here, this has the same name but it's basically a new device.

[@PhilippBlum]

Kudos to the engineering. Everyone who even routed a small and simple PCB knows how complicated it can get. Can only imagine how much effort goes into this redesign.

[@ricksanchez7250]

Kudus?

[@PhilippBlum]

@@ricksanchez7250 Sorry, was supposed to be kudos :) To praise someone, derived from the greek.

[@yeahhbuddyylightweightba-sn8bl]

Well, i cannot imagine im trying to study computer science in future and maybe i get into it but its more engineering i guess hmm what do you recommend if u ever had interest in hardware dev?

[@JustATempest]

What I love about Valve, is there willing to answer these kind of questions that you had for them.

[@nathanaelniklaus2981]

Great video. I really appreciate the two disassembled devices on the white light glass table and all explanations. Looking forward to the testing part and other videos like these!

[@strawrawry343]

Really curious to see how the longevity will compare between the two deck models especially with the heat and battery solutions. As always, excellent job Steve and GN crew!

[@foldionepapyrus3441]

Indeed, the thermals and battery are the only thing that really makes me wonder if an OLED deck refresh may be worth it. But really only time will tell if the refresh is better there. (For the most part I don't like inbuilt OLED screens - they will burn in and be a pain to replace at some point - very quickly even if you do anything more static on it than pure gaming so for me the hassle that brings and risk of e-wasting an otherwise good for decades more device if you can't get a part outweighs the benefits)

[@Jackrabbit0984]

​@@foldionepapyrus3441OLED tech has changed a lot. black depth will be an issue as usual but I'd look at "the Switch OLED 2 year burn-in video" to see the quality of modern OLED displays

[@bartolomeothesatyr]

Thanks, this was an incredibly informative teardown, and I LOVE the side-by-side component comparison on the light table! One minor note, the camera you use for the oblique shots at @3:52 and @8:37 generates framerate-dependent rolling shutter artifacts against the light table. I doubt the flicker is enough to trigger photosensitive epilepsy, but to my brain at least, it's the visual equivalent of the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.

[@joejones3434]

This, among other videos, is exactly the reason I watch this channel. I appreciate the level of depth you go into and your attention to detail. This sort of content really matters in the PC enthusiast space and is why I continue to support the channel through purchases from the GN store. Thank you Steve and the rest of the GN team. It makes a difference.

[@Kephinio]

I have no engineering background. And due to this I mostly just have to believe what is being said (by companies and creators). All the videos in which people talk about how the Steam Deck OLED doesn’t have changed internals at all except for the screen is astounding in the context of this video. You don’t need to do work like this, but you still do. And I am so glad you do.

[@RatikusuCh]

Thank you Steve, team, and Valve for bringing all of the info to us.

[@smarouchoc7300]

Can I just say how much I appreciate this level of detail on a handheld review? We are used to this with PC parts which are, mostly, standardized. But given how powerful handhelds are becoming, a comparison between model and/or brands at this level is not only interesting, but very useful. Thanks for this.

[@TheGamerUnknown]

It's great that you guys do this kind of content. I don't think it can be found anywhere else!

[@noobifile]

Love seeing content like this, the work you guys do is awesome. Wish more reviews went as in-depth as you guys do. Looking forward to the full device review

[@PhilippBlum]

Great to see they learned from the issues and did some quite smart fixes. Looking forward to see what they come up with next.

[@SpikeBlighty]

Excellent teardown. Very interesting revision. This bodes well for future Valve hardware.

[@alanrae7269]

A few things I take from this teardown - that layout with the glass light table is awesome, well thought out! Also the fact that Valve were so open in assisting you with the teardown speaks volumes about them as a company in a very much positive way. Well done and thank you to all involved.

[@-__-_-_--__--_-__-_____--_-___]

This is so cool! It's so nice to have you guys as reviewers, going above and beyond your contemporaries

[@ZombieRofl]

I don't think we are going to see a more in depth side by side (hardware part). You guys are awesome.

[@vengefulancient]

Most importantly, though, I *still* can't buy it in NZ or AU without paying nearly double to grey importers! Thanks, Valve! 🙃

[@interdictr3657]

yeah, i want it!

[@JonoSSD]

Brazil: _first time?_

[@RafidW9]

​@@JonoSSDalso the rest of south Asia

[@GamersNexus]

Ouch. Did the original LCD Deck ever make it over there without the gray market pricing?

[@tinto278]

You live in Australia get off your computer and go to the beach.

[@xTxNinjaZx]

Love your channel! These teardowns are super informational and I'm all here for it. I do this to about every handheld or electronic I get but didn't really want to do it to the Steam Deck so I'm glad to see you did it :D

[@StaticVapour590]

I am amazed your team was able to get teardown video out in less than 24 hours and getting answers from Valve as well!

[@tyrkukulkan]

Great to be able to see the efficiency improvements in terms of electrical design and components. While Valve say the cost savings are not the primary consideration, the small savings in SMDs allows for more to be spent on other components such as the screen, Wi-Fi, memory modules, etc.

[@Knorrkator]

It's interesting that Valve passes the higher speed memory down to the the consumer instead of downclocking it to the original specs like every other console producer does

[@SergeiSugaroverdoseShuykov]

OG steamdeck has memory chips rated for 6400mhz(MT62F1G32D4DR-031), so it's kinda weird that they did 5500mhz in the first place and twice as weird that they decided to use higher memory clock on oled as selling point

[@AlexanderPavel]

I think the reason they didn't run the original memory at 6400MHz may have been due to the thermals being too close to 100C for the APU and other components under load. I think the better cooling and higher efficiency of the new APU allowed them to run at 6400MHz, which may have been what they intended with the original.

[@Rokabur]

​@@AlexanderPavelRead an article that interviewed some of Valve's engineers and they stated that the OLED is the version they wanted to make but the tech wasn't there yet (I think).

[@alistairblaire6001]

Nice work this is the level of detail I was hoping for.

[@jag_g]

Fantastic level of detail covering the hardware changes!

[@guillaumebackelandt7381]

Going to enjoy this a lot, thanks for the in depth comparison!

[@mrannoyedtea2259]

The production quality keeps going up and up and the quality of the content never fails. Fantastic video yet again. GN carrying the industry rn.

[@Matt7895]

The amount of work you put into making this is impressive. Stripping both down, examining every component and comparing against each other, marking out on the tabletop, thinking it through, scripting it, filming it, editing it. Thanks for the informative, consumer-focused video.

[@HolyDuckTurtle]

This is great, love to see this much detail on the changes they've made! Love that they let you talk to the Engineers. However, I hope having performed a teardown before testing doesn't impact your results too much, or at least you have taken measures to account for that, since you normally do this the other way around to not disturrb the stock performance.

[@christopherrobin3604]

I'd love to see comparisons between the etched and non-etched glass. I think I might prefer the 512gb model for better blacks in dark environments. I don't suspect I'll be playing a lot in outdoor or office lighting conditions. Side by side shots in various environments would really help me overcome the urge to try and snag the limited edition colorway.

[@hanspecans]

This is my biggest request as well.

[@NoToeLong]

Dave2D compares the etched vs non-etched screens in his Steam Deck video and it looks like the non-etched version is the better option for indoor use.

[@christopherrobin3604]

@@NoToeLong - Dave2D does a decent approximation using a screen protector, but I still think we would benefit from a more in depth comparison. The glossy model Deck on the top is an LDC, and Dave2D only does the comparison under studio lighting with a brightly lit background. I don't mind the screen protector trick, it's mostly the different lighting environments that I feel is missing

[@LanceThumping]

That'd be a good comparison to see, though with the screen protector trick it might be best to get the etched glass one and add a screen protector if you feel you need improvement.

[@Awesomes007]

I used to dream of game system hardware tear downs like this - all the way back since the 1980s. Love it. Thanks.

[@DelVillatoro]

Wow. Having it all literally laid out in front of you is just awesome. Thanks for all the hard work guys!

[@Atilolzz]

Awesome teardown! I was also sceptical because of the "only screen" change, but seeing a lot of meaningful improvement to the board and cooling solutions, this might indeed be a much better product beyond the visuals

[@DegustoDelSol]

3:52 EPILEPSY WARNING! Please change LEDs or shutter speed

[@SpookySkeletonGang]

Cant wait to hear fan noise tests. Noise was a big reason why i didnt get an og steamdeck.

[@Teh-Jones]

Always enjoy and appreciate your in-depth analysis and knowledge of all hardware/software/tech. 👍🐸

[@nicholaslennon]

Valve actually put in a significant amount of work. Almost feels like a refresh of the console.

[@Zapdos0145]

“you can’t swap the displays” oh they’re just trying to get their moneys worth *literally everything is changed* “oh never mind.”

[@dead-claudia]

yeah it's almost a whole new product marketed as a "minor" iteration 😂

[@igordasunddas3377]

Thank you for this and Inam looking forward to the tests!

[@tsukai1]

This is the exact kind of product review I enjoy. I think you'll be my primary tech reviewer from now on.

[@GSBarlev]

My one question: with the board _cleanup_ it seems like there's now enough room to accommodate a larger SSD. Did Valve say anything about their decision to stick with 2230? This teardown was incredible to watch. You and your team are so knowledgeable-and more importantly you're great at explaining the non-technical "so what?" of these chsnges. Thanks for turning this around so quickly.

[@bosstowndynamics5488]

Looking at the board layout, in order to get the connector in a location where you could physically package a 2280 would require a larger distance to the APU which might have complicated trace routing more than any savings they would realise on their end since they can just buy 2230 SSDs in bulk. In its current position some smaller tweaks might have been able to get a 2242 in there but 2242s are even harder to find and not even usually available in larger capacities

[@dead-claudia]

@@bosstowndynamics5488plus they already have a stream of 2230s, so no need to change production lines for it

[@GSBarlev]

​@@dead-claudiaMy thinking was more about reparability / upgradability, but you have a point.

[@TheAdamAdy]

Why though? There are large 2230 SSDs too

[@Persason]

2230 is fine. There are plenty of options out there. I see no need to change this.@@GSBarlev

[@colonelccccc]

Thanks to the GN team for all the great work they are doing ! This video proves that Valve is committed to their device, they want it to succeed and support it, take in the feedback and work on it, this is how you kill the competition.

[@apexmoto9610]

The professionalism on display here is through the roof. Amazing work and incredibly informative. I can't wait for the full review, looking to pick up the 1Tb version for my Son if it's a major go!

[@MarkDStroyer]

Just here to say that this is just - as a video - incredibly well put together, polished and paced, especially considering the time constraints.

[@prw56]

I'm getting scared that the follow up is taking so long. Worried you found something and you're going back and forth with valve on the details.

[@SebastianSonntag]

5:35 Did Steve lose a bet, or why did he have to use the "stupid Vertigear piece of shit" chair for this section?

[@GamersNexus]

hahaha. Mike actually LIKES that chair! I was at his station for that shot. I'm just glad we found a home for it.

[@01eocoe10]

One of the hidden benefits of having all that space around the APU and power delivery is that many chip packages also sink heat into either the top copper layer (or sometimes the bottom with heat transfer through vias). If that's what's happening here, there are two effects-first, the layer would act as a sort of "thermal capacitor" being able to wick away sudden thermal spikes (in addition to the heatsink). And second, while some people will cry "but heat soak!", there's so much free area around the APU that air can flow over that, even without fins, there would be quite a bit of heat transfer. This is often done in industry-for example some drivers for small stepper motors simply don't need a heatsink because they're a flip-chip design with a large copper pad on the top. All of this is really important for a die that has shrunk because, while the chip will be more efficient, the heat is packed into a much smaller area. It's similar to cooling issues with the smaller chiplets on CPU's-you have to have good cooler confact over all the chiplets. Even though they're small, that heat is concentrated.

[@airminer]

My only hardware issue with my original Steam Deck over the last year was a broken bumper microswitch (the "side" switch broke on one side, the top one still worked). The warranty repair experience was great, and I got my Deck back in just over a week, but it's awesome to see that Valve is making improvements to the design to address weak spots.

[@davidsmith4186]

Looks like Valve really improved their handheld in every way! 👏🏻

[@TheZoenGaming]

I really appreciate your teardown videos. The nearly bare PCB is actually great to see for Valve, since more components increases the time each board takes to complete. By reducing the components so much they can increase the yield/time ratio and increase their profits by not tying up the productivity of the assembly machines. That should also reduce the contract cost for Valve, and hopefully they will actually manage to make enough profit on the Steam Deck that we'll finally have a true contender against Nintendon't in the handheld market!

[@Badjujubee]

I'm also curious if they have a specialty lpddr5 integrated dual channel module for the OLED, or they dropped quad channel for the APU in the new model. I saw they massively boosted the bandwidth so maybe they are making up for the channel drop.

[@VenusChad]

This is actually exciting! Actual meaningful changes and improvements! Wish more brands would try this

[@jjforcebreaker]

Great work! They put a lot of work into this revision.

[@plus12gaming]

I don't really play games on the go, so I have no near-future intention of buying a Steamdeck, but this video gives me a real appreciation of the level of design that goes into a device like this. Props to Valve for putting in the effort... unlike some other companies who just keep selling the same outdated tech for years on end.

[@norcaldad5983]

What was the development time for all of these changes? With Valve implementing this significant number of changes considering airflow, efficiency and serviceability, it appears they are interested in quality. I wish some of the GPU manufacturers would put this much effort into their releases, but I guess if you are the biggest elephant in the room, you don’t have to move. Thank you for such a deep dive, no other channel can touch your level of detail!!!

[@GamersNexus]

They mentioned to us that they began working on it shortly after launch of the original. Not sure the exact timing.

[@rawdez_]

@@GamersNexus after almost 2 YEARS 0 UPLIFT IN PERFORMANCE. as is they just sell the same crap twice. 0 actual progress = MILKING THE MARKET with the same slow AF crap.

[@rawdez_]

if only GN weren't just another corporations' shills basically making ads for overpriced crap with 0 progress all the time = supporting and normalizing overprice and absence of any actual progress in tech.

[@kuhpunkt]

@@rawdez_ why are you like this?

[@rawdez_]

next time you watch GN please notice their value assessment, yes they say it overpriced BUT for some reason they justify "the normal price" much higher than pre-mining prices. in "NVIDIA’s Lost It: RTX 4080 16GB GPU Review & Benchmarks" they call it "meh", when in fact they SHOULD CALL IT "A x4 TIMES OVERPRICE" which the RTX 4080 16GB actually is because its a xx70 level card - 30% slower than a top card, and before mining xx70 cards cost around 300 bucks. so GN basically say that the RTX 4080 16GB is overpriced and should offer a better value be priced somewhere in between BUT they don't say that mining is done and a xx70 GPU MUST COST AS at PRE-MINING times around 300 bucks. thats really weak and too neutral position for tech tubers who proclaim that they are on gamers side. GN said that double digits progress as with CPUs would be fine whereas actually the only thing that would be anywhere near "fine" is the return to pre-mining prices = x3-4 times price drop on GPUs. as is GPU prices killed PC gaming, people play on old hardware in games on obsolete engines and there's no progress in sight = game devs make games for affordable hardware and nobody can afford overpriced AF new ngreedia/ayyymd crap = no games for overpriced AF GPUs are made = 0 progress in PC gaming = same old Doom 3 2004-level gaming in 2023. very cool. GN evaluation of current overprice is illogical, mining was the only thing that supported overprice, because GPUs WERE MONEY PRINTING MACHINES, so mining prices are understandable. now there's 0 reasons why GPU prices shouldn't be as they were pre-mining. and I expect that every person with a working brain must re-adjust their GPU pricing expectations to reality. and in reality THERE'S NO MINING ANYMORE. which HUB and GN should acknowledge and EXPLAIN TO THEIR VIEWERS so prices can have a chance of actually going lower.

[@smartperson1]

I am very impressed that you all put this together so fast. Great job, team! However, it's all made so much more delightful by Steve's joyful presentation. He seems genuinely happy :-)

[@solidoki7664]

Great to see your team doing a tear down and covering the new changed to the steam deck this quick.

[@samernabeel5971]

Would've liked to see the difference in screen thickness between the OLED and the LCD. But otherwise great work

[@tomdchi12]

Great to see this maturing of Valve’s hardware engineering. Points to good things coming from the VR team!

[@Even-Steven]

I didn't expect such thorough teardown so soon, bravo GN. 👍

[@LeviathanDesigner]

Amazing work. Very detailed look at the changes on the new Steam Deck OLED. Thank you for the video ❤

[@ceilidhDwy]

Looks like Valve is being open where it matters, unlike some others who are posting bad takes on twitter

[@TheFPSPower]

After seeing how good they are with the Steam Deck I'd be interested to see their take on a Gaming Laptop.

[@madfangkills]

Omg this comprehensive physical breakdown IS INCREDIBLE!!!

[@Forlong21]

love the use of the light table. it looks amazing!

[@233kosta]

The new thermal design makes a lot of sense. While I thoroughly appreciate the elegance of the old thermal solution, lots of people modded theirs to lower APU temperatures, which would result in everything else running hotter (probably too hot). The new setup should be a little more effective to begin woth, but more importantly, it'll be more mod-tolerant as the requirement for secondary flows is less critical.

[@dangingerich2559]

It is impressive you were able to tear it down and analyze this so thoroughly in just 24 hours. Did Valve work with you and provide you with info to look for to accelerate this process?

[@DefineOutside]

Valve obviously ships devices for review days or weeks ahead like any other hardware manufacturer... just under NDA so all the videos release at the same time, and people don't rush to be first.

[@guigs4467]

Also I'm pretty sure Steve said he spoke to valve engineers

[@eivis13]

Thank you Jeremy for making or helping to make this possible. MVP.

[@muf1772]

The segments recorded in the anechoic chamber sound so good, you should consider recording all voice overs in there.

[@tinto278]

Seeing a simpler, proven design functionally implemented is refreshing tbh... #blessed

[@ivayloi736]

Smart move. Better put OLED with bigger battery then increasing the CPU/GPU specs marginally.

[@dead-claudia]

also gave them the ability to say this isn't a whole new iteration

[@JeffEdmondson]

Great work on this. Some things I don't understand, but I got the gist of it because you explain things so well.

[@closetoutsider]

Awesome teardown! Looking for to the thermal and sound tests!