Valve discusses viability of Steam Deck OLED upgrade

Pierre-Loup Griffais, a programmer at Valve, has commented on the future of displays offered with the Steam Deck. Currently, the Steam Deck comes with a 7-inch IPS panel that operates at 1,280 x 800 pixels in a 16:10 aspect ratio, a 60 Hz refresh rate and 400 nits peak brightness. Incidentally, Griffais' interview with PC Gamer is his second of the month after he and Lawrence Yang discussed the fate of a next-generation model. Also, the pair outlined other Steam projects with The Verge in December.

Now, Griffais has revealed to PC Gamer that Valve 'understands the limitations' of the IPS panel in the Steam Deck and that it is 'looking at all avenues' to the user experience. However, he adds that swapping a display for another panel type, such as OLED, would be 'something you [Valve] have to plan ahead', with the Steam Deck designed around its IPS panel. For example, Valve opted for the panel to allow gaming at low brightness levels without flickering and to limit frame rates for improved battery life.

Theoretically, all this would be possible with an OLED panel, but Valve would need to re-engineer multiple parts to do so. While the programmer has not ruled out Valve adopting an OLED panel for the Steam Deck at some stage. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that there will be a Steam Deck OLED mid-cycle refresh, as Nintendo has offered with the Switch. A 'true next-gen' Deck will not be around for another few years, though.

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