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.
Now that was an intersting watch. It appears that not one part of the steam deck was untouched.
The outer shell?
Changed the Steam and … buttons, changed the color scheme on the joysticks, and the joysticks themselves. Those may or may not count as “outer shell” But the screw sockets definitely do, and they have metal inserts now.
They do have that special edition clear one. And technically didn’t they add metal inserts for the screws to go in? Instead of the self tapping screws in the older model, I’m not 100% on that. I know the screws themselves are different for sure.
The clear one is limited edition, not expecting to ever see one, though yeah fair point about the screws, that is a nice improvement
The grip area actually looks different.
Even the screws were changed.