Steam Deck @sopuli.xyz Fubarberry @sopuli.xyz 1 yr. ago

[Discussion] With the recent rumors of a possible hardware refresh, what are your most hoped for changes in an updated Steam Deck?

In the leaked info, we know that Valve has an upcoming device that will use the same APU as the current Steam Deck. We don't know if this will be a new VR headset or a Steam Deck hardware refresh. Even though using the same APU means there won't be a performance increase, there could be various other improvements in an upgraded Deck like a better screen, etc. What would you like to see in a partial hardware upgrade?

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Unpopular opinion but I'd rather see wider worldwide availability before having a hardware refresh. Getting more Decks out there should be on top of the list before trying to sell upgrades, specially when the current deck does so much already.
- Still always supprised when I see Australia getting shafted when it comes to initial product launches. It's fine though, it just means I won't buy your product, no ones out there except for enthusiasts are doing to gray import these things.
  
  I waited patiently for about 6 months then I said fuck it they'll never open shipping for nz and aus so I brought it from Europe and got it shipped. Cost me 3x the price lol.
- It is a bit head scratching, but I have no idea what goes into world wide logistics. And now in the states they are even offering refurbished Decks, so they certainly appear to have enough product at this point to open things up. But maybe they dont have enough to open them up without creating another multi-month long backlog they dont want?? Who knows
- I dunno, the Deck is already getting slightly negative press for being behind spec-wise compared to the other portables out there. Might not be worth increasing worldwide availability if everyone already thinks its about to become outdated. Maybe they can have Deck 1 and Deck 2 in parallel just at different price points, kinda like how the Series S and X does it.
Things I don't need:

OLED

Smaller bezels

1080p

More advanced controller buttons (DS5 triggers)

Things I want, in priority order:

Higher efficiency everything (mostly SoC) for better performance, lower battery drain or both

FreeSync

Bigger battery

Two M2 slots
- Two M2 slots isnt something Id even thought of, either that or 2280 form factor support would be great
  
  Just switching to 2280 would be enough and would take the same physical volume as a pair of 2230s.
- Also another USBC port
  
  On the bottom, for better/easier docking.
- Battery life / capacity would be great upgrade.
The dream? User swappable battery. I would gladly trade up for that
- That'd be so nice. With a very small internal battery so you can swap batteries without turning it off
  
  That sound nice on paper but reality is different. I have had two laptops with double (24Wh)batteries (Lenovo T450 and A485) and batteries in both of them degraded fairly quickly compared to other single-battery models.
  
  Or even just living on charger then, but yeah that would be sick!
an upgraded Wifi chip, the deck's kinda sucks

id also like either VRR or OLED
- Why does it suck? Asking because i wanted to buy a deck and i will definitely use it for streaming.
  
  it doesn't handle 5ghz very well, which leads to insane artifacting and input lag spikes
  
  Compared to my laptop or phone, when I'm in the furthest spot away from the AP, it will drop out. Other devices stay connected, just slow down
Increased serviceability, especially when it comes to the battery.

Dual USB ports, one on top and one on bottom.

Hall effect controllers.

Increased efficiency/performance of course

Maybe a slightly bigger/better screen
My guess is this will be a hybrid VR headset that can play games standalone a la the quest, as well as via PC via tether or wireless.

I don't really want a steam deck refresh if there is no performance improvement tbh.

That being said, 8"+ 1080p HDR screen with more nits would be nice. Maybe some dual stage/adaptive triggers.
I know HDR is in the works on Linux same with VRR but that'd be nice to see sooner rather than later.

Just a little bit more RAM. I know 16GB is a good amount but it is shared with the on-board graphics so at least 4 more gigs should help a lot

I think using a filesystem that supports transparent compression would be nice to as well as zram but that might hurt battery life.
- For the filesystem, I would recommend checking out this btrfs filesystem conversion for Steam Deck.
  
  I've been super happy with it.
  
  Never new that was a thing. I was gonna just install the fedora based alternative.
- Apparently, you’re getting both HDR and VRR on the current Steam Deck soon. Currently, in the Preview version, soon-ish in stable.
  
  Announcement: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1675200/view/3686804163591367815
- I'll be honest, I'm still having a problem understanding the draw of HDR. In about 99% of the places I watch...anything...there is ambient light which increases the black floor to a dark gray. I'm already losing the bottom 2-4 bits of depth to the room lighting and screen glare, giving me more fine control of gradients just makes for a slightly more nuanced (but still indistinguishable) dark gray (assuming I don't readjust my gamma every time I play, or when the train turns and the lighting is now coming from another direction) . The wider color gamut could be nice, but it would require a much, much better screen.
VRR would be the #1 upgrade. A mobile chip with mobile thermals and a mobile battery cannot consistently keep ahead of the screen refresh. The screen has to be the one to step down to where the APU is at.

Hall effect sticks, mandatory. My factory sticks started acting up after about a year. The Dreamcast could do it, don't tell me that they're too bleeding-edge expensive.

Squeeze a 2280 SSD in there instead of the 2230. I would give up SD and move the radios to a soldered miniboard for this.

Stop gluing the battery down.
Strip it down and make a Steam Machine out of it. Valve could likely sell a tiny set top box for under $100.
- The motherboard alone supposedly costs Valve somewhere around $270, so even with them selling the hardware at a loss I don't think there's any chance of getting a set top box for $100.
There's nothing that would make me get a half upgrade like that. But I would like to see improvements toward a steam deck 2. If this gets an oled screen, I'd like to see a model in number 2 with an oled screen
2280 nvme slot

OLED screen

Bigger battery

More efficient APU
I know it's not happening, but a more powerful APU is probably my number one.

OLED screen would be my second. I don't really care about a higher resolution though.
An OLED display with slimmer bezels, and a battery that uses more user serviceable glue
Larger, OLED screen

Hall effect sensor sticks

Better rumble

Support for 2242 m.2 drives

Second SD card reader

Better cooling (I’d gladly have a lump in the back middle if it allowed for a quieter/better fan)

Better accessory connection options (eg a standard for attaching stuff like extra batteries to the back) - I would prefer this to adding more battery (ie weight) to the unit itself.

Tweaks to the back buttons so they work no matter where on the button you press

Some sort of charging dock connection standard to avoid the manual usb connection. Maybe just a usb-c on the bottom

Small case design change to prevent sd cards being snapped when opening (I haven’t done it, but only by luck)

Replace the carry case with a plastic cover to protect screen/sticks like dbrand’s (or at least make it a lot smaller)

Better performance/more ram would be good too I guess but honestly having a unified platform with fixed specs to target has a lot of benefits.
Deck lite.
- I'd love a ps vita 1000 sized deck
An OLED screen and a more efficient APU (I don't care for more performance, seeing other handhelds, better performance for 15W is still some years away), that way it can either provide more battery life or the same with an slimmer battery
I would love adaptive triggers like the PS5 controller
- I was very surprised it didn't ship with those at launch, so there's likely some licensing or patent issue with Sony over them. I wouldn't expect to see them outside of Playstation controllers anytime soon.
A better APU with no Pluton and a Freesync screen are the only things I can think of at the moment.
Better rumble/haptics differentiation
My personal and never-asked-for wish is fairly small - Backlit buttons. Id like the ABXY and Steam/start/select/Menu button to have a faint glow to them with a toggle on/off/dim in the menu. Maybe even the analog stick could glow where the current sticks are white.

For the gen pop I think the low hanging fruit of upgrades people would actually be interested in would be:

Battery upgrade, or some kind of switch-like efficiency upgrade that makes the battery much more effective

Some kind of screen improvement, be it smaller bezels or an OLED option or even both.

A general change in the ergonomics based on user feedback. I personally like the deck as is but Ive been surprised by stuff I didnt notice before

Beyond that its going to be niche improvements that some people may find interesting and others not so much:

SD and USB slot changes (additions, change in position)

Various internal changes with the hard drive or upgradability options
- smaller bezels
  
  This would be great, plus a stretch or fill option. Bezels plus letterboxing is so annoying.
Hall effect sensors, and I want to be able to pair the deck with my computer and use it as a controller.
- You can sorta already use the deck as a controller iirc. You can stream a game to your deck and still have it display on your PC. Just turn your deck screen brightness down and play.
Another m.2 and an optional 5g modem would be choice to me.
Assuming this is a refresh of the Steam Deck (Doubtful) or a Steam Deck 2 (If this happens, Ill eat a slice of pizza with double olive and double pineapple), I’d like the popular ones here, and A DECENT BLUETOOTH CHIP!
I don't think it'll ever happen, but I'd love to see the right side trackpad and thumbstick swap places. I use the trackpad 95% of the time and I keep wishing it was in the better spot.
I'll take a larger screen, the 7" is far too tiny for me for almost any game with text or captioning. Something in the 9" or slightly larger range would be golden, and you could get most of the way there by getting rid of the bezels. The actual Deck itself wouldn't have to be that much bigger to accommodate the rest.
I would say a APU with some RT Cores, and maybe 1080p. If not 720p OlED will be fine. I know this is likely to compete with the ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion both of which have 1080p screens
- I don't think raytracing on a 15w power budget is going to happen anytime soon.
- The APU thats in the deck already has "RT cores". At least, inasmuch as any RDNA2+ device has them.
  
  Though I really doubt this is an updated deck, and much more likely to be "Deckard".
  
  What is Deckard?
- 1080p is so unnecessary at this size IMO.
At the very least, a weight decrease and a bit of a more comfortable ergonomics for long term play sessions, really tired of handhelds that end in a straight vertical line that make you have the wrists in tension instead of having a similar end to controllers like the one from xbox where your wrists can be without that much tension.
Better display, better form factor/ergonomics.
- Current ergonomics are pretty good in my experience, but I do have larger hands. How would you like to see them changed?

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