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?
Things I don’t need:
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OLED
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Smaller bezels
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1080p
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More advanced controller buttons (DS5 triggers)
Things I want, in priority order:
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Higher efficiency everything (mostly SoC) for better performance, lower battery drain or both
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FreeSync
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Bigger battery
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Two M2 slots
Also another USBC port
On the bottom, for better/easier docking.
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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.
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 Might not be worth increasing worldwide availability if everyone already thinks its about to become outdated.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.
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
an upgraded Wifi chip, the deck’s kinda sucks
id also like either VRR or OLED
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.
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.
It works really well, and it will convert your main filesystem without you having to reinstall or anything.
In addition to compression, it also will deduplicate files and set up a scheduled deduplication process.
How much space gains do you get?
On my SSD, I have 517G of files using only 410G of space.
On my desktop using a compression level of 3 ark with all the dlc and mods went from 300GB to 186GB
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.
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 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.
- 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.
2280 nvme slot
OLED screen
Bigger battery
More efficient APU
A better APU with no Pluton and a Freesync screen are the only things I can think of at the moment.
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.
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.
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
