[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?

stormesp,

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.

Ecksell,

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!

ggppjj,

Another m.2 and an optional 5g modem would be choice to me.

Lonnie123,

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
Ecksell,

smaller bezels

This would be great, plus a stretch or fill option. Bezels plus letterboxing is so annoying.

Ninmi,
@Ninmi@sopuli.xyz avatar

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.

zyeri,

Hall effect sensors, and I want to be able to pair the deck with my computer and use it as a controller.

Fubarberry,
@Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz avatar

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.

burnso,

Better display, better form factor/ergonomics.

Fubarberry,
@Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz avatar

Current ergonomics are pretty good in my experience, but I do have larger hands. How would you like to see them changed?

kugmo,
@kugmo@sh.itjust.works avatar

A better APU with no Pluton and a Freesync screen are the only things I can think of at the moment.

Tau,

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

raptir,

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.

CosmicSploogeDrizzle,
@CosmicSploogeDrizzle@lemmy.world avatar

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.

MXX53,

2280 nvme slot

OLED screen

Bigger battery

More efficient APU

Secret300,

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.

Spiracle,
Spiracle avatar

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

Overzeetop,

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.

Fubarberry,
@Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz avatar

For the filesystem, I would recommend checking out this btrfs filesystem conversion for Steam Deck.

I’ve been super happy with it.

Secret300,

Never new that was a thing. I was gonna just install the fedora based alternative.

Fubarberry,
@Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz avatar

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.

Tau,

How much space gains do you get?

Secret300,

On my desktop using a compression level of 3 ark with all the dlc and mods went from 300GB to 186GB

Fubarberry,
@Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz avatar

On my SSD, I have 517G of files using only 410G of space.

Amir,
@Amir@lemmy.ml avatar

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
madnerds,

Also another USBC port

Overzeetop,

On the bottom, for better/easier docking.

Anonymousllama,

Battery life / capacity would be great upgrade.

BloodSlut,

Two M2 slots isnt something Id even thought of, either that or 2280 form factor support would be great

Overzeetop,

Just switching to 2280 would be enough and would take the same physical volume as a pair of 2230s.

dan, (edited )
  • 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.

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