Valve has filed details of what appears to be a revised Steam Deck model in South Korea. Could it feature improvements?
Valve has recently filed details of what appears to be a revised Steam Deck model in South Korea, and a few new details have emerged. It’s not the highly-anticipated Steam Deck 2, but could well point towards an improved version of the OG. Think Switch OLED, rather than Switch 2.
Valve has made it clear that it’s open to a revised model, and sees the screen and battery life as key areas for improvement. I own a Steam Deck and ROG Ally, and the Deck doesn’t hold a candle to the Ally in the screen department. Battery life is pretty solid, though it pales compared to the Switch.
Well, first off there’s a brand new model number, 1030, which all but confirms that this isn’t the OG Deck. In the second of three screenshots, it details the WiFi and Bluetooth Module, which isn’t very exciting in of itself. However, there are a couple of intriguing lines.
There’s this sentence: “The module installed into host platform mentioned above is electronically and mechanically identical to the original certified module”. So no Wi-Fi or Bluetooth changes, but it all but confirms that this is a brand new model.
The final of the three images shows off “key features”, though none are surprising. For those that are interested, it has:
Ultimately, what we’re looking at here is either a revision to the current Steam Deck model with key enhancements, or a TV-only version. It doesn’t look likely to be the Steam Deck 2, as we’d expect that to make a bunch of changes, while the wording for this version doesn’t seem to be.
The Steam Deck 2 and TV Deck are reportedly in development under the codenames Deckard and Galileo respectively. Both are unknown quantities at this point, but are both expected to arrive within a few years.
If this is a new iteration of the original Steam Deck, I’d expect an improved screen and battery. There’s also a chance the design will revise, and perhaps be a smaller unit overall if Valve focuses on efficiency to get that improved battery life. This is what the Switch achieved with the Lite.
If it’s a TV unit, I could only speculate. It could house the same power as the Deck in a console-like experience, or increase the power to allow for higher resolutions. I’d hope for the latter, but we’ll have to wait and see.
