Except Valve said they don’t want a mid-gen refresh. They want game developers to have a fixed target for performance optimalisation.
A mid gen refresh wouldn’t change the performance target, just offer a better screen or something like that.
A better screen at a higher resolution will change performance targets.
They can offer a better screen without changing resolution. Better color accuracy, VRR, and maybe OLED would improve the screen without changing the performance target.
You can improve the screen without impacting performance. Larger screen, smaller bezels, better colors, OLED, matte finish (on cheaper models), better touch accuracy, etc.
Better screen doesn’t mean higher resolution exclusively
Doesn’t something have to be planned initially in order for it to become delayed?
came to say this. nothing was ever planned for this time to delay.
TLDR: current hardware developments compared to original steam deck wouldn’t allow for significant upgrades with the same level of experience, but they should release a flashy sidegrade like oled switch
While there is little to debate on the first part, I disagree with the second half. Even these little sidegrades usually carry minor hardware differences (the switch itself is just “the switch” but if you ever took interest in modding it you know that there are a lot of generations, all different). One of the greatest features of the deck is that there is just the deck, every deck in existence has the same exact hardware save for bigger storage and slightly different screen finish - underneath a deck is a deck is a deck.
I never want to read “this issue affects steam deck gen2”.
Not entirely true that every deck is the same.
Outside of storage configurations/screen etching, there are some obvious and less obvious differences:
- Delta vs hua Ying fans (didn’t check my spelling, sorry)
- Some have a reduced number of PCI lanes made available to the NVME storage.
- Joysticks we’re changed at some point, being coloured black instead of grey.
I’m sure there’s more, but that’s what I can recall from keeping on top of the news.
Pretty sure 2 was the sad was downgraded as a component to one that supports less lanes, but still supports what the deck supports so it’s no performance difference. The other parts were also just pulling similar components from different sources and all hardware makers do it to have continuous supply or reduce production costs.
The deck has had a decent number of minor hardware revisions. They’ve improved some of the buttons, added foam strips to the fan to reduce whine, downgraded the SSDs, replaced the heat shield with a brand new design, etc.
Not to mention they’ve supplied different components through different companies, so you have multiple types of fans and joysticks due to that.
