Steam Deck OLED has a serious problem. It’s about the screen

Steam Deck debuted in February 2022. More than 1.5 years later (in November 2023), Valve released an improved version of the device with an OLED screen. It is this second, theoretically better model that may have a serious problem. It’s all about the display.

Steam Deck OLED has a screen problem

YouTuber Wulff Den decided to test how Steam Deck OLED deals with screen burn-in. To do this, he conducted a test in which the console was turned on all the time and displayed a Zelda game. The results are not satisfactory. The OLED screen in the Steam Deck showed the first signs of burn-in after 1,500 hours, or about 63 days of continuous operation.

Of course, 1,500 hours is a very long time and we are talking about a continuously operating device with the brightness set to 100 percent. (the image was in SDR, so this translated to 600 nits). This does not change the fact that in an identical test conducted by the same person Nintendo Switch OLED only burns out after 3,500 hourswhich is more than twice as long.

We’re not 100% sure why Steam Deck OLED performs worse than Nintendo Switch OLED. However, the brightness clue seems very likely. The Japanese console reaches a maximum of 400 nits, and the Valve device reaches 600 nits (in SDR). This can be confirmed by the test of another YouTuber who displayed an HDR image on Steam Deck with a brightness of as much as 1000 nits. In this case, burnouts occurred after just 750 hours.

If you want to avoid this, it is best not to use the console at maximum screen brightness settings. This should significantly extend the life of the display.