No specs changes I'm afraid, and only a hint of work on future hardware, but a sign of more color options to come if all goes well.
Should you be the sort of gamer that demands all your hardware matches your “clean and serene” aesthetic, Valve is making just the Steam Deck for you. The Steam Deck OLED: Limited Edition White will be available in limited quantities from November 18 of this year, and rather shiny-looking it is too.
It’s not just the casing that’s had a fresh coat of paint, either. The new model will come with an exclusive white carrying case (sure to pick up and display every bit of fluff from the bottom of your bag) and even a white microfibre cleaning cloth. There’s probably a reason why cleaning cloths don’t usually come in white, but hey, it’ll look properly lovely when you pull it from its packaging for the first time, at the very least.
Specs wise this is still the 1 TB version of the standard Steam Deck OLED, so don’t be expecting any performance bumps or extra features. Still, we’ve been impressed by all versions of the Steam Deck we’ve got our hands on to date—and Valve has repeatedly stated that it’ll be a while yet before we see a Steam Deck 2, so those of you that have been holding out for fun colorways shouldn’t feel too bad about jumping on the handheld gaming PC bandwagon now.
The new model will be available for $679 ($20 more than the standard 1 TB OLED Deck) and ship to “everywhere the Steam Deck currently ships worldwide”, including Australia, a recent addition to the Steam Deck-receiving family. As the name suggests, it’s a limited edition—so Valve says that when stocks run out, they’re out for good.
Mind you, if it sells particularly well it’s not difficult to imagine a future where the Limited Edition White gets another run, or perhaps some more colorways get added to the range.
Valve has said: “We’re curious to see what the response is, and will use what we learn to inform future decisions about any potential new color variants down the line.”
Personally I reckon it’d look great in a deep red, although I’m quite the fan of my default black Deck, even if it’s not the fancy OLED model.
This isn’t the first time that Valve has experimented with different aesthetics for the Steam Deck, as it released a limited edition translucent edition last year that had our Ted very excited (and fearful for his bank account).
It’s worth noting that Valve has been keeping the Steam Deck support very much alive with regular SteamOS updates, including potential battery life improvements and the odd performance bump too, so it looks like the OG Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED have plenty of life left in them yet.
Perennial tease as it is wont to be, Valve also noted again its commitment to continual development of the Steam Deck, from both a software and future hardware perspective.
“We’ve been super happy with the reception of Steam Deck since we first launched the LCD version in March of 2022,” Valve’s Kaci Aitchison Boyle notes when introducing the new Limited Edition White version. “We’ve always said our intent is to continually work on improving Steam Deck, and that’s true from both a software perspective (continuing to ship improvements) and a hardware one (Steam Deck OLED, as well as ongoing work toward the future of Steam Deck and other hardware plans).”
This shiny white model is merely the latest addition, then, and while the handheld market looks like it’s about to receive some new and interesting additions from other companies, the Steam Deck still stands out as the archetype of the form. And if you go for this new white edition, it’s got a good chance of making you stand out on your next flight, too.
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