Valve has made waves by adding the Steam Deck OLED to its certified refurbished lineup, which is fantastic news for budget-conscious gamers. If you’ve been eyeing an OLED version, you can now snag one directly from Valve at a significantly reduced price. The refurbished units come in at a cool 20% off compared to their fresh-out-the-box equivalents.
For those looking at the 1TB and 512GB models, here’s what you’re looking at budget-wise: the 1TB OLED is now priced at $519, while the 512GB model is going for $439. When you line those prices up against the brand-new versions—$649 for the 1TB and $549 for the 512GB—you’re seeing discounts of $120 and $110 respectively. That’s a great deal, especially when you realize the refurbished 1TB OLED is $30 cheaper than buying a new 512GB OLED. Not bad at all.
Comparing these with what’s available new, the only version still undercutting the refurbished OLEDs is the earlier generation 256GB LCD model, which is on sale for $399. If you’re after a refurbished LCD Steam Deck, you might be out of luck, though; the entire trio—64GB, 256GB, and 512GB—are currently sold out, and the 512GB and 64GB models aren’t even available new anymore.
Now, it’s easy to overlook just how much of an upgrade the Steam Deck OLED is beyond the name. On top of shifting from LCD to OLED, the display gets a sweet boost to a 90Hz refresh rate and expands to a 7.4-inch size with HDR support. It can reach 400 nits in standard brightness, and hit a dazzling 1000 nits peak in HDR. The old LCD version, by comparison, was a 7-inch non-HDR model capped at 60Hz with 400 nits of brightness.
Under the hood, Valve hasn’t skimped on improvements either. The battery’s gotten a significant boost from a 40Whr to a 50Whr unit, boasting a playtime range between 3 to 12 hours depending on what you’re gaming. Compare this to the LCD version’s 2-8 hour battery life. There’s also been a RAM bump from 5500MT/s LPDDR5 to 6400 MT/s LPDDR5. Valve even moved to a smaller, more efficient 6nm process for the AMD APU from the previous 7nm.
Keep in mind, these refurbished OLED units are not worldwide yet. They’re available in select regions like Canada, the EU, the UK, and the US. Each comes with a standard one-year warranty, though this could vary based on where you’re located.
