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Comment by kitsunesoba | Hacker News Reader

The Deck seems pretty great even in its first gen, but I’ve been holding off for future revisions not for power (I’m aware that Valve intends to target its current performance level for the foreseeable future), but for a better screen and hopefully an APU manufactured on a smaller process node and thus offering the same performance while being cooler, quieter, and less energy hungry.

I don’t need crazy graphical settings (and as such, the Deck’s specs are fine) but I have a strong distaste for fan noise and short battery life, and the only way to get around those with some games right now is to turn settings down super low to the point of being an eyesore.

It would be be neat if Valve replaced its fan with one or two of those solid state cooling cards that got posted here a while ago. Seems like a perfect fit for that tech.

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I absolutely understand your concern about battery life, but:

- A better screen would likely require more power, especially if the resolution was higher. OLED screens are also prone to burn-in, which can be a legitimate concern, especially with games that have a persistent hud.

- I think it's quite impressive we've managed to get the current battery life, considering how relatively small the battery is.

Overall, it's a great first generation product, which would likely not have been possible just a few years ago.

An OLED would be nice but is certainly not a must. A high-grade IPS panel would be fine too.

Agreed that the current battery life is impressive, but even so for me it hangs in that awkward spot of "just good enough to be technically usable", at least where more demanding games are concerned. It's probably already amazing if all that's being played are older non-emulated titles that have low enough resource demands to be able to run the Deck downclocked.

I was in your boat, but the sale and the announcement not to expect a v2 for a few years pushed me over the edge. And once I got it in hands I realized that it’s fantastic as it is and that there was really no need to hold out. Im sure V2 when and if it ever comes out will be excellent, but I can just sell V1 and upgrade if that happens.

> It would be be neat if Valve replaced its fan with one or two of those solid state cooling cards that got posted here a while ago.

Link for people who didn't see the article, myself included.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34467937

Yeah I waited for the v2 Switch and was worth the wait. Improvement in battery (life) is what I prefer

> a better screen

I would have loved if valve offered a tier with better screen. That would been a worth while upgrade.

Same here, the picture quality is quite mediocre. Also it does not use all the available real estate and could be a bit bigger.

Would definitely be a reason to upgrade to a V2 Deck even if the internals stay the same.

I am curious as to how much higher the BOM cost would have been for valves had they decided on a better screen .Surely it can be that high

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