My new LE OLED Deck has a few red sub-pixels that are dead, and I’ve seen reports around this sub of others with similar issues. It almost seems like it is being mentioned more for specific models. So, I’m curious…. If you got a new Steam Deck OLED what model did you get and how is your screen?
If you haven’t checked and don’t know how it is pretty easy. Just go to desktop mode, install and open Firefox, then go to this website to check:
I don’t think they wanted to get rid of stock per se, but I do have a feeling the “Limited Edition” model was also a limited test run of BOE’s viability as a supplier for future iterations of the Steam Deck so Valve can see how their mass production compared to Samsung.
This is similar to how Apple tests new suppliers like how they had Samsung supply a portion of the A9 chips that TSMC usually supplies. It was discovered that the Samsung chips had worse battery life so Apple dropped them as a supplier. If BOE can’t refine their manufacturing process and get better panel yields, I’m sure Valve would consider not buying from them in the future.
This is all speculation of course and we’ll have to wait to see what is actually going on. There is a lot more dead pixel reports with the OLED than I remember with the LCD launch. I have handled four LCD Steam Decks and none of them had dead pixels amazingly, but the first OLED I get has two. So statistically it seems like the OLEDs are more prone to dead pixels.