Interesting. I've never noticed that sort of thing with an OLED on phones before.

I don't think it is/would be the "etching". I have the OG-master pre-order Steam Deck 512GB , which of course has the etched screen also, but it LCD. I've never seen that effect on it. And I do tend to play on a lower brightness with the Deck. (probably around ~20-30% or so)

I'll have to look for it now!

Quoting: BlackBloodRumInteresting. I've never noticed that sort of thing with an OLED on phones before.

That's the thing, I have used an OLED phone, and a laptop, and the screens were always completely uniform. But on my Steam Deck this starts to be noticeable at around 40% brightness, and at 10% or below, it's basically like the image I posted.

Really don't know what to make of it, because it makes the OLED look like those cheap LCD screens with backlight bleeding all over.

Last edited by Linas on 29 November 2023 at 3:20 pm UTC

Sounds like you're talking about the "Mura effect". Something that is apparently common in OLED screens and is caused by the inability of pixels to display the same colour exactly the same. Usually not visible in static images, but it becomes very noticeable in slow moving pictures. I recall the PSVR2 getting some slack for it as well.

Quoting: EhvisSounds like you're talking about the "Mura effect". Something that is apparently common in OLED screens and is caused by the inability of pixels to display the same colour exactly the same.

But is this to be expected from a Steam Deck OLED, or is mine "special" somehow?

Quoting: Linas

Quoting: EhvisSounds like you're talking about the "Mura effect". Something that is apparently common in OLED screens and is caused by the inability of pixels to display the same colour exactly the same.

But is this to be expected from a Steam Deck OLED, or is mine "special" somehow?

I suppose that to some degree it is expected from every OLED display. It's there on OLED phones as well, but due to the very high DPI, it's nearly invisible. So yes, but maybe yours has it in an extreme way and an RMA is in order. No way to know unless you have something to compare it to.

On the LCD I used to run at around 30% when playing during daytime, on the OLED I had to put it up to 40%. Below that everything just becomes washed out and hard to see. So, not the same problem, but still, the screen becomes unusable below 40% brightness.

Last edited by damarrin on 30 November 2023 at 10:23 am UTC

I don't have OLED yet, but I've seen minority of people on Reddit reporting this too.
OLED uses Samsung panels, but Limited Edition uses BOE panels and few people on Reddit say BOE has much better gray uniformity.
However, considering that only a minority of people reporting this, this makes me to believe that you might have a faulty screen and should RMA your device. Or maybe people on Reddit just think it's normal? But if it's very noticeable it probably is not. Someone also reported that they had this issue but it disappeared on it's own.

Anyway, I'd try RMA

Quoting: satorideponSomeone also reported that they had this issue but it disappeared on it's own.

You know what, I did think it has become less noticeable when I was playing last night. Thought I was imagining stuff, but maybe there is some "break in" period with these screens.

Quoting: damarrinOn the LCD I used to run at around 30% when playing during daytime, on the OLED I had to put it up to 40%. Below that everything just becomes washed out and hard to see. So, not the same problem, but still, the screen becomes unusable below 40% brightness.

0% on the OLED is dimmer and 100% is brighter than on the LCD, so the scale is not the same, making it harder to compare.

I did play a bit of Shotgun King at 0% brightness in near complete darkness last night, and it is mostly usable. Also ok for web browsing and reading.

I also encountered another issue while playing The Walking Dead Michonne. There was a lot of ghosting around the characters hair. You see, the main character has black hair, and if it gets dark enough that the OLED pixels are actually off, they don't seem to be able to react quickly enough when the image moves. I had to increase the brightness in-game so that it is no longer black, but slightly grey, so that the pixels stay on, and the ghosting disappeared.

In the end the image was fine, not anything to complain about. But considering that the quality of the LCD screen is already really good, has good enough contrast and uniform colors, and you don't have to fiddle with it to avoid ghosting, I'd say that the LCD is actually a better choice.

Last edited by Linas on 1 December 2023 at 2:27 pm UTC

Quoting: Linas

Quoting: satorideponSomeone also reported that they had this issue but it disappeared on it's own.

You know what, I did think it has become less noticeable when I was playing last night. Thought I was imagining stuff, but maybe there is some "break in" period with these screens.

Quoting: damarrinOn the LCD I used to run at around 30% when playing during daytime, on the OLED I had to put it up to 40%. Below that everything just becomes washed out and hard to see. So, not the same problem, but still, the screen becomes unusable below 40% brightness.

0% on the OLED is dimmer and 100% is brighter than on the LCD, so the scale is not the same, making it harder to compare.

I did play a bit of Shotgun King at 0% brightness in near complete darkness last night, and it is mostly usable. Also ok for web browsing and reading.

I also encountered another issue while playing The Walking Dead Michonne. There was a lot of ghosting around the characters hair. You see, the main character has black hair, and if it gets dark enough that the OLED pixels are actually off, they don't seem to be able to react quickly enough when the image moves. I had to increase the brightness in-game so that it is no longer black, but slightly grey, so that the pixels stay on, and the ghosting disappeared.

In the end the image was fine, not anything to complain about. But considering that the quality of the LCD screen is already really good, has good enough contrast and uniform colors, and you don't have to fiddle with it to avoid ghosting, I'd say that the LCD is actually a better choice.

Unfortunately we don't get to choose if we want the better battery life. They should have an option to keep all the other updates but stick with the LCD. So we could get the 6nm chip, the antenna and wifi upgrades, the bigger battery but stick with the LCD screen.

Quoting: m2mg2

Quoting: Linas

Quoting: satorideponSomeone also reported that they had this issue but it disappeared on it's own.

You know what, I did think it has become less noticeable when I was playing last night. Thought I was imagining stuff, but maybe there is some "break in" period with these screens.

Quoting: damarrinOn the LCD I used to run at around 30% when playing during daytime, on the OLED I had to put it up to 40%. Below that everything just becomes washed out and hard to see. So, not the same problem, but still, the screen becomes unusable below 40% brightness.

0% on the OLED is dimmer and 100% is brighter than on the LCD, so the scale is not the same, making it harder to compare.

I did play a bit of Shotgun King at 0% brightness in near complete darkness last night, and it is mostly usable. Also ok for web browsing and reading.

I also encountered another issue while playing The Walking Dead Michonne. There was a lot of ghosting around the characters hair. You see, the main character has black hair, and if it gets dark enough that the OLED pixels are actually off, they don't seem to be able to react quickly enough when the image moves. I had to increase the brightness in-game so that it is no longer black, but slightly grey, so that the pixels stay on, and the ghosting disappeared.

In the end the image was fine, not anything to complain about. But considering that the quality of the LCD screen is already really good, has good enough contrast and uniform colors, and you don't have to fiddle with it to avoid ghosting, I'd say that the LCD is actually a better choice.

Unfortunately we don't get to choose if we want the better battery life. They should have an option to keep all the other updates but stick with the LCD. So we could get the 6nm chip, the antenna and wifi upgrades, the bigger battery but stick with the LCD screen.

This should definitely be an option.

Not only that, but the LCD should be continue to be upgraded with 120hz / freesync2 and some basic HDR support.