The Steam Deck is on sale for 25% off, but maybe not the model you want

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Valve's putting the LCD Steam Deck on clearance, but sadly there's no discount on the newer OLED.

Heroic Game Launcher running on a Steam Deck
(Image credit: Future)

Do I sometimes look at the webpage steamdeck.com/en/oled with longing, wishing my launch Steam Deck had that better battery life, that luxurious screen, and that quieter cooling? Would it be embarrassing to admit that? Perhaps instead I should say that I've held off on splurging on a second Deck when I know my LCD model is still perfectly good, because while those OLED updates are appealing, they're not vital enough to get me to drop $550. I might be in danger if Valve was discounting the OLED the way it's currently marking down the 512GB LCD Steam Deck, though.

To celebrate Steam's birthday, Valve is currently offering 25% off the top-end 512GB LCD Steam Deck (the one with the anti-glare etched glass), dropping it from $449 to $336.75. I gotta say, that is a pretty excellent price for what was the premium version of the Deck until the OLED came along, and it's still absolutely a great handheld for playing games on.

Steam Deck (original) | 512 GB SSD | Etched glass screen | $449 $36.75 at Steam (save $112.25)

Steam Deck (original) | 512 GB SSD | Etched glass screen | $449 $36.75 at Steam (save $112.25)
The OLED refresh might be the best Steam Deck, but the original version is still great, especially at this price. It's as powerful as the most recent model. Once Valve sells out, it won't be restocking this version.

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The entry level 64GB LCD Steam Deck is only 15% off, but that still brings its price down to just a hair below $300—but that's only a better buy if you want to open it up and add your own 1TB+ SSD to it. The store page notes that this is a get 'em while they're hot situation: "The 64GB and 512GB Steam Deck LCD models are being phased out," which means once they sell through the existing stock, buh-bye.

Post-sale, that will leave only the 256GB LCD model as the last of the launch Steam Deck line. It sells for $400, a significant 150 bucks less than the cheapest OLED. Personally, I'm holding out to see what AMD and Valve have cooking up with those next-gen APUs set to launch in early 2025… 

Wes Fenlon
Wes Fenlon
Senior Editor

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.


When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).