Nintendo Switch OLED or Steam Deck? It's not even close.

Valve made a huge splash last week when it revealed the Steam Deck handheld PC, allowing you to take your Steam library on the go. It isn’t the only handheld in the headlines recently, as Nintendo also announced a new Nintendo Switch model with an OLED screen.

The two devices are relatively close in price ($400 for the base Steam Deck and $350 for the OLED Switch), and that got us wondering which one you’d actually buy. Here’s how you voted in this poll.

Would you buy the Nintendo Switch OLED or Steam Deck?

Results

We posted the poll on Friday, July 16, and over 2,700 votes were tallied as of writing. And the winner is the Steam Deck by a landslide, with over three-quarters of respondents saying they’d buy Valve’s upcoming handheld over the OLED Switch.

The comments suggest that there are a few key reasons for users to pick the PC-based handheld. These reasons include having your existing PC game library instead of building a new library from scratch and the Switch’s aging internals. We could also see the PC-based nature being very appealing to some compared to the locked-down Nintendo ecosystem.

Related: The Steam Deck has potential — if Valve can stay committed

Just under a quarter of respondents (23.5%) say they’ll pick up the Nintendo Switch OLED instead. None of the comments reflected this poll choice, but we’re guessing that the cheaper price, some killer exclusives (e.g. Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Breath of the Wild, etc), and the OLED panel are reasons to pick up the Nintendo handheld.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem like you can go wrong with either option if you want a quality portable gaming experience.

Comments

• Tennisfreak: I’ve already put down my preorder for a Steam Deck. Mid grade model with 256gb storage. Not paying $400 for an outdated 4+ year old underpowered handheld.
• Alex: Well, Steam Deck is an interesting concept but is not really in the same market as the switch. Steam deck has a ton of titles, all of them made for PC and most of them made with little to no consideration to controllers because no PC gamer really uses a controller. I would really wait to see if this concept gains traction. If I were at Steam I would make a separate collection of games certified for Steam Deck and a certification process, to ensure seamless experience on the deck.
• Shawn Hamm: I would buy the steam deck over the switch. I have a steam library of over 200 games. Why start over?
• Joe Black: How about both?
• Shizuma: Steam Deck without even a second thought, I have a Switch already and the idea of screen burn in and probably worse image quality due to what is likely a pentitle display for $50 more than my old Switch isn’t even remotely compelling.
• TheLastBattalion: As a person with a Switch, obviously the Steam Deck is a better package overall. It delivers on everything that Nintendo fans wanted from a Switch “Pro” model and even beyond that.

Thanks for voting in our poll and for leaving a comment. What do you think of the Steam Deck and OLED Switch? Let us know below.

ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7orrDq6ainJGqwam70aKrsmaTpLpwusinq56mlKR6tMPIrZqhZZ%2BhsqV50q2cmqVdmbKkt4yppqWkXaeytMHLrapmaWZpg3aAkGg%3D