DeckSight is a 1080P AMOLED display panel that drops into an LCD model Valve Steam Deck with no major modifications. DeckSight surpasses the stock LCD in almost every specification, making your games look sharper, more colorful, and with perfect black levels. If you’ve already upgraded the shell, thumbsticks, and SSD, DeckSight is the next must-have modification for your Steam Deck.

Left, the matte screen finish. Right, the glossy option.

DeckSight features a high-quality, bright, and color-accurate OLED panel with in-cell touch optically bonded to custom cover glass. The specs of DeckSight are currently being tested and finalized; peak brightness and refresh rate will exceed the Steam Deck’s LCD panel while consuming less power.

Upgrade To the Latest Display Tech

For those performing display replacements or changing the front shell of their Steam Deck, only a little more effort is required to install DeckSight. We recommend studying the iFixit guide for removing the LCD, and the only notable difference is that the new FPC ribbon cable is a new design to ensure compatibility with our display panel.

A custom BIOS is required for the Steam Deck to use DeckSight. The BIOS patcher utillities will be provided on Shade Technik’s GitHub repository, as will the OS flashable, executable BIOS based on Valve’s latest BIOS release. The change is not permanent—is always possible to reflash the stock Steam Deck BIOS and re-install the original LCD.

DeckSight is not compatible with 2023 OLED models of the Steam Deck.

Features & Specifications

Display technology: AMOLED
Screen size (diagonal): 7 inches, 16:9 aspect (slightly shorter and slightly wider than stock)
Resolution: 1920 x 1080 (up from 1200 x 800 stock)
Color depth: 10-bit, 1.07 billion colors (up from 8-bit, 16.7 million colors stock)
Surface treatments:

• Matte: anti-glare and anti-fingerprint coatings (similar to highest end stock LCD)
• Gloss: anti-fingerprint coating (similar to 64 and 256 GB LCD models)

Compatibility: Valve Steam Deck (2022 release, LCD model, 64/256/512 GB)

Raw display panel specifications

Note: Final DeckSight specs may differ.
Max refresh rate: 165 Hz (up from 60 Hz stock)
Peak brightness: 800 nits (up from 400 nits stock)
Contrast ratio: 100000:1 (up from 1000:1 stock)
Response time: 2 ms (up from 30 ms stock)
Color gamut: 90~105% of NTSC, 102~110% of sRGB (up from 50% of NTSC, 79% of sRGB stock)

FAQs

Q: Will DeckSight affect battery life?
All things being equal, no. DeckSight will consume less power than the stock LCD as OLED panels do not require the higher voltage backlight circuit. However, DeckSight’s higher resolution and refresh rate may require the CPU/GPU to work harder and therefore draw more power. You still have the option to run games on the Steam Deck at a lower resolution and refresh rate to conserve battery life and still enjoy a more vibrant display, brighter screen. Now, you have the option to run games at higher specs as well.

Q: Is DeckSight Capable of HDR?
DeckSight exceeds all the requirements for gaming in HDR. At the moment, we cannot claim HDR compatibility with SteamOS until further testing is done. It is more likely that HDR will be supported in Linux/SteamOS due to issues with HDR in Windows itself.

Q: Are there downsides to DeckSight over the stock LCD?
If you perceive the 16:9 aspect ratio as a downside compared to the default 16:10 aspect ratio of the Steam Deck, then you can consider it so. However, we have heard feedback that the stock 16:10 ratio is not as convenient as some games do not support it and will show black bars at the top and bottom. We think 16:9, a far more common and supported resolution for modern and retro gaming, is a favorable trade-off.

Q: What happens if Valve automatically updates my BIOS via SteamOS?
Yes, this is an issue with any Steam Deck running a custom BIOS. There are ways to block SteamOS from updating the BIOS and there are ways to re-flash the custom BIOS and recover. I personally have been running a custom BIOS (in order to support 32 GB RAM) and have not had it overwritten by SteamOS as they seem to have ironed out most of the bugs and haven’t updated it recently.

Valve has, in the past, integrated support for popular modifications into their BIOS source so it’s possible that if the campaign is successful enough that the DeckSight BIOS could be officially supported on the Steam Deck. Either way, the BIOS patcher will be public so supporting newer BIOSs will always be possible via the enthusiast community.

Q: Is DeckSight difficult to install?
DeckSight is basically the same as installing a replacement stock LCD. The only exception is installing the custom FPC cable, which, if the iFixit guide mentioned above is followed, requires very little extra effort. Realistically, anyone should be able to install DeckSight; there is no soldering or cutting required.

Due to the nature of the glued-in panel used in the Steam Deck, removing the original LCD is highly likely to break it. The stock LCD may not be in usable condition afterwards.

Open Source

Steam Deck BIOS modifications are still being worked on. Once completed, the BIOS patches as well as the patching scripts will be made open and hosted in our GitHub repo.

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