There's finally a screen upgrade available to the Steam Deck! As part of a new video series,we take a closer look at its qualities, and talk with @DeckHD_ an...
Oh damn, I keep seeing reviews say it’s “OLED-like” so I thought it was. So yeah, it just has better colors (which is a low bar because the Steam Deck screen is not great).
Yes, “OLED-like” is a misrepresentation. The Deck’s screen has about 65% sRGB coverage, while the DeckHD is at 87% coverage. This is noticeable better, but no LCD can compare to OLED’s deep blacks and low input latency.
The color gamut is the range of colors supported by a screen. sRGB is a defined color space and pretty much the standard for modern displays. DCI-P3 is larger than sRGB so it can display a wider range of colors. I.e. purple can be more purple on DCI-P3.
65% sRGB coverage means that not all colors in the sRGB color space can be displayed on screen. This leads to multiple hues being displayed as one, so the image looks less color rich.
Vibrant Deck makes images look more vibrant by shifting less vibrant colors to a more vibrant color in the gamut. This means colors don’t look like they should, but duller images appear more vibrant. But this won’t increase the color gamut so the screen still can’t represent 1/3 of sRGB colors. Objectively the image looks worse, but most people won’t notice it compared to the subjectively more vibrant colors.
The Deck HD is not OLED, but still has a better color coverage.
Oh damn, I keep seeing reviews say it’s “OLED-like” so I thought it was. So yeah, it just has better colors (which is a low bar because the Steam Deck screen is not great).
Yes, “OLED-like” is a misrepresentation. The Deck’s screen has about 65% sRGB coverage, while the DeckHD is at 87% coverage. This is noticeable better, but no LCD can compare to OLED’s deep blacks and low input latency.
I don’t quite understand the percentages, what is the difference between 100% and 65% + Vibrant Plugin?
The color gamut is the range of colors supported by a screen. sRGB is a defined color space and pretty much the standard for modern displays. DCI-P3 is larger than sRGB so it can display a wider range of colors. I.e. purple can be more purple on DCI-P3.
65% sRGB coverage means that not all colors in the sRGB color space can be displayed on screen. This leads to multiple hues being displayed as one, so the image looks less color rich.
Vibrant Deck makes images look more vibrant by shifting less vibrant colors to a more vibrant color in the gamut. This means colors don’t look like they should, but duller images appear more vibrant. But this won’t increase the color gamut so the screen still can’t represent 1/3 of sRGB colors. Objectively the image looks worse, but most people won’t notice it compared to the subjectively more vibrant colors.
Edit: Tom Scott has a great video about purple and why screens can’t display the purple. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NzVmtbPOrM
Thanks for the detailed explanation!