Valve drops limited edition white Steam Deck OLED

Valve may not be releasing a true Steam Deck successor immediately, but the company's best gaming handheld is getting a new release soon, in the form of a limited edition Steam Deck OLED in white.

Dubbed the "Steam Deck OLED: Limited Edition White," the white Steam Deck OLED will feature the same specs as the existing 1TB model, though at $679 it will carry a $30 premium. The system will go on sale next week, on Monday, November 18.

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Beyond coming in white and gray, the Limited Edition White Deck will also ship with a white carrying case and microfiber cleaning cloth.

This isn't the first time Valve has experimented with color. It launched the Steam Deck OLED with a limited edition smoky translucent shell, which sold out quickly (and also, unfortunately, was prone to small aesthetic cracks). This time around, though, Valve says the white Deck will ship wherever the Steam Deck is currently for sale, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe, and, most recently, Australia — as well as in Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea through its partner Komodo. Stock of the white Deck will be allocated "proportionally" across each of the regions.

In an attempt to stave off scalpers, Valve is limiting orders to one white Steam Deck per account, and your Steam account has to have at least one purchase prior to November 2024 on it.

In a statement to press, Valve said that the second limited edition Steam Deck OLED will help the company decide what colors to release later on: "We're curious to see what the response is, and will use what we learn to inform future decisions about any potential new color variants down the line."

You don't have to go for the Limited Edition White Steam Deck to get that color. There are several companies, like Jsaux and dbrand, that sell alternate backplates or skins. But if you want it straight from the source, you'll be able to get this Deck variant until Valve runs out of them.

The company also teased the future of the Deck, saying that beyond alternate colors and constant software updates, there is "ongoing work toward the future of Steam Deck and other hardware plans."

From the photos, I'm getting a Wii U vibe (in a good way) crossed with an iPod. I'm curious to see if the new colorway will be enough to sway existing owners to purchase a new system.