The two machines allow us to play anywhere and enjoy great titles.
If we talk about portable consoles, we could say that right now Nintendo has no competition. The Nintendo Switch sells really well and is getting strong support from studios. Then there is Steam Deck, a device that allows you to play PC games, even triple A titles. On paper, making a comparison doesn’t make much sense if we focus on the hardware of both machines, but it never hurts review what each machine offers.
When we talk about Nintendo Switch too you have to take into account the gaming experience offered by the Joy-Con, as long as the games take advantage of all the functions of the controller. In this sense the Steam Deck is more classic. That said, it’s time to see the comparison.
Comparative
In the following comparative table you can see the differences between both devices.
Steam Deck | Nintendo Switch OLED |
---|---|
7-inch IPS touch screen with 1280 x 800 pixels (60 Hz). 16:10 aspect ratio | 7-inch OLED touch screen 1280 x 720 pixels (60 Hz). 16:9 aspect ratio |
AMD APU: 4-core, 8-thread Zen 2 CPU. RDNA 2 GPU with 8 compute units | NVIDIA Tegra X1 custom: 8-core CPU (2 ARM Cortex-A57 and 2 ARM Cortex-A53). Maxwell-based NVIDIA GPU with 2 compute units |
16GB LPDDR5 RAM | 4GB LPDDR4 RAM |
Storage: 64GB eMMC, 256GB NVMe SSD, or 512GB NVMe SSD. Can be expanded via microSD | Storage: 64GB. Can be expanded via microSD |
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, 2 x 2 MIMO, IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, and one USB Type-C port | Connectivity: Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac), Bluetooth 4.1, and a USB Type-C port |
Autonomy: between 2 and 8 hours (40 Wh) | Autonomy: between 4.5 and 9 hours (4,310 mAh) |
Weight: 669 grams (approximately) | Weight: 420 grams (with Joy-Con) |
Price: 419 euros / 549 euros / 679 euros | Price: 349.99 euros |
Screen
Although both screens are the same size, there is quite a difference when it comes to interpreting the colors. The OLED display of the Nintendo console shows much more vivid colors, with some saturation, while the Valve device mounts an IPS panel. Nevertheless, the brightness is higher on the Steam Deck (400 nits vs. 343 nits). When we play we could say that the games look more spectacular on the Nintendo Switch OLED.
Power
There is a lot of difference between the two machines here. The SoC of the Nintendo Switch OLED has a few years behind it, by contrast, the APU of the Steam Deck carries the latest from AMD. In terms of CPU and GPU there is no comparison possible, though At an energy level, the SoC of the Nintendo console consumes less. On the other hand, it must be taken into account that they don’t use the same architecture: Maxwell (Nintendo Switch) vs. RDNA 2 (Steam Deck).
Storage
Nintendo decided to double the storage memory, going from the 32 GB of the Switch Lite and Switch (normal) models, to the 64 GB of the OLED model. So it has the same storage capacity as the cheapest Steam Deck. Now, Valve’s device is also available with a 256 and 512 GB NVMe SSD. Also, it’s worth mentioning that both the Nintendo Switch OLED and the Steam Deck have a microSD card slot.
connectivity
If we talk about connectivity, the two devices are virtually identical. Only the Bluetooth version changes, which is more current on the Steam Deck, and which has 2 x 2 MIMO. For the user, we could say that it is invaluable when we make use of these two technologies. It should also not be forgotten that the two devices can be connected to a monitor or television without any problem.
Autonomy
The lower consumption of the Nintendo Switch OLED SoC makes the battery life, especially when playing demanding games, be greater in the Nintendo console. This is something very important if we take into account that we are talking about two portable devices.
Weight
If we were talking about boxing these two machines would not compete in the same category. The Steam Deck is rather a heavyweight at 669 grams. here the Nintendo Switch OLED stops the scale at 420 grams. This makes it more comfortable to play longer on the Nintendo console.
Price
The price difference is considerable, being the Nintendo Switch OLED about 69 euros cheaper than the 64 GB Steam Deck.
With all this data, it is clear that if we talk about hardware, both systems are not comparable, as I said before, although this is something that was taken for granted. There’s an outright winner here, and it’s none other than Valve’s device. Nevertheless, in some aspects the Nintendo console is better. It weighs less, the battery life is greater and its OLED screen looks better.
Then there is the matter of games, and The latter is something very personal for each user., so it doesn’t make much sense to say that one machine is better than the other for its games. However, the exclusive titles that come out for Nintendo Switch they are developed with the hardware of said console in mind and are very well optimized. This is not so on the Steam Deck, after all, the Valve device runs PC games. However, it is not a bad thing either. Luckily, PC games allow you to tweak a lot of graphical settings to improve performance.
Related topics: Multi platform
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