New Steam Deck update massively improves the old LCD screen, too

While the fact that Steam Deck OLED is the superior device should surprise absolutely nobody, it’s worth keeping in mind that the old LCD model is just fine, too. This goes doubly so now that SteamOS 3.5.5 has officially come out, allowing you to tune your colour vibrancy and more.

Indeed, no longer do you need to rely on third-party plugins to tweak your Steam Deck’s display: the long-awaited SteamOS update 3.5 is now available for download, and it includes some big must-have features for the older model of the device. Do expect some performance and stability improvements, of course, but the biggest draw here is absolutely the new colour settings interface, where you’re free to customize the Deck’s display image output however you wish.

More specifically, after downloading and installing SteamOS 3.5.5, you can go into the Deck’s Settings menu and select the ‘Adjust Display Colors’ option to fine-tune its image. As shown in the screenshot featured above, there are two disparate sliders for you to fiddle around with here. Colour vibrance lets you bump up the display’s vibrancy to great effect, helping lessen the Deck’s otherwise dull LCD display. It’s no OLED, mind, but it sure is a big and meaningful change.

Aside from changing your Deck’s image vibrancy, you can also tweak the baseline colour temperature of the display. The specifics of where you take your sliders will depend on your own personal preference, of course, but the fact that the option is here is more than welcome, and arguably transformative for the poor old LCD.

In fact, simply by tweaking the Deck’s display, some may feel that it may be worth their while to wait a few more years for Steam Deck 2.0 to arrive. Given that the performance differential between the LCD and the OLED versions of the Deck is fairly minimal, sticking it out is now a more viable option for those who were miffed by the base device’s screen. All in all, a great change that’s been a very long time coming, and this is just the headline feature of an otherwise substantial OS update.