I've been loving Valve's Steam Deck. It's fun to use, it's versatile, and it's an almost-perfect system for on-the-go gaming or just lounging around the house. However, almost perfect obviously isn't actually perfect. It's a great first draft, but for the Steam Deck 2, Valve could get some improvements in.

Valve has finally hinted at a Steam Deck successor. According to an interview with The Verge, Steam Deck designers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais gave a few hints about what to expect. The same pair then gave another interview to Rock Paper Shotgun, saying that while the original Steam Deck has "made us even more excited to look closely at what can be improved", a next-gen Steam Deck won't be for "a few years." Still, it's fun to speculate, and these are some changes and improvements we'd love to see in a new handheld, along with some of the information that we gleaned from that interview.

The Steam Deck 2 needs an OLED display

OLED screens are all the rage these days; even Nintendo released a Switch OLED version last year. It's easy to see why: OLED screens produce deeper blacks, better contrast ratios, and just tend to produce better images overall. They also tend to be better when playing games or watching movies in the dark since black scenes will look truly black. The Steam Deck's LCD doesn't look bad — in fact, it looks quite good — but it's no secret that the screen has issues, such as light bleed.

If you're dreaming up what a potential Steam Deck 2 could look like, then you'll be glad to know that Yang and Griffais named the screen as being a particular paint point on the current-gen Steam Deck. That doesn't necessarily mean we'll see an OLED upgrade, but it seems clear that the screen will be one of the first things to get an update with the next generation.

Higher refresh rate options would be great as well

While not every game needs a high refresh rate, it's common for users to tweak those settings, whether they want to drop it to 40Hz to save battery or bump it up to 90Hz or even 144Hz for the smoothest gameplay. It would be nice for the Steam Deck 2 to support a wider range of refresh rates, and for lower-powered games, it wouldn't be too detrimental to battery life.

Given that the screen might see upgrades with the next generation, it's totally possible that a higher refresh rate may be included in that. That's purely speculation at this point, but those two things tend to go hand in hand.

The Steam Deck 2 should be better on battery life

One of the biggest criticisms against the Steam Deck is its low battery life. If I play GTA V, for example, I'll get anywhere between two hours and two and a half hours of playtime. The more intensive the game, the lower the battery life will be.

Don't get me wrong, two hours is a lot of playtime, but I see myself having battery anxiety on a plane or a long car journey. Through either a bigger battery or a more efficient chipset, there are different ways to achieve this goal, and it'd be great to see Valve approach either one.

Thankfully, in that same interview with The Verge, Yang and Griffais' second biggest issue with the Steam Deck was its battery life. While the SoC in the Steam Deck is pretty power efficient already, both of them mentioned that battery life was something that they want to improve in a successor. If you have a Steam Deck and lament the battery life, then that may be good news for you.

More USB or USB-C ports would be a plus

Given that the Steam Deck can be used almost exactly like a laptop, I'd love for the company to incorporate even just one extra USB-C port. Imagine if there was one on the top and the bottom! You could charge your device and plug something else into the other USB-C port at the same time. You can get third-party docks that give you more ports (or even the official, more expensive dock), but having the extra port would offer much greater versatility than just trying to get the most out of the only USB-C port.

Better haptics would improve the overall experience

To put it bluntly, the haptics on the Steam Deck just aren't very good. In fact, you'll only really feel them in the touchpads when scrolling, mostly to tell the user when it's sensing an input. It's not the worst experience, but it can feel odd when playing games on the Steam Deck when I'm used to those same games vibrating a controller otherwise. Since the games already support them, Valve would just need to produce them more on the Steam Deck 2's end.

An extra M.2 slot means more storage

With the Steam Deck, the M.2 storage slot that you get is, well, all you get. You can upgrade your internal storage, but you'll need to buy an M.2 2230 SSD and replace the one already in your Steam Deck. It can be a cumbersome replacement, whereas an extra M.2 slot in the Steam Deck 2 would simplify that process. You could have your normal boot-up M.2 with games on it and then another M.2 for faster access without needing to mess about with microSD cards. Most people find SD cards fast enough, but another SSD would increase loading speeds.

eGPU support means more power

If you really wanted to go all-out on gaming, an eGPU could beef up the Steam Deck's capabilities. It's a bit of a niche request, but any USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 can theoretically support an eGPU. It's also technically possible to mod the M.2 2230 slot in the Steam Deck to support an eGPU, but that's a hardware modification rather than something you can just easily hook up to the Steam Deck. People have done it and booted Windows off of an SD card... but, yeah, that's probably not for the faint of heart. Valve can streamline this process for those who want it.

More color options!

Colors are fun, and they can also be a form of expression. While it's easy for Valve to produce each SKU in one color, some other colorful options would be great, especially with the popularity of device skins from places like Dbrand. I'd have loved to have fun colors just like with the Nintendo Switch, and hopefully, Valve introduces some more colors in the future.

Who doesn't want a neon-colored Steam Deck 2 that's blindingly annoying to look at? Make it happen, Valve.

Mobile data support would make online playing on the Steam Deck 2 a breeze

There's not always going to be a place for it, but for people who can get unlimited mobile data plans, LTE or 5G support in the Steam Deck 2 could be a godsend. Not only could you download games on the go, but it could make it super easy to play with friends in multiplayer titles.

Finally, it should be easier to buy a Steam Deck 2

Think about the availability of the Steam Deck currently — it's actually quite limited! You can get it in the U.S. or Europe, but in a lot of Asian and African markets, it's unattainable without importing it. You can now reserve it in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, but you'll need to wait for Valve to have a unit ready for you, just like the company did in other parts of the world when it first launched the Steam Deck earlier this year.

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The Steam Deck is already a great device that allows you to play your PC games away from your actual PC. It's already changed the way a lot of people play PC games. It's likely that Valve will release a Steam Deck 2, but it seems as if it's a long way out. Either way, even just one or two of these suggestions could massively improve the whole experience.