Steam Deck: Valve increases battery life

With a new version of SteamOS, a number of bug fixes and improvements are finding their way to the mobile gaming console. However, which innovations owners of a Steam Deck benefit from depends partly on the specific device variant. Valve

As soon as no new Steam Deck

At the beginning of the week, Valve let fans’ hopes of an imminent second, improved version of the Steam Deck dwindle. As it was announced, they wanted to wait until there was a “generational leap in the computing sector” before releasing the second generation of the mobile games console. The last thing you want to do is sacrifice too much battery life for improved performance.

Console receives major operating system update

However, the company around President Gabe Newell is now delivering a new version of the operating system for the handheld, which provides a long list of fixes and improvements. SteamOS version 3.6.19 is now available for download for all console owners.

One of the most interesting innovations is without a doubt the update to a current Arch Linux base and the update of the Linux kernel to version 6.5. Because as Valve now knows, this not only improves the stability of the system, hardware compatibility and security, but also leads to an improvement in the performance of the console. Updating SteamOS also causes future updates to install more quickly. In addition, the user interface will be more responsive and the desktop mode will be updated to KDE Plasma 5.27.10.

Improved battery life for some consoles

Owners of the LCD version also benefit from an extended battery life. In situations where the Steam Deck is only lightly used, the battery should last up to ten percent longer. This should particularly please users, as the console’s running time was one of the points of criticism from the start.

Ten percent doesn’t represent a quantum leap, but it’s certainly welcome for most handheld owners. However, the OLED version does not benefit. It can be found on the Steam website long list with all bug fixes and improvements in areas such as graphics and performance, screen, input or development. Users can download and install the update in the Steam Deck options under “System” → “Updates” → “Check for updates”.