Fans of Valve's Steam Deck are delighted: the developers have been able to improve battery life by updating the operating system. This means players can play for longer, but there is a big catch: not everyone can benefit from the improvement.
For fans of the Steam Deck, the week could have gone much better: First hints that the Valve may be working on a Steam Deck 2 could be followed by a rather specific rejection. Even worse: apparently no successor to the successful handheld PC will be on the market any time soon, because Valve would rather real technological leap.
But now there is some good news and it concerns one of the Steam Deck's weak points: battery life. When playing demanding games, the handheld's battery quickly runs out, but things look much better when you play less power-hungry games. Nevertheless, the developers are clearly trying their best to squeeze a little more out of the battery.
Steam Deck: Device model is important
There is no version number at first glance, but Valve has now released a pretty important update for SteamOS with version 3.6.19. Owners of the mobile game console can already start the download.
Valve has updated the Steam Deck to a new Arch Linux base and is also adapting the Linux kernel, which now runs on version 6.5. The company, headed by President Gabe Newell, explains that on the one hand the stability of the entire system has been improved, as has the compatibility of the hardware and security, but also - and this is much more relevant - the performance of the console.
Essentially, the developers have included a long list of fixes in the update, but the most pleasing improvement for fans is probably the one that directly affects battery life. There is a catch here, however: only owners of the LCD version of the Steam Deck can look forward to an extended battery life. The OLED model does not benefit.
According to Valve, the result is around ten percent more battery life. That's certainly not a lot overall, but it's a perfectly acceptable value for a simple update. So if the Steam Deck is only lightly stressed in terms of performance, a small increase in playing time can be achieved from the battery. Valve has thus directly addressed a real criticism of the mobile game console, but also serves one of its greatest strengths: many fans use the Steam Deck explicitly to play indie titles that often require less power - this is where the new update really shines. Valve informs his website about all improvements.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
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VALVE Steam Deck - 512gb Console - OLED (PC) * | 639,95 EUR |
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