The Steam Deck has issues. We asked the devs what they're doing to fix it. | Battery life, Verified

[@Launcher]

What are your thoughts on the Steam Deck? Will you be purchasing, or holding off until Steam and Valve correct these issues? Let us know down below!

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

If i could id buy it now. But have to wait 5 months due to my que

[@5226-p1e]

I think there might be a little disingenuous comments about this device in the beginning of the video, for example when the video talks about the battery life of the beginning of this video it mentions that it lost 50% of its battery capability within 30 minutes of use playing God of War, it didn't explain any of the reasons behind that comment, for example was the game on incredibly High settings along with screen resolution being used? If all settings on both the deck device and the game were on crazy high, without me FPS being locked for performance, it probably would have performed exactly the way your explaining, most reviews don't get that disingenuous when they cover something, they usually thoroughly explained why they came to that result. And then the explain the ways you can improve it. Now don't get me wrong, it's always good to tell the developer that you want the last longer and you want to perform better, because it makes it so the Creator or developer makes it a stronger product later down the road, however you don't need to lie about it just tell them about it. Also got a war is a high intensity game when it comes to Graphics GPU CPU usage oh, and if the settings are crazy high on both the device and the game, I could understand that 50% battery life usage within 30 minutes especially if nothing was capped for performance which makes perfect sense for that particular game and those settings. However there is somewhat conflicting reports on this between other people who have also bought this device, or they will range the device 2 an hour or two hours of use before it's dead on such a high intensive type of game on high settings and power requirements used.

[@JasonFuss1992]

I live in Australia so no go here lol

[@Abou47Pandas]

The witcher 3 is not current gen. the game came out in 2015. its 7 years old. No one back in 2010 thought Postal 2 was current gen, a 2003 release.

[@silverhusky7993]

This is the first watching WP gaming. I'm experiencing some cognitive dissonance, as there's no reason for them not to have a gaming news outlet but I can't believe they have one.

[@seapower1]

WP Gaming has some of the best gaming journalists in the industry, you're missing out if you don't follow Gene Park on twitter.

[@AFistfulofXanax]

Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos of Amazon, which owns Twitch and runs Amazon Gaming.

[@Ricecooka]

I'm liking everything that I hear from this team. They seems to have great plans in place to deal with nearly every issue and really looked focused on making an amazing handheld. I'm in the Q2 group, and can't wait to try it out.

[@Launcher]

Lucky! Apart from our review copy, we haven't been able to land any personal ones for the team.

[@m.israel2209]

I’m after q2 group which honestly I do not mind. Need to bring in that cash flow.

[@mamaharumi]

Yeah, they're legit doing everything right and is exactly what the industry needs. If it was anyone other than Valve I wouldn't have but reserved one as soon as it was announced. I'm so happy I did and Q2 can't come soon enough.

[@cookbookforcannibals]

@@mamaharumi I'm q2 also, couldn't get reservation through on day 1 so ordered early hours day 2. Low key hoping people don't go through with their orders so I get bumped up the queue 😅

[@mr0o]

Q2 gang

[@dontworry7440]

The Steam Deck has 2-8 hours of battery life, depending on the game. When the Nintendo Switch launched in 2017, it also had 2-8 hours of battery life, depending on the game. The fact that some have made a big deal out of the Deck’s battery life is strange, as if they forgot that most consumers were fine with the Switch’s battery life.

[@Rooster_Ric]

Why in tf is this a competition? I just want to enjoy playing games.

[@orlandofurioso7329]

@@Rooster_Ric RIGHT ON, i am sick of this console war stuff, like how low of a being do you have to be to show others you are having more fun for buying a box to play games instead of another?

[@Mantenner]

The Switch was rated at 4 to 7, and almost always gets towards the upper end of that. The Deck is rated and 2 to 8 and almost always gets towards the lower end AND it requires you to fiddle with settings, TDP levels and refresh rates in order to even get 4+ hours. That's the difference. The Switch just works, at this point, the Steam Deck doesn't. It's not a mainstream, consumer friendly experience and it's battery falls short compared to it's cheaper, better established competition. You can disagree with me, but my statements aren't wrong.

[@tboneforreal]

Regarding the battery life, Valve released the CAD files for the case so I'm sure someone will make a case with an extended battery or you can just plug it into a power bank.

[@m.israel2209]

I hope that there are options to upgrade your deck. Since they are being transparent and having a parts replacement program. I hope they make it easy for upgradable parts too. So by the time in 8-10 years a steam deck 2 is announced that those who still have the first do not feel like their deck is obsolete.

[@Matruchus]

Steam Deck 2 is already being planned for next year. Gabe hinted in the latest IGN interview that they will release a new version next year, cause there is a demand for better CPUs and bigger SSDs in the Deck.

[@m.israel2209]

@@Matruchus I actually just read that 😂

[@m.israel2209]

@@Matruchus should I just cancel my order ?

[@paul1979uk2000]

Valve is making it easy to replace parts on the Deck but as for upgrading the hardware, that seems highly unlikely considering the tight design with the exception of the SSD and battery. Going on what the other comments are saying, looks like Steam is releasing a Deck 2 next year, not sure there will be a big enough improvement on the apu by then as I think 2 to 3 year cycles would be a better choice for a bigger upgrade but then every year is fine as we can skip a gen or 2 and upgrade when the upgrade is big enough.

[@Lestibournes]

I assume they aim for releasing a new device every 2-3 years. Even other consoles release a new generation every 5-7 years, not 8-10.

[@LazyGuyCoyote]

I don’t mind the issues. I feel like it’s a revolutionary piece of hardware. It’s a handheld pc, the short battery life does suck but I don’t find myself playing for more than 2 hours, and this is more an issue on demanding games at high settings / frame rates.

[@MissyMalaprop]

sure you can set the Steam Deck to have its battery die in 1 hour pretty easy. I can also do that with my laptop... or I can have it last 5 hours... it all depends how you use it. I do think in all the options they added the user can configure, they should have an Atuomatic mode instead that lets the users have a simple slider bar between performance and battery life that handles all the hard things. Yes many power users like all those options and understand them all, but that is not every (or most) users.

[@_sparrowhawk]

But we're already getting drift 3 days into the Steamdeck. WTF dude?

[@dzibanart8521]

I mean it wouldn't hurt if developers make sure UI elements and mid / low res textures look great on steam. Also devs should really think on enabling anti-cheat on this thing.

[@PiNPOiNT2K]

typos all over the blog and the company name is Valve, who you interviewed.

[@LegionIscariot]

I heard alot of criticism about the Decks battery life. So i searched other handheld pc's battery life and they all seem to have the same issue. This is to be expected when running AAA pc games on battery. Best thing to do on the Deck is limit fps, lower resolution and use FSR.

[@dontworry7440]

I mean, the Switch launched with the same battery life expectancy (2-8 hours depending on the game). The criticism around the Deck’s battery life is strange.

[@trashsombra2793]

right, it's like the guy just put everything on max

[@nivozi1694]

@Trash Sombra Because the thing they all jump into is an actual stress of every setting on max to see how long it would last under that condition.

[@ADreamingTraveler]

@@dontworry7440 Yeah I noticed that too. If anything if you tinker with settings enough you can actually get better battery life than the Switch did for high end games. But that requires using FSR, 30fps cap, lowering graphical settings and taking the resolution down to 720 or 540p. But it's possible to get much more battery life

[@wolfpox]

I'm way more excited about SteamOS than the device itself (although it's a very good deal and I hope it sells millions)

[@FlyinElk212]

I’m not usually an early adopter of consoles. The Switch was the first I got right on launch. I’m tempted to do the same here, but need to wait to see more games be compatible with it first

[@randgrithr7387]

Check ProtonDB for a more matured playability list. About 75% of Steam games run on the Deck's OS.

[@cad2057]

If you have not already put a reservation in you won't be an early adopter it's sold through q4 which is the end of the year if your lucky so good luck with your wait because it will be until next year.

[@misira8256]

So how many games were on switch at launch?

[@varatic644]

@@cad2057 damn i reserved mine on feb 12th

[@FlyinElk212]

@@misira8256 lol good point. To be fair I feel like Breath of Wild is one of those revolutionary games that counts as more than one game. The Steam Deck has an uphill battle bc it’s not introducing new games or IPs, it’s just porting things that already work on Steam PC

[@hefdjwewj]

I will never forget thumbstick on psp, it was incredibly high Quality made, never faced an issue with it in over a decade

[@ADreamingTraveler]

The verified list of games thing is funny considering some games that are under Unsupported literally work fine on the steam deck lmao. Also you need to tinker with settings if you want AAA high end games to run longer than 1.5-2 hours...if you lower framerate to 30fps and lower resolution to 720p instead of 800p you can get around 2.5-3.5 hours for games like Control or Cyberpunk 2077. This is around the same amount of time you could get with Breath of the Wild on the original switch. And if you want to get even longer battery life? You can lower graphical settings or even go down to 540p res and use FSR

[@AndersHass]

Well better to make sure nobody on the verified/playable have issue than making sure unsupported actually works fine (sadly not the case for all of them). It might also be very limited the game is unsupported like specific game mode or something that crashes the game (which could have been specified if it is the case tbh). But the beauty of the openness of the Steam Deck is you are allowed to install so called unsupported games anyway. Where you could easily try that on other consoles.

[@northernseeker1822]

30 frames limit should be turn on by default as well as medium or low graphic settings. Getting ~2hrs of battery. Lowering resolution to 540p or 400p for ~3-4hrs.

[@endaoconnor]

I was very lucky and I got my purchase email friday. I will have the steamdeck this week, can't wait to try it out.

[@SlyNine]

I think it would be great if devs spent a bit of time optimizing games for steam deck. Optimizing settings, shaders, ect. Even a low level rendering path next to the standard version. It's more of a console. I think they're missing the mark on that one.

[@dio8070]

I hope valve if you read this Try to make it 50-52 watts of battery 15 watts is the limit and around 4-5 watts to the actually idle/ software use So that could get you close to your 2 hour full advantage target After that you can leave the battery alone

[@roqeyt3566]

From what Valve said, they put in the biggest battery they could Sadly, to keep the weight and size down, they had to go with the 40w/h version I believe they're working through big steps in drivers to get battery life where it should be, but as a user you should also take steps such as lowering details and frame rates

[@stan110]

I don't think they should keep the apu arount 15 watts max. I think they added a great option in the os to have manual control over the tdp, clock and frame cap. So you can set it how ever you want.

[@roqeyt3566]

@@stan110 i think they did that to avoid people melting the device due to the cooling getting overwhelmed You can let the device run at an overclock with a higher tdp still

[@dio8070]

@@roqeyt3566 ik I will keep the details lower I was just wondering is it was even possible to get a bigger battery or would the new updates help improve the battery is what I was wondering Thanks for giving me a nice explanation

[@dio8070]

@@stan110 you can go up to 25 watts from what I have heard 15 watts is the limit

[@lusteraliaszero]

the whole battery life thing seems kinda.. fabricated? we knew long ago how this battery would fare. and now all the reviewers are surprised?

[@nivozi1694]

Media outlets blew the stress test out of proportion that Gamers Nexus did with the Steam Deck. For clicks and all.

[@lusteraliaszero]

@@nivozi1694 but they choose to overlook that... every competitor fares worse by a fair bit? it seems so silly

[@nivozi1694]

@lusteraliaszero Steam Decks the hottest thing right now, so any negative points it has will generate clicks for whatever article or video they will post. Hence more money coming their way. And yes, anybody with half a brain will know that the battery life is dependent on how you're gonna tweak the settings of the Steam Deck. After all, the selling point of it is because its a PC in a hand-held format.

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

Imagine this thing with solid state battery. Would at least double the battery life.

[@mamaharumi]

All the problems so far are just software issues which can be fixed. It'll only get better as more and more actual users get their deck. Also the size is great, glad they didn't go smaller.

[@Rooster_Ric]

Bold claim

[@herewego1067]

Wait before buying ? It's already a 1 year wait to get if if you order today.

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

5 months for me and i ordered two days after going live. So yup a year at minimum for people who order now.

[@mistermysteryman107]

Terrible battery life, some D sticks don’t work on arrival. Some fans have a high pitched BRRRRRRR. Good job Valve.

[@thegamegallery8091]

Like the Switch, someone will come up with an attachable battery to extend the power. Thing is, it can’t be that big because the SD is already a beast.

[@TheCaptainSplatter]

Probably best to go with a battery bank with a long cable that is out of the way to prevent it getting too heavy. Battery bank is gonna be a must for this

[@brutalness]

It's not a console it's a PC. Valve even market as a portable gaming PC

[@Ricos12345]

Imo they gave us nothing in these answers

[@shyrory]

Witcher 3 is 2015, it's not current gen

[@rahul875]

Steam os 3.0 release date

[@chrits3396]

With this ship shortage going on and the price increase throughout the years, it probably best to buy it now and let the software issues iron itself out later. Considering that Valve is also selling it and exact price of manufacturing and distribution, it would also be wise to get one before the scalpers inflate the price.

[@ShadowMan64572]

As much as I'm dying to get my hands on it, I wouldn't call it some "incredible" feat in tech for a handheld. I mean, it's at least a generation ahead of the Switch, which came out 5 years ago, so it's to be expected that it's this powerful.

[@paul1979uk2000]

The Steam Deck is able to emulate the Switch which isn't an easy task for any hardware that's a generation ahead and we should remember that these are PC games that are not designed and optimized around the device whiles also running on a different OS. The truth is, the Switch was dated when it was released, now it's a lot more so and the Steam Deck is showing how much Nintendo is ripping off gamers as the Steam Deck only cost a little more than it.

[@roqeyt3566]

It's several generations ahead, the switch is running on a 7 year old tegra GPU, basically just an old phone Most games on the switch are made for that specifically Anything running full fat PC games with no changes, is absolutely amazing

[@megadeth8592]

lmao no

[@ShadowMan64572]

@@paul1979uk2000 I just hope it'll run the Switch games I want to play with little to no issues. Switch games are expensive lol

[@joeblack7262]

These been out since the switch came out. It only too 2 year's after to be more powerful than the switch.

[@liamcollinson5695]

I have a pre order for q2 2022 but I may just cancel it mainly down to battery life it is already a big device so 30mins of AAA of gaming is not good since I don't want too drag a monster power bank around as well

[@mrgamehead9027]

Cancel it so I could move up in line😁

[@noimnotakpoppfpsheacy2526]

Who said 30minutes? And the battery life can be improved with some diy tweaking

[@joeblack7262]

Please cancel, we don't need dumb people using this.

[@liamcollinson5695]

@@joeblack7262 I don't remember asking your opinion I know how to work computers but it does not matter how good you are if the device is riddled with bugs

[@shkhrvarshney]

@@liamcollinson5695 use 30 fps cap and you'll be fine. The 30 minutes is not even the default settings it's made to stress test

[@Continus]

I knew battery life was gonna be #1... Lets face it. "they" will never be happy with the battery life.

[@ADreamingTraveler]

Yeah except I don't think the WP understand just how much battery life you can squeeze out of high end games since you can tinker with it. Lowering the framerate, graphical settings and resolution can give you way more battery life than even the Switch could give you with Breath of the Wild on the original units

[@dio8070]

For the why big I’d say you somewhat wrong It is big but the weight is being distributed so it seems normal unlike some of the other handhelds that’s re way too big and heavy

[@JustSomeRandomIdiot]

Feel sorry for anyone ordering one of these days. I got my order in months ago and if I'm lucky I might get mine in .. 6 months? If you order today if you're lucky you might get in 2022. Maybe.

[@amurika6336]

1hr battery life

[@MrHandsy]

"Poor battery life ... playing God Of War" ..... ahahahahahahahaha

[@JamesGowan]

The switch is great for smaller hands. The Steam Deck is better for man hands (the main demographic Valve is looking at.)

[@Rooster_Ric]

What a sad perspective. But you struggled to find a victory where it doesn't exist, and no one can say otherwise!

[@shkhrvarshney]

I've small hands and I'm a guy lmao. Honestly they should have some kind of attachment stuff to make grips bigger or smaller for hand sizes

[@hellsong23]

It's a PC not a console.

[@Lestibournes]

It presents itself as a console by default. You can exit the console interface to switch to a full-fledged desktop.

[@Rooster_Ric]

"You know it's going to be worth getting" before you play it? That's a lot of bias, especially towards a device that is outright failing to play certain games.

[@shialecuck4149]

Nathen Cringeson