Steam Deck’s Battery Life Might Be Worse than Advertised, but SD Card Load Times Are Surprisingly Fast

[Tsing]

Image: Valve



Valve has promised that the Steam Deck’s 40 WHr battery can provide anywhere from two to eight hours of gameplay, but initial reviews of the portable PC have revealed that the system can run out of juice at a quicker rate unless users dial down their game settings considerably. They include those from GamersNexus and The Phawx, both of whom found that the Steam Deck’s battery can be drained in 90 minutes or less unless gamers enable settings such as framerate caps and Vsync, both of which can extend the playtime of the system so it better meets the lower limits promised by Valve. The Phawx noted that he was never able to get the Steam Deck to last eight hours, however.















The Steam Deck can drain its battery in 90 minutes if you don’t cap your fps...

Continue reading...

 

[SeymourGore]

It makes sense uncapped framerates would drain that battery quick.

I'm thinking we'll see better battery life once Valve has their software ready to go (ie: optimized brightness/performance levels, Steam OS tweaks, etc).

I'm eating up the videos for this device, really feeling pumped for it. Especially with potential travel (and a newborn coming up), I can see myself making a lot of use from the Deck.

 

[Grimlakin]

From reviews I've been seeing this thing rocks. Might not be whatever hours they say but already it's half the price of it's competitors and BETTER than them as well.

these things WILL be purchased by scalpers in bulk if possible. 100% guaranteed get yours now or you won't be getting one for anything close to these launch prices.

 

[Brian_B]

these things WILL be purchased by scalpers in bulk if possible. 100% guaranteed get yours now or you won't be getting one for anything close to these launch prices.

If you are in a hurry yes, but it seems Valve is maybe the only retailer in the world doing the right thing and accepting orders in a queue without any funny business. If you want one, just pay the deposit and it’ll come when it rolls off the assembly line. I don’t know why more aren’t doing this - it’s a basic concept.

EVGA almost did, but it’s always been … cagey, and lately they have been playing shenanigans with it.

 

[Dogsofjune]

My truck has a power port, I have a solar panel....

 

[Paul_Johnson]

Ah, the Sega Nomad lives on!

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Well, even at 90 minutes it's close to on-par, or better, than most gaming laptops when they are actually used for gaming so that's still not bad.

 

[Grimlakin]

Well, even at 90 minutes it's close to on-par, or better, than most gaming laptops when they are actually used for gaming so that's still not bad.

I'm waiting for someone to make an enclosure to make this thing into a fully useable laptop function. For the price it's a high performance laptop in a smaller form factor.