Previews reveal shocking Steam Deck battery life
The Steam Deck's battery life has been revealed
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With press previews of the Steam Deck landing, we’ve got a peek at the potential battery life of the Steam Deck. With this RDNA 2 and Zen 2-based APU running onboard in a small form factor, many have been worried about Valve’s claims of 2-8 hours of battery life on Steam Deck, based on what you might be playing. However, anyone can take a peek and realize that it’s a pretty huge ballpark to hit. Then, with people finally getting hands-on, we’re starting to see the true Battery Life get revealed.
With the Steam Deck having access to multitudes of options and TDP options, as we’ve previously covered, battery life becomes something that is difficult to quantify. You’re not going to be draining your battery at the same rate when you’re playing Dead Cells at 30FPS vs CS:GO with no frame limiter. One is just more demanding than the other, there are no other ways about it.
Steam Deck battery life
Valve purports that the Steam Deck’s battery life is around two to eight hours, dependent upon usage. However, GamersNexus has discovered that in certain scenarios, the Steam Deck’s battery life can be around 90 minutes, if you are running with no frame limiter on a modern video game. Of course, this is an extreme fringe case and is not reflective of what real-world usage might look like. We doubt that many people will be playing Devil May Cry V at over 100fps at 50% brightness on a Steam Deck when really 60fps is all you need on the powerful handheld itself. So, while yes, it can be drained to that degree and only last around 90 minutes, it’s a little misleading to think that the Steam Deck has only 90 minutes of Battery life.
However, it’s not all bad news. Dead Cells managed to last around six hours with the settings that The Phawx tested. Ultimately, a key thing about using the Steam Deck is going to be the settings that you are going to be able to adjust on the console itself. Plopping a game’s settings down with all the bells and whistles turned off with the lowest brightness setting possible and limiting the framerate to 5fps might give you incredible battery life. But there is going to be a sweet spot around a 30fps target for most modern titles that should sit comfortably within that two to eight-hour mark that Valve purports.
The key thing is that it’s all going to be down to you. Playing fast-paced titles that might feel much better to play at 60fps is just going to be a simple tradeoff that users are going to have to make, and honestly? If you’re already familiar with PC gaming it’s not too bad. The danger lies with more inexperienced users cranking all of their settings to maximum, with wild framerates that the Steam Deck’s display won’t support anyway, and blasting out maximum brightness that will really put the device’s battery through the wringer. Keep it conservative and you’re likely to be able to succeed.
How to get the most battery life from your Steam Deck
ur battery life is going to be by turning down the framerate settings on your Steam Deck, in addition to adjusting the TDP of the system, as well as gunning for a 30fps limit on most modern titles. More demanding games are always going to want more power, so once you have adjusted your TDP, it won’t go over those limits. Additionally, if you look to limit your frame rate in-game, you are able to push the power demand a little bit lower, again meaning that the system will draw less power, and therefore extend your battery life. Push any of these factors higher, and you will surely be in for a bad time. Additionally, you can also save a good chunk of battery life simply by ensuring that your battery is slightly lower, which will in turn mean that you’re going to save a whole load of battery life. Addionally, if you are playing games offline, be sure to turn off settings like WiFi and Bluetooth if you’re not going to be using them. Then, in summary, you just need a couple of simple tips to help your Steam Deck last a little bit longer.
- Lower the Steam Deck’s TDP
- Target 30fps instead of 60
- Push your screen brightness lower
- Turn off unnecessary features if you’re not using them
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