Steam Deck is one of the best handheld gaming device that lets you play a wide range of Steam titles on the go. While portable gaming consoles are great for playing anywhere, it can be frustrating when the battery drains quickly. So you might have question about the battery life and the best things you can apply to make your Steam Deck battery last longer. Here I will share best settings to extend Steam Deck’s battery life.
Having a good idea of the tips and tricks to help extend or save the battery life of the Steam Deck is significant. These tips are more useful when you take your portable Steam Deck with you while traveling or when charging ports are not readily available.
Steam Deck’s Battery Life
Before we dig into the various steps that you can follow to extend the battery life on your Steam Deck, let’s first take a look at what battery life the Steam Deck can give you.
There are two variants of the Steam Deck. One comes with an LCD screen and the other model is one with an OLED screen. While it’s just different screen types, what difference would it make? Well, there is a difference in the battery specification and consumption between the LCD model and the OLED model.
The LCD model of the Steam Deck comes with a 40Whr battery. This battery can give you gameplay times between 2 hours and 8 hours. Of course, it depends on the type of game you are playing. A heavy and resource-demanding game will give you a shorter battery life.
Moving to the OLED variant of the Steam Deck, you can get 3 to 12 hours of gameplay time on the 50Whr battery. A bigger battery on the OLED gives you a little more battery backup than the LCD screen model.
One thing to note is that you will get around these stated battery lifetimes depending on the game as well as certain settings. The estimates provided by Steam are based on a Steam Deck running a game at 30 FPS at 50 percent brightness and volume. If you have values that are more or less, then your mileage with the battery life will vary.
Steam Deck Settings To Extend The Battery Life
Everyone needs to ensure they get the best battery life on their Steam Deck, which is not possible with the default settings. Now, here are the steps that you can follow to help extend the battery life of your Steam Deck when gaming.
Turn Off Bluetooth on the Steam Deck
If you are gaming on your Steam Deck and don’t have to use any wireless controller or Bluetooth headset, it is ideal to have the Bluetooth on your Steam Deck switched off. Here is how you can do that.
- Press the Steam Button on your Steam Deck to pull up the Menu.
- Select the Settings option followed by Bluetooth from the sidebar.
- Simply select the toggle to switch off Bluetooth.
Enable Airplane Mode on the Steam Deck
This is a good tip to follow if you are playing games that require no internet connection. Instead of individually turning off the Wi-Fi and then the Bluetooth on your Steam Deck, simply turn both off at the same time by using the Airplane Mode. Here is what you need to do.
- Grab your Steam Deck and press the Steam button on the left.
- Select the Quick Settings options and choose Airplane Mode.
- All you need to do is switch the toggle on and that is it.
- You now have Airplane Mode enabled on the Steam Deck.
Change The Frame Rate For Your Games
One of the many reasons why people prefer getting themselves a Steam Deck is simply that they can enjoy a lot of their favorite games at 60 FPS. However, if you are in the mood to conserve the battery for your Steam Deck, it would be sensible to cap your games at 30 FPS. Here is how you can change the frame rate.
- Press the three dots button on your Steam Deck.
- Now select the Performance option and pick the Use per-game profile option.
- Select the game of your choice and then adjust the Refresh Rate slider.
- Move the slider towards 40 Hz.
- Next, you will be able to change the Frameable Limit for your games on the Steam Deck.
- Simply drag the soldier towards 30-40 FPS.
With your Steam Deck running at a lower refresh rate and playing games below 40 FPS, you should be able to get some extra battery life.
Adjust Display Brightness of Your Steam Deck
Another way to save a little more battery life on your Steam Deck is by playing with the screen or display brightness. You can stick the brightness percentage to 50% or lower, whichever you are comfortable with. Here is how you can change the brightness level on your Steam Deck.
- Press the Steam button and select Settings.
- Choose Display.
- Now, drag the brightness slider and adjust the brightness level to your liking. Anywhere around the 50% mark should be good enough.
Reduce the FSR Sharpness
FSR is a way to upscale the image quality and game performance. In the case of the Steam Deck, FSR is built right into the OS. So whatever changes you make will affect your game as well as the overall user elements of the Steam Deck. You can decide to reduce it to get some battery life out of the Steam Deck. Here is how you can change that.
- Press the Steam button on the left side of the Steam Deck.
- Scroll and select the Performance option.
- Here you will see the FSR Sharpness slider.
- Drag the slider to the left and move it between the 1 and 3 levels.
Disable Auto Updates
Now when the Steam Deck is connected to the internet, like a lot of devices, it will automatically begin to download and install apps and game updates to your devices. It happens in the background and consumes battery, so you may want to disable it for better battery life. Here is how you can pause or stop the auto updates on your Steam Deck.
- Press the Steam button and select Settings.
- Navigate to Downloads and finally to Schedule auto updates.
- Turn off or disable this feature. Your Steam deck will no longer download and update apps, thus reducing the need to consume battery unnecessarily.
Close Open Programs That You Won’t Be Suing
Whether you are gaming or just going to be browsing the internet, it is always best to close all open apps and programs that you aren’t using. This helps to reduce the CPU and memory load and helps save some battery life when the programs aren’t running. So, always keep programs that you don’t use closed all the time.
Enable Battery Storage Mode for Steam Deck
A lot of devices out there have interesting battery-saving or power-saving modes. The same goes for the Steam Deck. In the case of the Steam Deck, you’ll have to dig into the BIOS to enable this battery-saver feature.
- First, switch off your Steam Deck.
- Once the device is powered off, press and hold the Volume+ and Power keys.
- The BIOS of your Steam Deck should pop up.
- Select the Setup Utility option and then choose Power Menu.
- Finally, highlight the Battery Storage Mode and enable this feature.
- Exit the BIOS and restart your Steam Deck. The battery-saver mode has now been enabled.
While you see some battery improvements, you will also have some slow performance in the overall usage of the Steam Deck.
Disconnect or Unplug Any External Devices or Accessories
If you are using wireless earphones or have a mouse or keyboard plugged into your Steam Deck, it is best to remove all of these devices from the Steam Deck. With such devices connected, the Steam Deck will have to power these devices, resulting in a battery drain. With the devices unplugged or not connected to your Steam Deck, the battery usage will be reduced, thus giving you a little more time to enjoy your games.
Set Your Game’s Graphics To Medium or Low
Enjoying games at their highest graphics settings is always good, as you get to see more details. However, in the case of a portable device like the Steam Deck, setting the game’s graphics settings to medium or low should be good enough, when you are using it on battery. These low or medium graphics settings reduce the power needed by your GPU and CPU to run the game, thus sparing your battery life.
Reduce Your Steam Deck’s Screen Resolution
Playing your games on a lower resolution can help the device to use less power for your screen. Since the Steam Deck is a handheld device, playing it at a reduced resolution will still keep your game playable. Here is how you can change the display resolution.
- Press the Steam buttons and choose Settings.
- Now, select Display followed by External Display Scaling.
- Here you can simply pick a lower resolution. You can select to play at 720p or even lower if you are willing to get a little more battery life out of your Steam Deck.
This concludes all the steps and measures you can take to extend the battery life of your Steam Deck. Apart from all of these steps, it is also ideal to maintain the health of your Steam Deck’s battery by using the included charger to charge the Steam Deck. Wrong or incorrect charges for your Steam Deck can cause the battery to degrade, resulting in reduced battery life. If you have other tips, feel free to list them below. Also, do try these steps and extend the battery life of your Steam Deck.
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