Battery Life Details for Steam Deck

Releasing on the 24th of February, The Steam Deck is set to be the Switch’s newest rival when it comes to handheld gaming entertainment. But before Valve can think of competing for the top spot, they may want to address some glaring issues.

Various YouTubers and game developers that have gotten their hands on the early models of the Steam Deck have all got the same complaint about the console: its battery life is low and not as advertised.

Popular gaming YouTube channels, The Phawx and Gamers Nexus, both came to the conclusion that the Steam Deck could not live up to the battery life promises that Steam made, after running thorough tests.

It was found that running high-performance games such as Devil May Cry 5 and Forza Horizon 5 with settings applied for peak performance, like having the graphics at maximum, an uncapped frame rate, and with V Sync on led to the console lasting for only up to 80 to 90 minutes.

But Valve themselves have stated on their website as to what the ideal settings for the Steam Deck should be for it to last the 2-8 hour battery life they claimed it to have.

Valve has added the disclaimer that you can maintain the 2-8 hour battery life only when running titles at 30 FPS, 50% brightness, and 50% volume. Which for the most part, is true.

When both the YouTubers played a less strenuous game like Dead Cells, and additionally capping it at 60 FPS, the battery life was pushed up to 6 hours, in both cases.

That being said, no YouTuber or game developer has been able to see any game make the Steam Deck hit the maximum 8 hour battery life benchmark, regardless of the amount that they lowered the quality of the settings.