STEAM DECK NEWS – SteamOS 3.6.19 from Valve may improve battery life so you don’t have to plug your handheld PC in so quickly.

The Steam Deck has become one of the most popular handheld PCs, but it’s not perfect software-wise (nothing is). That’s why Valve frequently updates SteamOS (which is Linux-based), and here’s version 3.6.19. For example, it fixes a bug that caused the framerate limiter to not work properly in certain situations, or the sound output to be distorted during certain boot-ups. Stability has been improved, more quality of life improvements have been added, but one interesting feature is that Steam Deck makes better use of the microSD card when using it. Some SanDisk microSD cards were not recognized by Steam Deck and this has been fixed.

The Steam Deck with LCD offers up to 10% better battery life under lighter loads (e.g. browsing) before the battery runs out. They also touched on tuning options in case anyone is interested in overclocking. And the Steam Deck OLED (which already had better battery life) has caught up to the CD model by supporting the Windows Bluetooth driver.

How do you install the latest SteamOS? It’s not difficult: it’s done automatically if you’re connected and in hibernation mode, but if you want to update manually, go to Settings, then System Options, and tap Search for updates. If you find one, the device will download and install it. If it doesn’t, check your internet connection and make sure you don’t already have SteamOS 3.6.19 installed.

So Steam Deck is constantly evolving on the software side. Hardware-wise, don’t hold your breath just yet. We’ve already written that Valve doesn’t plan to release new models every year with minimal updates, but will only release a new generation model when there’s a significant hardware improvement, and that could be AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU. It will also be used by the Lenovo Legion Go, which could come with three new models at a time.

Source: PCGamer, Valve