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Steam Deck - "battery life is between 2-5 hours depending on APU load."

Fafalada

Fafracer forever
Unless you really force it both Windows or Linux will run at different power profile (lower frequencies) without being plugged to energy.
That's configurable on the OS level - presumably the image Deck ships with is just setup to do only one. Doubt that anything will stop you from setting up your own (especially if you install Windows on the thing) though.
Also some of the GPD devices can already exceed 1.6TFlop plugged-in - their thermals can handle it. So it'll be interesting to see if there's a higher max-Watt envelope that Deck can handle.
Docking also allows to turn-off the screen, which can help with thermal headroom. Eg. docking noticeably boosts the power-ceiling on Surface Book series (where CPU is inside the screen tablet) due to better thermals.
 
Does Anker or another company have a brand new car cig lighter usb c charger that will keep this thing topped up?
I have one for the Switch but the best it can do is keep the battery from draining. It' can't play AND charge at the same time.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
Does Anker or another company have a brand new car cig lighter usb c charger that will keep this thing topped up?
I have one for the Switch but the best it can do is keep the battery from draining. It' can't play AND charge at the same time.
You can get a $15 power inverter for your car and plug your power adapter into that.
 

Impotaku

Member
I expect something like this will exist for the deck. I don't mind the battery life, because I expected it. I hope the batteries are excellent quality though. GPD has put out multiple systems now with varying levels of battery malfunction. I trust Valve to put more thought into it than that, but it still makes me a little uneasy.


yibh0C4.jpg
Will need something more like this LOL on the upside you will be able to play it for well over a day nonstop.
Jackery-Explorer-500-1.jpg
 
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Kupfer

Member
Does Anker or another company have a brand new car cig lighter usb c charger that will keep this thing topped up?
I have one for the Switch but the best it can do is keep the battery from draining. It' can't play AND charge at the same time.
According to the official Steam Deck tech specs, you will need a 45w PD 3.0 car charger, which is available by different brands.
KU8gyQG.jpg
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
Yeah, that's to be expected. I'm planning on using it around the house for a premium emulation machine and also as a supplementary gaming PC that can be thrown into a backpack and used for impromptu LAN parties. I don't think I'm buff enough to hold it up for more than 2hrs, so it works out.
 
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You can get a $15 power inverter for your car and plug your power adapter into that.
looks like an inverter for your car is the only way currently available to get over 40 Watts out of a cigarett lighter. Anker has one on their web page that dc/dc gets 39 watts. Not enough.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
looks like an inverter for your car is the only way currently available to get over 40 Watts out of a cigarett lighter. Anker has one on their web page that dc/dc gets 39 watts. Not enough.
I have a 100 watt power inverter that I got for $11 that i use to charge my laptop while I'm driving. They're pretty handy.
 

ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
Honestly going to cancel my preorder soon this is the last straw I don't really have a reason to buy this anymore rather get a new phone since Snapdragon 888 and up can emulate everything I care about.
Plus my interest in modern gaming handheld or otherwise is nil at this point
 

KAL2006

Banned
I've said this shit a 100 times, but people buying Steam Deck to play portable games around the house should consider in home streaming if they already own a gaming PC or console. The latency is really good as long as you make sure your PC or console is connected via ethernet cable.

It's superior to Steam Deck in many ways due to better graphics (as game is running on an actual console or gaming PC and nota handheld) as well as way better battery life as all your handheld device is doing is streaming video.

It's upto you if you want to play something like Cyberpunk at low graphic setting and 30fps with 2 hour battery life or max graphics setting, 60fps and plenty of battery life.
 
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IntentionalPun

Ask me about my wife's perfect butthole
According to the official Steam Deck tech specs, you will need a 45w PD 3.0 car charger, which is available by different brands.
KU8gyQG.jpg
Works fine with the Switch charger.

Couple cell phone chargers I've tried it with.

My charger for my MacBook Pro.
 

Kupfer

Member
I've said this shit a 100 times, but people buying Steam Deck to play portable games around the house should consider in home streaming if they already own a gaming PC or console. The latency is really good as long as you make sure your PC or console is connected via ethernet cable.

It's superior to Steam Deck in many ways due to better graphics (as game is running on an actual console or gaming PC and nota handheld) as well as way better battery life as all your handheld device is doing is streaming video.

It's upto you if you want to play something like Cyberpunk at low graphic setting and 30fps with 2 hour battery life or max graphics setting, 60fps and plenty of battery life.
I think the people who only want to play modern AAA games on it and see the deck as a substitute for a modern PC should lower their expectations quite a bit and probably don't belong to Valve's intended target group, as these people would be disappointed and vent their displeasure online.

The deck will be a great machine for classics up to the PS360 era, an emulation monster, a dream for indie games and a great way to, as you say, stream demanding games to bed or sofa. But having options is always a great thing, even if that means a Cyberpunk or Death Stranding just runs for 2 hours.

I'm excited to see the performance between PS5 and Deck, and hope to get a worthy Vita remote play successor with Deck.

IntentionalPun IntentionalPun
Works fine with the Switch charger.

Couple cell phone chargers I've tried it with.

My charger for my MacBook Pro.

Does the Switch charger (39W @ 15V*2.6amp) load the battery under full apu load?

Does the Deck bypass the batterie if it's fully loaded and run from the charger only?

Is it possible to manually disable the battery when that is the battery charge, say at 60%, to save the battery from cycles and wearout and only power the deck from the USB charger at said specific charge?
 
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Fredrik

Member
In this interview, Pierre-Loup Griffais from Valve states out, that it can vary between 2-8 hours, which matches the interviewed devs' statement.



8 hours will be most likely only be possible when you are streaming the games according to this statement
Better than my launch Switch, which has served me well for 4 years. No concern here. 👍
 

KAL2006

Banned
I think the people who only want to play modern AAA games on it and see the deck as a substitute for a modern PC should lower their expectations quite a bit and probably don't belong to Valve's intended target group, as these people would be disappointed and vent their displeasure online.

The deck will be a great machine for classics up to the PS360 era, an emulation monster, a dream for indie games and a great way to, as you say, stream demanding games to bed or sofa. But having options is always a great thing, even if that means a Cyberpunk or Death Stranding just runs for 2 hours.

I'm excited to see the performance between PS5 and Deck, and hope to get a worthy Vita remote play successor with Deck.

Classic PS360 era is such a niche target, and alot of these classic PS360 era games have been ported to current gen consoles and are on PC which guess what you can stream. Emulation monster? Emulation works on a toaster these days upto PS1, majority of smart phones can emulate quite well.
 

Kupfer

Member
Classic PS360 era is such a niche target, and alot of these classic PS360 era games have been ported to current gen consoles and are on PC which guess what you can stream. Emulation monster? Emulation works on a toaster these days upto PS1, majority of smart phones can emulate quite well.
Even if what you say isn't wrong, I don't understand why you're writing it. Do you want to deny the deck its raison d'être or spoil the fun for people who are looking forward to it? Maybe not everyone has the game scenario like you in mind and uses the deck completely different and tailored to their own needs.

Speaking for myself, I prefer a dedicated handheld to any smartphone, no matter how powerful, because I don't want to use my smartphone for gaming.
And I don't think games up until until 2006 / 2007 are niche. I will definitely enjoy the Half Life games, Dead Space, Kane & Lynch, the old Hitman games, the Max Payne trilogy, Brütal Legend and countless others on the deck again - games that I don't feel like playing on the "real" PC anymore.
 

KAL2006

Banned
Even if what you say isn't wrong, I don't understand why you're writing it. Do you want to deny the deck its raison d'être or spoil the fun for people who are looking forward to it? Maybe not everyone has the game scenario like you in mind and uses the deck completely different and tailored to their own needs.

Speaking for myself, I prefer a dedicated handheld to any smartphone, no matter how powerful, because I don't want to use my smartphone for gaming.
And I don't think games up until until 2006 / 2007 are niche. I will definitely enjoy the Half Life games, Dead Space, Kane & Lynch, the old Hitman games, the Max Payne trilogy, Brütal Legend and countless others on the deck again - games that I don't feel like playing on the "real" PC anymore.

The Steam Deck is great if you love to game outdoors or when travelling. Or maybe you will use it as an actual PC and don't own a PC. There are use case scenarios like that. But what I'm saying if you only planning to play retro games on it or game at home there are far cheaper options. If you don't like gaming on your smartphone you can pick up a 2nd smartphone for super cheap with a Razor Kishi and use it exclusively for emulation and game streaming. It would be far cheaper than a Steam Deck. Hell some cheaper phones even have a better quality OLED screen and you can stream in 1080p instead of 720p.
 

Mr Branding

Member
It was expected, and all recent mobile devices last kind of the same.
Don’t be fooled, some of the concerned and dissapointed folks in here were not going to get one anyway.
Can’t wait for mine!
 
This is gonna fail and Ykno what valve and lord Gaben will do? Abandon it. the thing will be punted in future steam sales with a heavy discount to try get rid of stock.

if you want one, for some odd reason, then wait And get yourself a discount.

to valve this isn’t anything serious. They have the money to piss up the walls. It’s a nice little experiment for them. If it succeeds then great but if it doesn’t...whatever. Scrap it and move on.

look at their previous hardware…steam link, steam controller, steam machine. all rubbish and valve ditched it. The only good hardware they’ve sold would be the Index.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Dunno why people are surprised 2 hours that was always the target with that chip.

Anyway, i want to see some windows + game performance. If this thing can run RTS games flawlessly i will probably pick one up.
 

CS Lurker

Member
Given the power, that rumor sounds good.

The OLED Switch battery drains reallly fast for me and I have it at about 1/3 brightness at all times. Feels less than 4 hours for sure.

With brightness and sound at 100%, and Wi-Fi on, you should get at least 5 hours with the most demanding games (something like Metroid Dread (also with these settings) should give you more than 6 hours).

Maybe there's an issue with your unit.
 

BigBooper

Member
Bunch of window lickers posting in here. How can it be a failure if it's closest competition is twice the price with less performance?

Maybe it won't revolutionize linux gaming and maybe it won't be iterated on in the future, but that hardly classifies it as a failure.
 

Sentenza

Member
I'm not sure what people expected.
There's no "secret magic" to solve this type of issue. What modern batteries are capable of is limited by what is technically feasible today.

There's a reason if a revolution/breakthrough in battery tech is the Holy Grail a lot of companies are chasing after these days.
 
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Tams

Gold Member
Isn’t the Switch only around 0.2 TF in handheld mode? 0.4–0.5 TF is for docked only, I believe. Though that makes me wonder, does the Deck have a ‘docked’ mode too? Or is it always operating at full power?

Anyway, battery life for handhelds has been atrocious ever since the launch of the original 3DS. The PSP early in its life was pretty bad too, but that could be excused back then by its incredible power for a mobile device, which was simply unparalleled. The same couldn’t be said for the 3DS, which wasn’t exactly a powerhouse even when it launched, nor was the Switch tbh.

A dedicated handheld gaming device should have at least 10 hours of battery life, especially considering handhelds seem to be getting bigger and bigger each generation, otherwise what’s the point? Seriously, the Switch is absolutely monstrous compared to something like the GBA (even the Switch Lite is huge, nevermind the Deck lol), so you’d think there’s enough space in these devices for big juicy batteries, but apparently not.
Tell me you know absolutely nothing about battery technology without actually telling me it.
 

Tschumi

Member
Of all games, a RTS isn't exactly what I'd count as my first choice to play on a handheld PC with a 7 inches screen.
For me a big part of the potential appeal of the 'deck is pc on the go, for me it's just a reasonable example of a game you certainly wouldn't see in a normal portable
 
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