The Steam Deck battery does not seem to be among the most powerful around, at least according to tests carried out by RockPaperShotgun on a series of large-caliber titles. Indeed, with some famous productions, Valve’s portable platform may not even reach two hours of autonomy.
For example, setting the machine to 50% brightness, without activating dynamic brightness, and keeping airplane mode off, with a game like Elden Ring the Steam Deck battery only holds up to 93 minutes.
Similar tests were also carried out with other titles: Horizon Zero Dawn reaches 91 minutes, while God of War reaches 89 minutes. It goes much better with Grand Theft Auto V, with the Steam Deck holding up to three hours, while performance drops again if we watch The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim’s 104 minutes.
On the one hand, it is very interesting to read similar statistics, so as to understand how the system behaves depending on the titles used, on the other hand, however, it makes it necessary to always have the charger at hand, partially limiting its portability due to low autonomy.
In any case, there are some methods to extend the battery life: in addition to keeping the general brightness low, even a fixed framerate of 30fps helps to lengthen the gaming sessions without the need to connect to the current.
For now, however, Steam Deck is nowhere to be found, with scalpers reselling it for up to 2000 euros. Meanwhile, the latest Steam Deck updates have added support for Windows 11, as well as several other interesting features.