Many were excited when Valve began marketing its Steam Deck portable PC last summer. With more than half of Steam's games now compatible with the device, either fully verified or at least playable, it's proven to be a successful endeavor for the company. Of course, it's by no means perfect and there are inevitably going to be some issues that need ironing out. Therefore, the developer has been using feedback to make improvements to the system, and the latest update being rolled out seems to amend it even more for the greater good.
In a recent post on the Steam website, a new patch for the Steam Deck has just been launched, which brings a number of tweaks and changes. Among other things, one of the latest additions to it is the implementation of a lock screen feature. This will, as the name suggests, allow users to lock the Deck's screen. It is specific to the device, and has a number of options in its behavior, such as being able to set it to show on wake, or when switching to desktop mode, etc.
One of the other interesting amendments is to the battery life. In the run-up to the device's launch, there was a lot of talk about what the Steam Deck battery life would be like. It seemed that it would last between two and eight hours, depending on what it was being used for. There have been a number of methods deployed for making it better, and this latest patch suggests that it's been improved even further. It should be worth noting that, according to Steam, it specifically adjusts the battery in terms of idle status and during "very low usage scenarios."
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On top of that, there are numerous other changes that have been made, including some related to quality of life, such as updating the Achievements page, and combining Add Friend and Pending Requests into one page. In general, Valve is continuing to update the Steam Deck, making sure it takes user feedback into account and making changes where necessary.
Valve doesn't have a great history when it comes to hardware, but with the Steam Deck, it seems as though the company may have knocked it out of the park. The ability to play Steam games on the move, or use it as essentially a portal PC, has been welcomed by many gamers, and it could go on to really make a significant impact on the mobile gaming world.
The full patch notes are as follows:
Client Update:
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Added Lock Screen feature
- Lock screen is specific to device, and can be set to show up on wake, boot, login, and/or when switching to Desktop mode
- PIN can be entered using the touchscreen or controls
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Added localized keyboards for 21 languages and layouts
- Multiple keyboards can be enabled in Settings > Keyboard > Active Keyboards
- Use the new globe key on the keyboard to cycle between active keyboards
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Added support for multiple windows within one application or game.
- Press Steam to view active windows and select which window you would like to view
- Useful for web browsers or games with launchers
- Updated Achievements page design, making it faster to load and easier to navigate
- New achievements drop down allows players to quickly compare stats against any friend who also plays
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Add Friend and Pending Requests have been combined into a single new page for better handling of friend requests
- Added logic to detect and notify user when a microSD card doesn't match advertised storage size and specifications, instead of attempting to format (for a very long time)
- Fixed issue where Steam and (...) Button couldn't be used with Remote Play when streaming games from PC
- More performance improvements for players with very large game libraries
OS Update:
- Added messaging when a charger that doesn't meet the minimum bar is plugged in
- Added uncapped framerate setting in Quick Access menu > Performance
- Added Half-Rate Shading experimental option to Quick Access menu > Performance, forcing 2x2 Variable Rate Shading into existing games for power savings
- Added fTPM support, enabling Windows 11 installation
- Added button combo: hold "..." + "Volume Down" to reset PD contract in the cases where Steam Deck gets stuck due to an incompatible Type-C device
- Updated power LED to dim a few seconds after power supply connection events for better experience in dark environments
- Improved compatibility for a number of Type-C docks and PSUs
- Improved battery life in idle or very low usage scenarios
- Improved stability
- Fixed issues where the touchscreen does not work after some boots
- Fixed compatibility with some SD cards specifically when used as boot devices.
- Fixed extra haptic click when pressing on trackpads
- Fixed ACPI error spew in the kernel
Source: Steam