Grab new games without busting your battery.
The Steam Deck now offers a display-off low-power download option, making it easier for players to get new games without wasting most of their handheld’s battery life.
If you’re keen to try the feature, you’ll need to be in either the Beta and Preview software channel.
The feature will be enabled by default whenever the Steam Deck is plugged into mains, and can be enabled when the handheld is on battery power but heading into Settings > Power.
“Display-off downloads are accessible in two ways,” Valve explained. “While Steam Deck is downloading content, pressing the power button now brings up a new dialog, asking whether you’d like to continue downloading with the screen off. Select Continue, and Steam Deck will go into the new low-power download mode. In addition, Steam Deck will automatically go into this mode after an idle timeout.
“While in this mode, if you press a button or move Steam Deck, a new status screen will be shown with download progress (see above). From here you can fully wake Steam Deck or let it continue downloading with the screen off.”
If you’re using the feature on battery power, the Steam Deck will automatically go into full sleep mode when its battery falls below 20%.
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