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This week, Valve introduced a significant update for the Steam Deck through its Stable channel. According to the company, this update enhances overall performance and could extend battery life for the original Steam Deck by as much as 10% under specific conditions.
Valve frequently rolls out hotfixes and minor updates for the Steam Deck beta channel, usually addressing subtle issues that many users might not notice. However, the latest SteamOS 3.6.19 brings major improvements, thanks largely to two pivotal changes: the adoption of a more up-to-date Arch Linux foundation and an upgrade to Mesa 24.1 for the graphics driver.
While there are numerous fixes included in this update, they will support quicker OS updates in the future, boost the reliability of microSD and SD cards, enhance hardware stability, improve recovery methods post-crash, and refine the Steam user interface. Users who prefer desktop mode will also see an upgrade to KDE Plasma 5.27.10. While not a major overhaul, this change will allow for thumbnail previews for video files in the file launcher and resolve crashing glitches.
The enhancement impacts both the Steam Deck OLED and the LCD model, although with some variations. It’s particularly beneficial for LCD users, who will appreciate the potential for “up to 10%” additional battery life during lighter usage. Additionally, they will receive access to overclocking controls for those prioritizing performance over battery conservation. For OLED users, Bluetooth features have been improved, along with a fix for a memory leak that affected users on version 3.5.
Interestingly, the update notes mention that support has been added for extra keys found on the ROG Ally. This raises the question of whether we might see SteamOS being available on other platforms in the near future, possibly even on its competitor, the Asus ROG Ally. Only time will tell if this development leads anywhere.
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