The Steam Deck now lets you do low-power, screen-off downloads, finally

Another SteamOS power play

In 'Yeahhh, probably should have had that already' news, the Steam Deck and Steam Deck OLED are getting a new low-power mode that will let the handheld PCs continue any active downloads with the display switched off. It’s part of a SteamOS update that’s available right now on the Beta and Preview channels, at last closing a longstanding feature gap that’s had us all downloading games to our Decks with the screens chewing up precious battery life. Like savages.

Per Valve’s announcement post, you’ll be prompted to continue with display-off downloads when pressing the power button while an installation or update is in progress. The Deck will also enter this low-power mode after an idle timeout. You can check the download progress by pressing any button or, thanks to the internal gyroscopes, giving the resting Steam Deck a little nudge. Once the downloads finish, it’ll go enter sleep mode proper.

And that’s about it. While this addition is unlikely to be the difference-maker for anyone choosing between a SteamOS handheld or a Windows machine like the ROG Xbox Ally X, the absence of a low-power downloads mode has felt like an odd omission for the Steam Deck – a device that Valve have otherwise been very savvy about imbuing with the quality-of-life features enjoyed by, whisper it, consoles. Quick suspend/resume, simplified system and driver updates, a UI that isn’t hateful when navigating it with thumbsticks, all that good stuff.

My only complaint is that I, specifically, could have done with this update a few days earlier, after setting my own Deck to mass-update on glacial hotel Wi-Fi last week and having to leave the room convinced its humming display would either attract thieves or start a fire. It didn’t. But it could have. You don’t know.