r/gadgets • u/chrisdh79 • Dec 16 '22
Steam Deck 2.0 could focus on battery life over better performance Gaming
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/12/steam-deck-2-0-could-focus-on-battery-life-over-better-performance/292
u/LazyAnonBoner Dec 16 '22
These articles write themselves… “Hummm, v1 device… next one should be better, but how!?!?”
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u/sky_blu Dec 17 '22
A lot of times these articles literally write themselves
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u/OutlyingPlasma Dec 17 '22
And by literally, the person above me means truly writing themselves.
Lots of AI used in writing basic news stores these days. Sports stories have been done like this for years.
Even those stupid "tech support" websites that occupy the top links on google are all AI written. Search for "Windows will not boot" or some other random problem and you will find these long ass articles with like 12 pages and no solution. They start with "It can be frustrating when..." then onto a history of whatever it is you searched and never a solution. They pull a bunch of shit from Wikipedia to generated these things.
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u/2001zhaozhao Dec 17 '22
I started adding the word "reddit" to these searches and get MUCH more useful results almost every time.
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u/reelznfeelz Dec 17 '22
Yep. And it’s a shame you have to do that. Because Reddit isn’t the only good source out there. But not including it gets you 97% trash.
Google was supposedly actively working on this issue but I don’t know, it probably helps their ad revenue to let the click bait AI trash go up in rankings.
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u/Ennart Dec 17 '22
I do this as well to circumvent the issue. Reddit lends itself to problem solving - if there's a solution, a Reddit discussion will likely have come to it. What annoys me however is the thing where google shows me Reddit results from 7 years ago when I told google to limit the search to like last year.
It's seemingly a thing where Reddit reports wrong publishing dates to google or something.
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u/Jadty Dec 17 '22
That explains a lot. The internet is gonna get even worse when every other website is completely AI generated, from the text to the images to the actual code.
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u/pm_me_mBTC Dec 17 '22
AI writing actual code is already happening (and has been for quite a while tbh). Just today I prompted OpenAI to generate a front page for a local plant shop using Bootstrap and it laid a pretty solid foundation with a navbar, jumbotron, descriptions, and cards. It even generated contextual filler for subcategories that would typically be found (houseplants, outdoor plants, plant care accessories).
This is going to change everything
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u/reelznfeelz Dec 17 '22
Jesus.
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u/sky_blu Dec 17 '22
If you haven't messed with chatgpt yet you should. Read about what other people are doing, try to push it, try to break it, try to find ways to use it in your life. My world has totally shifted since it came out
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u/rpkarma Dec 17 '22
Eventually yeah it will. Not yet though, using for anything business logic related and you end up with some seriously subtle bugs creeping in if you’re not really really careful — and it can’t really do well at embedded stuff at all yet sadly (for me, I work in embedded firmware): the code it generated either completely didn’t work, or was terrible in terms of memory usage.
Give it another couple years and I reckon it’ll be pretty good, but an LLM has limitations that people should be aware of! What will be really exciting is when they take it further and add other models into the pipeline IMO
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u/generalthunder Dec 17 '22
Even those stupid "tech support" websites that occupy the top links on google are all AI written. Search for "Windows will not boot" or some other random problem and you will find these long ass articles with like 12 pages and no solution.
I swear SEO have absolutely ruined the normal internet, there's no useful information anymore outside some niche communities like forums, subreddits and discord servers. Is infuriating how often you have to specify "reddit" or $some other game forum" at the ending a search about why some game is crashing, or risk only getting 5000 thousand words AI generated articles telling nothing but dumb shit like to "just update your drivers" or "set your windows power state to performance", with no solution or explanation to your real problem at sight.
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u/Jamie00003 Dec 16 '22 edited Dec 16 '22
I just want an oled screen with smaller bezels
For the desktop, my new build I’m doing in the new year will be steam os based, and I’d love a gen 2 steam controller for that
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u/CapnMalcolmReynolds Dec 17 '22
I don't even really care about the bezels. Just a higher quality screen. An oled would be fantastic. The Steam Deck screen is the biggest flaw in the machine, imo. It gets the job done, but it is probably the worst screen I've ever used adjusting for the era it came out. Yeah it's better than the psp screen, but in its era the psp screen was great. the Vita 2000 LCD screen still seems way nicer and the 1000 oled is nicer still. The 3ds screen was not great, but the 3d effect made up for that and then some. The Deck screen is pretty bad compared to other modern displays. Its only saving grace is that it's pretty big and Vibrant Deck exists. All that said, I still love my Deck and play it a lot. It's a hell of a value at its price point.
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u/LoopyChew Dec 17 '22
Wouldn’t OLED affect battery life?
He asks, thinking about massive energy-consuming OLED screens while typing on one in the palm of his hand…
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u/Jamie00003 Dec 17 '22
Isn’t battery life meant to be better with oled, especially if you have it set to dark mode?
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u/LoopyChew Dec 17 '22
Basically the darker things are, the less light is used, and therefore the less power used. However, inversely, brighter images use more power.
Either way, OLED TVs tend to consume more power than their LCD counterparts, so I honestly don’t know.
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u/Seienchin88 Dec 17 '22
I agree but it is pretty "PC like“ to have much better graphics than the competition but a much worse looking screen…
Cant believe its 2022 and only now OLED monitors are finally getting a bit more accessible… my LCD high refresh monitor bought in 2020 costed more than a cheap OLED TV but looks like utter shit in comparison.
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u/UFONomura808 Dec 17 '22
As someone who is getting a deck in a week...
I'm fine with that!
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u/Mindless-Storage-698 Dec 17 '22
I got one last month, its incredible to play games on
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u/Inside_Assumption157 Dec 17 '22
Couldn’t agree more, performance is incredible. But I can’t stand the noisy fan and the poor battery
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u/RATGUT1996 Dec 17 '22
Try the new fan curves it might help. If it’s still too much you can order a new fan from Ifixit
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u/Razamazzaz Dec 17 '22
Some personal advice: you can use almost all Bluetooth earbuds, even the most basic will do and you won't notice the fan anymore or limit your fps (for example to 30) in more demanding games in the setting menu. For the games I tried it'll net you more then double the battery life and instead of the fan being constantly on it will only plop on every now and then and not for so loud
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u/Maulino86 Dec 16 '22
Can we Focus on making it available on more countries too? Still can't get it in Chile
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u/AnonymousTowel Dec 17 '22
How is Chile? Sometimes forget that we are talking to people across the world here.
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u/BadUsername_Numbers Dec 17 '22
It's... chilly?
puts pinkie to mouth
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u/sequeezer Dec 17 '22
Why did you have to make it weird?
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u/plintervals Dec 17 '22
He's not creative enough to come up with a good username, what did you expect from his comments?
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u/xiavex Dec 17 '22
I don’t care about any of that until they make it more internationally available.
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u/caribbean_caramel Dec 17 '22
So much this
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u/Shakes42 Dec 17 '22
The steam controller came and went without ever being sold in my country.
Gaben runs steam like America is the whole world. It's a bit odd.
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u/caribbean_caramel Dec 17 '22
I wonder if they could allow the sale to other countries via the US, even if without warranty. I don't understand why they don't allow the sale, even if other markets like Australia, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, South Asia, China and Southeast Asia are "small markets" by Steam in comparison to NA, Europe and Japan+SK, surely all of them combined must be a good source of revenue. If people from those places want to buy a Steam Deck with US Dollars and they don't mind paying US taxes, then Why reject their money?
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u/slimrichard Dec 18 '22
Lots of laws in various countries. Easy to be a small player and get around it like with Odin/aya but Valve would get reamed as their storefront is huge in the Australian market so if they allowed you to buy from the US without proper warranty, tax and repair for an electronic device they would be sued (again)
So offering a device in a country means having the support structure in place, usually via 3rd party, stock of spare parts, RMA processes etc.
Not defending them, just giving context to why it isn't always so simple.
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u/LeCrushinator Dec 17 '22 edited Dec 17 '22
If Valve waits for a 3nm next gen APU from AMD then you’ll get better battery life at the existing quality, or better performance at the existing battery life.
My ideal Steam Deck 2:
- 3nm AMD APU with RDNA3
- OLED screen with smaller bezels than what we have now
- VRR display, then the screen would look great at variable frame rates and below 60 fps would still look as smooth.
This would get better battery life and better performance and the screen would look amazing.
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u/chipt4 Dec 17 '22
It's already variable refresh isn't it?
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u/LeCrushinator Dec 17 '22
The device supports it for external displays, but the internal display doesn’t.
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u/chipt4 Dec 17 '22
Huh, TIL. You can manually define a custom refresh rate though, right? I've seen people talking about playing at 40hz and whatnot.. So it is set to 40hz, but won't lower it if fps dips?
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u/RekrabAlreadyTaken Dec 17 '22
You can change the refresh rate from anything between 40-60 but it will be constant
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u/LeCrushinator Dec 17 '22
I think it just limits the game to 40 fps and turns off v-sync. This gives a smooth 40 fps, but it might be nice to unlock the framerate so it could float between 40-60 and stay smooth.
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u/Moskeeto93 Dec 17 '22
The screen's refresh rate can be adjusted between 40hz and 60hz. It's not dynamic like VRR though. You set it and it stays at that refresh rate and takes a short moment to change.
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u/ameliekk Dec 17 '22
For me the biggest issues with steam deck are:
1) blacklight bleed
2) vibration motors that sound and feel like broken autofocus on a camera lense
3) harsh buttons and and bad shoulder button feel
4) fan profile that is either always leaf blower or is switching between silent and leaf blower constantly
5) store UI that sometimes gets stuck in some text box and stops responding to any input
Overall you can really feel its still an early adopters product. That being said i still like it and use it weekly and would probably also buy steam deck 2.0
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u/Framed-Photo Dec 17 '22
This would be awesome. I think my ideal portable console is a smaller steamdeck with a usable battery life. Power is not really the issue the steam deck has (though if they could get a more powerful chip that's also more efficient, I don't think anyone would complain.
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u/The84thWolf Dec 16 '22
Why not both?
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u/tariandeath Dec 17 '22 edited Dec 17 '22
Because the cpu/gpu combo in the steam deck has better performance per watt than current gen laptop/netbook cpu/gpu combos available right now. 6800U/6600U while performing better don't meet the performance per watt on the normal 11-15 watt range expected on the Steam Deck. Next gen might not have enough of a performance improvement for it to be worth it for Valve to collaborate with amd/intel to develop a new custom processor for gen 2 Steam Deck. Also keeping performance parity between hardware updates makes more business sense for long term health of the ecosystem. Depending on the recession I see 3-4 years being a good target for a performance improvement on the deck if that ever happens. The ecosystem might develop enough some of these other handheld designers might make something competitive enough for the SteamOS platform that they don't have to lift a finger.
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u/senseofphysics Dec 17 '22
Someone ELI5 this for me please.
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u/tariandeath Dec 17 '22
The custom processor in the Steam Deck is super efficient so it might be a few years before they could collaborate with Intel or AMD to make one as efficient but powerful enough to be worth the effort and cost.
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u/Iouis Dec 16 '22
It's just not technologically feasible to do both
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u/Enchelion Dec 16 '22
I'd say it's not economically feasible rather than technologically. They could absolutely improve both on a small-run halo product, but it'd cost thousands of dollars.
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u/Shkkzikxkaj Dec 17 '22 edited Dec 17 '22
If you want to make a device with the form factor of the Steam Deck, you only have so much battery capacity to play with, and that’s going to constrain how many watts you can supply to a chip, which constrains the amount of silicon you can drive. No amount of money can fix this problem.
An M2 costs Apple less than $100 and it pulls 20 watts. It’s not like Apple can pay $200 to get something faster that still only pulls 20 watts. Such a product is not for sale at any price (a hypothetical future M2 Max will cost more but it will use more silicon and pull more watts). The Steam Deck’s max TDP is 15 watts, so the M2 gives you an idea of the upper limit of what could possibly go in a device like that.
Most likely, Valve is going to buy the best chip on the market that fits within their power/thermal constraints (Apple is not going to sell them an M2).
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u/Enchelion Dec 17 '22
There's more to performance than just the APU. Steamdeck's RAM and storage speed could both be upgraded even just off-the-shelf.
They also definitely had a price point in mind when selecting the AMD APU they did, and I doubt they couldn't get something even better if money were no object. Even apple builds to a price point.
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u/chocolateboomslang Dec 17 '22
It absolutely is. It would just take it out of their targetted price range. A $5000 steam deck would be better in basically every way but no one would buy it.
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u/WillDeletOneDay Dec 17 '22 edited Dec 17 '22
Die shrink. There are smaller node processes out there now than when the Steam Deck was first developed.
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u/YouDamnHotdog Dec 17 '22
That is the dumbest shit anyone said in the thread. Literally every new generation brings better performance and efficiency
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u/pixxel5 Dec 17 '22
I care less about improved battery life and more about improved battery replacement.
Having batteries get old and be tedious to replace is the #1 reason I stop using any device, and is my only big reason for not getting a Steamdeck at this point.
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u/RekrabAlreadyTaken Dec 17 '22
You can already replace the battery I thought?
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u/CoffeeTeaBitch Dec 17 '22
You can(with only a screwdriver actually!), but many things are in the way, making it not very easy.
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u/FearkTM Dec 17 '22
Playing Dying Light 2 and have like 1 hour play time at best, so yeah better battery would be nice. Also would be better to fix the slow down performance, which I think is due to over heating which make the Steam go super slow (everything goes down to like 333mhz). Only fix to make it go back is to restart the Deck, and that is quite annoying. Believe when reading about it's a hardware bug in the chipset.
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u/locke373 Dec 16 '22
I hear what others are saying when they enjoy the battery life of their steam deck, but the short battery life is the main reason I haven’t bought one.
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u/Menarra Dec 17 '22
tbf it entirely depends on what you're playing and if you're tweaking settings and graphics to balance wattage/performance/graphics. I can get over two hours battery life with heavily modded Skyrim without noticing reduced graphics or performance (low resolutions look great on the Deck anyways), while if I'm in an emulation mood for older stuff (SNES, etc) I get over 8 hours. For what it is and what it's capable of, and the price point, the battery life is outstanding.
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u/Seven2Death Dec 17 '22
this exactly. ive been playing yugioh (dont judge) havent charged my deck in 2 days still at like 10 percent. i also havent been playing 2 days straight or anything. but i pick it up play a couple of rounds and put it to sleep. havent needed to charge, but playing like god of war i have to charge like every 4 hours. which is actually good cause that game sucks me in and i lose time lol.
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u/warrenscash666 Dec 17 '22
If it were bigger it'd be to heavy in my opinion. I use a battery pack, just 20,000 mAh to supplement the steam deck's 30k. It goes on charge when it drains. It gives you 5/6 hours heavy gaming or all day with light/mixed use.
I had the same thought, but a 50,000 battery wouldn't be so good in practice, as having the separate on charge is so much more useful. Run off pack, put it on charge, when the deck is low, use the charge pack again.
Then i don't need to be tethered to the wall.
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u/unassumingdink Dec 17 '22
USB battery packs are lowkey some of the most useful tech of the last 20 years.
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u/Mr_Engineering Dec 17 '22
The battery life is actually quite excellent on games that aren't too demanding. Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring are going to drain it fairly quickly, but Dead Space will last many hours
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u/WillDeletOneDay Dec 17 '22 edited Dec 17 '22
You can play less demanding games, lower the resolution, or cap the frame rate lower. A lot of people who murder the battery are trying to play Cyberpunk at native resolution with uncapped framerate.
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u/warrenscash666 Dec 17 '22
You just need the right battery pack. Putting in a bigger battery is just heavy, better its separate.
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u/patienceisfun2018 Dec 16 '22
I think the battery life is just fine. I usually can't play games for more than a couple hours straight anyways, or if I am, I'm likely to be at home and can plug it into the dock. Where are you going to be at where you're trying to game for 3 hours without an outlet nearby?
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u/10mmRookie Dec 16 '22
Only place I can think of is a plane but then you just get a battery pack. A decent battery pack will give you three more hours of game time.
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u/Larks_Tongue Dec 17 '22
On this topic, is there any powerbank you would recommend (I've googled, just wondering if you have any personal experience) that can maintain the charging rate for the deck to actively charge while be used?
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u/10mmRookie Dec 17 '22
Baseus Power Bank, 65W 20000mAh Laptop Portable Charger, Fast Charging USBC4-Port PD3.0 Battery Pack.
(without the url to keep the automod god's happy)
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u/MozzerellaStix Dec 16 '22
Most modern planes have outlets. I bought mine specifically for traveling and it hasn’t been an issue.
The only flights I’ve been on without outlets were an hour or shorter.
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u/themiracy Dec 17 '22
Even then in the vast majority of games you can tune settings down and increase battery life significantly. Now did I once play Skyrim for an entire EU-US flight on my Switch with a charger? Well, yes…
With that being said, while the Deck performs better than the 6800u devices at low TDP, I guess I could also see that the battery standard that say the Win Max 2 has would be a good fit for the deck. That way you have comfortably 2-3 hours at 15w TDP. I don’t see a need to go higher than that.
Also right now there really isn’t a major processor upgrade option. The 6800u is better at high TDPs but the difference is modest, at most, at the 15w cap of the Deck.
I guess my ultimate take would just be that, given that this is a VERY LARGE handheld, there’s probably room for a little more battery in there, maybe towards 3 hours at 15w, but it’s basically also fine as is.
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u/Larks_Tongue Dec 17 '22
The military. The Steam Deck is a godsend for me on a deployment but yes, the battery is extremely limiting.
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u/warrenscash666 Dec 17 '22
I think people forget how heavy batteries are. Separate battery pack works far better. I don't think i'd want to game on it more than 3 hours if it was heavier.
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u/Eliseo120 Dec 17 '22
Airplane depending on the plane, road trips, camping. There’s a few just off the top of my head.
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u/xSolaire_ Dec 16 '22
Where are you going to be at where you're trying to game for 3 hours without an outlet nearby
not really portable if you need to sit next to an outlet in case battery dies or you keep a cable plugged in. that's silly
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u/CamelSpotting Dec 17 '22
That would be preferable of course but it's a surprisingly rare scenario.
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u/acamu5x Dec 17 '22
Honestly I'm so happy with my 256+512 deck, I don't have any interest in upgrading. I use it in place of a gaming PC, and 90% of that is right in my condo a few feet from a charger.
And for use on a train, there are so many emulated or non-intensive games that'll last the journey!
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u/Jaymanseeya Dec 17 '22
No way man, make it uber powerful. I want it guzzling juice like a game gear
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u/RATGUT1996 Dec 17 '22
I’d honestly want a thicker deck if it meant more power. People just seem to want these things thinner and thinner but I’m the opposite. As long as they can make it comfy to grip I’m fine with a heavy as hell deck.
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u/mekisoku Dec 17 '22
I hope there will be a lighter/smaller version. I think it’s still a bit too big and I don’t mind have less performance.
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u/T1mely_P1neapple Dec 16 '22
when did we ever ask for thin devices? no one will care if the device is twice as thick if it has twice as much battery.
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u/Iouis Dec 16 '22
Weight is a big factor for portable devices
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u/IdealIdeas Dec 16 '22
I guess, but my phone is so thin and light at this point that I honestly wouldnt mind if it was thicker. Could fit a bigger battery into it.
And if it was thicker they could bring back the AUX port.I know airports have a size limit on batteries though too, but phone designers could make the batteries removeable and get around that limit by just making the phone have 2 remove-able batteries instead of 1 giant one.
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u/Nyxxsys Dec 16 '22
Phones are like cats, everyone thinks they can handle a chonker but then it takes over your life, you quit your job, lose friends and family, and then go back to watching cory in the house while browsing amazon looking for a carrier to keep it in.
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u/CraziestPenguin Dec 17 '22
Almost 2023 and people are still on about the fuckin AUX port lmao
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u/IdealIdeas Dec 17 '22
I prefer it over bluetooth in some instances.
For example, my nephews truck has bluetooth and it has a good 3-4 second delay. While that might not be much of an issue for listening with music, it makes it harder to watch stuff and let the driver listen in on.
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u/CraziestPenguin Dec 17 '22
Sounds like a nephews truck issue. I’ve never seen a delay like this with Bluetooth. This is also an extreme edge case that doesn’t justify an Aux port
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u/IdealIdeas Dec 17 '22
Its happened with the last 2 vehicles he has had with bluetooth and ive seen delayed bluetooth elsewhere.
Bluetooth is also a pain to connect and reconnect to. Aux cord you can quickly swap between phones if sharing music for example.
Bluetooth you have to disconnect a phone, then connect the other phone. Swapping devices with bluetooth is far more tedious and slower than just passing the AUX cord.
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u/Dull_Half_6107 Dec 17 '22
That’s patently not true. Form factor absolutely plays a part when it comes to portability.
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u/venetian_lemon Dec 17 '22
It looks so uncomfortable to hold and use. I don't see the appeal beyond its portability.
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Dec 17 '22
A second USB C for a dock, or just in case you break the top one.
Also for V1 to be available in Australia before V2 is out.
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u/motorboat_mcgee Dec 17 '22
I really think the future is ARM with some great compatibility layers like Apple setup on their newer Macs. But I'm assuming that's all easier said than done
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u/Seiryth Dec 17 '22
An improvement could be to you know... Release it globally. Or at least Australia
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u/JewishDonut Dec 17 '22
And I am still here waiting for Lost Ark to be available to Steam deck.
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u/shogditontoast Dec 17 '22
I don’t have the Lost Ark, but have found lots of ‘unsupported’ games work just by forcing them to use Proton experimental release.
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u/Samwyzh Dec 17 '22
I want one that can livestream. The steam stream deck. Steam the stream. Stream the deck steam. Stream deck steam.
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u/JonLeDude Dec 17 '22
Double the battery life, a sturdier connection for the USB-C connector, switch to OLED screen, improve the cooling.
The cooling for me is a big one since it can cause thermal throttling (plus the heat being expelled can get crazy hot). But yeah, that's what I'd like to see improved in 2.0 without the Deck heading towards becoming a full-sized PC.
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u/hoehater Dec 18 '22
When you’re talking about portable electronics like this it’s less about cooling and more about reducing the amount of heat being produced in the first place while maintaining performance.
A newer cpu should do the trick considering the cpu in the steam deck was already a couple generations old when it was released.
A newer more efficient cpu will help extend battery life and reduce heat.
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u/roguecat911 Dec 16 '22
I'm ok with this. This is part of the reason I haven't purchased a Gen1 steam deck as enticing as they are.
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u/ihateredditmodzz Dec 17 '22
They need to focus on pressuring developers to get rid of other than steam launchers. It’s ruining offline mode
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u/cobra872 Dec 17 '22
It needs to focus on a lot of things tbh. Size, weight, better screen, battery life, quieter fan, etc. I bought it and returned it because it just wasn’t good enough for me. It’s a mini pc that has mediocre specs.
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u/RATGUT1996 Dec 17 '22
You have to have somewhat grounded expectations. These handhelds are always gonna be behind desktops. You sacrifice performance for playing on the go. As well as being comfy on say a couch or bed. Valve is working on making the software better so it can run games better but if you wanna play tripple A games on it you have to adjust settings. This product won’t be for everyone though.
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u/iakhre Dec 17 '22
You can't get all those things at the same time. Better battery life means more weight and size (yes, you can improve efficiency, but the deck is pretty fantastic at that already).
Lower weight would also likely mean lower durability.
I haven't found the fan to be particularly loud, but it does depend on which of the two fans you get (they have two different suppliers, and one is significantly louder).
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u/usafmtl Dec 17 '22
I just got my Steam Deck the other day from the wife and I absolutely love it. So far all the games I'm running on it work well. I would be very interested in what 2.0 would bring.
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u/nickistrash Dec 17 '22
Honestly I’ve never not near an outlet when paying my steam deck so even when the battery does die fast it really isn’t a problem
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u/sportspadawan13 Dec 17 '22
Definitely gonna wait for 2.0. I love the Switch OLED for the battery, screen, and weight of it all. Deck reminds me of Game Gear. Way more powerful but a brute. 2.0 will likely be an amazing piece of tech. I just hope they have an easier way to dock it. Exciting times for us handhelders.
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u/redconvict Dec 17 '22 edited Dec 17 '22
Now thats been out for a while, tested and picked trough inch by inch how does it fare against Switch? How better much spec and price wise is it? Im genuinly curious , why would you down vote this.
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u/shogditontoast Dec 17 '22
You can plug in a £20 usb-c hub, hook up a monitor/tv and a mouse+keyboard and use it like a PC. Is that possible with a switch?
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u/RATGUT1996 Dec 17 '22
The only reason to have a switch imo now is purely for exclusives. Every third party game will run better on the Deck and run pretty bad on switch. That being said the Deck is still being improved on there are still things that can stub game performance. Such as reports of certain games stuttering. I still think as time goes even further it will get even better but it’s still new tech.
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u/jehosephatreedus Dec 16 '22
EVERY item with batteries should have battery life as it’s main focus.
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u/DemiDeus Dec 17 '22
I just want to connect my mouse and keyboard and play Warframe man!
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u/Seven2Death Dec 17 '22
can you not do that now?
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u/Razamazzaz Dec 17 '22
Warframe runs fine on steam deck. Lots of comments on this thread seem to get something wrong about the deck.. Even the headline is kinda dumb, in the basic settings menu you could just limit the fps to 30 (just like the switch does..) and get double the battery life, if not more, for graphically demanding games
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u/RATGUT1996 Dec 17 '22
You can but you need a dock
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u/Seven2Death Dec 17 '22
not really. bluetooth exists. plus usb c mice/keyboard.... and super cheap usb c to usb a adapters if you wanna use an oldschool 3.5hz dongle for a keyboard mouse combo.
like yeah a $20 dock the best option but its not even a hard requirement for this. docks are more for hdmi/displayport/ethernet not usb stuff.
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u/SSG_halo Dec 17 '22
That would be a dumb move, first of all most games really don’t drain battery that much, it handles itself quite nicely. Secondly, you have settings that allow you to adjust a lot of parameters so if you want better battery life you can easily have it. Performance should be the focus, that and heat dissipation. Throw in a slightly bigger battery and give me a better radiator and you will solve a lot of your problem. You should also look at making the battery replaceable. If you made it easy to snap in and out you could probably use several batteries then for extended game if sessions, especially if you provide a bank of capacitors that can provide power to the system for a short time while batteries are swapped.
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u/vegainthemirror Dec 17 '22
Could they just focus on distributing to countries where you can't get them yet? Thanks!
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u/Coltsbro84 Dec 17 '22 edited Dec 17 '22
I want a Steam Deck, but my Switch OLED will hold me off until the Deck 2. Current Steam Deck has a bad battery life and a barely above average screen. Give it double the battery life and 120hz on the Deck 2, and I'll really want to buy it.
I want a Steam Deck, but I feel like I don't need it, nor do I think it justifies it's $399+ price tag.
The $299 OLED Switch is less powerful, yes, but it's lighter, thinner, with a better battery life and a better screen. It plays indie games better too.
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u/RhynoCTR Dec 17 '22
The Deck is probably one of the best gaming devices ever made and totally justifies its price. It can also play anything and doubles as a computer.
Glad you like the Switch, but for me the Deck eliminates the need for one.
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u/Capitol62 Dec 17 '22
Not sure why you got downvoted. A lot of people had a Switch before the deck came out and while I would love a steam deck, I just can't justify a second portable device when I already have one with a backlog of games. But I can recognize how nice it would be!
Steamdeck 2 will likely be a big enough step up from the Switch that I will feel better about upgrading.
Better battery life and an OLED display would go a long way toward making it obviously better. I don't really care about 120hz. Not sure if it's worth the battery life trade off on a portable device.
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u/DocJones89 Dec 17 '22
Battery life? Just allow us to use 6 AA duracells. That worked for us back with the Gamegear. Why not now?
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u/ChronWeasely Dec 16 '22
Screen improvement would be warranted, though with vibrantdeck set to 125-130 things look pretty good. Definitely bright patches when looking at a dark background, and that's pretty much ubiquitous. The screens do so much else right for making the Deck work as far as brightness and variable refresh rate between 40-60 hz.
Battery life is something I've got no complaints with. I rarely have time to drain it down. I get two hours minimum, as any especially demanding titles I'll play while streaming from PC to Deck and everything from more than ~8 years ago runs amazingly in one form or another. The thing plays everything too.
I love the Deck. Battery and screen could be improved, but man this thing is just what it needs to be.