New information on the Steam Deck’s battery life, load times, and future features, based on the console’s devkit, has been shared online today, shedding more light on the soon-to-be-released handheld console by Valve.
Speaking with Boiling Steam, an anonymous developer with hands-on access to the Steam Deck dev kit revealed some interesting new details on the console. For starters, this anonymous developer feels like the console has been delayed not only due to the current semiconductor shortage but also due to the SteamOS experience requiring additional polish.
The first thing they mentioned was that they’re “not convinced that even with all the improvements to SteamOS 3.0 between August and October that it would have been ready by December. Yes, there’s a semiconductor shortage but I’m thinking it’s not the real reason for the delay.”
In the Q&A session, it has been revealed that the Steam Deck’s battery life is between 2, 5 hours depending on the APU load, that load times are “indistinguishable” between loading off the SD Card and the SSD, and that mid-game resuming is being worked on. This would be an extremely welcome feature, so hopefully, it won’t be coming too far off in the future.
Have you tried any demanding games?
Yes – battery life is between 2-5 hours depending on APU load.
How fast are load times from the microSD card?
Indistinguishable from loading off the SSD; I’ve not timed anything.
Can you resume a game at any point in time? Or do you have to exit and restart?
Mid-game resuming is being worked on.
The anonymous developer also commented on how the Steam Deck feels compared to the Nintendo Switch, saying that it does feel better for longer sessions thanks to the console’s form and good button placement.
How much “better” does it feel than a Switch when playing games? If you had to compare qualitatively.
It’s more comfortable to play for longer sessions, button placement is good. Being wider than the Switch helps with the Deck’s weight distribution and feeling of balance.
The Steam Deck console will start shipping next month. More information on the console can be found on its official website.
