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Valve puts as many batteries as possible into the Steam deck
Battery life on the Steam Deck has been a key topic of discussion prior to launch and when we actually got our hands on Valve’s handheld gaming PC. That’s obviously a key talking point for designers when they’re outlining what they’ll be able to cram into the deck. From recent conversations with two of Valve’s design teams, it’s clear that the basic topic is “how far can we go?”
There’s a 40Wh (or 5,313mAh) battery inside the deck, but its L-shaped design is a bit odd.if you look at Excellent iFixit Teardown You’ll see the X-rays they took, which clearly show the dual-battery design, with Valve raking the batteries around the limited space provided within the case.
I spoke with Valve designers Greg Coomer and Jay Shaw, who were and still work on Steam Deck, about the limitations on the size of batteries they can get into their new handhelds.
“We basically put as many batteries as possible into a device of this size, taking into account all the other equipment that has to be installed,” Coomer said. “So, you know, obviously, we want as many batteries as possible.”
But since there are plans for different levels of Steam decks — with budget, mid-range and high-end options — I’m curious if there are plans to add higher-capacity batteries alongside higher-capacity storage options.
“When we think about the differences between these models, we’re not really talking about making the battery itself different between the Steam Deck versions,” Coomer said. “We mostly talked about other things. We thought about memory, but we didn’t really have an array of APUs to choose from — we were able to produce one of those — so having different performance wasn’t really an option over there.”
This is an interesting aspect in terms of memory, and I’m guessing that might be the case with 8GB LPDDR5 in the budget deck, and then maybe 16GB and 32GB in higher-spec models. Personally, I’m glad Valve opted for a full 16GB drive, even though it’s likely to simplify manufacturing and only manage one motherboard SKU.
Common base hardware makes the 64GB option still a great device, with a potential upgrade path using a large SD card, or even digging inside and plugging in an SSD yourself.
But there are also other concerns about trying to squeeze more gaming juice into that form factor, along with more memory and storage.
“Yeah, bigger battery,” Shaw continued, “I mean, then we had a discussion about having to change the actual physical specs of the device. And then that would lead to a lot of ergonomic compromises that we really didn’t want to make, Because the main thing is that we really want people to be able to comfortably play with this device for as long as they want.”
Since it’s a steam deck it’s already a chunky boi, and while I’m personally impressed with how balanced it feels, any greater balance could easily be upset.