After a long time of users asking, Valve has actually added an official Battery Charge Limit setting in the latest Steam Deck Beta update so you no longer need to use third-party tools.
  • noride@lemm.ee
    66·
    2 months ago

    This has been possible via the BIOS for a while now, but it’s long overdue at the OS level. I love that Value keeps adding little QoL improvements to the steam deck, it’s turned out to be one of the best pieces of tech I’ve ever bought.

    • shiroininja@lemmy.world
      10·
      2 months ago

      It’s so weird that it doesn’t have it because both my kubuntu and endeavorOS installs have it by default. Like that’s a basic feature

        • morbidcactus@lemmy.ca
          5·
          2 months ago

          Decky has a Powertools plugin, what I’ve been doing, can set per game profiles and restrict charge rates as well with that.

    • Midnitte@beehaw.orgEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

      I do hope they focus a bit on the UI going forward - we’ve noticed a lot of silly little bugs while either using the Steam Deck controls or a controller.

      A little hard to close a window without focus when using a controller…

    • henfredemars@infosec.pubEnglish
      11·
      2 months ago

      I think it comes down to driver support. It’s not that the hardware can’t do this, but rather it’s that you need to pass the option to control it all the way up from the lowest levels of the system eventually into user space where you can select an option in settings.

      That, and it’s just not the first priority on devices that are generally low-margin.

      • phobiac@lemmy.world
        14·
        2 months ago

        The logic isn’t flawed, your priors are. You’re assuming that people are constantly on a cycle of charging their battery to the limit, running it down low, and then charging it again. If you mostly play docked or with a charger plugged in then capping the battery at around 80% prolongs the battery runtime for when you do turn the limit off and want to use the full battery.

        If you mostly play fully charged and stationary, then lowering the charge limit means you have more future opportunities to experience the fully battery runtime when you disable the setting.

      • Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        2 months ago

        I mean, I was just gonna unplug it at 80 and plug it back it at 40.

        Beforehand I couldn’t just leave it cause it would go to 100%.

        If your referring to always keeping it plugged in, can’t I cap it at 60% then?

          • ferret@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            21·
            2 months ago

            Consider two decreasing lines, one with a slightly lower slope. Now imagine the steeper line starting higher on this graph, eventually the lines will cross and despite starting lower the shallower line will be higher.

      • vxx@lemmy.world
        31·
        2 months ago

        That’s less of an issue with devices you use in battery mode all day, but the Deck sits on the docking Station most of the time and constantly getting held at 100%

  • Nighed@feddit.ukEnglish
    16·
    2 months ago

    Got my hopes up there might be some sleep limit too. Would much prefer if it shuts down/hibernated after being asleep for more than 26 hours (or past a certain battery level)

    • filister@lemmy.world
      8·
      2 months ago

      The problem is that the Steam Deck APU doesn’t support amd_p_state and you need to rely on auto_cpufreq. This explains why the power consumption in sleep is so high.

      • FrankLaskey@lemmy.mlEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        Interesting. I have always felt that the Steam deck loses quite a bit of battery percentage during sleep. I agree that it would be a fantastic quality of life update to enable to shut down or enter some form of lower power consumption hibernation state after a period of time at a certain battery level.

      • Nighed@feddit.ukEnglish
        21·
        2 months ago

        It’s a custom chip though isn’t it? Seems a strange choice

      • Nighed@feddit.ukEnglish
        10·
        2 months ago

        Hibernate would be great as it’s a slightly longer restore, but should work the same (if you are willing g to sacrifice the disk space)

        Being able to pick up the deck and know it will have battery left would be really nice. It drains pretty fast in sleep mode.

        • Nighed@feddit.ukEnglish
          3·
          2 months ago

          That’s basically what hibernate is. Shouldn’t be hard to offer as an option.

          The difficult bit is having it wake from sleep to hibernate itself. I suspect that would require hardware.

  • dinckel@lemmy.world
    13·
    2 months ago

    I really appreciate this one. Have done this on my other devices too, and while it does cut battery life by a little, your battery health will remain high for considerably longer

  • Blackmist@feddit.ukEnglish
    163·
    2 months ago

    You know what would have made this a non-issue?

    Easily user replaceable batteries.

    On top of that we should have standard sizes and mandate that manufacturers use them.

    • beastlykings@sh.itjust.works
      17·
      2 months ago

      IDK about non issue. I have a framework laptop, and even though the battery is very easily replaceable, I still set the charge limit to 80%.

      I don’t require the extra charge the majority of the time, and now I don’t have to worry about replacing my battery for a much longer period of time.

      Though I agree, for as serviceable as the steam deck is, a little more attention could’ve been paid to the battery situation.

  • Jarix@lemmy.world
    13·
    2 months ago

    …i just assumed they knew how to keep the battery safe already… My deck has stayed plugged in and docked since i got my projector to use with it…fuuuuuck

    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyzOPMEnglish
      5·
      2 months ago

      Default limit when toggled on is 80%, which generally seems like a good middle ground between usability and battery life. You can also raise the limit higher if you want more battery, or lower if you want to preserve the battery life better.