Item: Steam Deck 2 Will Not Prioritize Performance, May Focus On Battery and Display Instead
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Author: Low Boon Shen

Steam Deck 2 Will Not Prioritize Performance, May Focus On Battery and Display Instead

Valve’s in-house handheld gaming console has already called for a second iteration – however performance won’t be on the top of engineer’s checklist.

The Steam Deck won applauses for its capability of playing most AAA titles while reducing the footprint closer to that of Nintendo Switch rather than a full-fledged gaming laptop. Valve has since announced its successor will come in due time – however we now have more details on what are the things that the company aims to improve on.

Valve engineers Lawrence Yang and Pierre-Loup Griffais, speaking to The Verge, has given details on the things they will be focusing on for the next Steam Deck. Among those things, here are the key points to improve.

First is quieter fans – with current models being shipped with cooling fans produced by two suppliers (Delta Electronics and Huaying), it is known that Huaying fans are quieter than equivalent units supplied by Delta. Though Valve has used some sound-deadening materials to reduce the noise, it’s expected the next model will have better acoustic performance overall.

Another point to improve is a dedicated audio control function. Currently audio controls are only done through in-game menus – which may have limitations. Valve’s software team is working on this feature to its Linux-based SteamOS later down the line.

Given the relatively small size of Steam Deck, there has been questions if Valve may provide support for mobile games at some point. Graffais says some mobile game developers are interested in the idea (and so does Valve) – provided that these touchscreen-based games are clearly labeled as such.

Finally, the biggest part of the Steam Deck 2 isn’t about the performance. They didn’t comment on any key improvements aside from what is mentioned above – but the engineers have clearly downplayed on the possibility of performance enhancements. Keeping performance level consistent may save developers some headache testing on different types of hardware, and ultimately, this also means the pricing can be kept reasonable – which is the main selling point of Steam Deck among others.

Source: PCWorld / The Verge

Pokdepinion: My takeaway from this – the Steam Deck 2 is pretty much a “polished” version of the current version. Which is not a bad thing.