12% more battery life on the Steam Frame? That’s both a lot and very little at the same time

Valve's teams continue to optimize the recently launched virtual reality headset: SteamOS 0.4.3 improves the product's battery life.

For Valve, the release of a product as significant as the Steam Deck is obviously not an end in itself. With each new version, SteamOS enhances the virtual reality headset’s capabilities, and the latest update delivers an improvement eagerly anticipated by all users: a 12% increase in battery life. Valve has announced a 12% increase in battery life, which applies to both games run directly on the headset and those streamed from a PC.

The latest version of SteamOS (slightly) improves the Steam Frame’s battery life © Valve

These two distinct operating modes are one of the Steam Frame’s main strengths, but battery life is also one of its main weaknesses. Note that Valve makes it clear from the outset that results will depend on the refresh rate and the content being used. So we can’t assume that after the SteamOS update, we’ll necessarily benefit from this additional 12%. Valve presents this boost as the maximum possible gain. While useful, this clarification is also inevitably somewhat disappointing, and we can imagine, for example, that gamers using high refresh rates will be the worst off. Oh well.

Let’s also keep in mind that this 12% is far from extraordinary. Of course, we’re not going to turn our noses up at an increase, however limited it may be. However, we mustn’t forget that at full power, the Steam Deck is capable of draining its battery in just over an hour. At full power, a 12% gain is obviously out of the question, but let’s imagine it were possible—that would only amount to an extra 7 to 8 minutes. I’m not sure that would really change the world. Beyond the cost of its virtual reality headset, Valve clearly still has a lot of work to do.