- Valve has released a new Steam Deck update for ‘low power download and display off’
- It is currently only available to Steam Deck users through the beta and preview channels.
- Microsoft’s Windows 11 full-screen experience doesn’t include a functional sleep or quick resume mode, but this could give it a boost
Valve recently unveiled its handy Steam Calendar update, via its Steam Labs project, and already has another long-awaited update for Steam Deck users that highlights one of the best features of SteamOS.
Announced on its community page, Valve is introducing a new ‘low power download with screen off’ mode, which allows Steam Deck users to continue game downloads before setting the device to sleep, ultimately saving power and making downloads easier to complete while away from the handheld.
This new feature is currently only available on Steam Deck through the beta and preview channels, and can be enabled via the “power” tab in settings. You’ll know it’s active once you press the power button to put the system into sleep mode and a new message will ask if you want to continue downloading while the screen is off.
Valve claims that if you press a button or move the Steam Deck, a new status screen (see below) will appear showing the progress of the download, and when running on battery power, the device will go into full sleep mode if it drops below 20%.
This takes the popular and beloved SteamOS quick sleep and resume features to a new level, as you can simply queue up a list of games to download and not have to worry about rising temperatures or noisy fans when placing the Steam Deck on a soft surface like a blanket (which I usually do with my portable devices in bed).
I tested to see if this new beta feature works on the Lenovo Legion Go S, which is an officially licensed SteamOS handheld, but there’s no sign of it, so it looks like it will be exclusive to the Steam Deck for now.
It’s entirely possible that it will eventually come to SteamOS entirely, which could prove beneficial for clones like Bazzite on Windows portable devices like the ROG Xbox Ally X, especially as a request that Windows 10 and Windows 11 gamers have voiced for years.
Analysis: Microsoft, now is the time to work on a genuine sleep and resume feature
I applaud Microsoft’s efforts to attempt a portable-friendly Windows 11 mode with Full Screen Experience (FSE), and while I’m not particularly interested in using it instead of SteamOS, now would be the ideal time for it to get a resume from sleep feature.
Valve’s SteamOS is constantly growing with new features and there’s no doubt that it’s dominating Microsoft’s new FSE mode. From the Xbox Series Both S consoles have quick resume features, it’s reasonable for fans to hope that Microsoft will get it up and running on Windows 11 in some way, at least with the ROG Xbox Ally laptops, but no luck so far.
While there is already an established framework for Windows from Xbox consoles for quick resumption, there is not one for putting systems to sleep. Well, I should say that there is one for Windows 11, but it doesn’t work and has never worked very well, since in-game resumes almost always end up causing the game to crash or strange UI errors.
I’m glad Valve isn’t slowing down in beefing up its Steam Deck and SteamOS laptop, as it will only increase the pressure on Microsoft to improve its new FSE, and hopefully quickly.
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