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Generally speaking, the Steam Deck has become fairly well-liked among both PC and on-the-go gamers, largely setting the standard for the burgeoning portable gaming PC sector. Of course, no device is ever perfect, and indeed, the Steam Deck has its fair share of common problems and quirks. Based on user opinions from the r/SteamDeck subreddit, two of the most common irritants with the Steam Deck are power and battery quirks, and buggy, inconsistent software performance.
Using a Steam Deck is, in essence, having an entire gaming PC in the palms of your hands. It's impressive that such a device can exist at all, but a gaming PC is a very complicated piece of hardware, which means shrinking it down to a portable size is all but guaranteed to cause headaches. Whether these annoyances are bad enough to keep you from purchasing a Steam Deck at all is a matter of opinion; many users still love their Steam Deck despite them, but still have their own complaints to offer.
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Power and battery quirks
Gaming PCs tend to be rather power-hungry, far more than your average desktop or laptop. While a Steam Deck's hardware isn't as top-shelf as the latest and greatest gaming PCs, it is pretty powerful for its size, and that power requires energy. The Steam Deck is equipped with a 45W power supply, and the OLED model's 50Whr battery is rated for around 3-12 hours of continuous gameplay. However, according to users, the Steam Deck has a bad habit of bleeding power, diminishing its overall battery efficacy.
One user on the r/SteamDeck subreddit said they consistently find their Steam Deck with a nearly exhausted battery after putting it away with a full charge. Another user agreed, saying that they barely get a chance to play on their Deck on the weekends because it burns through its charge just sitting in Sleep Mode. Other users have suggested turning the device off all the way rather than using Sleep Mode, as this will help the device hold its charge long-term, but it can be annoying to constantly boot the Steam Deck all the way up and turn it all the way off every time you use it. You can just leave it in a dock to charge when it's not in use, though some users have reported battery swelling after extended ownership, so leaving it on the hook all the time presents its own risks.
Buggy software
The Steam Deck is loaded with SteamOS, Valve's proprietary gaming-oriented Linux-based operating system. Besides loading your Steam Library games directly, one of the Steam Deck's hidden features is its desktop mode, which lets you easily access its backend to install and run third-party software, including utilities and non-Steam games. It's a great way to use your Steam Deck for non-gaming purposes, but the Steam Deck's software is not without its quirks, and some users have found them more annoying than others.
One r/SteamDeck user reports a multitude of problems with the Steam Deck's overall software experience. When everything works as it's supposed to, it's great, but they're frequently hampered by issues such as Wi-Fi disconnects, controller support problems, and inconsistent performance with third-party, non-Steam apps and games. Another user specifically highlights that last concern, with problems running games from other distribution platforms like Epic Games Store and GOG, as well as seemingly random crashes and hitches just running Steam games. Since SteamOS is Linux-based, it uses a translation layer called Proton to handle Windows-based apps, but it's within that translation layer that problems can crop up. If you're especially skilled with Linux, you may be able to remedy those problems yourself, but not everyone is, nor should everyone be expected to be.
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