Steam Deck Just Added a Quality of Life Feature Users Have Been Begging For

Valve has finally added a new quality of life feature to Steam Deck handhelds that many users have been begging to get for years. Since the Steam Deck hit the scene back in 2022, Valve has slowly been upgrading the on-the-go PC in different ways. Not only did it come out with a slight revision of the hardware with the Steam Deck OLED, but it has also refined the platform through countless firmware updates. Now, another such update of this ilk has gone live, and it brings about an improvement that likely should have been included from the beginning.

As of today, Steam Deck handhelds now have the ability to continue downloading games or updates without the screen remaining on. Previously, downloads on the device could only happen if the screen itself was active. This proved to be quite annoying as users couldn’t toggle off the Steam Deck or put it to sleep and continue a download in the background. Now, Valve has made it so that the Steam Deck can download games and other content with the screen turned off before it then shifts into sleep mode.

“While Steam Deck is downloading content, pressing the power button now brings up a new dialog, asking whether you’d like to continue downloading with the screen off,” Valve explained of the feature. “Select Continue, and Steam Deck will go into the new low-power download mode. In addition, Steam Deck will automatically go into this mode after an idle timeout.”

Valve says that this new aspect of the Steam Deck is one that will be enabled by default on the hardware. If for some reason you don’t want it turned on for yourself, though, this feature can be toggled on and off by visiting the Power tab of the Steam Deck’s settings.

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While this new Steam Deck improvement likely isn’t going to sway people to rush to pick up the hardware if they haven’t already, it’s a fantastic upgrade that shows Valve is listening to its user base. Hopefully, more additions to the platform like this will continue to roll out in the future as Valve pushes toward the inevitable Steam Deck 2.

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