28 Oct 2024 11:41 AM +00:00 UTC

We Tested the New SteamOS Update, Here's Our Thoughts

This past weekend may have been the best yet for Steam Deck fans. Valve recently released a new update for its SteamOS, Steam Deck's native operating system. The SteamOS 3.6.19 update adds various stability improvements, including installation fixes, Game Recording updates, and, more importantly, battery life improvement.

Our social lead, Kris Alfonte, thoroughly tested what's new in the latest update. Testing it on various games, the Steam Deck LCD impressively lasted 5%-10% longer than usual with the update's new battery improvement. This battery boost provides enough leeway to go and "grab your charger before you torture your battery to death," according to Kris.

While we consider playing handheld devices on critical battery levels an extreme sport, the update also improved Wi-Fi connections and made game download speeds consistent. For example, Robocop: Rogue City ran smoothly with minimal input lags with FSR turned on, compared to its previous input lag slugfest before the update.

Not everything about the latest update is all sunshine and roses, however. In our case, the update affected several game titles, particularly Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr. The game became laggy even at low settings and "kinda wrecked my favorite ARPG game," added Kris, which isn't optimal if you are looking forward to playing the game on the go. The update also added microSD card stability, and while Kris has never encountered any microSD card issues before, the added stability for microSD cards is still a plus in our book.

Overall, the update did everything it intended: provide stability and improvements across the board or the Deck. Thanks to Valve's loving care for its handheld, we can now say goodbye to game crashes and browse the dashboard in peace. Hopefully, Valve will release follow-up fixes for the affected games and cheer up our Kris.

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