Three years ago, Valve launched its portable PC gaming handheld device, the Steam Deck, and shook up the industry in a big way. But while the Steam Deck is great and changed how people play games, it had one annoying quirk: You had to keep the screen on to download games. Sad times. Those days are gone now with the latest Steam Deck update.
On November 4, Valve quietly announced that it had added a new feature to the Steam Deck to allow the device to complete all active downloads while the screen was powered off. Once the Deck is done downloading stuff, it then enters sleep mode. This new feature is enabled by default when your Steam Deck is plugged into power and can be turned on manually when in battery mode by hopping into Settings > Power and enabling it.
https://x.com/OnDeck/status/1985833346761666723Â
Once enabled, the next time you try to turn off your Steam Deck using the power button while it’s downloading content, you’ll be asked if you want it to keep downloading with the screen off. The Deck will enter this mode if you leave it idle for long enough, too. While downloading games with the screen off, if you move the Deck or press a button, a new status screen will appear showing a download progress bar.
It’s wild that it took Valve three years to implement this feature, as it feels like something the Steam Deck should have been capable of since launch. If you look around Reddit and elsewhere online, you’ll see people asking if they can download games with the screen off, and being confused when people answer no. Some users would dim their screens as low as possible or use other workarounds to download new games without the screen being on and burning through battery, but it was never fully supported until now.
The highly requested feature is available as part of the Steam Deck beta and preview channels, but I suspect it will be live for all users in the near future. The Steam Deck continues to get better and better.
