Steam Deck 2’s most-wanted improve is not battery life or high-res, our ballot reveals

The Steam Deck 2 hasn’t even been introduced but, however already handheld players are fairly clear about the place it wants to enhance on its predecessor. In a ballot run on our website, a large 64% of readers surveyed (on the time of writing) mentioned efficiency was a very powerful improve they might need within the subsequent iteration of Valve’s handheld.

Surprisingly, second in line was battery life, with a fifth of these polled stating this was a very powerful improve. That is regardless of each LCD and OLED handhelds not precisely shining for gaming on-the-go endurance. Battery life varies wildly relying on efficiency and Valve claims between 3-12 hours and 2-8 hours of gameplay for the OLED and LCD fashions respectively. Checks from PC Gamer present the distinction efficiency targets make, with GTA V managing simply 2 hours at 60 FPS; this leaves loads of room for potential enchancment.

Apparently, there appears to be no actual need for a bigger display dimension both – suggesting many are pleased with a 7.4-inch diagonal display, in addition to the present 1280 x 800 decision. On the backside of the listing had been options reminiscent of VRR (Variable Refresh Charge) and Storage, the latter of which we aren’t shocked about as there are many efficient methods to extend this with the present fashions. As for VRR (at present one of many key advantages of the ASUS ROG Ally), it’s definitely a welcomed characteristic, nevertheless it doesn’t fairly match the extent of demand that efficiency does.

What is going to give the Steam Deck an enormous efficiency increase?

Whereas little is understood concerning the Steam Deck’s successor, we do know that it’s unlikely to characteristic AMD’s Ryzen Z2 chip, the newest handheld chip designed for gaming efficiency. The Steam Deck was featured in CES 2025 advertising and marketing supplies again in January when AMD revealed its subsequent era of chips. Nonetheless, in accordance with Pierre-Loup Griffais, a Valve coder who’s “at present engaged on [the] Steam Deck,” there will probably be no Z2 Steam Deck.

Whereas the likes of the Lenovo Legion Go S runs on the brand new Z2 Go chip, which is partly powered by AMD’s RDNA 3.5 GPU structure, the unique Steam Deck makes use of a 6nm AMD APU with Zen 2 and RDNA 2 structure for the CPU and GPU respectively. In different phrases, it has fallen behind the competitors so far as {hardware} energy goes – and followers wish to catch again up. Valve has already mentioned it’s ready for a “generational leap” earlier than it commits to a sequel, and this can assure the most important efficiency uplift between the 2 Steam Deck generations.

Whereas Steam Deck nonetheless clearly has the market share, Valve will definitely not need their {hardware} to be left behind, and so we expect a successor to the Deck to return sooner relatively than later.