How long is the Steam Deck battery life?

Valve’s new handheld console, the Steam Deck, is set to release in two weeks, and while the portable device boasts flexibility, its battery life seems to be unpredictable.

There are countless ways you can use a Steam Deck and purposes you can use it for. But exactly how long it will stay alive without being charged can vary widely, according to the device’s specs on Steamdeck.com

The Steam Deck comes with a 40Whr battery that Valve claims can support two to eight hours of gameplay. Despite being a large range for battery life, early reviews of the Steam Deck indicate the battery has trouble reaching Valve’s eight hour maximum battery life. Even with settings lowered, the Steam Deck can have trouble hitting Valve’s minimum quoted battery life of two hours.

Gamers Nexus and The Phawx posted six hours in Dead Cells capped at 60fps, but the former recorded just 87 minutes while playing Devil May Cry 5 at 50 percent brightness on higher settings with Vsync disabled and the framerate uncapped. Lowering the settings, enabling Vsync, and capping the framerate at 60 fps yielded two hours of life in DMC5. These results fall considerably short of Valve’s projections, but there may be an easy explanation for this beyond adjusting your settings.

In Gamers Nexus’ early review of the Steam Deck, they noted Valve did not test battery life with active input. Gamers Nexus’ results were recorded using active input as if someone were playing the game. This could be what caused the disparity between Valve’s provided battery life range and the results seen in early reviews.

While the battery life of the Steam Deck appears to have a huge range, this isn’t too different from comparable devices like the Nintendo Switch. The Switch OLED, for instance, has a battery life that ranges from 4.5 to 9 hours. Some previous models had less battery life that ranged from 2.5 to 6.5 hours.

The exact battery life of your Steam Deck will depend largely on how you use it. Steam Deck accessories such as a portable charger may extend its battery life further. Some games and activities will drain your battery faster than others. Newer, more graphically intensive titles like Control will drain the battery much faster than an indie game like Dead Cells.

The Steam Deck launches Feb. 24 for first-round reservation holders. Those who have yet to secure their reservation can do so on the official Steam Deck site. Valve’s new handheld PC starts from $399. The most expensive model, which ships with more NVMe storage and an anti-glare glass exterior for minimizing reflections, will cost $649.