Steam Deck Just Learned A New Trick That's Ideal For Overnight Game Installs
The feature, available now in the Beta and Preview channels, lets the Steam Deck continue downloading even with the screen off. If it's plugged in, the option's enabled automatically. On battery power, you can toggle it on manually in Settings → Power. Pressing the power button while a download is active now brings up a prompt asking whether you'd like to keep downloading with the screen off. Choose Continue, and the Deck slips into its new low-power mode. It can also do this automatically after sitting idle for a while.
Wake it up mid-download, and you'll see a simple progress screen where you can either resume normal use or let it keep going quietly in the background. If you're running on battery, SteamOS will automatically put the Deck to sleep once power drops below 20%, so you don't wake up to a completely dead handheld.
It's a small change, but one that makes the Steam Deck experience feel even closer to a traditional console. Xbox and PlayStation players have had background downloads and updates since the mid-2000s, while most Windows handhelds (like the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X or MSI Claw 8 AI+) still behave like regular PCs, requiring the system to stay fully awake for anything to download.
Valve hasn't said whether this feature will extend to other devices shipping with SteamOS, such as the Lenovo Legion Go S with SteamOS that we reviewed recently; at least, it hasn't gotten the update on the Beta channel yet. For now, though, it's another sign that SteamOS is quietly evolving into a more seamless, console-style platform without giving up the flexibility that makes the Deck what it is, and we're absolutely here for it.
