After a long time of users asking, Valve has actually added an official Battery Charge Limit setting in the latest Steam Deck Beta update so you no longer need to use third-party tools.
Default limit when toggled on is 80%, which generally seems like a good middle ground between usability and battery life. You can also raise the limit higher if you want more battery, or lower if you want to preserve the battery life better.
I thought the steam deck already had this. Admittedly, I’ve only had mine for about a month, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it charge to 100%. I think 95% was the highest I’ve seen. It seemed like it had something similar to smart charge like Windows has.
When it charges up all the way, it stops charging and just does passthrough power instead. You can then see the battery % slowly drop over time, which is probably why you were seeing stuff like 95%
Not quite - batteries have something called self-discharge, which happens faster at higher temps. If you’re actively using the deck, it can get warm which speeds up this process. It’s not fast, but it’s absolutely possible to see depending on how long you leave the deck docked
Battery self discharge is measured in days at worst, more typically weeks or months. It should not be dropping 5% over the course of an hour or so even if the device is a bit warm. Plus having it plugged in should start charging again once the battery starts dropping too low.
Sparky1337 hasn’t said anything about how long it had been plugged in before he saw it at 95%, so I was kinda assuming he was leaving it plugged in overnight, or leaving it docked for long amounts of time.
What do people set it to?
On my devices where it’s available I usually set it to 80-85%.
Default limit when toggled on is 80%, which generally seems like a good middle ground between usability and battery life. You can also raise the limit higher if you want more battery, or lower if you want to preserve the battery life better.
I thought the steam deck already had this. Admittedly, I’ve only had mine for about a month, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it charge to 100%. I think 95% was the highest I’ve seen. It seemed like it had something similar to smart charge like Windows has.
When it charges up all the way, it stops charging and just does passthrough power instead. You can then see the battery % slowly drop over time, which is probably why you were seeing stuff like 95%
You shouldn’t see the battery drop if it is not using the battery, which is what pass through would suggest.
Not quite - batteries have something called self-discharge, which happens faster at higher temps. If you’re actively using the deck, it can get warm which speeds up this process. It’s not fast, but it’s absolutely possible to see depending on how long you leave the deck docked
Battery self discharge is measured in days at worst, more typically weeks or months. It should not be dropping 5% over the course of an hour or so even if the device is a bit warm. Plus having it plugged in should start charging again once the battery starts dropping too low.
Sparky1337 hasn’t said anything about how long it had been plugged in before he saw it at 95%, so I was kinda assuming he was leaving it plugged in overnight, or leaving it docked for long amounts of time.
Plugged in 24/7? I’d set it to 60%. If I have a mix of use 80%.