Steam Deck is a newer console that has just recently been in stock since around September and many people have been trying to get their hands on one. Many have already purchased theirs and are excitingly waiting for it to arrive. However, it is very different than say a Nintendo Switch or a PlayStation 5, it is a mini PC and many might be confused on how to run some things or just want some tips and tricks! So today, we will be give you our tips and tricks for the Steam Deck.
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Expand Your Storage With A SD Card
The Steam Deck is a lot like any other console in the sense that it doesn’t have unlimited storage. When purchasing your Steam Deck from the Steam website, you can either get 64GB, 256Gb or 512GB. You also want to take into considerable just how much you will download and how many updates it might get in the future, so be smart when choosing the right size for you and your hardware. But don’t stress when it coms to being able to have all your games downloaded. There are more options for putting in bigger internal storage but I know many might rather not do that, so instead you can easily get a really large SD card for all your games to be stored on. Just like the Nintendo Switch, you can even get opportunity SD cards and change them out as you download more games to each…or just have better organization.
Some people who’ve bought the 256GB have filled their Steam Deck up with just four games, so you definitely want to think about how many games you might be downloading and how big a Deck or SD card you want to purchase. You can purchase a NVMe SSDs which is a internal based storage, which you can install inside your Steam Deck yourself which will help the games load faster since opening a game from the SD card doesn’t open as quickly.
You Can Stream Your Games
Many might not understand exactly what this means and that is okay, we’re going to break it down. If you already have a decent gaming PC…then this option will help you save up even more space while playing the games you love on your Steam Deck. If you already have a PC in your gaming setup that’s connected to your home Wi-Fi, you can use Steam’s Remote Play function. This basically gives you the benefit to play games that are locally on your Steam Deck or your gaming computer. You just need both devices running and connected to the same internet. This can be a easy way to save more storage.
Adjusting Your Steam Deck Brightness
To those that like their brightness all the way up…you might wan to turn your Steam Deck’s brightness down. A lot of people are probably very familiar with the complaints about the Steam Deck’s battery life…however there are a very tweaks you can use to make the life of your full charged console last a bit longer. One of those tweaks to make is reducing the brightness of the console. To do this all you need to do is click the three-dot button on the right-hand side of the console. This will also be a good option if you plan on playing your Steam Deck in bed a lot since you probably don’t want to look at a brightly-lit screen at midnight.
More Performance Tweaks You Might Want To Make
Tweaking things can make the experience of your Steam Deck even better. To adjust things further, you can click the three-dots menu button and navigate down to the battery section…from there you can find many different performance options and you can tweak both FPS and refresh rate. Using the settings you can enhance your experience and also better help save the battery life.
Change Up Game Graphics
The Steam Deck plays a lot of modern PC games really well for its small size, the screen doesn’t come in any other sizes but it supports 7-inch 1280 x 800 touchscreen display for 720p gameplay. Many PC gamers are probably used to playing on a bigger monitor, however for the Steam Deck, we recommend turning down the graphics settings a bit. It doesn’t do a ton but can make the experience while playing your Steam Deck smoother.
Connecting More Devices
Now onto something that might be one of the most exciting things…connecting more devices to your Steam Deck! Not only can you Bluetooth a keyboard and mouse to your Steam Deck while in desktop mode, but you can also Bluetooth earbuds or headphones to the console for a small mobile gaming setup as well as connecting a wireless controller. Controllers like the PlayStation 5 or 4 controllers, Xbox Series X/S controllers, or even a Pro Controller work great with the Steam Deck. (My personal favorite is the PlayStation 5 controller.) Any controller can easily be used on the Steam Deck. You can buy the official Steam Deck Dock and easily connect the console to your TV and use a controller to relax in bed with a bigger screen. The Steam Deck is a lot like the Nintendo Switch in regards to providing many options for how you want to play the console and where.
Be Sure To Force Quit
This next tip is one that you might find yourself needing if you ever have a problem with your Steam Deck console. If your Steam Deck ever ends up getting frozen while you are gaming, you can easily force quit the game by just pressing a couple buttons. Press the Steam button and the B button together and that will force quit any game that might be causing a problem.
Here’s our final tip for this guide which is a list of different button combinations that give different screens and actions. Here’s a list of the shortcuts:
- Steam button + X = show keyboard
- Steam button + Left Joystick up = turn brightness up
- Steam button + Left Joystick down = turn brightness doiwn
- Steam button + D-Pad Right = enter key
- Steam button + D-Pad down = tab
- Steam button + D-Pad left = Escape
- Steam button + L2 = Right mouse click
- Steam button + R2 = Left mouse click
- Steam button + L1 = turn on Magnifier
We really hope that this guide of tips and tricks for the Steam Deck will help you as you decide to further your gaming journey! Be on the lookout for more gaming guides in the future!
