The Steam Deck's OLED display offers improved battery efficiency, a better visual experience, and true black levels, but it also shares the common OLED concern of potential screen burn-in. To mitigate that risk, Valve has added an option to continue long downloads with the display turned off. The feature is enabled automatically when the device is connected to mains power, and battery users may enable it manually from Settings > Power. There are two simple ways to enter the low-power download mode. While a download is active, pressing the power button brings up a prompt asking whether to continue the download with the screen off. Accepting that prompt places the Deck into the reduced-power state.

Alternatively, the system will switch to the mode automatically after a period of inactivity. If the device is picked up or a control is pressed during a background download, a brief status panel displays progress and lets you either fully wake the system or allow downloads to continue. To protect battery health and avoid interrupted transfers, the Deck will exit the low-power download state and enter full sleep once the battery level reaches 20%. The update is available now on the Beta and Preview channels, and Valve is collecting feedback from early adopters in the community.