Whereas it won’t be making as many headlines because it did early on, Valve’s seminal PC gaming handheld, the Steam Deck, remains to be going sturdy. It’s simply obtained a brand new working system replace, in truth, delivering a couple of key enhancements whereas the notorious SteamOS 3.6 looms within the background.

The June thirteenth replace for the Steam Deck’s “Secure” replace channel is now out, as per Valve’s current announcement, and it’s acquired some actually attention-grabbing enhancements. Highlights embrace the per-device wake-up toggle being added to the OLED Deck’s performance roster, in addition to the power to examine a selected Bluetooth system’s battery degree. That is all nicely and good, in fact, nevertheless it’s additionally value remembering that the SteamOS 3.6 replace has been hovering about within the “Unstable” replace channel for a while now, and it doesn’t appear to be that a lot nearer to launch than it was weeks in the past.

SteamOS 3.6 remains to be in Preview construct, no launch ETA

Notably, SteamOS 3.6 is meant to return with a humongous listing of efficiency and stability enhancements, as Valve itself defined final Might, however the replace merely isn’t able to be pushed into the “Secure” pipeline simply but. There’s no estimated time of arrival for SteamOS 3.6, both, and the particular preview construct in query has already been bumped as much as model 3.6.4 as Valve continues including extra options and performance into the replace.

Within the interim, then, we’ve acquired the June thirteenth replace, which is cool however decidedly unexciting, within the grand scheme of issues. Right here’s a truncated listing of enhancements included as a part of this replace for the Steam Deck:

• Seen battery info for all linked Bluetooth units (Settings – Bluetooth / Fast Entry menu)
• Per-device toggles that dictate whether or not a linked Bluetooth system can wake the Deck up from sleep state
• Fastened sure situations of needing a number of presses of the Information and Steam buttons to open the suitable interfaces
• Added a Magnifier Scale configurator (Settings – Show)
• Improved gyro-to-mouse habits when utilizing a Bluetooth system
• Varied Desktop Mode enhancements
• Added a one-time pairing step when streaming from a distant PC to the Deck

Good things total, then, although the SteamOS 3.6 replace is clearly probably the most thrilling factor on the docket for the Steam Deck. Be aware, too, that a number of the enhancements – such because the granular BT wake-up toggles – are particularly unique to the OLED model of the system, because the baseline Deck doesn’t have the mandatory {hardware} to utilize the characteristic. Most of those options will, nonetheless, be out there throughout the board, so I like to recommend updating regardless.