The Steam Deck just got a dual-touchpad keyboard and some much-needed improvements

Did I speak too soon? Two days after my one-month check-in with the Steam Deck Portable Gaming PC, Valve has already addressed some of the most annoying issues I've reported.

In some updates, one in the stable channel and one currently available in beta (have the full changelog), Valve has:

A dual-trackpad keyboard has been added so I can type two characters at once with my thumb instead of hunting and pecking

A full-size virtual keyboard has finally been added to Linux Desktop Mode, so you probably don't even need to plug one in (previously, you could call the old 2015 dual-trackpad keyboard, but the new Touch and Gamepad does). Yes, a lot)

Fixed the Wi-Fi so that it would automatically connect and reconnect without prompting you to re-enter a previously saved password (seems to have done the steam server faster, which has been an issue for me)

You can now manually adjust your joystick deadzone and trackpad haptic power, and the new BIOS has a whole bunch of USB-C fixes because some owners didn't allow or even connect to charging. That some USB has complained about my deck getting stuck while plugged in. c device. For example, you can now hold down "..." + Volume Down to retry the deck's USB-C Power Delivery handshake, and Liam at GamingOnLinux says it works. Oh, and now you can uncap your framerate (if you hate battery life) instead of locking it to 60 or 30 or 15fps. Uncapped hasn't been an option since the Steam deck's first launch.

The new keyboard is an immediately better experience for me, but I still have one drawback compared to the original dual trackpad: Some letters are a bit hard to reach, and there's no autocomplete suggestion in this version. I expected Valve to add voice typing and swipe typing to the line, but for now it's fine. (BTW, if you don't know, you can long press to pronounce the letters.)

It also has ftpm support so you can install Windows 11, although I've heard it may actually be stuck in earlier beta builds. And although Valve doesn't mention it in the changelog, I'm also seeing the ability to restart the Steam client from the power menu if you run into a bug - previously, I was rebooting the entire Steam deck, which happened a lot. long. Is.

I'm not sure I'll be able to confirm some of Valve's other improvements anytime soon, like better compatibility with SD cards, but there's one more I'm looking at tonight: Updates to the LED Supply Connection Program for a Better Experience Power in dark environment. Maybe I won't have to cover the steam deck when I leave it charging on the nightstand.