Looking at the charging preferences of the Steam Deck, which from my research wants 45W at 15v/3A, it looks like the larger model should work just fine. And with it being $15 USD / $18 CAD this could be an incredible bargain.
It’s so new though I can’t find any info on it being used with a Steam Deck. I’ll definitely be grabbing one to try, as it would be perfect for my USB hub that sits by the TV.
The deck uses standard USB PD protocols to request power, so yes, these should work.
Worth noting, the Deck used to be unable to charge using PD chargers that were rated at less than 40W, this has been fixed in a firmware update and it is now able to correctly request power from any USB PD charger.
To charge while playing, a PD charger with a 15V mode is required, but any PD charger that can do 5 or 9 volts can still charge the Deck while idle/sleeping.
There is no limit to when it will charge, you can use a lower power charger to extend your runtime - I use my 9V 2A (18W) Pixel 4a charger all the time while playing. Anything higher than 25w will keep you playing indefinitely, as that’s pretty much the limit for what the deck can draw - 15W TDP and 10W for the screen, but obviously if you draw more than your charger can output eventually you will run out of battery.
But for quite a few lighter titles, 18W still gives you a few watts of net positive.
Anything higher than 25w will keep you playing indefinitely, as that’s pretty much the limit for what the deck can draw - 15W TDP and 10W for the screen
Not really that simple. There are lots of other things consuming power, but otherwise you’re correct.
That “10W for the screen” includes them all.
When you reach the 15W TDP limit with the screen at max brightness (on the LCD version), the OSD will show you drawing about 25 watts, and it’s measuring it directly from the battery. This also matches what people have reported for the power pass-through mode measuring from the wall outlet - once the battery is fully charged the Deck can power itself directly from the charger, and at full tilt, it’s about 25 watts.
Sure if you really want to start separating them all out there are things like bluetooth, wifi, speaker amplifiers, the SSD etc, but compared to how much the backlight & screen controller draw, they are pretty much drops in the bucket. Well, the SSD might take a watt or two.That “10W for the screen” includes them all.
No.
once the battery is fully charged the Deck can power itself directly from the charger, and at full tilt, it’s about 25 watts
Yes.
they are pretty much drops in the bucket.
No.
That “10W for the screen” includes them all.
No.
Taken straight from the LCD deck in front of me: With the screen as dim as possible sitting in the home menu, the total power usage of the deck is 4.9 Watts. The GPU is drawing 0.3 Watts. The CPU is drawing 0.3 Watts.
With the screen brightness turned to full but the deck idle, the power draw goes to 7.1 Watts, but the screen stops updating the image after 10 seconds. CPU & GPU are both still at 0.3 watts.
Jiggling the stick every few seconds to keep the screen on, the power draw goes to 9.6 Watts. CPU & GPU are still 0.3W each.Result: The “rest” of the Steam Deck, minus SSD and cooling fan activity at full screen brightness, uses 9 Watts, at least 4.7 Watts of it being the screen and backlight alone, though I was not able to test how much the draw would be if the screen could be turned completely off, as that isn’t possible in SteamOS.
15W + 9W is 24W, we are a watt shy of 25W.
The only limitation that I ever saw was - if you’re using a USB-C to USB-A cable to connect to your charger, the deck will say “charging slowly” while pulling absolutely nothing. It will only pull USB-C PD power. If you have a huge battery bank that can put out tons of 9v power on a quickcharge A socket, too bad.
USB-A, per the specification, is only supposed to provide 5V max. Qualcomm Quickcharge violates the USB-A specification, so only other devices that are designed to violate the specification and thus be compatible with QC will charge faster.
PinePower is another good option that’s not very expensive. 65W with 2 C ports and 1 A port for $25.
I got a pair of these little Scosche cubes for under $30 at Costco. They’re about 3cm³, non-folding. It’s pretty amazing to have 30w in about the same package as an Apple 5w phone charger.
Other than this, my favourite charger to tuck in the deck case is a folding, flat against the wall 45w puck that is thoroughly discontinued.
You can also use Chromebook chargers, as long as they support the right power spec.
I’ve been using one for my dock, and it’s worked great. I went with the 65w ($15) to have extra power for accessories on the dock, but they also have just a 45w one ($9) that supports the Deck’s 15v/3A charge.
Obviously these are more bulky than a standard charger, but it’s hard to beat on price.
I would be wary of such cheap USB-PD chargers. It is not uncommon for them to fail in ways that kill devices (I work for the tech department of a school district and we unfortunately have a strict OEM-only policy around chromebook chargers due to a wave of these killing chromebooks)
Let’s be honest, the reason for that policy is so that if a Chromebook does fail you can go back to the manufacturer for warranty coverage.
I would trust an Anker charger just as much as an OEM charger.
Obviously anker would probably be fine, I am talking about these no-name boxes from unpronounceable amazon sellers
That’s definitely good to know, thanks.
Ill be honest. When I saw the link I hovered over to see how old your account was. Its a no go for me though as that site is noscript unfriendly.
You don’t have to follow that link, it just has a few more technical details than the official Ikea site. That said I’m not a shill, just a cheapskate :P
I already have a smaller travel USB-C charger for my deck which is working great, but I’ve wanted to have a few extra around in places where I dock but haven’t been able to justify the price.
People are right that you can get similar priced chargers on Amazon, but they are random Chinese brands and while I’m sure Ikea’s is a rebrand itself, I would hope a large company like them would have ensured it was decent quality and won’t burn down the houses they furnish with particle board :P
Sorry. Was not suggesting you were a shill as much as that the title made me suspicious enough to check the account age and then the last part was more a gripe on consumer websites in general. You would think things trying to sell you things would want to maximize the people who could see it.
The site works fine with javascript blocked.
Regardless, IKEA is known for putting out quality but inexpensive electronics. Their rechargeable batteries and smart home products are great examples.
not for me with allowing the parent site and the cdn
Although it probably doesn’t matter in this case, it’s worth noting that your hub/dock and all connected accessories use power from your charger too. For example my laptop reports my 65w charger as 45w with my USB-C dock in between.
In your case this could mean your deck only getting 30W, which would be fine for less demanding games, but with a full load could mean barely charging / not charging at all.
You can use pretty much any charger on Steam Deck.
