The most requested features for the Steam Deck after one day

Steam Deck close-up
(Image credit: Future)

Steam Deck, the new portable PC gaming system from Valve, has been out in the wild for a full day now in the hands of eager gamers. What started out with some pretty wild prototypes has led to Valve bringing out one of the best budget gaming PCs on the market, as well as an excellent handheld gaming system. Of course, no product launches to the complete accolades of all, so here are the most requested features for the Steam Deck after one day of use.

On the Steam Deck's community Steam page, so far 26 feature requests have been submitted by early users. Some of the most popular, repeated and awarded requests among the group have specifically to do with the device's keyboard options. Given how much having an easy to use keyboard can help, it makes sense. Console gaming has always been inhibited by the poor onscreen keyboard options, and PC gamers have come to expect a bit better.

Quite a few users are calling for the split trackpad typing system that the Steam Controller uses. This allowed people to use the trackpad in combination with the triggers to type, which according to comments on the Steam Deck page could be a bit of a game changer. Hopefully this is a configuration option that comes around sooner rather than later. 

Others are looking for even more control over their keyboard options. Some want to be able to customise the key order manually so it works better for their language preferences, and others want to be able to manage the touchscreen bindings more completely like with the Steam Link app on a touchscreen phone. There's even mention of setting it up this way as a virtual keyboard when docked, which could be super useful.

Your next machine

(Image credit: Future)

Best gaming PC: the top pre-built machines from the pros
Best gaming laptop: perfect notebooks for mobile gaming

There are plenty of non-keyboard related suggestions too, but none with quite as much support behind them. Some other interesting ideas I hope Valve picks up include per-game performance profile options for running games. Given the Steam Deck is a portable device, being able to really turn the processing down on simpler on the go games could be a huge save to the battery life. Profiles sound like a handy way of managing this seamlessly.

Another request which seems very sensible is for after session surveys on games that aren't verified for use on the Steam Deck. Plenty of games still work, even without technically being supported and this would give the community a way to let each other know. Some games may work well in some ways and not in others, so a survey where people could communicate their experiences sounds like the best way to handle this until more games can officially move over to the platform. 

Lastly, there's an upvoted request that is very close to my heart. It requests that the Steam Deck should ship to Australia. Please! That's an ask I can get behind full heartedly. Hopefully the supply will pick up as Valve has promised and we'll start to see these systems on our shores soon enough. 

Hope Corrigan
Hardware Writer

Hope’s been writing about games for about a decade, starting out way back when on the Australian Nintendo fan site Vooks.net. Since then, she’s talked far too much about games and tech for publications such as Techlife, Byteside, IGN, and GameSpot. Of course there’s also here at PC Gamer, where she gets to indulge her inner hardware nerd with news and reviews. You can usually find Hope fawning over some art, tech, or likely a wonderful combination of them both and where relevant she’ll share them with you here. When she’s not writing about the amazing creations of others, she’s working on what she hopes will one day be her own. You can find her fictional chill out ambient far future sci-fi radio show/album/listening experience podcast right here. No, she’s not kidding. 

Read more
Steam Deck with menu screen
The Steam Deck 2 doesn't need to happen because Valve will win either way (though I hope it does)
Steam Deck's loading throbber
SteamOS beta could be available to download to your handheld gaming PC of choice as soon as April
Valve Steam Deck with GeForce Now app overlaid on screen.
Nvidia announces dedicated GeForce Now app for Steam Decks and more, streamlining cloud gaming for mixed-reality headset wearers too
OneXPlayer 2 pro on a table
I never thought a handheld PC bloated with Windows could replace my Steam Deck, but after gaming on an old OneXPlayer 2 Pro I can see now I judged it too harshly
Valve Steam Deck with GeForce Now app overlaid on screen.
After a year in its company, I've done a complete 180 on my Steam Deck
The Lenovo legion Go S showing the Steam OS main menu.
I got hands on with the Lenovo Legion Go S handheld PC with Valve's SteamOS—and it seems like a bit of a winner to me
Latest in Handheld Gaming PCs
Still from a CNET video highlighting the Samsung concept device from MWC 2025
Samsung's handheld prototype delivers folding phone screens to Switch-like gaming hardware, and I am absolutely here for it
Xbox handheld
Microsoft is reportedly prepping a handheld Xbox for later this year with new consoles coming in 2027
OneXPlayer 2 pro on a table
I never thought a handheld PC bloated with Windows could replace my Steam Deck, but after gaming on an old OneXPlayer 2 Pro I can see now I judged it too harshly
A Razer Handheld Dock Chroma with a Steam Deck OLED
Razer Handheld Dock Chroma review
The Logitech G305 Lightspeed gaming mouse floats in a teal, deal header image void. This is the black colourway with silver-y grey accents. A stylised 'G' is painted on to the lower portion of the palm rest.
Clicking fingers at the ready—you can snap up the best budget gaming mouse for $30
Steam Deck with menu screen
New figures show Valve's Steam Deck is still by far the biggest selling handheld gaming PC but the form factor isn't really taking off
Latest in News
Promotional image of the HP Envy Inspire inkjet printer
Haunted printers turning on by themselves and printing nonsense has to be one of my favorite Windows 11 bugs ever
The UHPILCL water cooled gaming laptop
This water-cooled gaming laptop packs a full-size desktop RTX 5090 and even fits in a backpack, but I sure wouldn't want it in mine
The TikTok app with Donald Trump ranting behind it.
Trump says the United States is already talking to potential TikTok buyers: 'We're dealing with four different groups, and a lot of people want it ... all four are good'
Corsair launches Custom Labs in Europe
Corsair's Custom Labs is now available in Europe, allowing you to make your gear as cute or ugly as you want and no-one will stop you
Still from a CNET video highlighting the Samsung concept device from MWC 2025
Samsung's handheld prototype delivers folding phone screens to Switch-like gaming hardware, and I am absolutely here for it
A masked man with an axe in the woods
Rebellion CEO seems kind of awed by major studios making massive videogames: 'How do you organize a game that has 2,000 people working on it?'