I’ve been considering getting a mini PC for my living room, basically only to watch online videos without ads or watch locally stored videos.
Since I have a Steam deck available that I already often dock to my screen for gaming, could I use it instead of buying a new computer?
My main concern is the impact this would have on the battery if it’s plugged in for long periods of time, does it bypass the battery when it’s plugged in and the battery is full ? Will other components be impacted?
You can use it like that, yeah, it’s basically like a “laptop” in that sense, just a fair bit smaller.
Normally I’d recommend getting devices for a specific purpose, like a mini tower custom build for a mini PC with powerful yet efficient and affordable specs - or maybe an older used tower. Though, if cost to performance ratio isn’t as important to you as portability and ease of setup, then a Steam Deck would likely be a good choice.
Wait a few days for CES and see what other vendors will ship with SteamOS. Asus and Lenovo usually allow to limit battery charging. Steam Deck doesn’t.
If you want to preserve your battery, follow the same principles for any battery, avoid having above 80% and below 20%. I’m not sure for KDE, but on GNOME I have a GUI utility that lets you set this and enable/disable with a toggle.
on GNOME I have a GUI utility that lets you set this and enable/disable with a toggle.
The charging controller must support that feature. Notebooks by Asus, Lenovo and maybe others do, perhaps even the Ally and Legion handhelds, but if the battery controller doesn’t support that, the toggle will do nothing.
I’ve been using mine as a Mini PC for almost a year since getting it. It works great. The only issues with it I’ve personally had come with regular issues with Linux itself. The battery is still in great health. I’ve only recently had any sort of problem with it and even then I believe it’s just a reasonable hardware failure more than something caused by using it this way.
Over two years with mine, battery aging isn’t noticeable. I’m pretty sure when plugged in and fully charged, the Deck runs off of external power. I don’t know if it shunts around the battery or not, but it certainly isn’t cycling the battery.
I mostly use my deck in a few fixed locations, so it’s mostly plugged in.
I use it as a “laptop” a lot, using a case with a stand and Logitech’s mini Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. I like it.
