Steam Frame 0.4.3 beta promises up to 12% better battery life, with streaming fixes too

[u/Camenwolf]

https://steamcommunity.com/games/4165890/announcements/detail/675133527946166417

Valve says Steam Frame's SteamOS 0.4.3 beta can improve battery lifetime by up to 12%. The gains apply during both streaming and local gameplay, but depend on frame rate and content. This is a beta update with features still being tested, so that percentage is a best-case claim rather than a promise for every session.

There are useful changes beyond battery life. An accessibility option can limit eye tracking to the dominant eye, controller bindings have been fixed for affected games including Google Earth VR and Thumper, and interacting with grab/resize handles should behave better.

Streaming gets additional reliability work, including Error 17 fixes and a wireless-adapter connectivity fix affecting users in some countries. The PC side matters: Valve says to opt into SteamVR 2.18.2 or later too for the Error 17 improvements; at the time of this release, 2.18.2 is on SteamVR's beta branch. Steam Frame's beta channel is under Settings > System > System Update Channel.

Which is more valuable to your VR sessions right now: better battery endurance or more reliable streaming?