It's a frustrating (but true) fact that we've all experienced with our phones, laptops, gaming handhelds, and other electronics — batteries degrade over time, making it so they eventually cannot hold as much power or last as long. As many of us have experienced, my well-loved Steam Deck already doesn't have the best battery life, which is why I'm sure I'll eventually have to replace the battery the minute it degrades to a horrible degree. This might be a whole lot sooner than later. I'm not looking forward to this, as the process for removing the Steam Deck battery is unreasonably difficult.
But thanks to a new battery regulation passed in the EU, it looks like Valve will be forced to manufacture new versions of the Steam Deck that feature replaceable batteries even though it had no plans of releasing a new version any time soon. I cannot even tell you how excited I am about this. For one thing, having a Steam Deck designed with a replaceable battery gives me more control over my favorite gaming device, and for another, it ensures that I will be able to fix my handheld without accidentally breaking it.
