SteamOS 3.5 released as a preview beta for Steam Deck

SteamOS 3.5 is now in preview beta for Steam Deck, bringing features like display enhancements, improved performance, bug fixes, and more.

Valve has pushed SteamOS 3.5 to the preview channel of the Steam Deck.

This major update brings major new features to the Steam Deck, like the ability to adjust display colors, HDR and VRR support for external displays, updates to the underlying Arch Linux base, updated graphic drivers and more.

The update has been in the beta channel for a while, but with it now hitting the preview channel, it's apparent that the update will be imminent. Want to give the preview release a try? Here's how to install the SteamOS 3.5 preview.

You can find the full changelog below:

Display

Added Settings -> Adjust Display Colors, to tune the display's Color Vibrancy and Color Temperature. The settings can be tuned with a preview of a test image (above), or with your running game.
- Native: The native display color appearance (the color rendering for Steam Deck prior to this update).
- sRGB: Emulate the sRGB primaries, in a smooth manner that does not introduce gradient clipping.
- Boosted: Emulate a wider-gamut display appearance, resulting in increased apparent vibrance. May result in gradient clipping.
HDR can now be enabled in Display Settings if supported by the external display.
VRR can now be enabled in Display Settings if supported by the USB-C adapter.
Reworked Quick-Access scaling settings to separate scaling from filtering. Added Stretch and Zoom scaling as new options to handle different aspect ratios.
Fixed touchscreen orientation while external display is connected.
Compositing is now avoided in additional scenarios, reducing latency and stutter in situation with multiple overlays on screen.
Improved latency in certain situations where the application renders slower than the display's refresh rate.

General

Fixed an issue where certain workloads would exhibit severe CPU performance issues unless SMT was manually disabled.
External storage devices are now auto-mounted when connected to Steam Deck. To format or manage storage devices use the new device management interface in Settings->Storage.
Updated graphics drivers, with many performance and functionality improvements. Improved performance for Starfield. Fixed viewmodel corruption in Amnesia: The Bunker and launch failures for Immortals of Aveum and Kaiju-A-GoGo.
Improved Bluetooth connection stability, especially with multiple controllers
Slightly improved sleep resume speed
Implemented switching between controller bindings and mouse/keyboard desktop bindings by long-pressing Options in the Linux hid-steam driver, to match Steam's default Desktop configuration.
Improved fade transitions between applications.
The contents of the performance overlay can now be customized by creating a ~/.config/MangoHud/presets.conf configuration file.
Fixed a bug where some games could appear stretched if their window size didn't match their swapchain size (eg. Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 4)
Fixed Disgaea PC needing to be tapped on before input works
Fixed physical dimensions reported to games, fixing some issues with an incorrect aspect ratio sometimes being detected (eg. Returnal)
Worked around a problem where Allow Tearing could cause heavy stuttering if the Performance Overlay or other overlays appeared on screen. Tearing is now impossible in such situations, and the Performance Overlay should be disabled for best results.
Fixed a problem where keyboard input would not be detected in Overwatch 2
Controller firmware: fixed an issue where some thumbstick touch sensors would lose touch periodically

Firmware 1.16

Added voltage offset settings.
Improved robustness of the Firmware Settings Reset chord (Volume Down + Quick-Access + Power) against some boot hang scenarios.
Fixed a rare issue that would set the processor TDP limit too low causing CPU and GPU frequencies to be stuck at 400 MHz and 200 MHz respectively.
Fixed an issue when the charging light would turn back on when plugged in for a while after fully charged.

Updated Arch Linux base

This update pulls in newer performance, security and stability fixes for the underlying packages that are the foundation for SteamOS
Most notably, this includes recent changes to KDE Plasma, Steam Deck's Desktop Mode. Full notes on these updates can be found on KDE's website here. Here are a few of the highlights:
- New window tiling system
- Updated Discover (app store / software manager) with a new homepage and improved search
- Discover can now perform system updates from the desktop
- Updated desktop widgets