A view of the Steam Deck Docking Station.
A photo of Steam Decks ready to ship, from a community update by Valve.
The long-delayed official Steam Deck dock is now available for order, according to Valve, the company behind it. The dock was originally slated to launch closer to the Steam Deck launch, but it was delayed this summer due to supply chain challenges.
Officially called the “Steam Deck Docking Station”, it works as both a dock to work with an external monitor or TV and as a charging station. It has three USB-A 3.1 ports, one USB-C charging port with passthrough, DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 and a gigabit Ethernet port. It also includes a power supply, just like the one that comes with a Steam Deck. Valve says it can also run on the Steam Deck’s battery, but this will affect the bandwidth of the ports.
Unlike the Nintendo Switch in docked mode, don’t expect your Steam Deck to perform differently when docked.
The Steam Deck Docking Station costs $89, and right now you can buy it now with relatively short shipping times. That said, Valve says the product may switch to a reservation-based ordering process if demand begins to outpace supply.
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Speaking of reservation-based ordering processes, there’s also big news about the Steam Deck.
For months, potential Steam Deck buyers had to pre-order the device and wait for an email from Valve. Demand far outstripped supply, but Valve said it’s catching up. The company previously said it plans to fulfill all outstanding reservations by the end of the year.
It seems that the process went well; you no longer need to pre-order to purchase the Steam Deck in the US and Canada. Even people without a reservation can expect the device within one to two weeks of ordering.
There’s another major development regarding the dock: the Steam Deck has received a firmware update (SteamOS 3.3.2), which Valve promised will significantly improve the Steam Deck’s reportedly lackluster user experience, not just with the official dock, but also with third-party USB-C docking stations.
Before the release of the official dock, third-party docks were the only option, but users and reviewers often complained that it was a bit janky — a far cry from the Nintendo Switch’s plug-and-play docking experience.
For example, SteamOS 3.3.2 adds an “external display output resolution and refresh rate selection UI in Display Settings” and “automatically avoids problematic resolutions like 4096×2160 or 30Hz modes on external displays.”
The firmware update is now available on all Steam Decks.
List image by Valve