You’d think that releasing the official Steam Deck dock eight months after the handheld it supports might bring about a sigh of relief, but instead we’re all questioning why it has such a lofty price tag attached – especially when plenty of third-party USB hubs have filled the void in the meantime. Its only saving grace aside from the Valve stamp of approval is its specific selection of ports, but now Jsaux has followed up with a near identical version and it’s much cheaper.
Without a hands-on, we can’t comment on the performance of either the official Steam Deck dock or the Jsaux HB0702. Considering Jsaux currently makes the best Steam Deck dock, however, it’s worth considering since the new entry features the same gigabit Ethernet port, DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0 for higher resolutions and refresh rates, and three USB-A 3.2 ports (which is actually a small step up from the 3.1 ports on the official dock), all for less.
If you’re wondering what gives, it comes down to the power brick. Valve includes a power adapter in its $89 USD / £79 GBP price tag, whereas the Jsaux HB0702 comes in at $59.99 without one. Grabbing the optional Jsaux 45W charger for $19.99 brings the price in line, although it’s still collectively $10 cheaper than the official bundle.
Considering both docks are compatible with the original AC adapter that comes with the Steam Deck, you might not even need a second power brick. It all depends on how you use your handheld gaming PC and whether you want a separate charger to take on-the-go with you – after all, no one likes fiddling with the cables behind their gaming monitor once it’s all set up.
It’s a little baffling that Valve makes it mandatory considering the idea behind the Steam Deck is to play it your way, but it could make the dock cheaper in the future. For now, Jsaux comes in clutch with a cheaper option if you can’t afford the full whack. The company even has beefier docks that feature an NVMe port so you can slot in the best SSD and cheaper docks that reduce the number of USB ports (like the one above).