You don’t have to make a Steam Deck reservation to buy Valve’s handheld gaming PC anymore. Valve has announced that starting October 6 (today), you can simply order a Steam Deck whenever you want to, and the company will put it in a nice box and send it to you.
As our Steam Deck review puts it, it’s a brilliant little entry-level gaming PC that you can conveniently take just about anywhere. It’s a good bit bulkier than the Nintendo Switch, sure, but that extra heft holds an impressive amount of gaming hardware – plus your entire Steam library. It’s a way to play some of the best PC games out there while you’re on the go.
Valve also announced that the Steam Deck’s official docking station is now available, too. The dock features three USB A 3.1 ports, a USB C power port, video connections for both HDMI and DisplayPort, and a gigabit ethernet port. It includes a power supply that’s identical to the one packaged with the Steam Deck itself. The docking station is on sale for $89 USD or your regional equivalent. Valve points out that just about any third-party USB hub will work with the Steam Deck too, so you don’t need to buy the official model if you don’t want to – check out our list of the best Steam Deck docks if you’d like some suggestions.
New software features have arrived to support the docking station and other peripherals, Valve says. These include new options for scaling, screen resolution, and refresh rate, as well as new compatibility for alternate displays and audio devices. The Deck’s touchscreen keyboard has also been enhanced, and now supports Korean, Japanese, traditional Chinese, and simplified Chinese.
There are also a bunch of new options for customising Steam Deck’s controls, and you can now hold down a button to remap controls on the fly using a feature called ‘mode shifting.’
Check out our recommendations for the best Steam Deck SD card if you plan on expanding your Steam Deck’s storage capacity when it arrives on your doorstep.