After a year of waiting, Valve's Docking Station add-on for the Steam Deck is finally here. The accessory gives the Deck added expansion capabilities, including additional USB ports, video outputs and an Ethernet port for wired connectivity. The dock is now available to purchase for $89 at the Steam store.
Valve's Dock has been in the works for quite some time -- ever since the announcement of the Steam Deck in fact. But, thanks to the pandemic, supply chain issues have slowed or stopped Steam Deck Dock production for several months, forcing Valve to withhold availability until now.
The Dock itself sports three USB type-A 3.1 Gen 1 (5Gbps) ports, a single DisplayPort 1.4 connector, a single HDMI 2.0 port, plus Gigabit ethernet. As the name implies, the Dock also holds the Steam Deck upright, with a groove in the front that the console can slot into.
The Dock will be a welcome addition for Deck users who want to convert their console into a desktop environment, paired to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse. The Dock looks to be the perfect foundation for powering a desktop experience that will be similar to laptops and full-blown desktop PCs. Just don't do any crazy blender renders on the Deck's low-powered Zen 2 APU--unless you like waiting.
Of course, you can also use the dock as a Nintendo Switch-like dock, and hookthe Steam Deck up to a television for gaming on the big screen. Of course, if you don't want to shell out for the first-party dock, the Steam Deck uses a regular USB Type-C connection, meaning other docks and hubs with a USB-C port should work perfectly with the Deck, just as the Dock itself should work with other devices that support USB Type-C.
No More Reservations!
In even more exciting news, Valve has announced its reservation queue is now gone! All Steam Deck orders have been fulfilled, meaning you can grab a Steam Deck right now and you won't have to wait in line to get one.
This is seriously long-awaited news from Valve. The Steam Deck has been having notorious supply issues, especially during the beginning of this year, where people were scheduled to wait for months to get an order fulfilled.
It wasn't until a few months ago that we heard news of Valve beginning to resolve these supply chain issues in a big way, and the reservation lines began to get shorter and shorter. But now it seems, Valve's Steam Deck production has expanded to the point where a queue is no longer required. This is despite, according to Valve, consumer demand being higher than ever for Valve's console.
This has led Valve to expand Steam Deck availability to other countries, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong -- in the form of reservations. So it seems some of us will still need to get in line.
