The Best Third Party Steam Deck Dock – Sabrent 6 Port Steam Deck Docking Station

Do you want a dock for your Steam Deck, but you don’t want to spend £80 for the one from Valve? This Sabrent 6 port docking station might be for you then! It’s just $30, and for that you get a well built bit of kit. Let me show you around it, give it a try, and show you some other options you might want to consider. 

The Sabrent dock can be so cheap both thanks to it being a continuation of what they already produce, so they’ve got plenty of economies of scale, and because it’s a more trimmed down option in terms of ports. You get a total of three USB 3.0 Type A ports, two on the left and one on the right, one USB C PD input, one USB 3.0 Type C port and one HDMI 2.0 port. No DisplayPort, no ethernet, although with that USB C port you could attach another budget dongle for more I/O – like this Sabrent USB C hub which comes with two more USB A ports, SD and MicroSD card readers and another HDMI port. The other reason for the price reduction is the lack of a USB C PD power adapter. Valve’s official dock comes with a second power brick – which isn’t a bad thing as it means the dock can stay in place powered on, rather than having to take just the power brick with you and have to plug it all back in again when you get home.

Despite its cheaper price, the dock still comes with large rubber pads on the back and the bottom of the deck holder for a soft, cushioned landing for your deck. It’s also got two fairly large rubber feet on the bottom so the whole thing doesn’t fancy sliding around at all. The USB C host cable is the perfect length, complete with a right angle port for a strain free attachment. With the Steam Deck’s USB C charger connected, a controller using one of the USB A ports, and a monitor via HDMI, the gaming experience is spot on. As you’d expect the Deck handily charges while gaming, allowing it to offer as much gaming performance as its tiny APU can muster. The upright position also helps the hot air escape out the top, and you’ll be happy to know the air intakes on the back are unobstructed. All of that means you get a top notch gaming experience, no matter what type of game you want to play. If you’d rather hook up a mouse and keyboard, you can. If you just want a place to drop the Deck and get power and video out for a media centre look, this is fine too.

I must admit, despite its low power compared to a desktop, I still very much enjoy gaming on the Deck even while docked. The fact that it’s so easy to install emulators means I can be playing steam games like Rubber Bandits with my wife and friends, then immediately swap to playing Mario Kart Wii, all on the big screen. The Sabrent dock seems like the perfect tool for that. The lack of ethernet or DisplayPort isn’t a huge deal for me personally, although if you did want to use the Deck as an actual desktop rather than a docked console – Nintendo Switch style – then I can see the argument that the official dock is a better choice. Still, this one works perfectly well for what I want and I think it’s going to find its way onto my TV stand very soon. 

Of course, this Sabrent dock isn’t your only choice. You could opt for a standard USB C hub like this one – I bought this a couple years ago and have been using it on and off with my Steam Deck for a while. While it can’t prop the deck up – quite a big feature to have missing – it does offer all the same I/O, more in fact. This one still lets you use a USB C PD charger to charge the Deck while using it, but comes with four USB A ports, ethernet, HDMI, and SD and MicroSD card readers. This is great if you want to game while holding the Deck but on a monitor, or just as a more generic option to have around. Got a laptop with a USB C port that you need some more USB A ports on? Use this. Want to dock your Steam Deck for a bit of gaming? This’ll do just fine. You can even daisy-chain them for all the ports in the world. Just be careful when buying a more generic hub that it does support USB PD charging – the tiny Sabrent one doesn’t have another USB C port, let alone PD charging support, so that’s a great I/O expander, but can’t be used for long on the Deck.

There are of course plenty of other Steam Deck Docking Station clones on the market, some with more I/O, some with even less, although personally I’d be a little wary of no-name electronics, especially ones that are designed to interface with precious hardware like your Steam Deck. While I’m sure there are plenty of other good options on the market – and if you have one I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments down below – I’m confident that this Sabrent dock is a good option, and naturally one I’ll leave a link to in the description if you want to pick one up.