Steam Deck set up and accessories
What do I use regularly with the steam deck, especially when travelling.
Over the last few weeks I have been getting some questions around what accessories I may recommend for the steam deck and what bits I may have gotten to personalise it. So I thought I’d write it down.
Disclaimer: I bought all of the items mentioned with my own money and I am not sponsored by any of the brands or companies mentioned.
Case
When I bought the 512gb OLED it came with a decent carry case. There isn’t actually anything really wrong with it. It protects the deck well and has some space for spare cables or a usb-c dongle for example. However I was travelling a lot with only hand luggage at the time so looked for something more slimline and so came across tomtoc.
They have actually have a few solutions for carrying the steam deck but the one that appealed to me the most was their slimline hard case cover. You can see this below in comparison with the valve carry case.
It has been with me on probably 20 short haul flights this year and held up well and gave me just that tiny bit more space in my bag for an extra pair or socks and/or another t-shirt.
What I really love about this case is its slim design and the fact it isn’t just black. I wish they did more colours like they do for the switch but maybe they will in the future.
They also have a nice sling bag, that I keep looking at, but haven’t had the right excuse to buy it yet.
Battery Pack
While we are on the topic of travelling, I also got a battery pack. The part that took most research was how many amps you are allowed to actually have in the cabin on the plane. These capacity limits do vary from airline to airline and country to country so it is worth double checking before you make your purchase, depending on where and how you will be travelling. Anker has a nice post about this.
The 737 from Anker is in the guidelines for the European travel that I have been doing and it has worked a treat. Also to be able to play and charge your steam deck you should aim for 45w output. The one I chose has the potential of 140w output, to be able to power laptops as well.
Anker Power Bank 737 - what I really like is the two usb-c connectors and I have the option of USB. I have used the USB once so far and it has also come with me on those 20 short haul flights.
The thing that surprised me the most though was how heavy these things are. So it isn’t a favourite thing to pack but an essential. haha!
Dongle and keyboard
If you own a steam deck you may know that you can boot it into desktop mode, to set various apps and emulators up to customise your play style and look and feel. Modding would also require you to boot into desktop mode. This can be hard to navigate just on the deck, so I got a dongle to be able to connect it to a bigger screen (or TV) and a portable keyboard with mouse pad.
I am going to look like I favour a certain brand, I actually don’t quite remember why but I got this Anker 555 usb-c dongle. My criteria were that it has at least 2 usb-c ports, and an HDMI port. The ethernet is a nice bonus but wasn’t essential.
Essentially with those attributes it would have more than one use in my household. It has worked really nicely so far and now is the main way I attach the steam deck to the TV for when I want to play on a big screen.
The keyboard I got was a lovely foldable one from Seenda. Being foldable it can feel a bit flimsy but I have never had issues connecting it or using it, with my steam deck or tablet. The nice thing it has is 3 memory settings, so you can pair it to your steam deck, tablet and another device and easily switch between these without having to reconnect via bluetooth again. The keys on the keyboard feel very similar to my laptop so I enjoy typing on it just the same. For travelling this has been so great as it saves me taking my laptop with me and any writing I need to do I can do via my tablet.
Controller
Talking about playing on a big screen, you would then need a controller really. At least for my set up, I can’t use the steam deck as the cables are too short. We are a PS5 household, hence I have a standard DualSense controller already. This has probably been the trickiest thing to connect reliably to my steam deck but once connected I have had no issues using it and it works great, even supporting the haptic feedback and rumbles as well.
Personalisation
In terms of personalisation I have only used sticker skins on my steam deck so far. It is a very light mint green with a textured feel to it. The skin came from Xtreme Skins. They were easy enough to apply but I didn't do the best job, so I might give it another go another time in the future. The stickers have a matt texture, which i feel is nice for holding it for longer periods of time.
I keep thinking about adding thumb grips but haven’t gotten round to that yet. Do you have any you would recommend?
Beyond the look of the deck, I did what most have done as well, and added another 512gb micro sd card to it and so far it has done me well. As I have been playing mostly indie games, my storage needs haven’t been too great yet.
Headphones
I did not buy any headphones specifically for the steam deck, but I already had apple air pods and again these have worked really well. I had a pairing issue once, but otherwise they connect very quickly and have helped me stay in the zone on noisy flights or keep things quiet when I wanted to just play one more round in bed.
I used to be a big fan of Sony over the ear noise cancelling headphones but my head is very small so I struggled to get a comfy fit after an hour of wear. The apple ones are in ear and fit great and comfortably for long sessions. And they can run long sessions, easily doing 6-8 hours for me going from ambient sound to full noise cancelling, depending on where I am in my travel or gaming schedule.
This is my list of regular items I use with the steam deck. Do you have accessories or maybe you personalised it? What did you use?
I've been thinking about getting a keyboard, so this is a good recommendation for me. I'm still not a fan of skins, but it does look pretty nice. And I got the same battery! It's a good one.
I know it got a little backpack my wife gave me as a gift. The main idea is that I'll always put it inside the little backpack, and NOT leave it in the bathroom of an airport.
Thanks for the recs! These are really nice and close what I use for my steam deck too! I also struggled with applying the skin, but it doesn't really bother me anymore after about two years haha.
I am super curious about the tomtoc case though. I've been eyeing it for a while but I was not sure how good it actually is. I might actually get it after reading your review. I am kinda tired of carrying the bulky case around 🥲