Best Steam Deck accessories 2026

There is an official Steam Deck Docking Station that, just like the Nintendo Switch, allows you to hook up the Steam Deck to an external screen. However, it’s expensive, so instead we recommend the Jsuax Upgraded 5-in-1 Docking Station.

This dock is incredibly cheap yet still offers a wealth of connections, with two USB ports, an HDMI, Ethernet, and a USB-C port for power. What’s more, it’s very nicely built, with a solid aluminum frame and chunky, robust rubber sections for supporting your handheld without the risk of scratches.

This Upgraded version is identical to the older Jsaux docking station in terms of features, but adds an improved rubber support at the back of the dock’s docking slot. This taller support makes it more stable and makes this dock more compatible with a wider range of handhelds. However, it doesn’t work with the Xbox Ally X, due to that handheld’s extra-large grips.

If you’re looking to put together a great Steam Deck TV setup or fancy using Valve’s handheld as a low-spec desktop gaming PC, picking up this Jsaux Upgraded Docking Station is an affordable, effective solution. Read our Jsaux Upgraded Docking Station dock review to find out more.

The Jsaux Carrying Case for Steam Deck is a great choice for those who already have a general bag for travel, such as a backpack, and who just need a little extra protection for their handheld – along with somewhere to store essential handheld accessories such as a charger.

This tough case will protect your Steam Deck from most knocks and includes several useful extras, such as a small accessories pouch and a separate section for all your larger accessories. The pouch can also be positioned to support your handheld like a kickstand, letting you sit back to game or watch a video.

For those just wanting a little bit of extra scratch protection, this case is slightly overkill, and you might want to combine a Steam Deck skin with a screen protector instead, or stick to the official Valve Steam Deck case. However, if you value having all your accessories with you in one place, it’s a great buy. This case will also fit the ROG Ally X and Xbox Ally X.

Read our Jsaux Carrying Case for Steam Deck review for more information, and check out our best Steam Deck case guide for more case ideas.

Upgrading your Steam Deck SSD isn’t essential, as you can just add and swap storage via its microSD slot instead. However, it is still worth doing if you want a large, fast baseline storage option. The crucial factor to consider for Steam Deck SSD upgrades is that this handheld doesn’t fit ‘normal’ 2280-format M.2 SSDs. It uses shorter 2230 format drives. Thankfully, there are still plenty of choices that fit.

The Teamgroup MP44S is a great choice with speedy NVMe PCIe 4.0 specs and claimed read and write speeds of 5,000Mbps and 3,500Mbps, respectively. It’s not the absolute fastest and best SSD for gaming, but it more than surpasses the maximum SSD speed that the Steam Deck can use. This drive is also suitable for the original ROG Ally, but other handhelds like the ROG Ally X, Legion Go, and Xbox Ally X can all fit 2280 SSDs instead.

Unfortunately, recent memory and SSD price rises have meant that prices for this drive have risen massively since just a few months ago. Back in October last year, you could buy a 1TB version of this drive for $75, but now it costs $199. Regardless, you can get it in 1TB or 2TB capacities, if you can afford the upgrade. Read our Teamgroup MP44S review for more information.

Not all Steam Deck models are equal, and if you have the 64GB eMMC version, you’ll need to pick up a microSD card to expand your storage and download more games. Samsung’s Pro Plus microSDXC card will enable you to bring with you a huge chunk of your Steam library, and in many cases you won’t notice a difference in speed compared to the Deck’s internal SSD.

Even if you’ve got the 1TB Steam Deck OLED, you could opt for a 2TB Samsung Pro Plus microSD card and triple your portable capacity. Naturally, you don’t have to buy quite such a high-capacity option, but since the latest games take up more storage than ever, we wouldn’t recommend investing in anything less than 512GB. If you’re looking for more storage options, check out our best Steam Deck microSD card guide.

However, like with SSDs, current microSD prices have risen sharply in recent months. This drive used to cost $40 for 512GB, but is now $140. You might want to wait a few months for prices to calm down again, if you can hold off.

A skin is a great way to protect the majority of your Steam Deck from light knocks and scratches while adding some pizzazz to your portable. They won’t protect from severe knocks – you’ll still want a proper case and screen protector for that – but we consider them an essential extra to keep your Deck looking as pristine as possible.

As for which skin to go for, Dbrand’s are top-quality and come in a vast range of design options that start at a very reasonable sub-$20 price, though do rise to as high as $50. Styles include one that mimics the look of the Nintendo Switch and one that shows the circuitry that lies beneath the Deck’s casing. They’re easy to fit and are precisely made, for a clean look once applied.

The skins come in two main options. There’s the Essential Kit (starting from $19.95, though most are $24.95 or more) that includes a front skin, two trackpad skins, and a microfiber cloth, or there’s a Deluxe Kit (from $39.95) which includes everything in the Essential Kit plus a back skin and top strip skin to cover the edges of your Steam Deck.

To ensure the screen on on Steam Deck stays as pristine as possible for as long as possible, a screen protector is an essential purchase. Ivoler’s Steam Deck screen protector kit adds an extra tempererd glass layer to provide a highly scratch resistant surface. The pack comes with two ultra-thin glass sheets that are rated to 99.9% transparency, so they are about as undisruptive to your view as you can get.

Anyone who has a screen protector on their smartphone will already know that lining it up perfectly is a pain. Thankfully, Ivoler includes an ‘easy install frame’ with its kit, which takes a lot of frustration out of the process. Once applied, your Steam Deck will be all but impervious to screen scratches, and because you get two protectors in each pack, you can easily replace the first one if and when it does get too marred by scratches itself.

The Xbox Wireless Controller is a fantastic choice for your Steam Deck. Not only is its iconic design comfortable to hold and suitable for a wide range of games and genres, but it’s also seamlessly compatible with practically every game on Steam.

It really is just a case of connecting (or plugging in) your controller and that’s it. No set-up is required, although you can remap the buttons if you want to. Unfortunately, there’s no real customization available, so you’ll be disappointed if you like swapping out thumb grips or adjusting the depth of the triggers.

Meanwhile, in terms of portability, while this isn’t the most compact or light controller, the fact it runs on AA batteries is actually quite useful for travel. Sure, it’s not hard to recharge a controller once in a while but the fact that you can just grab some AAs from almost any store means you should seldom be caught short.

Of course, you could opt for a more pro-ready controller with the Xbox Elite series, a fantastic budget option like the EasySMX X05, or a purely wired option such as the Scuf Valor Pro, but at the end of the day, the basic wireless controller will fit most people’s needs. Read our Xbox Wireless Controller review for more details.

We’ve highlighted the Logitech G325 as the best gaming headset for Steam Deck, as this is currently our favorite budget wireless headset that’s also really sturdily built, making it ideal for throwing in a bag with your handheld, for gaming on the go.

This really stylish headset is also really light and comfortable, plus its controls are really convenient, and it supports both 2.4GHz wireless via a USB dongle and Bluetooth.

Sound quality is decent, too. Sure, it can’t compete with headsets three times the price, but bass is punchy, and there’s a decent amount of detail – it’s plenty good enough for casual gaming on the go. Even the in-built mic produces surprisingly decent quality audio. It’s a great choice for under $80. Read our Logitech G325 review for more details.

If a headset seems like too bulky an option for upgrading your Steam Deck audio, the SteelSeries Arctis GameBuds should instead be your go-to option. These tiny earbuds can slip into a pocket with ease yet provide amazing sound quality.

What’s more, they block outside noise really well, getting rid of airplane and train noise, and much more. Crucially, while you could just pick up a pair of AirPods or even some wired earbuds  these earbuds include a USB-C dongle that you can use to connect to your main gaming PC. That means you could use this one set of gamebuds for at-home listening as well as for taking out on the road… or to the couch.

Other rival gamebud sets like the Razer Hammerhead Pro Hyperspeed provide the same function, but the Arctis Gamebuds are much better sounding, plus the case has room for the PC dongle, so you can connect to other devices easily. Read our SteelSeries Arctics GameBuds review for more information.

Let’s be clear, a gaming headset is a much better choice for a gaming handheld than a dedicated microphone, when it comes to game chat. However, if you’re looking to use your Steam Deck for on-the-go recording or you just really want top-tier audio quality for your comms, a standalone mic will get you that.

The Steam Deck does actually come with a built-in microphone, but as you might expect, it’s pretty basic – similar to what you’d find built into a gaming laptop. The Elgato Wave:3 is our current best gaming microphone choice, and its excellence translates just as well to use with a handheld as a desktop PC.

It’s compact and really easy to use, with a simple USB-C connection and a single dial that can tweak your input gain, PC mix, and headphone monitoring volume so that you can get everything just the way you want it. It even has a convenient tap-to-mute button on the top of the microphone.

Elgato’s software is excellent too, though it won’t work on the Linux-based SteamOS used by the Steam Deck. It will work with any Windows-based handhelds, though. Read our full Elgato Wave:3 review to find out more.

Swapping between a Steam Deck dock setup and a desktop PC can be a pain if you’re relying on a single set of peripherals. Constantly plugging in and unplugging your mouse, keyboard, and other devices every time you want to change between machines is no fun at all.

One solution is a dedicated, compact keyboard and mouse setup for your Steam Deck, but if you’d rather stick with what you’ve already got, a device like the Ugreen USB switch is a great addition to your setup. Plug your peripherals into one side and your Deck and PC to the other, and at the touch of a button, you can switch between them. That’s it. Dead simple.

This model  can share up to four devices between two computers and costs just $20. It only supports USB 2.0 speeds, but that’s all you need for keyboards, mice, and headsets.

Although the Steam Deck’s battery life is impressive for such a small machine, it can still benefit from a portable boost once in a while. So, to prevent unexpected shutdowns from spoiling your session, we’d suggest adding a power bank, such as this Anker Power Bank, to your accessory arsenal.

With a capacity of 20,000mAh, the Anker Power Bank 1383 can fully charge the Steam Deck nearly four times, all while delivering power as fast as the Steam Deck can chew through it – you’ll be able to game just like you were plugged in at the wall.

A built-in USB-C cable also makes for a convenient setup that doesn’t require you to remember another cable. At 440g, it’s not the smallest or lightest object around – it’s two-thirds the weight of the Steam Deck itself – but with it also able to charge all your other devices, it can be a one-stop portable power solution, all for under $70.

For many people, a monitor is going to be an entirely superfluous Steam Deck accessory because they’ll either play it exclusively in handheld mode or just use their TV for docked play. However, if you want a dedicated display for docked gaming, well, honestly, any gaming monitor will work fine with the Steam Deck.

However, if you’re looking for a good value pick the LG 24G411A-B is the best Steam Deck monitor we’d recommend right now. For under $100, it gets you a 24-inch panel size – a huge upgrade over the Deck’s 7-inch display – and a 1080p resolution, which is ample for the kind of gaming performance a gaming handheld can deliver – there simply isn’t any point using a higher-resolution screen.

This LG display also uses an IPS LCD panel, which means it has good viewing angles, and it boasts a 120Hz refresh rate, so it can deliver a smoother experience than a 60Hz screen, in those games that the Deck can run at high frame rates. This, along with support for AMD Freesync, also makes it suitable as an ultra-budget gaming monitor for use with your main PC.

There are, of course, fancier gaming monitors that will work with the Steam Deck and other handhelds, but if you just want a basic display to get started, grab this one.

If you want a larger screen for your Steam Deck while travelling, a full-size monitor is a cumbersome option. Instead, grab yourself a portable monitor like this one from MNN. Its screen size is only 15.6-inch, which is much smaller than even an entry-level gaming monitor, but it’s a huge upgrade over the Deck’s 7-inch display and still enough for more comfortably watching video or playing games.

This is a USB-C-powered display, so it’ll drain your Deck’s battery while in use, but if you’ve plugged in your handheld’s charger, it will keep your battery topped up while powering the display, too.

With a 1080p resolution, you can enjoy a lot more detail than via the Deck’s 800p screen, and this display’s IPS LCD panel ensures viewing angles are good. The display also comes with a folding cover that protects the screen and can become a stand for it, too. For under $50, you can go wrong with adding one of these to your arsenal.