The 13 best Steam Deck accessories to grab this year (ranked)

Valve’s Steam Deck is an impressive handheld that packs the punch to play modern games for the price of a mid-range smartphone. More importantly, it brings to life the childhood dream of being able to carry your entire gaming library with you on the go.

Of course, there’s always ways to improve on great. Luckily, there’s no shortage of awesome accessories that fix the Steam Deck’s shortcomings and emphasize its strengths. From high-capacity power banks to futuristic VR goggles, here’s our list of our favorite accessories for the Steam Deck.

The Steam Deck is advertised to last four hours on a single charge, but if you play a lot of graphics-intensive games, the actual number is actually more like two. The Baseus 65W 20,000mAh Power Bank pushes enough power to charge your Deck at full speed with enough capacity to effectively double its battery life. It also comes with a retractable USB-C cable, so you don’t even need to carry an extra charging cable.

If you need even more power, Baseus has a 30,000mAh version available. I picked this one because anything larger than 20,000mAh isn’t allowed on international flights (and having your Deck die on you is the worst thing that can happen on an overseas flight).

No matter how durable your electronics are, and no matter how sophisticated their anti-scratch tech may be, you still want a screen protector. The JSAUX 2-Pack Steam Deck Screen Protector offers a thin but tough layer of protection between your Deck’s screen and the dangers of the open wild, keeping the glass pristine and scratch-free.

Stick drift on analog thumbsticks is inevitable. The constant grinding and spinning involved in gaming will ultimately cause your sticks to stop calibrating to perfect center.

Thankfully, the Deck isn’t a device that’s known for drifting issues, but if you’d rather skip that future headache altogether, these Gulikit Hall Effect Sensor Joysticks use Hall Effect technology to provide enhanced precision in your thumbsticks while practically eliminating stick drift. They come in a pack of two, so you can upgrade both sticks at once.

I’m a big fan of the official carry case that comes with the Deck, but all it really does well is keep your Deck safe. The JSAUX Carrying Case is a hard case with compartments large enough to hold the official charger, a small power bank, a Deck dock. It even has slots for all your microSD cards, if that’s your go-to storage option.

If you’re going to get it, make sure you’re getting the latest model, which comes with a bigger compartment and a special ridge around the zipper lip for the Steam Deck to rest on, preventing it from crushing the items beneath it.

Installing a microSD card is a quick and easy way to expand your Steam Deck’s storage capacity, but for some games, the read/write speeds are just too slow. I went with the Corsair MP600 Core Mini 1TB because it’s rated well for performance and power consumption, though any M.2 2230 will do.

If you aren’t afraid to open up your Deck, upgrading its internal hard disk only takes 10 minutes and lets you enjoy more storage with much faster speeds. Just remember to take out your microSD card before you start unscrewing things; too many Deck owners wind up snapping their cards because of this.

A quality dock is essential for any Steam Deck owner, and the JSAUX M.2 Docking Station 6-in-1 Docking Station is the most feature-complete option on the market. It’s basically got anything you could ever need for a dock: an HDMI out port, two USB-C ports, an ethernet adapter, and a USB-C in charging port with Power Delivery passthrough. Its standout feature, though, is the special slot on the top of the dock where you can put a NVMe M.2 hard disk.

Some games and software are best experienced on a big display, so you can keep all your design software or AAA games in the dock for your TV and only store your favorite indies when your out and about. Since some of the work I do necessitates Windows, I’ve been using my Dock to store my Windows partition, so my Deck becomes my work machine when it’s plugged in at home.

The XREAL Air 2 are VR glasses not much larger than a pair of regular eyeglasses that simulate having a 200-inch screen four feet in front of you. This is luxury tech, for sure, but it’s handy if you do a lot of travel and are used to a big screen setup. The Air 2 Pros are great and work out of the box with your Steam Deck, but you can only get the most immersive experience by adding the XREAL BEAM Pro to the mix.

The BEAM Pro is a phone-sized brick that plugs into the Air 2 Pros and adds a bunch of new features to the glasses. The most notable of the added functions is being able to activate Body Anchor Mode, which fixes the projected screen in a single point in space. The Air 2 Pros ship with Smooth Follow, meaning the screen moves along with your head. This helps keep the screen always in vision but can be annoying when you just want to hone in on a specific part of the screen. With Body Anchor Mode on, you really get the feeling that you’re using a desktop since your head moves freely from the projected screen, just like it would in a real-world setup.

The XREAL Air 2 Pro with XREAL BEAM Pro isn’t a bundle for everyone, but if you’ve got a wad of cash laying around and really want to transform your Steam Deck into the ultimate portable setup for game and work, putting a pair of these on makes you feel like Tank from the Matrix.

I’m a big fan of the 75-percent keyboard (I think it’s the size that offers the best balance of form and function), and my personal favorite is the NuPhy Air75 V2. It has all the main functionality you expect from a keyboard, is small enough to easily fit into a laptop bag, and is cute, too boot. Okay, maybe it’s a bit too cute for the Steam Deck. Luckily, the keys are hot-swappable, so you can easily switch them out for something more to your own tastes.

I love my Steam Deck’s 7-inch display, but every time I’ve played on a table top or desk, I wish it was bigger. The UPERFECT 2K Portable Gaming Monitor is an IPS HD display that plugs into your Deck, providing you a bigger image for more comfortable gaming. It’s lightweight and comes with an adjustable smart case stand, so you can set it up for the best viewing angles. Also, it has a 16:10 native aspect ratio, just like the Steam Deck, so it can get the most out of games that support those resolutions.

One of the Steam Deck’s most egregious handheld sins is that it doesn’t come with a stand! This was one of the first problems I fixed when I got my Steam Deck. The JSAUX Kickstand Case is a form-fitting textured case that looks nice on the Deck, but you really want it for its stand, which is adjustable with decent range. The only drawback is that the stand’s placement on the back of the case keeps it from sitting dead center in most docks.

64GB Steam Decks don’t come with a nVME m.2 slot, making a microSD card your only option for storage expansion. This is definitely one accessory you shouldn’t cheap out on. The SanDisk microSDXC 512GB offers enough storage capacity to store your games with the fastest read and write speeds that your Deck can support. This keeps load times to a minimum, which is especially important with larger, modern titles.

The Razer Pro Click Mini is a highly recommended wireless travel mouse for gaming. It’s compact enough to fit into a case or travel bag with an ergonomic design for comfortable use, even during long hours. Crucially, it has both Bluetooth connectivity, so it works just fine without a dongle. For competitive gaming, the RF dongle lets you play with almost zero latency, though you’ll need a USB hub to plug it into.

If you need something even smaller, the Logitech Pebble is the smallest mouse I’ve found that can still be used with comfort (I wouldn’t use it for any intense gaming, though!).

The Mechanism Deckmate is a mounting system for your Steam Deck that lets you attach anything to the back of your Steam Deck. It works via a specialized port that attaches to the back of your Steam Deck that slots into a customized spring mount.

The bundle comes with a kick stand, a wall mount, and a VESA mount, allowing you to play you Steam Deck in any position and configuration you can imagine. It also comes with two universal pucks, which you stick onto the back of any object to make it compatible with the Deckmate.

I’ve seen some really clever uses for the Deckmate, including sticking a power bank to the back of the Deck and even slotting a portable screen mount for 3DS emulation. Another bonus: You don’t need to use the Deckmate’s claw mechanism. It comes with a special adapter that you can use to make your case (or literally anything else) Deckmate-compatible.