The Jsaux Steam Deck dock’s greatest asset is that it exists

A dock for the Steam Deck is a no-brainer. While the concept of a more powerful Nintendo Switch equipped with your entire Steam library is great, it’s currently an impossible dream. Valve hasn’t made a dock for the Steam Deck, or at least it hasn’t made one available to buy. I was just hooking my console up with a variety of hubs and wires, but it left the handheld lying nervously on the TV stand or my work desk.

That’s when I found out about Jsaux’s third-party Deck dock. If you think that’s a mouthful, then try the official name for size: M.2 Docking Station for Steam Deck HB0604. Jsaux usually refers to it by the product number, HB0604, but that’s silly, so I’m not going to do it. What you need to know is this: Jsaux has designed a competent dock that is tailor-made for the Steam Deck, but is it worth spending over twice as much cash for that M.2 SSD slot?

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We’ll get to the verdict in good time, but from the moment you open the box, the Jsaux dock feels solid. It’s got that weighty feel that makes electronics feel premium, and the metal case is solid. Don’t worry about scratching your Deck though, as there are small rubber cushions to protect your screen from any unwanted attention when resting it inside.

Everything about the dock has been done with users in mind, every possible quality of life fix is included as standard – even the stuff that you never imagined you’d need. The power cable is the perfect length to plug into your Deck, and has one of those 90 degree-angled connectors to make it look nicer when your Deck is on charge. The HDMI and USB ports are hidden neatly behind the dock, although the Ethernet port is on the side, which can bring a slightly messy touch to otherwise clean proceedings. There are even little magnets that satisfyingly snap the casing shut when you’ve installed your SSD.

It’s not just about the style, though, everything is top of the range, too. The USBs are 3.1 ports, the charger is as fast as charging through the official lead (which you do use, but the dock doesn’t decrease its efficiency), and the HDMI 2.0 port can display 4K at 60Hz, providing you have a good enough cable. However, this last addition seems redundant for the current iteration of the Deck, as the console isn’t powerful enough to play games at 4K, let alone match that with 60fps. Perhaps it’s future-proofing for Valve’s follow-up console, 2 Steam 2 Deck?

The ethernet cable option is nice to have, but I don’t think many people will be playing online competitive games on the Steam Deck due to its meagre specs and proclivity for triggering anti-cheat systems. It’s nice to download games a bit faster, though.

The biggest addition over Jsaux’s previous dock is the addition of expandable memory in the form of an M.2 SSD slot, which fits most (but not all) PCIe SSDs. You can buy the dock with SSDs bundled in or use your own, but the result is far faster than using a Micro SD card in the Steam Deck, and only a little bit slower than accessing games from the Deck’s internal memory. Whether it’s worth the price increase or not likely depends on how often you will dock your Deck, as the SSD is obviously only accessible when the Deck is docked.

I like docking the Deck, turning it into a portable PC, but the main problems with this come from the Deck itself, rather than Jsaux’s dock. The Steam OS is finicky to use, and the Deck’s lack of power becomes woefully apparent when connected to a 4K monitor. Playing at anything over 1080p results in big frame rate drops, even in what seem like manageable games.

However, if you imagine the Steam Deck as an iteration on the Steam Link, allowing you to play your Steam library in a room away from your main PC, albeit with lower quality, it’s good. You can then take it portable to have a more powerful Switch – although again with a caveat, this time the shocking battery life. A Deck dock is great, even if you just use it for charging more securely, but is it worth paying $99 (plus the cost of an SSD, if you don’t buy a bundle) for that hard drive slot? Jsaux’s base dock is only $39, and does all the same jobs, without the expandable storage.

Personally, I like having a few big games stored on the SSD to play on my telly. But it’s a luxury, and one I could easily do without. If you’ve got $60 to spare, then it’s a nice upgrade to have. I would go as far as to say a Steam Deck dock is a necessity for neat storage of the device, especially when charging. An SSD is not. However, Jsaux’s biggest advantage is the fact that it has a dock. Valve is working on an official version, but until it releases, this seems like the best alternative on the market. It’s far better than any USB hub I’ve used, and the quality of life touches suggest that Valve will have a hard time bettering it with its official dock. The sleek presentation and future-proofed tech make it well worth the price – but it’s up to you whether you think you need the luxury of an SSD or not.

Next: Roadwarden Proves That Games Are About More Than Just Graphics

Ben is a Features Editor at TheGamer. You can read his work in Eurogamer, The Guardian, IGN, Kotaku, The Loadout, NME, VICE, or on Twitter @BenSledge.