If your Steam Deck has just arrived, or you’re patiently waiting for more stock to become available, then you might be wondering if there’s anything else you need to grab to make the most of the new handheld console.
Or more accurately, the handheld PC. Yes, despite its small size, Valves Steam deck is a fully functional gaming computer, which means there’s a whole world of different peripherals and accessories you can buy that will enrich your playing experience.
From headphones and battery packs to keep you charged up and tuned in, to gaming mice and keyboards for when you’re plugged into the Steam Deck Dock, you can grab a few accessories to compliment the system however you’ll be playing it.
One small note is that because the Steam Deck runs Linux, some gaming mice and keyboards that require Windows drivers won’t be compatible, but there are plenty of options on the market that won’t suffer from that issue.
Best accessories for Steam Deck
Best keyboards for Steam Deck
It’s unlikely that you’ll want to plug a keyboard into your Steam Deck when you’re on the go, but having one around will come in handy when it’s docked and hooked up to a display. There are certain games that just play better using a mouse and keyboard, such as competitive first-person shooters and MOBAs, but there’s no need to have something with all the bells and whistles.
We think these small-form-factor gaming keyboards will be perfect, given they’re small enough to pack away into a bag with the handheld if you want to set up in a hotel or at a friend’s house. If these don’t take your fancy though, check out our full list of the best gaming keyboards – we’re sure you’ll find something that suits your needs.
Shelling out more than $100 for a great gaming keyboard is to be expected if you’re even slightly serious your gaming performance. But the beauty of Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition is that it manages to deliver fast performance without being the most expensive keyboard in town. True, there aren’t a lot of features here, which puts it behind many of its feature-rich rivals, but it makes up for that by being small and boasting a removable to make it perfectly portable for on-the-go gaming.
Read our full review: Razer Huntsman Tournament Edition
The G915 TKL lives up to its name, delivering the speed you need for epic gaming while keeping things cable-free. With a 1,000Hz polling rate and 1.5 mm actuation distance, it can keep up with its wired setup. It also has a long wireless range and decent battery life considering its stunning RGB lighting. Best of all, it’s a gorgeous keyboard with its low-profile floating keys and brushed aluminum deck. Small desk and travel friendly, this is without a doubt among the best gaming keyboards out there for the Steam Deck.
Read the full review: Logitech G915 TKL Lightspeed
We’ve selected three 60% keyboards for a reason, as smaller keyboards offer more portability if you wanted to pack them away with your new Steam Deck, and the Corsair K65 Mini is among the best of those. With incredibly satisfying presses, an impressive polling rate of 8,000Hz, and highly customizable keys, there’s a lot to love here. And, they make this keyboard well worth the admittedly steep learning curve if you’re used to full-sized keyboards. It may take a while to get used to not having arrow keys, for example, but you won’t regret it.
Read the full review: Corsair K65 Mini
Best gaming mouse for Steam Deck
If you’ll exclusively be playing the Steam Deck in handheld mode then you might not have considered buying a suitable gaming mouse, but we would certainly recommend one if you plan on ever using it alongside the official Steam Deck Dock.
A combination of mouse and keyboard controls will give you an edge in any competitive title, and some games just play better with point-and-click controls over the built-in joysticks.
You don’t need one, just as you can play many PC games with a controller, but the Steam Deck is a portable PC rather than a console so having a decent gaming mouse in your kit can help you improve your skills if you ever decide to jump into full desktop or laptop-based gaming hardware.
The Logitech G305 Lightspeed may not seem like a gaming mouse with its adorable exterior and multiple colorways it comes in but it’s a serious performer. Not only does it give you up to 12,000 DPI but you also get the ability to remap the mouse to your hearts’ content. Add in the fact that it’s very reasonably priced and you can tell that there’s a lot of value with this mouse, allowing you to spend less and still make the most out of your Steam Deck experience.
Read the full review: Logitech G305 Lightspeed
The Roccat Burst Core proves that you don’t need to pay more than $50/£50 to get a premium mouse. This affordable wired option wins as much in performance and build and it does in price. Though minimal on frills, it’s an absolute stand-out in everything else, including ergonomics and lightweight design. RGB fans might want to go for the pricier Roccat Burst Pro, but if you don’t mind something more minimalist and classy, this one is the one to go for no matter your budget.
Read the full review: Roccat Burst Core
The Corsair Dark Core RGB is a seriously impressive wireless mouse that’s ideal for keeping your desk uncluttered, and the lack of wires will prevent things from getting tangled if you keep it in a bag alongside your Stead Deck. With its sub-1ms speed, incredibly low latency, and reliability, this is truly a mouse we can game with, and, that’s without mentioning its highly customizable RGB lighting and very robust software.
Read the full review: Corsair Dark Core RGB Pro Wireless
Best headsets for Steam Deck
A headset will be an essential accessory for playing your Steam Deck, but you’ll find that products that best serve traditional gaming PCs and laptops are likely too bulky to use with a handheld. That doesn’t mean its impossible, and when the Steam Deck Dock is released you might choose to keep a bigger headset around for when you’re hooking up a display and other peripherals, but when on the move and playing remotely, smaller earphones and headsets will be easier to lug around.
Not only will this help you to listen to your game audio, but you can also join in with chatting to your teammates, giving you a strategic advantage if you play multiplayer titles. Of course, if you’re only going to be playing single-player titles then you can opt for earphones or earbuds instead of a headset and forgo needing a microphone entirely.
When it comes to sound, the Arctis line of headsets from SteelSeries will never fail you. It delivers a sound quality that will please both gamers and music snobs alike. And, this being wireless, it eliminates those pesky cables without sacrificing performance. In fact, whether you’re connected via Bluetooth or via the 2.4GHz wireless connectivity, you’ll have a lag-fee experience, making this an excellent proposition for gaming. At this point, that 20+ hours battery life and Discord-certified mic are just icing on the cake.
Read the full review: SteelSeries Arctis 9 Wireless
The cable-packing 1More Triple Driver in-ear headphones are the best wired earbuds you can buy in 2021, giving you lush sound simply by plugging them into the headphone jack on your controller or PC. The rubber cable can tangle a bit, and the remote is a bit plasticky, but it’s hard to find real fault at the price here, and their small size makes them easy to carry around alongside your Steam Deck console.
Read more: 1More Triple Driver In-Ear Headphone review
Lightweight, portable, and ready to play with as soon as you plug them into a controller’s headphone jack, the Turtle Beach Battle Buds are ideal for something like the Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch.
Offering great value for more, these basic-looking wired buds are as good as it gets at the entry-level end of the market.
They’re not going to deliver the sound quality of pricier buds on this list, but they’re comfortable to wear, easy to travel with and offer a detachable boom mic that’s sensitive and commanding in the heat of battle.
Read the full review: Turtle Beach Battle Buds review
Best microSD cards for Steam Deck
MicroSD cards allow you to easily expand the capacity of many devices, and it’s likely you’ll be needing one if you plan on installing any sizable games onto your Steam Deck. The best microSD cards need to offer high speeds, which is essential when you’re moving large files like games to and from the card.
Despite not being the most resilient SD card on the market, the Samsung Evo Plus’ 100 megabyte per second (MB/s) read and 90MB/s write speeds are impressive nonetheless.
Not only that, but there is a wide variety of sizes to choose from too, so whether you need 32GB of storage or 128GB, rest assured you’re in good hands.
If you plan on downloading a lot of games, then you’re going to want a reliable microSD card that can write large amounts of data fast, which is exactly what the Samsung Pro+ can do.
It features a U3 rating and read/write speeds of 95MB/sec and 90MB/sec. The kind of speeds the Samsung Pro+ microSD card can handle will be largely wasted for day-to-day tasks, such as being installed in a smartphone, but for the Steam Deck, this is a fantastic buy.
SanDisk claims this microSD card can read up to 95MB/s and write 90MB/s, and in tests it came pretty close to those speeds. This makes it a very fast card, and with smaller files it’s even faster, which means this is a great card for action cams, drones or burst photography.
Again, it’s a bit on the pricey side, but if you don’t mind spending a bit above the odds, you’ll get a great microSD card for your needs.
Best HDMI cables for Steam Deck
A HDMI cable will be a necessity if you plan on connecting your Steam Deck to another display via the upcoming Steam Deck Dock. While this hasn’t been released yet, we do know that the dock will feature a HDMI 2.0 port and a Display Port 1.4, so it’s better to check you have the right connections available ahead of time.
It’s easy for marketing messages to convince you that a fancy HDMI cable will do more than the others. But in reality, all you need is a cheap HDMI cable, especially as the Steam Deck isn’t capable of running games at high resolutions like 4K.
Ideally suited for all your TV needs, this Amazon Basics Premium-Certified Braided HDMI is cheap and cheerful. It’s possible to buy a non-premium-certified equivalent but with this, you know you’ve got the best of the bunch.
A braided cable design means it’s reasonably rugged too so if your cable has to sit at an awkward angle or gets pulled around a lot, it’ll withstand any damage for longer than a regular cable. Add a few of these to your TV setup and you won’t be disappointed.
If you have your TV wall-mounted, it’s a smart move to use a right-angled HDMI cable for the neatest fit behind your setup. This UGREEN cable is ideal for the purpose being simple to apply and still offering the full HDMI data transfer rate you require for your TV.
It’s not a cable you can switch around easily thanks to the 90-degree angle connector, but for those users with a specific setup, you’ll be delighted with the ease of use here.
Best power banks for Steam Deck
All your portable gadgets have the same problem – limited battery life – so you could almost certainly do with one of the best power banks to help keep your devices going when you’re away from a fixed power source.
The Steam Deck has very few issues, as outlined in our review, but battery life isn’t especially high. This shouldn’t come as a surprise when you consider the power-hungry games it can run, but that’s of little comfort if you’re running low on juice midway through a boss fight. Keep one of these power banks close by and you’ll greatly extend your gameplay.
Need to recharge everything you own and all at the same time? The MAXOAK 50,000mAh power bank is the one for you. It can charge six devices at once with its 50,000mAh capacity meaning you won’t run out of power any time soon.
It’s capable of dealing with the Steam Deck and the Nintendo Switch as easily as it is your smartphone or tablet so it’s great if you’re off the grid for a while
Offering mostly everything you could need at this price, the iMuto 20,000mah power bank has a 20,000mAh capacity that means you can charge the average smartphone over four times without a problem.
The price is that it’s a fairly bulky power bank and it’s certainly heavy but with two ports and a screen that shows you how much charge is remaining, it’s certainly practical if not particularly portable.
The Einova Ultra Fast Powerbank keeps things simple, compact and reliable, which is really all you want from a laptop power bank you want to travel with. At 6.75 x 4 x 0.63 inches and 0.498kg, it’s thin and relatively lightweight.
Combine that with its 74Wh power, and you’ve got a device that not only keeps things portable for jet-setting creatives and remote working professionals but is TSA-approved as well. It even has an easy-to-read LCD display to let you know just how much juice it has left.
Best USB hubs for Steam Deck
The Steam Deck is getting an official Dock, but as we currently don’t have any shipping dates or even confirmed pricing, we wouldn’t blame you for wanting to try another way of connecting your new handheld into a display.
After all, the Steam Deck is a small PC, and you won’t be able to use other accessories like a mouse or keyboard without access to additional ports.
The Anker 341 USB-C Hub does exactly what you need a USB dock to do, offering you charging via USB-C while also providing additional ports for HDMI, MicroSD cards and both a single USB-C and two USB-A 3.0 peripherals.
This 7-in-1 dock also works with Linux, which is a must given that’s the operating system that’s running on the Steam Deck.
Do I need accessories for my Steam Deck?
The Steam Deck will work perfectly fine as a dedicated handheld device, so everything on this list can be considered as an optional extra. That said, some can massively improve the quality of your playing experience dependant on what games you’re running.
New, more demanding titles will drain your battery pretty quickly for example, so you might want to consider investing in a portable charger with a decent capacity so that you can enjoy titles like God of War while away from a power outlet, and using the Steam Deck while docked will require a mouse and keyboard to get the full ‘PC gaming’ experience.
