The Steam Deck and the official Valve dock are widely available for the first time

The long-delayed official Steam Deck is now available to order, according to Valve, the company behind it. The dock was originally supposed to launch closer to the launch of the Steam Deck, but it was delayed this summer due to supply chain issues.

Officially called “Steam Deck Docking Station”, it works both as a docking station to work with an external monitor or TV and as a charging station. It has three USB-A 3.1 ports, a USB-C charging port with passthrough, DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, and a gigabit Ethernet port. It also includes a power supply just like the one that comes with a Steam Deck. Valve says it can also work with the Steam Deck’s battery, but that affects port bandwidth.

Unlike Nintendo Switch in docked mode, don’t expect your Steam Deck to work any differently when docked.

The Steam Deck dock is $89, and at least for now you can buy it right now with relatively short shipping times. That said, Valve says the product could transition to a reservation-based ordering process if demand starts to outstrip supply.

Speaking of reservation-based ordering processes, there’s also some big news regarding the Steam Deck.

For months, potential Steam Deck buyers had to make reservations for the device and wait for an email from Valve. Demand far exceeded supply, but Valve said it was catching up. The company previously said it expected to fill all outstanding reservations by the end of the year.

It seems that the process went well; you no longer need to make a reservation to purchase the Steam Deck in the US and Canada. Even people without reservations can expect to receive the device within one to two weeks of placing their order.

There’s another key development to consider regarding the dock: the Steam Deck has received a firmware update (SteamOS 3.3.2), which Valve says will significantly improve the Steam Deck’s seemingly lackluster user experience, not only with the official dock, but also with third-party USB-C docking stations.

Prior to the introduction of the official docking station, third-party docking stations were the only option, but users and reviewers often complained that it was a bit weird, far from the plug-in docking experience. and-play of the Nintendo Switch.

For example, SteamOS 3.3.2 adds an “external display output resolution and refresh rate selection UI in display settings” and “automatically avoids problematic resolutions like 4096×2160 or 30Hz modes on external displays”.

The firmware update is available on all Steam Decks now.

Announcement image by Valve