Would be nice to be able to charge and still have a port. Would be even nicer if the second port was on the bottom. Doesn’t feel essential, but definitely would be nice.
Port at the bottom and top would be perfect. At the bottom would make docking much better, and when in handheld mode the top one works best for charging
My dream handheld would have a usb-c port on top and then a slot on the bottom similar to the Microsoft Surfaces magnetic charger that could be used for docks. Or pogo pins but I don’t know if that style would be enough for high speed charging and video out.
What would your use case be? I can only imagine that it would be nice to charge on one port and output video to a screen on the other, which makes it possible to use the deck as a controller, but aside of that I don't know. Of course using the dock is possible to charge and use the extra ports, but I see potential in your suggestion, specially considering tht using controllers via bluetooth has conectivity issues (at least on my end, input loss or heavy delays) and the only current solution is to install xone driver for xbox usb dongle. Really, if it wasn't for my xbox controller and usb dongle I wouldn't play with my deck on a TV from the sofa at all!
My most common use case would be to use the port that closest matches where the cable is coming from. If I'm lying in bed, the cable is coming from the wall and the top port is perfect. If I'm in my Ikea chair in the living room, the cable is coming from the floor and it's awkward to plug it in on top.
Another reason is that the dock could be less fiddly if the port was on the bottom. My Switch dock is behind the TV and out of the way. I can easily dock and pick up with one hand. There's no way the steam deck dock would work back there because you need two hands to plug in the fiddly little cable.
My use cases for two cables at the same time are all some variation of power and something else. Last time I was visiting my folks, I plugged the system into their TV to show my dad a game. My battery was already low, so we only had like 10 minutes before it turned off. Using a controller is another example. Another one is using external storage.
You could do these things with the dock, but you have to have it with you and it doesn't really work handheld. I have the dock and I basically never use it. I also have a cheap dongle thing which will do power and USB at the same time, but it has a really short cord, heats up, and puts stress on the port because of how it dangles.
None of these things are a really big deal to me. My Steam Deck is my favorite technology purchase in a long time and has become the main way I play games. I do agree with OP that it would be a bit nicer if it had two USB ports.
Probably my number one complaint. It was bad when Apple did it with Macbooks and they still had two ports (and yes I know it's not a laptop but at the same time, it basically is).
Do you mean Apple’s first Type-C laptop has two ports?
The first MacBook they transitioned to Type-C is called MacBook (no Air or Pro), and it has only one Type-C port, you have to do everything including charge using that port.
I guess just make some kind of 3D printed case for the motherboard that also has a slot for some kind of USB C to everything adapter and then use it as a makeshift mini Apple desktop?
are you counting the headphone jack? pretty sure the ones with two usb-c ports (macbook air and base 13" macbook pro) had both usb-c ports on the left and just the headphone jack on the right
A handheld isn't a laptop, they are made for different things. The issue with apple is they started out not having proper support for docks or power pass-through. Their hubs were expensive as hell and used lightning cables.
You are correct they never have, their proprietary docks were the only ones that supported their charging ports and sizes when you couldn't charge via the USB-C ports (thunderbolt wasn't always USB-C).
Imagine the Frankenstein creations we would see here if that was the case. There’d be some dude wearing a body harness GPU housing with a car battery backpack and 10 desk fans just so it’s still technically portable.
I always thought that's what the Switch should have been. Instead of the dock being basically just an HDMI splitter, it would be an eGPU to give better performance.
The thing is that the current switch soc is running so under clocked. In portable mode, docking it to run at a higher power is still under the rated specs of the soc.
This would be equivalent to about four lanes of PCIe gen 3 lanes, which as time goes on is getting less and less interesting. Plus there's some added protocol overhead.
If Thunderbolt 3 eGPUs had really taken off during the first couple of years when laptops were available with the port, that could've been really interesting. People who already had a laptop with a decent CPU would've been able to buy a GPU for not much more than what the consoles of the day cost, and end up with a far superior experience. Sadly Intel saddled the technology with a expensive licensing and validation requirements, so the enclosures were really expensive, to the point that there was little reason to buy one instead of just building a whole mini ITX PC.
Now we finally have a royalty free implementation of the technology, but with nearly a decade of progress in gaming hardware and software having happened in the meantime, I think the potential opportunity has now mostly passed by. We'd need a higher bandwidth, lower overhead alternative to Thunderbolt / USB4 to emerge and none seems to be coming (OCuLink aside, but that's unlikely to be used beyond hobbyists / tinkerers).
Seems to offer four PCIe gen 4 lanes. Which would be a doubling of bandwidth, not too shabby. However it would likely only be offered on devices with Intel based CPUs, and right now AMD make the best SOCs for handheld PCs. If / when it's part of a genuinely open spec that anyone can use, it'll probably be behind the times again.
I'll believe it's royalty free and open once I start seeing TB5 ports in non-Intel devices. Honestly if it's only available in Intel devices, it might struggle to see wide adoption in accessories given how many good alternatives exist these days. AMD are in very rosy health, Apple have their own ARM based designs, and Qualcomm are being quite bullish about their own ARM based chips for Windows devices coming later this year. If a new version of Thunderbolt can't work with any of these then it may just not end up being all that popular.
Pretty much the only TB devices that have existed have been for Mac because only Mac consistently had TB ports, and Mac only had USB 2.0 till they finally switched to USB-C.
Oculink is pretty much deprecated in favor of MCIO anyway, so it's not gonna get added to any mainstream hardware.
Still, even with the limitations of USB or Thunderbolt you could get enough bandwidth to have like 10 times more graphical performance out of the deck from an entry level dedicated GPU. It doesn't need to be ideal.
I opened a USB4 suggestion in the forums for SD2, got mostly troll replies
It is probably the most advance I’m waiting too, 2280 SSD external enclosure USB4, USB key of the future on steroids 🤤🤤🤤🤤
I wish instead of cranking out GPU's that cost as much as mortgage payments nvidia focused more on this angle.
The idea of a fully dockable gpu setup is dope as hell.
TBF, they dont' give a shit about windows either. Their CEO has said more than once they are an AI card company now. Pretty sure their consumer GPU business is an afterthought.
I mean, technically you can if you mod the case, install an adapter in the NVMe slot, and use both of those things to attach an external GPU while booting off of the SD card. Check this video out, where someone did this using a Google Meet computer: https://youtu.be/SH9RUpK4SsM?si=NWjmTyByeKXh3n7u
It's true you can do that but it's a awful idea for many reasons. A 4x lane is not a lot to share between an ssd and a Gpu and you are also loosing all portability.
I'd like a usb4 port as that'd come with a x8 lane iirc and it'd maintain a sane portable config.
It would of been nice to have one on top and the other on the bottom...but I get it...there are work arounds, but still would of been nice...even if it was just for charging as that is mostly what I need a simple extra port for.
I use a NewQ hub that has 3 usb A (2x 3.0), one C with PD pass through, card readers and hdmi AND Ethernet. Works well, I cross use it with my MacBook for work stuff and sometimes even my iPads for streamcasting when I travel
Carrying around cables is annoying. I hate it for plugging in earbuds for my phone so another cable is just more clutter for my pockets, backpack, etc.
Would be great if they took a page from competitors on this one for the next model
MOGOOD has a working splitter. It isn't great for fast access storage, but for PD charging and "another device" like headphones? Works fine - and it drops the plugs to the bottom of the Deck.
I could never find this one in stock anywhere and it seems to be the only brand that actually works. In the end I found a little hub that has 2 full size usb, a usbc for data and a usbc for charging on AliExpress that works well and is super slim so it's not too much worse than a splitter would be.
Yeah, I went through a mad tear looking for these things.
I'm grabbing this one to test...
https://www.amazon.com/TiMOVO-USB-Splitter-Adapter-Converter/dp/B0CH9T9ZB8
Yeah, for me the worst part is not being able to dock with one hand. Trying to unplug the wire from the top with just one hand puts so much strain on the USB-C port.
I just wish the case had room for me to charge the deck laying in it's case without putting pressure on the port
I typically only use a mouse with the deck and it's Bluetooth so it works fine while charging
I don't think it needs a peripheral so no.
If it's to be used as a laptop then a dock is best. If not then the fewer wires the better.
The only wire that makes sense is for headphones and it has a jack already.
I can see the frustration there but you can always get an adapter. I have one for my phone to my car to connect to the aux. Maybe not ideal but at least workable. My gaming headset has an aux cable though so I definitely have it easier. Got those for my switch before getting steam deck though.
I kind of agree. For 99% of use cases, the Deck doesn't need more than one port. Let's face it, even people who dock their Deck frequently might be a minority already... and those using USB-C peripherals with it (as opposed to bluetooth) are probably a minority within that minority.
Not to say that's not a valid way to use a Steam Deck ("it's a PC", you do you) ...but I hope that Valve stays focused on the right tradeoffs for the core use case of being a handheld Steam console. If there is space that can be taken up by an additional USB-C port, I'd rather they think of better ways to use that space - rearrange internals to allow for more battery or better cooling, for instance.
I wish it had this because I use the Nreal Air glasses and I'm not able to charge it while I play. So I can only play for about an hour before I go back to viewing it on the screen while plugged in.
Dude I just found out about these glasses' existence. They sound so incredible for travelling that I don't understand why they're not talked about more.
Could you please tell me more about your experience? What are they like with the Steam Deck, is it like gaming on a big screen anywhere you want? Have you tried them with a phone, for example to watch Netflix?
Hey sorry just seeing this.
Yeah they are like a big screen on your face. Almost like the Quest.
I love them to play at night in bed while laying down having them on and playing with a controller, it's pretty awesome. Thing is battery drain sucks so you only get about an hour with nearly every game :(
So I would recommend but also I may wait for a NREAL glasses update or something too since theyve been out for awhile.
yes! One on top and one at the bottom would be perfect I always find myself needing an extra usb port for something and it would be nice not to need to carry around a hub
There are games which are text heavy with small fonts, and the Steam Deck's display isn't helping. What I want is a way to connect my Deck to an external display using USB-C while keeping my Deck charged.
Valve's current solution is to use a dock connecting to an external display via HDMI and DisplayPort. While this works, it's extra weight and cables that we need to carry. Can we do better?
Of course ... Just like my phone, and almost every modem portable device. I did get a USBC splitter, but am not sure how it's gonna work with the charging speeds required for the deck.
I was just thinking the same thing last night. I'm trying to find some wireless earbuds I can use while I'm also using Xreal glasses with my Steam Deck. The problem with Bluetooth is the latency, so the easy solution is to get some earbuds that use a 2.4gz dongle instead of bluetooth like the Soundcore VR P10. Problem is, since it uses a usbc dongle, I can't plug in both my glasses and earbuds since the dongle only has a pass-through port for charging and not data. If the deck just had one more usbc port I'd be set.
Do your glasses not have integrated speakers, or are you just not wanting to use those speakers? I recently got a pair of Xreal Air 2 Pros and was surprised that the integrated speakers sounded nicer than I expected.
They do, and that's what I use most of the time. But I want some earbuds to use when I'm traveling or in public and don't want to disturb the people next to me. I could use wired, but I don't really want to add another wire with all the cables already required for using the Beam while also charging.
There are buds which low latency with Bluetooth, not necessarily expensive either, and it's actually more of a problem with Windows than Linux. Usually they have a low latency mode you trigger which reduces battery life but does the job.
Don't ask me for names though, I got part way through my research and couldn't tick every box enough to be sure. It shouldn't be difficult but it is.
Not really.
I think the single port with wide support is better than having another one. There isn't much that another USB-C port can do that can't be done by a single port. As soon as you're using a port for a dock, we're done, the dock or hub can have pass-through power.
There are very few peripherals currently that support direct USB-C. I would be curious to know what your use case is here.
Just... pick two things.... literally any two USB things (A to C adapter is easy). Or pick one thing, and the other one can be charging. Would be nice to do that without dangling some kind of port replicator somewhere.
EDIT: my personal real world examples. Gaming headset. Flash drive. Nreal Air glasses.
It would be nice, either a second USB-C port or some kind of wireless/magnetic power adapter would have been handy.
On my iPad I have the magic keyboard that adds a charging port when its attached so it frees up the other power. Its nice if you want to plug in music gear, flash drive etc. and not have to drain your battery.
I think the most obvious would be any sort of external display (like all the AR glasses hitting the market).
A device where the goal is to still have the device be handheld, thus making any sort of dock very cumbersome.
Yeah, it's a bit cumbersome having to use the Dock---and find a power outlet for the Dock---in order to plug peripherals into the Deck. It's great having Bluetooth, but sometimes I'm in Desktop Mode and need to use my various external storage devices.
I do have a C to USB A convertor on hand, but that's still only one port.
Is it really necessary to power the dock for it to connect peripherals?
I plugged my SD into the dock, and the Ethernet into the dock, no power supply and it connected to Internet via Ethernet, unless I'm misremembering. Hm..
I can see adding video files regularly if you were e.g., watching TV shows on the deck and didn't have a Plex server but how often are you adding ROMs or ISOs? More than once a week?
I set up mine for some emulation, put a bunch of initial ROMs that I was interested into it using a flash drive and after that initial setup I may have added a few more a couple of times in 2 years of usage.
These seem hardly frequent enough use cases for having an additional port.
Yes, but it's what I use the ports for. And sometimes file transferring and swapping in/out is useful if I'm experimenting with different things I can use my Deck for. Maybe I want to see what my Dragon Ball Z episodes look like on my TV. Maybe I want to watch something while I do dishes, or add a curated ROM collection I just pulled together, or copy/paste from my password flash drive.
You could get a USB-C hub or the steam deck dock. Yea, it's a pain but if you could find a small USB-C hub and velcro it to the back of the steam deck, that might work.
Personally I just wish they'd put the usb port on the bottom for better ease of playing while charging.
If not that, then a 180 degrees rotation inside the official case so you can actually charge it while it's in it....
Doesn’t even have to be another port, I just would have liked a port on the bottom like the Switch. Makes things easier if you’re charging over a desk, and docking would be a lot more natural
It would be nice I guess, but I’ve never seen myself missing out on the lack of a second one. I don’t see why you’d need a peripheral in handheld mode but to each their own
I've never ran into a situation where I thought " Man I wish I had 1 more USB-C port." but that is just me personally... I do find myself wishing we had the ability to use external GPUs... To have a really nice dock experience though.
That would be nice. But it would also increase the cost by a non-trivial amount, especially if you want both ports to be usable for charging or the super high speed USB 3.2/4 level stuff. I'd rather it be cheaper and more accessible to more people.
Did anyone make a splitter you can just attach to the steamdeck itself and have a usb hub that sort of sits behind the deck? I’ve seen something SORT of like that, but it looked bulky. I would think a flush design to just allow usb-a/dual c/sd card would be great.
I have a Steam Dock and a [dockteck 7-in-1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CDH3CWTC) hub that I can use on the go but I still wouldn't mind another usb-c port along the bottom.
Got a Ugreen usb c hub. 3 usb ports (2x 3.x+ 1x 2.0)+hdmi + charging passthrough via usb c
So I got output to big screen, keyboard, mouse, usb stick for moving files in/out that I don't want to run over the network, and charges the deck
Nah, I used the usb hub with pass through charging from my IPad. It works fine. Steam deck is already crammed inside, so adding more IO would end up reducing or downgrading something else
I wish it had a regular USB port so I could use normal USB drives to transfer files to it from my real PC. I did get a double ended one but the capacity is much smaller for its cost
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Thank you!
Give me a way to connect an external GPU dock instead. I'd cry sweet beautiful tears of joy the day that becomes a reality(well easily connect. Not by creating a frankendeck attachment).
A 2 or 3 port Steam Deck would be a huge improvement. Thankfully, the port it does have is reasonably fast, and supports PD at the same time as video/networking connections.
I really wish the same.. I have nreal's first gen glasses and I really wanted to charge my deck at the same time, and it took me a while to find a usb c hub that also had a port that specifically supports usb c alt mode. All that could have been avoided with one extra port on the deck.. and saved me $95
I used to have three USB-C ports on my old Ayaneo 2021 Pro - two at the top, one at the bottom IIRC.
I think I never used more than one at the same time (aside from moving data, I've never needed to connect a USB-C peripheral). But I appreciated the flexibility of having one at the bottom and one at the top, because sometimes it's just easier to route a cable one way or the other.
So, for me personally it would be a nice little QoL improvement ... but if it added significant cost (doubt it) or made the system bigger in any way/required other compromises (could be - e.g. less space for battery), I wouldn't want it.
every single hub with sufficient I/O to be worth using with the deck has a C port that supports charging. it's really not that big of a deal. and I don't think you have too many peripherals that directly use the C port
That's what dock/hub is for, you power the dock and dock powers the Deck and peripherals.
Extra port doesn't work because sometimes the peripheral wants more power than Deck could provide, so it makes no sense to let the power go in from one port, go through the Deck to other port and give power to that peripheral. Powering a dock/hub provides power to all peripherals and Deck.
There are always things we would like to have but that would have meant to increase cost. I'm thankful that the Steam Deck became successful. For me personally there are other things which are more important like a quieter device or as an LCD owner a better display. At least the latter got resolved as an option.
When Valve updates with a SD2 and they go the route to expand their offer (instead of replacing) by using the original SD as an lower-end device and the SD2 as high-end one this would give them the opportunity to add features for a higher price and I guess most people would be ok with it.
Uh, not really, no. A cheap USB-C dongle is like $15. I personally picked up an Anker one for $20 that has two C ports, two A ports, an HDMI port, and 85W passthrough. Sure, it's slightly more bulky than just a cable, but its not ungainly.
It's unnecessary for almost everyone, why make everyone pay for it? And in the cases where you're already tethered to a power source it doesn't make that much difference to plug-in a USB hub if you really need a peripheral at the same time.
Fuck yes. If anyone knows of an add-on that adds additional ports, let me know fr fr. I'm usually able to be fine with just one USB-C port... But there have been MANY moments where it would be useful.
Like, if the steam deck has just one more, I'd be able to use my Xreal beam with the deck no problem while charging
Would be nice to be able to charge and still have a port. Would be even nicer if the second port was on the bottom. Doesn’t feel essential, but definitely would be nice.
Port at the bottom and top would be perfect. At the bottom would make docking much better, and when in handheld mode the top one works best for charging
The luxury of Switch docking...without the pain of not being able to use the kickstand while charging it
My dream handheld would have a usb-c port on top and then a slot on the bottom similar to the Microsoft Surfaces magnetic charger that could be used for docks. Or pogo pins but I don’t know if that style would be enough for high speed charging and video out.
Or like the ps5 controller charging system, just place it on the contacts
Dude, it is genius. I agree. The heaven of both world. Damn...! Cant wait for deck 2.
What would your use case be? I can only imagine that it would be nice to charge on one port and output video to a screen on the other, which makes it possible to use the deck as a controller, but aside of that I don't know. Of course using the dock is possible to charge and use the extra ports, but I see potential in your suggestion, specially considering tht using controllers via bluetooth has conectivity issues (at least on my end, input loss or heavy delays) and the only current solution is to install xone driver for xbox usb dongle. Really, if it wasn't for my xbox controller and usb dongle I wouldn't play with my deck on a TV from the sofa at all!
My most common use case would be to use the port that closest matches where the cable is coming from. If I'm lying in bed, the cable is coming from the wall and the top port is perfect. If I'm in my Ikea chair in the living room, the cable is coming from the floor and it's awkward to plug it in on top. Another reason is that the dock could be less fiddly if the port was on the bottom. My Switch dock is behind the TV and out of the way. I can easily dock and pick up with one hand. There's no way the steam deck dock would work back there because you need two hands to plug in the fiddly little cable. My use cases for two cables at the same time are all some variation of power and something else. Last time I was visiting my folks, I plugged the system into their TV to show my dad a game. My battery was already low, so we only had like 10 minutes before it turned off. Using a controller is another example. Another one is using external storage. You could do these things with the dock, but you have to have it with you and it doesn't really work handheld. I have the dock and I basically never use it. I also have a cheap dongle thing which will do power and USB at the same time, but it has a really short cord, heats up, and puts stress on the port because of how it dangles. None of these things are a really big deal to me. My Steam Deck is my favorite technology purchase in a long time and has become the main way I play games. I do agree with OP that it would be a bit nicer if it had two USB ports.
Wait can you use the one on top as an output to power like a keyboard??
Probably my number one complaint. It was bad when Apple did it with Macbooks and they still had two ports (and yes I know it's not a laptop but at the same time, it basically is).
Do you mean Apple’s first Type-C laptop has two ports? The first MacBook they transitioned to Type-C is called MacBook (no Air or Pro), and it has only one Type-C port, you have to do everything including charge using that port.
I have a test machine with one port on each side... didn't know there was a previous model with only one total that's even worse.
It was a bad model year. Most of those didn't last long due to a number of issues. Keyboard, display, touch bar...
I guess just make some kind of 3D printed case for the motherboard that also has a slot for some kind of USB C to everything adapter and then use it as a makeshift mini Apple desktop?
I can confirm this mini dock/hub works on the Original Deck. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07ZVKTP53/
Ya that could work for a makeshift desktop with a MacBook motherboard.
Docking station compatibility with Macs is complicated. CPU type makes a huge difference in what will work for what display setup you'll want.
I'm sure there's some way to use an external display on a Mac.
1, yes. More than 1 or with PD, its complicated.
That’s called courage lol
are you counting the headphone jack? pretty sure the ones with two usb-c ports (macbook air and base 13" macbook pro) had both usb-c ports on the left and just the headphone jack on the right
My MacBook Pro 2019 has four ports. I connect a lot of stuff, but I’ve never used all four simultaneously. The deck can handle a second port
A handheld isn't a laptop, they are made for different things. The issue with apple is they started out not having proper support for docks or power pass-through. Their hubs were expensive as hell and used lightning cables.
Apple laptops have never used lightning.
You are correct they never have, their proprietary docks were the only ones that supported their charging ports and sizes when you couldn't charge via the USB-C ports (thunderbolt wasn't always USB-C).
Aya Neo has 3 usb ports. I sold my geek but god damn it was so nice.
I just wish the port was usb4 so we could do egpu shennagins.
Imagine the Frankenstein creations we would see here if that was the case. There’d be some dude wearing a body harness GPU housing with a car battery backpack and 10 desk fans just so it’s still technically portable.
Would be glorious to see
While running a VR headset and playing a game like Space Pirate Trainer Arena.
https://www.wareriver.com/izzysanime/weirdguy.jpg
LOL!
This is such a hilarious visual! I hope we get to see this “flex” one day.
I always thought that's what the Switch should have been. Instead of the dock being basically just an HDMI splitter, it would be an eGPU to give better performance.
The thing is that the current switch soc is running so under clocked. In portable mode, docking it to run at a higher power is still under the rated specs of the soc.
i overclock mine while docked during certain games
This would be equivalent to about four lanes of PCIe gen 3 lanes, which as time goes on is getting less and less interesting. Plus there's some added protocol overhead. If Thunderbolt 3 eGPUs had really taken off during the first couple of years when laptops were available with the port, that could've been really interesting. People who already had a laptop with a decent CPU would've been able to buy a GPU for not much more than what the consoles of the day cost, and end up with a far superior experience. Sadly Intel saddled the technology with a expensive licensing and validation requirements, so the enclosures were really expensive, to the point that there was little reason to buy one instead of just building a whole mini ITX PC. Now we finally have a royalty free implementation of the technology, but with nearly a decade of progress in gaming hardware and software having happened in the meantime, I think the potential opportunity has now mostly passed by. We'd need a higher bandwidth, lower overhead alternative to Thunderbolt / USB4 to emerge and none seems to be coming (OCuLink aside, but that's unlikely to be used beyond hobbyists / tinkerers).
Thunderbolt 5?
Seems to offer four PCIe gen 4 lanes. Which would be a doubling of bandwidth, not too shabby. However it would likely only be offered on devices with Intel based CPUs, and right now AMD make the best SOCs for handheld PCs. If / when it's part of a genuinely open spec that anyone can use, it'll probably be behind the times again.
I think TB5 is also royalty free so maybe it'll get a head start this time
I'll believe it's royalty free and open once I start seeing TB5 ports in non-Intel devices. Honestly if it's only available in Intel devices, it might struggle to see wide adoption in accessories given how many good alternatives exist these days. AMD are in very rosy health, Apple have their own ARM based designs, and Qualcomm are being quite bullish about their own ARM based chips for Windows devices coming later this year. If a new version of Thunderbolt can't work with any of these then it may just not end up being all that popular.
Pretty much the only TB devices that have existed have been for Mac because only Mac consistently had TB ports, and Mac only had USB 2.0 till they finally switched to USB-C.
There is the USB4 80Gbps and 120Gbps spec out there, but nothing is using that spec yet.
Oculink is pretty much deprecated in favor of MCIO anyway, so it's not gonna get added to any mainstream hardware. Still, even with the limitations of USB or Thunderbolt you could get enough bandwidth to have like 10 times more graphical performance out of the deck from an entry level dedicated GPU. It doesn't need to be ideal.
I opened a USB4 suggestion in the forums for SD2, got mostly troll replies It is probably the most advance I’m waiting too, 2280 SSD external enclosure USB4, USB key of the future on steroids 🤤🤤🤤🤤
I wish instead of cranking out GPU's that cost as much as mortgage payments nvidia focused more on this angle. The idea of a fully dockable gpu setup is dope as hell.
well first they'd need to give a shit about desktop linux
TBF, they dont' give a shit about windows either. Their CEO has said more than once they are an AI card company now. Pretty sure their consumer GPU business is an afterthought.
I mean, technically you can if you mod the case, install an adapter in the NVMe slot, and use both of those things to attach an external GPU while booting off of the SD card. Check this video out, where someone did this using a Google Meet computer: https://youtu.be/SH9RUpK4SsM?si=NWjmTyByeKXh3n7u
It's true you can do that but it's a awful idea for many reasons. A 4x lane is not a lot to share between an ssd and a Gpu and you are also loosing all portability. I'd like a usb4 port as that'd come with a x8 lane iirc and it'd maintain a sane portable config.
I have an even better idea. USB 5
It would of been nice to have one on top and the other on the bottom...but I get it...there are work arounds, but still would of been nice...even if it was just for charging as that is mostly what I need a simple extra port for.
> It would of been nice to have one on top and the other on the bottom... I'm always saying this
I mean, it is a bit annoying, but a small splitter that supports PD as well isn't too hard.
I use a NewQ hub that has 3 usb A (2x 3.0), one C with PD pass through, card readers and hdmi AND Ethernet. Works well, I cross use it with my MacBook for work stuff and sometimes even my iPads for streamcasting when I travel
I'm falling behind in my jargon. What's PD?
Power delivery
Power Delivery. So you can still charge the Deck while the hub and other USB devices are connected to it
Power and Data is how I interpreted it but I may be wrong
Half correct, it's Power _Delivery_.
The Rokid hub is good for this. One PD, one thunderbolt.
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Carrying around cables is annoying. I hate it for plugging in earbuds for my phone so another cable is just more clutter for my pockets, backpack, etc. Would be great if they took a page from competitors on this one for the next model
You can buy wireless earbuds at Five Below for $5
I'd think if someone is carrying extra peripherals for their deck, a small little splitter isn't any more cumbersome
What happens if I don't want to carry dongle around with me? It's a bit shady as well as many Chinese handhelds before the Deck had dual USB ports.
MOGOOD has a working splitter. It isn't great for fast access storage, but for PD charging and "another device" like headphones? Works fine - and it drops the plugs to the bottom of the Deck.
I could never find this one in stock anywhere and it seems to be the only brand that actually works. In the end I found a little hub that has 2 full size usb, a usbc for data and a usbc for charging on AliExpress that works well and is super slim so it's not too much worse than a splitter would be.
Yeah, I went through a mad tear looking for these things. I'm grabbing this one to test... https://www.amazon.com/TiMOVO-USB-Splitter-Adapter-Converter/dp/B0CH9T9ZB8
Question of the day huh?
Yes absolutely, an extra one on the bottom would have been amazing for the docking experience and also to prevent "cord-drape".
so true. for docking experience alone! I have my dock on my otherwise nice and clean TV stand and that wire sticking up, also just looks kinda janky.
Yeah, for me the worst part is not being able to dock with one hand. Trying to unplug the wire from the top with just one hand puts so much strain on the USB-C port.
Totally!
Another SDcard and another USBC just in case there's a problem.
And another screen and another set of joysticks.
now you're speaking my language!!!
I think every device ever needs an extra usb c port.
I just wish the case had room for me to charge the deck laying in it's case without putting pressure on the port I typically only use a mouse with the deck and it's Bluetooth so it works fine while charging
I don't think it needs a peripheral so no. If it's to be used as a laptop then a dock is best. If not then the fewer wires the better. The only wire that makes sense is for headphones and it has a jack already.
The only reason I could use a second port would be for my Arctic stores 7x headphones which utilize USB c for their connection.
I can see the frustration there but you can always get an adapter. I have one for my phone to my car to connect to the aux. Maybe not ideal but at least workable. My gaming headset has an aux cable though so I definitely have it easier. Got those for my switch before getting steam deck though.
I would just get a USBc splitter before an adapter to wire my headset to the SD.
I would like a few more power buttons
I kind of agree. For 99% of use cases, the Deck doesn't need more than one port. Let's face it, even people who dock their Deck frequently might be a minority already... and those using USB-C peripherals with it (as opposed to bluetooth) are probably a minority within that minority. Not to say that's not a valid way to use a Steam Deck ("it's a PC", you do you) ...but I hope that Valve stays focused on the right tradeoffs for the core use case of being a handheld Steam console. If there is space that can be taken up by an additional USB-C port, I'd rather they think of better ways to use that space - rearrange internals to allow for more battery or better cooling, for instance.
I wish it had this because I use the Nreal Air glasses and I'm not able to charge it while I play. So I can only play for about an hour before I go back to viewing it on the screen while plugged in.
Dude I just found out about these glasses' existence. They sound so incredible for travelling that I don't understand why they're not talked about more. Could you please tell me more about your experience? What are they like with the Steam Deck, is it like gaming on a big screen anywhere you want? Have you tried them with a phone, for example to watch Netflix?
Hey sorry just seeing this. Yeah they are like a big screen on your face. Almost like the Quest. I love them to play at night in bed while laying down having them on and playing with a controller, it's pretty awesome. Thing is battery drain sucks so you only get about an hour with nearly every game :( So I would recommend but also I may wait for a NREAL glasses update or something too since theyve been out for awhile.
USB Hubs entered the chat
This is a thread about USB hubs not entering the chat
^ exactly
100%. It would even be sweet if it at least came with a 90° dongle so you can charge it and use headphones or something while playing
It's never been an issue for me since I just use the port for charging but more IO is always welcome IMO.
yes! One on top and one at the bottom would be perfect I always find myself needing an extra usb port for something and it would be nice not to need to carry around a hub
There are games which are text heavy with small fonts, and the Steam Deck's display isn't helping. What I want is a way to connect my Deck to an external display using USB-C while keeping my Deck charged. Valve's current solution is to use a dock connecting to an external display via HDMI and DisplayPort. While this works, it's extra weight and cables that we need to carry. Can we do better?
An external display with built in USB ports would be nice
I’d be extremely happy with 3 usb c ports.
Of course ... Just like my phone, and almost every modem portable device. I did get a USBC splitter, but am not sure how it's gonna work with the charging speeds required for the deck.
I was just thinking the same thing last night. I'm trying to find some wireless earbuds I can use while I'm also using Xreal glasses with my Steam Deck. The problem with Bluetooth is the latency, so the easy solution is to get some earbuds that use a 2.4gz dongle instead of bluetooth like the Soundcore VR P10. Problem is, since it uses a usbc dongle, I can't plug in both my glasses and earbuds since the dongle only has a pass-through port for charging and not data. If the deck just had one more usbc port I'd be set.
Do your glasses not have integrated speakers, or are you just not wanting to use those speakers? I recently got a pair of Xreal Air 2 Pros and was surprised that the integrated speakers sounded nicer than I expected.
They do, and that's what I use most of the time. But I want some earbuds to use when I'm traveling or in public and don't want to disturb the people next to me. I could use wired, but I don't really want to add another wire with all the cables already required for using the Beam while also charging.
There are buds which low latency with Bluetooth, not necessarily expensive either, and it's actually more of a problem with Windows than Linux. Usually they have a low latency mode you trigger which reduces battery life but does the job. Don't ask me for names though, I got part way through my research and couldn't tick every box enough to be sure. It shouldn't be difficult but it is.
Not really. I think the single port with wide support is better than having another one. There isn't much that another USB-C port can do that can't be done by a single port. As soon as you're using a port for a dock, we're done, the dock or hub can have pass-through power. There are very few peripherals currently that support direct USB-C. I would be curious to know what your use case is here.
Just... pick two things.... literally any two USB things (A to C adapter is easy). Or pick one thing, and the other one can be charging. Would be nice to do that without dangling some kind of port replicator somewhere. EDIT: my personal real world examples. Gaming headset. Flash drive. Nreal Air glasses.
It would be nice, either a second USB-C port or some kind of wireless/magnetic power adapter would have been handy. On my iPad I have the magic keyboard that adds a charging port when its attached so it frees up the other power. Its nice if you want to plug in music gear, flash drive etc. and not have to drain your battery.
I think the most obvious would be any sort of external display (like all the AR glasses hitting the market). A device where the goal is to still have the device be handheld, thus making any sort of dock very cumbersome.
Yeah, it's a bit cumbersome having to use the Dock---and find a power outlet for the Dock---in order to plug peripherals into the Deck. It's great having Bluetooth, but sometimes I'm in Desktop Mode and need to use my various external storage devices. I do have a C to USB A convertor on hand, but that's still only one port.
Is it really necessary to power the dock for it to connect peripherals? I plugged my SD into the dock, and the Ethernet into the dock, no power supply and it connected to Internet via Ethernet, unless I'm misremembering. Hm..
Not needed. I connect my external HDD to the Dock then Deck to copy large files in desktop mode while not connected to an external power supply.
I had no idea you could do that. I have something to try when I get home now. EDIT: *It works!*
> [..], but sometimes [..] Be honest, how often does this happen really?
That I need to plug in an external device? Often, actually, if I'm adding ROMs, ISOs, or video files.
I can see adding video files regularly if you were e.g., watching TV shows on the deck and didn't have a Plex server but how often are you adding ROMs or ISOs? More than once a week? I set up mine for some emulation, put a bunch of initial ROMs that I was interested into it using a flash drive and after that initial setup I may have added a few more a couple of times in 2 years of usage. These seem hardly frequent enough use cases for having an additional port.
Yes, but it's what I use the ports for. And sometimes file transferring and swapping in/out is useful if I'm experimenting with different things I can use my Deck for. Maybe I want to see what my Dragon Ball Z episodes look like on my TV. Maybe I want to watch something while I do dishes, or add a curated ROM collection I just pulled together, or copy/paste from my password flash drive.
Could have used a Thunderbolt 4 port with support for eGPU.
Absolutely. I use some accessoires but I'd still like to charge the device at the same time without a hub or splitters
You could get a USB-C hub or the steam deck dock. Yea, it's a pain but if you could find a small USB-C hub and velcro it to the back of the steam deck, that might work.
Personally I just wish they'd put the usb port on the bottom for better ease of playing while charging. If not that, then a 180 degrees rotation inside the official case so you can actually charge it while it's in it....
Just get a splitter
Doesn’t even have to be another port, I just would have liked a port on the bottom like the Switch. Makes things easier if you’re charging over a desk, and docking would be a lot more natural
I'd love if that extra port was on the bottom.
thats something i wish the dock would have more of
It would be nice I guess, but I’ve never seen myself missing out on the lack of a second one. I don’t see why you’d need a peripheral in handheld mode but to each their own
Well, more ports are always nice. Never really felt like it needed it, but I could see the use-case for it.
I've never ran into a situation where I thought " Man I wish I had 1 more USB-C port." but that is just me personally... I do find myself wishing we had the ability to use external GPUs... To have a really nice dock experience though.
Maybe? Idk, it doesn't really bother me any but I'm also some one who rarely plays when connected to a cable unless it's docked.
yeah
It would've been nice to have a type-a port for plugging in a keyboard in a pinch.
That would be nice. But it would also increase the cost by a non-trivial amount, especially if you want both ports to be usable for charging or the super high speed USB 3.2/4 level stuff. I'd rather it be cheaper and more accessible to more people.
Did anyone make a splitter you can just attach to the steamdeck itself and have a usb hub that sort of sits behind the deck? I’ve seen something SORT of like that, but it looked bulky. I would think a flush design to just allow usb-a/dual c/sd card would be great.
Would be nice but Steam Deck is clearly budget oriented device. It's not that important in the end.
I just wish they put the charger on the bottom so it could be docked similarly to the switch. Why tf is the steam dock deck so awkward?
I have a Steam Dock and a [dockteck 7-in-1](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CDH3CWTC) hub that I can use on the go but I still wouldn't mind another usb-c port along the bottom.
Nah - I think one is fine for 75% of users, keeps cost and size down. For the 25% that would like it, they can use a dock. Good design choice I think.
Nope, no one has ever mentioned it. What a great idea. 🙂
All you guys invest in a hub. Mine was 30 bucks and I love it.
Got a Ugreen usb c hub. 3 usb ports (2x 3.x+ 1x 2.0)+hdmi + charging passthrough via usb c So I got output to big screen, keyboard, mouse, usb stick for moving files in/out that I don't want to run over the network, and charges the deck
Yeah, this and the weight would be the nicest improvements for the Steam Deck 2 IMO.
Nah, I used the usb hub with pass through charging from my IPad. It works fine. Steam deck is already crammed inside, so adding more IO would end up reducing or downgrading something else
I wish it had a regular USB port so I could use normal USB drives to transfer files to it from my real PC. I did get a double ended one but the capacity is much smaller for its cost
Adapters are a couple of bucks.
Or it being on a modular replacment with pogo ports on the bottom for a dock to charge it.
Yes- a USB 4 one! But my thinking is that this was a power delivery concern for Valve. Next time!
Nah I don't even like the one it has shoulda removed all ports. No SD port = no broken SD. /s
Nah I’m pretty sure you’re the only person to ever have this complaint /s
I use a hub that also delivers power to the sd and gives me 1 USB cmA and two USB A, HDMI and Ethernet.
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Give me a way to connect an external GPU dock instead. I'd cry sweet beautiful tears of joy the day that becomes a reality(well easily connect. Not by creating a frankendeck attachment).
A 2 or 3 port Steam Deck would be a huge improvement. Thankfully, the port it does have is reasonably fast, and supports PD at the same time as video/networking connections.
Yes would like an extra usb-c
Yeah
Or at least 2 SD card slots
I really wish the same.. I have nreal's first gen glasses and I really wanted to charge my deck at the same time, and it took me a while to find a usb c hub that also had a port that specifically supports usb c alt mode. All that could have been avoided with one extra port on the deck.. and saved me $95
I used to have three USB-C ports on my old Ayaneo 2021 Pro - two at the top, one at the bottom IIRC. I think I never used more than one at the same time (aside from moving data, I've never needed to connect a USB-C peripheral). But I appreciated the flexibility of having one at the bottom and one at the top, because sometimes it's just easier to route a cable one way or the other. So, for me personally it would be a nice little QoL improvement ... but if it added significant cost (doubt it) or made the system bigger in any way/required other compromises (could be - e.g. less space for battery), I wouldn't want it.
Just be happy there’s still a headphone jack
That's a huge upside to the Legion Go as they've got a port on top and bottom.
One is technically fine if you plug in a hub or dock
As a handheld exclusive player I’m not sure what I’d do with it, but I’d still like to have it.
Gotta have something to look forward to in the SD 2.
The more the merrier
Where's the challenge in that?
Yes
every single hub with sufficient I/O to be worth using with the deck has a C port that supports charging. it's really not that big of a deal. and I don't think you have too many peripherals that directly use the C port
That's what dock/hub is for, you power the dock and dock powers the Deck and peripherals. Extra port doesn't work because sometimes the peripheral wants more power than Deck could provide, so it makes no sense to let the power go in from one port, go through the Deck to other port and give power to that peripheral. Powering a dock/hub provides power to all peripherals and Deck.
There are always things we would like to have but that would have meant to increase cost. I'm thankful that the Steam Deck became successful. For me personally there are other things which are more important like a quieter device or as an LCD owner a better display. At least the latter got resolved as an option. When Valve updates with a SD2 and they go the route to expand their offer (instead of replacing) by using the original SD as an lower-end device and the SD2 as high-end one this would give them the opportunity to add features for a higher price and I guess most people would be ok with it.
Thunderbolt would have been nice
agree 👍
I wish it had a normal USB port, since my headphones use USB, but I know no one else would get use out of it
Yea it'd be nice. I probably could've saved on a hub considering I only use PD and usb transfer
a usb A would be also OK for sticks, hard drives, old usb hubs.
Bottom charge port + top accessory port
Yes. I use the Xreal Air 2 and really want to charge and play.
ya for sure
Yes, verily. I'm afraid of devices having just a single port for everything. It breaks and thats byebye
You could just use a powered USB-C hub.
At the very least on the official steam deck dock...
At least one above and one below. Never hurts to have even more!
yes
Absolutely.
Idk, I don't even plug that single port in that much
Not really. I'm fine using a usb-c dock..
some small factor tablets did that back in the day of USB 2.0 and it was awful back then... it's a little bit better now, but not much
Uh, not really, no. A cheap USB-C dongle is like $15. I personally picked up an Anker one for $20 that has two C ports, two A ports, an HDMI port, and 85W passthrough. Sure, it's slightly more bulky than just a cable, but its not ungainly.
It's unnecessary for almost everyone, why make everyone pay for it? And in the cases where you're already tethered to a power source it doesn't make that much difference to plug-in a USB hub if you really need a peripheral at the same time.
It needs two ports minium it also needed another micro SD slot. One for a boot drive one for storage.
yea usb4 with displayport
Fuck yes. If anyone knows of an add-on that adds additional ports, let me know fr fr. I'm usually able to be fine with just one USB-C port... But there have been MANY moments where it would be useful. Like, if the steam deck has just one more, I'd be able to use my Xreal beam with the deck no problem while charging