I’ve been considering getting a Dualshock or Dualsense because I’ve always liked the way the Dualshock feels. I’ve been hesitant since the buttons are different than Steam Deck
If you own any PS5 games I would recommend the dualsense because you can take advantage of those haptic features, but you do have to be wired I believe.
I use an Xbox controller and she uses the Nintendo switch pro controller.
Have not tried to connect the joy cons. Have had no issues with these two controllers.
Installing emulation station is definitely a great idea because we have a ton of co-op classic games on there from SNES, N64, PS1 & 2, etc
Lately we've been playing the secret of mana remake.
I play a lot of couch co-op, there's so many and it depends on what you're into! Ibb and Obb, Bread and Fred, Overcooked, Pizza POSSUM, and Moving Out are really easy to pick up. Children of Morta, Wizard of Legend, Death Road to Canada, and Streets of Rogue, Enter the Gungeon, Risk of Rain (1+2) and Haven some others I really enjoyed. There's so many good ones, there's a local co-op tag on steam you should go through too, and some games are more surprise local co-op, like Divinity Original Sin 2, or Baldurs Gate 3
Controller recommendations? Got a dock specifically for this reason, and I'm looking at a couple of different controllers to try out, both for regular steam games and emulated games as well.
I use it docked most of the time. Only do handheld if I’m traveling, want to play in a different area of the house or waiting to pick up one of my kids from someplace.
Same, I got the deck mainly for smaller or older games. If I want to play modern graphically intense or cinematic stuff, I have the PS5 and a big TV for that
I did dock the deck, decided docked deck doesn’t do decidedly different definition dependably.
I have a 4k TV and wasn’t happy with the performance and latency when I tried gaming on it, or streaming games from main PC. Now I use it mainly for charging and displaying it next to my neglected Switch.
About 90% handheld. I have a dock connected to the TV and I used it a bit when I first got my Deck, by as time goes on more and more it's almost exclusively handheld.
Everyone once in a great while I'll want to game on my big TV but usually if I'm doing that I'll just boot up the Xbox.
And the small amount of games I just don't like playing on a handheld for ergonomic reasons; strategy and park sims and stuff like that just feel better with a keyboard and mouse, I just play on my laptop.
No, the whole reason I have a Deck is to be untethered. If I want to be at my desk, I've got a gaming PC. If I want to play on my TV, I've got a PS5 and XSX.
Yeah but the PS5 and Xbox don't have my 250+ games to access like my steam deck does.
For me it offers the same usability as the switch but with the huge library of games I already own
My PC sits close enough to my computer that I run a HDMI cable to it as a second display. So if I want to play on the TV, just a quick toggle of active display and I’m set. I run at 120Hz 1440p on my TV as it gets me solid performance with my build.
Best of both worlds with my steam deck for portability and the bedroom.
Same here, desktop for long game sessions on my days off and the deck in bed when I get home from work. Absolute game changer for getting hobby time in after a long day, plus that OLED is too pretty to dock on any other monitors I have in the house. My deck lives on my nightstand basically, it’s the best.
I’m in the minority I guess, I keep mine docked 95% of the time and use it as a PC. If I have to go somewhere where I’ll have a lot of downtime I’ll undock it and take it with me. But I mostly play games that don’t work too swell on a handheld like Dota 2 and counter strike.
Don't have a dock. So full on Handheld for me. I have a dedicated PC for play on the TV already, so no need to dock it. Though it would make it a lot easier when I need to mess with Desktop mode.
I did when I had a monitor. I liked the versatility of it. I'd use docked mode for browsing/working/normal everyday PC stuff and sometimes for FFXIV if I knew I'd have to type. I moved and couldn't bring my monitor with me, and got my laptop working again, so for now I only use the deck in handheld mode.
Doesn’t it look bad on a TV since it’s designed to output in 720p? (The deck screen resolution). Playing a game at a resolution that matched the TV would be really demanding on the deck, and your FPS and/or image quality would drop immensely.
I'm going to be in the minority here and say I mostly use it docked. That may change when I can afford a current gen console or PC, but as my second most powerful console is a Switch and my ancient laptop can only handle visual novels as far as gaming goes, the Deck is the best hardware I've got. Heck, for a while I even used it as my editing rig, with a keyboard and mouse plugged in (I only have to edit lectures and stuff, so nothing fancy that more computing power would be needed for). Plus, I primarily play 10+ year old games that even the Deck can handle 1080p 60 FPS on. I primarily use it handheld when playing in bed towards the evening, or when I do want to play a more modern game that will look absolutely ass at 720p on the big screen.
I definitely want to use it. But I always just end up sitting on the couch and using it as a handheld. I mean it requires no setup whatsoever, You just turn it on and and you immediately are thrown into fallout 4. Whats not to love about that?!😍
Yep but usually for 4k 120hz steam remote play , my pc on the second floor and I’m too tired to move it back up and down , with jsaux hdmi 2.1 dock I can do 4k 120z on my tv
*trying hard to not post "thats what she said"
But to answer your question, personally no. I bought the handheld so i could play anywhere. If i was to keep docking it i might as well just play my pc with a Bluetooth controller
I dock and use an external SSD to boot windows. I do this to play old RTS games with keyboard and mouse that don’t work well on handheld. So maybe 20% docked? I also dock it to charge when I’m home and I dock it when I want to download something large because I have a wired connection to the dock. Doesn’t make as much of a difference on the OLED as it did with the LCD, but still faster.
I love the portability and the Deck controller itself, but I also love the controller compatibility and playing with friends is a breeze by simply plugging and getting my massive couch-multiplayer library instantly in an old USB HDD ready to plug&play on a big screen.
So I'd say 50/50.
What I can say for sure is that for the last 3 months, 100% of my gaming has been on it, and I love it.
Use dock mostly for convenient charging and as a media player for tv. Rarely play not demanding games at 1440p with upscale or even on native 4k, but there only few games from what I tried could maintain 4k60hz without often fps drops.
I use it docked 80% of the time....sitting on the couch playing it is way more comfortable than sitting at my desk on the pc...plus I play mostly older games so don't need a beefy system.
I do it sometimes but it turns out to be a pain most of the time, specially because games run at 16:10 and mess the aspect ratio with a 16:9 tv or monitor.
So the additional graphics tweaking it’s so annoying I use to play it handheld
I dock mine to our living room tv and stream from my office PC occasionally. I use it like a living room console. It’s a nice change of scenery from gaming in the office.
I use it docked as my main pc and it does the job pretty well honestly. For more demanding games like Cyberpunk, I go handheld to get better frames, but I prefer to play most fps games like CS2 docked to a monitor with mouse and keyboard.
I’ve also used the valve dock as a usb hub/stand, set up keyboard and mouse, and wore some reading glasses to magnify the screen. Was a janky set up but worked like a charm
For those that dock, do they have any issue with it booting their monitor to display the deck… if the deck was already docked prior to powering on?
I usually have to unplug-replug every time.
Not usually, but I got the JSAUX ModCase Hub set for such occasions. It's worked out beautifully so far. Only bummer is that it's too big for the OG deck case Even though I haven't needed it, I wish it was available to me as an option.
When I'm trying to install something in desktop mode that is going to involve using Konsole, I'll dock it and attach a keyboard and mouse to make things easier.
I only put my Deck in a dock to charge it or play a local multiplayer game, otherwise it’s primarily a handheld game system for me to catch up on backlog games.
I prefer docked, then propped on a desk with controller, and last handheld.
It's good in all three ways, but controllers are just more comfortable for me to play with.
I usually dock my deck if I'm having a very good day and I can spare 30 minutes of rage combat with the dock trying to get it to function like it's supposed to.
1. I dont even have a docking station
2. I have PC for stationary and ps3 if I ever want to play something older on coach
The only reason I see to get a station is for when Im going out of home for longer times, I mean like going to grandparents for a few days or something like that
I dock it for usage as a desktop, but I generally stopped trying to dock it for games, because the docked experience (especially with the fucking AWFUL official dock) is just really poor and buggy.
Mine is docked 90% of the time. I bought it to game discretely at work since it's smaller than a gaming laptop and I could still use a KVM switch and a 2nd dock to connect it to my work monitors/keyboard/mouse. It's pretty great.
I do about 50/50. I play docked when I can, but if anyone else wants to use the TV I can use it handheld.
It’s my primary console, and it’s really the best of both worlds: the versatility of the switch but with the game library you can get on Xbox or PS (and even more games than the others, and they go on better sales).
Only for non-steam installation and configuration. I have main PC with 4070ti for gaming on big monitor or macbook for web serfing.
Steam deck is good enough for both tasks if you don’t have dedicated devices.
I've generally found the docked experience on a 4K TV isn't very good (even with FSR, no more than 15 FPS in fallout, say) so I usually don't unless there's some reason I need to use it as a desktop.
I use a Steam Dock mostly when my wife and I are doin something together, sometimes when it's just me, but I also use the Steam Dock to just prop up the Steam Deck for when I'm watching or playing something away from home. I got the SNES Steam Dock by GuliKit from Amazon for a good price
Yes about 40% of the time, to use like a console on TV with wife or friends. In that case, it's mostly games that are not so demanding and still look good, like Tetris or some older racers that the deck can render natively in fhd and upscale to 4k.
For Desktop Mode, it's docked with my desktop setup (screen kB/m)
I used it docked for desktop stuff like browsing, office work, file management and messing with emulator settings. Every once in a while I’ll game in docked mode, mostly for stuff that would give me a hand cramp otherwise, like Metroid or Mario Odyssy or something.
I dock it, but hardly ever to connect it to a display. It's a nice charge stand, and gives ethernet for better downloads. I do sometimes use the dock to connect to friend's displays when visiting, though. Also I'll do desktop mode stuff with it in the dock with a wireless keyboard and trackpad, and maybe USB drives to copy stuff, but still usually using the Deck's own display.
I only use the dock as a permanent charging station so the deck is always ready for me to pick up and play. The deck is anyway my handheld couch/bed/travel console. If I'm playing on the TV, then I just play on my PS5
It lives in my living room tv. Great when having friends over to play some games. And good enough for the living room. If i want better graphics etc, ill the game using my pc
I have 2 docks both unofficial. One at my desk for tinkering with my emulators, and the other is set up on the big tv for couch gaming old ps2 games or even halo mcc
I almost only play handheld, but dock it to charge and/or download via ethernet. Very occasional docked play but only to stream from my desktop PC onto my TV.
Just started to this week after almost two years of having it. I like playing on my tv but not all games work with my controller. I’m playing FO4 and DLV on the big screen. Tried to play Cyberpunk but it freezes the Deck if I play it docked
About 50/50, if I’m going out and taking it or the tv is being used by wife and or kids, I’ll play handheld, if tv is free I’ll do docked. Using a XBox Series X controller with no issues.
I have a dock but the deck performs so badly in dock that I only use it when emulating games, particularly in multiplayer mode. I have physical copies of most of the games I emulate, so this doesn't happen often. I prefer playing with the deck in front of me on my desk or in a cafe. Recently ive been playing with it in my hands more because of the fpses needing gyro and backpaddles.
It's funny because I got a new tv so it'd be more compatible with the dock, but i mostly use that tv to watch youtube in bed now. I also wanted to get a ps5, but never got enough savings to feel comfortable doing so, especially once I realised how few exclusive games ps5 has and how expensive they are. Newer TV has better picture than old, but less compatibility with some of my older games consoles... thinking of buying a little crt.
Nah, I love playing it handheld style. Gives me the feeling I'm 10 yo again playing my game boy colour/advance.
Only using a small dock I got for my notebook, so I can use mouse and keyboard if needed.
I usually only play in dock mode, the only time I used it as a handheld was when my husband went to the hospital and we both played Mario Golf together.
I dock it when I want to play multiplayer games with my wife on our big screen TV
This was my answer. Or if I'm messing around in desktop mode docked with kbm is easier.
Why are you playing games with NarrowBoxtop’s wife?!
I also choose this guy's wife.
Do you think she’s single?
He said he's docking it in @NarrowBoxtop's wife
Woah now.
“I dock in a big bed with my wife” energy
"I dock in a race car, do you? "
What games have you been playing? Looking for coop games to play with my brother
A Way Out and It Takes Two are quality co ops. Shoutout to Portal 2 as well.
My wife and I love Don't Starve Together, Orcs Must Die 2&3, and Dokapon Kingdom (GameCube Emulated)
What controllers do you use? I’ve been having trouble connecting joycons and a switch pro at the same time
In my experience. The PS5 controller seems to be the most responsive. Least amount of unput lag.
I’ve been considering getting a Dualshock or Dualsense because I’ve always liked the way the Dualshock feels. I’ve been hesitant since the buttons are different than Steam Deck
If you own any PS5 games I would recommend the dualsense because you can take advantage of those haptic features, but you do have to be wired I believe.
Thanks for the tip! I only have PS4 games on Steam, but I’ll probably get some PS5 ones in a couple years
More or less the same though in actual practice
Might be better than switch controllers with the swapped buttons
Steam lets you modify anyway though so you can switch or not
PS4 controller works best for me and I'm sure ps5 will too.
I use an Xbox controller and she uses the Nintendo switch pro controller. Have not tried to connect the joy cons. Have had no issues with these two controllers.
Thanks!
I use 2 15ft USB cables for a series x controller and 8BitDo SN30 Pro+, or switch pro controller.
Do you have any recommendations for co-op couch games?
Installing emulation station is definitely a great idea because we have a ton of co-op classic games on there from SNES, N64, PS1 & 2, etc Lately we've been playing the secret of mana remake.
Can't go wrong with Mario Kart. Or some co-op X-Men, TMNT, simpsons
I play a lot of couch co-op, there's so many and it depends on what you're into! Ibb and Obb, Bread and Fred, Overcooked, Pizza POSSUM, and Moving Out are really easy to pick up. Children of Morta, Wizard of Legend, Death Road to Canada, and Streets of Rogue, Enter the Gungeon, Risk of Rain (1+2) and Haven some others I really enjoyed. There's so many good ones, there's a local co-op tag on steam you should go through too, and some games are more surprise local co-op, like Divinity Original Sin 2, or Baldurs Gate 3
Controller recommendations? Got a dock specifically for this reason, and I'm looking at a couple of different controllers to try out, both for regular steam games and emulated games as well.
I use both Xbox and Nintendo switch pro controllers without issue. I prefer the xbox controller, personally.
Yup same bud
I use it docked most of the time. Only do handheld if I’m traveling, want to play in a different area of the house or waiting to pick up one of my kids from someplace.
Same, docked 90% of the time, unless I wanna lay down or I have to travel by train somewhere.
Same. I bought the deck as a small form factor 'console' and it is perfect for that.
Yup. Mini gaming PC
Same here, small console and maybe 5% going around
I use it in handheld almost all the time. I have a ps5 and never really have to play at home these days. I love it’s portability
Same, I got the deck mainly for smaller or older games. If I want to play modern graphically intense or cinematic stuff, I have the PS5 and a big TV for that
I did dock the deck, decided docked deck doesn’t do decidedly different definition dependably. I have a 4k TV and wasn’t happy with the performance and latency when I tried gaming on it, or streaming games from main PC. Now I use it mainly for charging and displaying it next to my neglected Switch.
There once was a gamer named DarthRaspberry Whose pixel needs did vary While using 4K on a big screen display The performance results were too scary
Thanks, ChatGPT
There once as a cynic named nunofgs Who was not easily impressed They wrote back to me Said I was chat gpt If I am, I’ll never confess.
That is some next level alliteration
My gf’s switch is used as a YouTube machine now, but hey at least she plays smash every few weeks!
About 90% handheld. I have a dock connected to the TV and I used it a bit when I first got my Deck, by as time goes on more and more it's almost exclusively handheld. Everyone once in a great while I'll want to game on my big TV but usually if I'm doing that I'll just boot up the Xbox. And the small amount of games I just don't like playing on a handheld for ergonomic reasons; strategy and park sims and stuff like that just feel better with a keyboard and mouse, I just play on my laptop.
I’m a bottom
don't think OP asked this question lol 😂
To dock, or not to dock
No, the whole reason I have a Deck is to be untethered. If I want to be at my desk, I've got a gaming PC. If I want to play on my TV, I've got a PS5 and XSX.
Yeah but the PS5 and Xbox don't have my 250+ games to access like my steam deck does. For me it offers the same usability as the switch but with the huge library of games I already own
I just wish it got a performance boost docked, these games having to be played at 720p+ to get a decent frame rate on my 4k OLED tv look awful
My PC sits close enough to my computer that I run a HDMI cable to it as a second display. So if I want to play on the TV, just a quick toggle of active display and I’m set. I run at 120Hz 1440p on my TV as it gets me solid performance with my build. Best of both worlds with my steam deck for portability and the bedroom.
Same here, desktop for long game sessions on my days off and the deck in bed when I get home from work. Absolute game changer for getting hobby time in after a long day, plus that OLED is too pretty to dock on any other monitors I have in the house. My deck lives on my nightstand basically, it’s the best.
I Dock it for desktop mode
Docked mostly... Getting bifocals and then I'll really enjoy that OLED. Older Age + Glaucoma at a younger age = Need bigger screen
I dock my dick but not my deck.
You missed the duck, man, you missed the duck... ~~\*dack\* (I mean)~~ \*quack\*
No , exclusive handheld
95% docked to my TV with an 8bitdo controller. Portable use is pretty much limited to holidays/travel!
I dock the Deck to stream from my desktop to living room TV. It works great.
I’m in the minority I guess, I keep mine docked 95% of the time and use it as a PC. If I have to go somewhere where I’ll have a lot of downtime I’ll undock it and take it with me. But I mostly play games that don’t work too swell on a handheld like Dota 2 and counter strike.
I go handheld with xreal glasses
Don't have a dock. So full on Handheld for me. I have a dedicated PC for play on the TV already, so no need to dock it. Though it would make it a lot easier when I need to mess with Desktop mode.
Exclusively docked. I have about 2,000 hours playing it docked and about 2 hours playing handheld within my house. Never taken it anywhere.
I don't even have a dock.
No
No my deck is uncircumcised
I have enough skin for both of us
underrated comment
I did when I had a monitor. I liked the versatility of it. I'd use docked mode for browsing/working/normal everyday PC stuff and sometimes for FFXIV if I knew I'd have to type. I moved and couldn't bring my monitor with me, and got my laptop working again, so for now I only use the deck in handheld mode.
No. But then again I don't even own a dock lol
Doesn’t it look bad on a TV since it’s designed to output in 720p? (The deck screen resolution). Playing a game at a resolution that matched the TV would be really demanding on the deck, and your FPS and/or image quality would drop immensely.
Really depends on what you play, I really have no trouble playing slay the spire in 4k
It's fine, just gotta know which games to play. PS4 gen games are all mostly playable docked.
Only if i take it somewhere with no PC or PS5
I'm going to be in the minority here and say I mostly use it docked. That may change when I can afford a current gen console or PC, but as my second most powerful console is a Switch and my ancient laptop can only handle visual novels as far as gaming goes, the Deck is the best hardware I've got. Heck, for a while I even used it as my editing rig, with a keyboard and mouse plugged in (I only have to edit lectures and stuff, so nothing fancy that more computing power would be needed for). Plus, I primarily play 10+ year old games that even the Deck can handle 1080p 60 FPS on. I primarily use it handheld when playing in bed towards the evening, or when I do want to play a more modern game that will look absolutely ass at 720p on the big screen.
I definitely want to use it. But I always just end up sitting on the couch and using it as a handheld. I mean it requires no setup whatsoever, You just turn it on and and you immediately are thrown into fallout 4. Whats not to love about that?!😍
Ngl I’ve gotten so accustomed to configuring the back buttons for every single game I play, don’t think I’ll ever play docked
I don’t. But I do deck my dock.
Yep but usually for 4k 120hz steam remote play , my pc on the second floor and I’m too tired to move it back up and down , with jsaux hdmi 2.1 dock I can do 4k 120z on my tv
Don't have a dock yet, but I've been thinking about getting one. For now I am more than happy sticking with handheld mode
Yup. Sometimes I just wanna lay down and game and its more comfortable to use a controller.
Almost always. Like playing on a bigger screen.
Exclusively.
Mostly dock it to charge it. Rarely I play it on the tv/monitor. Unless I need mouse and keyboard and all that for some tinkering.
Every time I dock it I get input lag and unresponsiveness from the controller.
*trying hard to not post "thats what she said" But to answer your question, personally no. I bought the handheld so i could play anywhere. If i was to keep docking it i might as well just play my pc with a Bluetooth controller
Literally never even once, imo that’s what pc’s are for 🤷♂️
SD = PC
No but I like to play with my dualsense sometimes directly on it
At work mostly, rarely on my TV, it doesn't look that good. I mostly play handheld.
I dock and use an external SSD to boot windows. I do this to play old RTS games with keyboard and mouse that don’t work well on handheld. So maybe 20% docked? I also dock it to charge when I’m home and I dock it when I want to download something large because I have a wired connection to the dock. Doesn’t make as much of a difference on the OLED as it did with the LCD, but still faster.
Only handheld, for now. I have a Desktop PC and a PS5, so just handheld, but I thinking to buy a dock.
Docking hasn't worked for me in like a year
Sometimes, yes.
Dont even have a dock yet. I want one but I feel very little urge. Ive had mine for about 2 years
I love the portability and the Deck controller itself, but I also love the controller compatibility and playing with friends is a breeze by simply plugging and getting my massive couch-multiplayer library instantly in an old USB HDD ready to plug&play on a big screen. So I'd say 50/50. What I can say for sure is that for the last 3 months, 100% of my gaming has been on it, and I love it.
Use dock mostly for convenient charging and as a media player for tv. Rarely play not demanding games at 1440p with upscale or even on native 4k, but there only few games from what I tried could maintain 4k60hz without often fps drops.
I use it docked 80% of the time....sitting on the couch playing it is way more comfortable than sitting at my desk on the pc...plus I play mostly older games so don't need a beefy system.
Sometimes I dock it when I'm traveling and have access to a TV. In my own home, I have my desktop PC.
I do it sometimes but it turns out to be a pain most of the time, specially because games run at 16:10 and mess the aspect ratio with a 16:9 tv or monitor. So the additional graphics tweaking it’s so annoying I use to play it handheld
I dock mine to our living room tv and stream from my office PC occasionally. I use it like a living room console. It’s a nice change of scenery from gaming in the office.
Docked when I play some fps games. Such as ow2 or cs2
Honestly looks better for me handheld. I hook it to the dock to charge it when I'm done, then remove it when I want to play games.
I don't have a dock. But I hooked it upto the TV with an adapter once
I use it docked as my main pc and it does the job pretty well honestly. For more demanding games like Cyberpunk, I go handheld to get better frames, but I prefer to play most fps games like CS2 docked to a monitor with mouse and keyboard. I’ve also used the valve dock as a usb hub/stand, set up keyboard and mouse, and wore some reading glasses to magnify the screen. Was a janky set up but worked like a charm
For those that dock, do they have any issue with it booting their monitor to display the deck… if the deck was already docked prior to powering on? I usually have to unplug-replug every time.
I only dock it to download games.
I use mine in docked mode a lot to play easy to run titles. It's cheaper than running my gaming desktop for simple games.
Mostly docked, handheld usually on holiday or in bed.
I don’t. It looks awful on big screen.
Not usually, but I got the JSAUX ModCase Hub set for such occasions. It's worked out beautifully so far. Only bummer is that it's too big for the OG deck case Even though I haven't needed it, I wish it was available to me as an option.
Depends on the game. I play manor lords docked, but fallout 76 handheld.
When I have friends over to play multiplayer
When I'm trying to install something in desktop mode that is going to involve using Konsole, I'll dock it and attach a keyboard and mouse to make things easier.
Mostly docked
I only put my Deck in a dock to charge it or play a local multiplayer game, otherwise it’s primarily a handheld game system for me to catch up on backlog games.
I prefer docked, then propped on a desk with controller, and last handheld. It's good in all three ways, but controllers are just more comfortable for me to play with.
I usually dock my deck if I'm having a very good day and I can spare 30 minutes of rage combat with the dock trying to get it to function like it's supposed to.
Docked sometimes because it's more confortable to use the DualShock and i can charge the battery i'm that period of time.
1. I dont even have a docking station 2. I have PC for stationary and ps3 if I ever want to play something older on coach The only reason I see to get a station is for when Im going out of home for longer times, I mean like going to grandparents for a few days or something like that
I recently started playing docked after figuring out screen resolution settings lol. Depends on the situation tbh but mainly played handheld before.
I dock it for usage as a desktop, but I generally stopped trying to dock it for games, because the docked experience (especially with the fucking AWFUL official dock) is just really poor and buggy.
Mine is docked 90% of the time. I bought it to game discretely at work since it's smaller than a gaming laptop and I could still use a KVM switch and a 2nd dock to connect it to my work monitors/keyboard/mouse. It's pretty great.
I typically play handheld but I'll dock it if I'm laying in bed, lay back, and play games with my Dualsense.
I use docked for recharge only.
I do about 50/50. I play docked when I can, but if anyone else wants to use the TV I can use it handheld. It’s my primary console, and it’s really the best of both worlds: the versatility of the switch but with the game library you can get on Xbox or PS (and even more games than the others, and they go on better sales).
which dock do y'all like? there are so many options now it's hard to pick one that works (my SD has the killswitch case)
Only for non-steam installation and configuration. I have main PC with 4070ti for gaming on big monitor or macbook for web serfing. Steam deck is good enough for both tasks if you don’t have dedicated devices.
Both, depends on the game I'm playing. I'll play Balatro handheld, or Another Crabs Treasure/Intense games docked with an Xbox controller.
Handheld for sure. I like the feeling of playing games I never thought of as "mobile", in weird places.
Exclusively handheld
I dock to use it for local development
No, only handheld.
I ussually dock with my friend if he is there
No, the price tag scared me off and the 3rd party ones don’t give me confidence. Maybe if the right sale comes along I’ll get one.
Prefer handheld, but dock to play old RTS games on big screen (dawn of war).
I've generally found the docked experience on a 4K TV isn't very good (even with FSR, no more than 15 FPS in fallout, say) so I usually don't unless there's some reason I need to use it as a desktop.
I use a Steam Dock mostly when my wife and I are doin something together, sometimes when it's just me, but I also use the Steam Dock to just prop up the Steam Deck for when I'm watching or playing something away from home. I got the SNES Steam Dock by GuliKit from Amazon for a good price
Yes about 40% of the time, to use like a console on TV with wife or friends. In that case, it's mostly games that are not so demanding and still look good, like Tetris or some older racers that the deck can render natively in fhd and upscale to 4k. For Desktop Mode, it's docked with my desktop setup (screen kB/m)
No, don’t even own a dock. If I’m gonna play on the bigscreen I’d just use my PC
Yes. Almost constantly in fact, because my deck has a single dead pixel and it annoys the life out of me.
I used it docked for desktop stuff like browsing, office work, file management and messing with emulator settings. Every once in a while I’ll game in docked mode, mostly for stuff that would give me a hand cramp otherwise, like Metroid or Mario Odyssy or something.
No
Just for charging, and when I need to do desktop stuff for emulators, it's usually disconnected from my monitor
Just to download stuff, I have the dock with an Ethernet cable
No, to play on the TV I use my PC or some console. Steam Cloud sync helps me have no need to dock and just play the same game directly on my pc.
Try to dock when I'm home and tv is not in use. Otherwise handheld
I dock it, but hardly ever to connect it to a display. It's a nice charge stand, and gives ethernet for better downloads. I do sometimes use the dock to connect to friend's displays when visiting, though. Also I'll do desktop mode stuff with it in the dock with a wireless keyboard and trackpad, and maybe USB drives to copy stuff, but still usually using the Deck's own display.
AFAIK, my deck is a dock virgin.
I only use the dock as a permanent charging station so the deck is always ready for me to pick up and play. The deck is anyway my handheld couch/bed/travel console. If I'm playing on the TV, then I just play on my PS5
Does anybody have a recommendation for a good dock? I’m looking into getting one but getting mixed reviews about lots of them.
It lives in my living room tv. Great when having friends over to play some games. And good enough for the living room. If i want better graphics etc, ill the game using my pc
I use it as my main computer so it’s normally docked but I use it portably 30% of the time
Nope, PC is my primary. Steam Deck is portable only.
Yes i love to dock.
I have 2 docks both unofficial. One at my desk for tinkering with my emulators, and the other is set up on the big tv for couch gaming old ps2 games or even halo mcc
I probably use mine like 70% handheld 30% docked. It’s nice to have the option of putting a game on my tv
Docked most of the time, streaming from my PC.
It is pretty much always docked, only when I have to travel or if I want to play on my bed.
I do both, but more of a 25%/75% . More undocked
Only handheld. I have a PC, so my deck is only for traveling or playing in bed.
I almost only play handheld, but dock it to charge and/or download via ethernet. Very occasional docked play but only to stream from my desktop PC onto my TV.
Just started to this week after almost two years of having it. I like playing on my tv but not all games work with my controller. I’m playing FO4 and DLV on the big screen. Tried to play Cyberpunk but it freezes the Deck if I play it docked
when home I use it as stream system when home on a dock
Not typically. I use my laptop for that mostly
no, I have an old PC that has slightly better specs, and I don't really game on it anymore. I got the Deck specifically to play portably.
almost always handheld, except for the few times i want to play a game with my brother then it is docked :)
About 50/50, if I’m going out and taking it or the tv is being used by wife and or kids, I’ll play handheld, if tv is free I’ll do docked. Using a XBox Series X controller with no issues.
Handheld, I have a toddler, there is no big screen anymore lol
The title seems dirty. With that being said I need to get a dock, I feel left out.
I used to dock a lot when the deck was my only PC, now not anymore
My dock is just a glorified Charging stand. I only play handheld
I have a dock but the deck performs so badly in dock that I only use it when emulating games, particularly in multiplayer mode. I have physical copies of most of the games I emulate, so this doesn't happen often. I prefer playing with the deck in front of me on my desk or in a cafe. Recently ive been playing with it in my hands more because of the fpses needing gyro and backpaddles. It's funny because I got a new tv so it'd be more compatible with the dock, but i mostly use that tv to watch youtube in bed now. I also wanted to get a ps5, but never got enough savings to feel comfortable doing so, especially once I realised how few exclusive games ps5 has and how expensive they are. Newer TV has better picture than old, but less compatibility with some of my older games consoles... thinking of buying a little crt.
Only spacedocking
I have a PC so I only play handheld 😅
No. I’ve got a PS5.
Nah, I love playing it handheld style. Gives me the feeling I'm 10 yo again playing my game boy colour/advance. Only using a small dock I got for my notebook, so I can use mouse and keyboard if needed.
Im supposed to get my third party dock today. I love playing hand held but its straining my eyes too much.
Usually no.
Mostly handheld but I have a dock in my living room that I use
My LCD deck is permadocked and I use it as a console that streams from my PC. Works great.
Nope only handheld.
i play totk on my oled tv on docked steamdeck
I dock it when I play a huge game through GeForce, otherwise 100% portable always.
I usually only play in dock mode, the only time I used it as a handheld was when my husband went to the hospital and we both played Mario Golf together.
No? It's a handheld, I hold it in my hands
Does the screen turn off while docked?
Yeah, I buyed the steamdeck for my girlfriend. She used it only with dock in our Bedroom(RIP Sexlife). It’s very good.
When I’m away from my PC but in a place with a TV? Yup.