Funalot/Joystown Steam Deck Dock Review
When Valve revealed that the Steam Deck was ready for purchase, they also highlighted that people were welcome to use any third party USB-C Hub docks to output their Steam Deck gameplay to TV or other displays such as laptop monitors etc. Many different companies have released third party docks for use with the Steam Deck - one of which is Funalot (or Joystown in the UK). We were provided with a sample unit for review.
Firstly, the dock comes well packaged in a decent sturdy cardboard box, a user manual is included in the box which gives some handy tips if you want to achieve 4K output. The deck itself is very sturdy and has a beautiful build quality, it really feels like a premium product compared to the official Steam Deck Dock which is made from plastic. The hub had 4 rubber feet on the bottom, which stopped it from sliding around easily on the tabletop. The slot for placing the steam deck into is suitably large - much larger than the Steam Deck Dock, and this would allow for Steam Decks with protective cases to be docked with ease - which I believe is one of the complaints surrounding the official dock.
As you can see from the above diagram, the Funalot hub has HDMI out, a USB-C port for charging your Steam Deck, as well as three USB 3.0 ports which will come in handy if you wish to play your games on mouse and keyboard. Personally I prefer playing on a controller, however I do like having this option available to me if, for example, I wanted to run my Steam Deck in desktop mode. On the side of the hub there is a gigabit Ethernet port which will be extremely useful for those without stable internet. Fortunately for me, my dock is situated in the same room as my router, so I have not had the need to make use of this yet.
This item truly is plug & play - it was so easy to set up and the signal fed through to my TV instantly - nothing needed to be changed in settings. A welcome improvement over the official dock, as I am always having to alter the brightness of my TV as, for some reason, the official dock makes my TV settings seem overly bright. I am also very happy to reveal that I haven’t had any issues with connectivity with this dock. Many have complained that the official docks need to be power cycled each time in order for the video signal to submit to the TV.
Next, let’s talk about price - as £45.99 in the UK, this is much less than the £79.99 official Steam Deck dock from Valve. Sure, there is no in box charger included with this hub, however I do feel that the postage time compensates for this. It took approximately two weeks for my official Steam Deck Dock to arrive from Valve - and as we all know, Valve have been known to use less than reliable couriers. The Funalot/Joystown dock arrived after ONE day - thanks to them being available on Amazon (Please note - this would probably be two days in the USA - One day shipping is a UK thing).
In Summary - This dock is a beautifully crafted piece of kit - it simply just works. In principle, while playing my deck on the TV I cannot tell the difference between this dock and the official one! In hindsight - given the choice between this dock or the official one now - I would choose this dock.
Pros:
Great price
Easy to set up
It just WORKS
Durable and great build quality
Allows for a protected Steam Deck (in a case) to be docked
Cons:
No charger included