You need to get your hands on these Steam Deck Every Day Carry essentials.
My personal travel accessory recommendations that won't break the bank.
Like many, the Steam Deck has quickly become my favorite gaming handheld. Not only for allowing me to game anywhere in my house, but anywhere outside my house as well. Whenever my friends throw a party I’m the designated games dealer as my Steam Deck is loaded up with Jackbox Party Packs, Monster Prom and its sequels, and split-screen games of old like TimeSplitters 2 and Mario Kart Double Dash.
For me I like to keep things minimal and compact as I have a bad habit of weighing down my backpack with needless stuff (which almost led me to being run over by a bus in college). After some fine tuning I think I’ve managed to nail down my perfect Everyday Carry bag for the Steam Deck. Let’s work through my favorite essentials for PC gaming on the go.
KillSwitch 2.0
If there was any Steam Deck case that needed no introduction, it would probably be this one. dBrand set out to make the smallest protective case, ended up having to go back to the drawing board over magnets impacting some Steam Decks’ fans, to eventually release this final incarnation. You can read a full hands-on by Gardiner below but as for my thoughts for the premium cost? Well, $75 for the travel kit gets you a premium product. And I feel safe throwing in my bag without the official carrying case. It’s robust, grippy, and adds virtually no additional heft to the Deck (which is crucial for fitting in the small bags I prefer). My whole set up is built around this one product and it gets a strong recommendation from me!
Gardiner Bryant
The Perfect Tiny Bag
What holds my Steam Deck and essentials is just as important as what’s inside and, for me, the TomToc Explorer-A54 Crossbody Sling Bag knocks it out of the park. With a volume of 7L you won’t be hauling you work laptop to the office, but it’s the perfect size for smaller devices like a tablet, the Steam Deck, or even my GPD Win Max 2.
One of the bigger issues I find with small bags is they don’t have a lot of padding for sensitive devices. Not an issue here. The pocket for holding your device ends before reaching the bottom of the bag and this combined with the nice padding on the back creates enough of a cushion that I don’t worry about damaging my tech inside my bag.
Despite the sling bag being so small, I have no issues finding room in the bag as it’s intelligently organized. Three pockets and four zipped pouches makes the most of the limited space and I don’t have to search long for whatever I've stored in it. The bag is also well-built with sturdy straps and water resistant material.
There’s two straps on the side of the bag so I grabbed some carabiners to clip my 40oz water bottle to the outside if I’m in a pinch.
The small size of the bag also might make it perfect if your a cyclist, though I can’t say I've tested this. If you did want to fit a 14” laptop in a bag like this, TomToc does make a 9L version, but for me the 7L is my perfect bag.
Portable Power
If you’re going to be playing AAA games at high settings on your Deck, you’ll probably need some juice to keep you going. A power bank can be lifesaver and a good one has plenty of charge for you and maybe a friend. I went with the RAVPower 20000mAh power bank with 60W PD charging. I do have to mention you can no longer find RAVPower products on Amazon due to RAVPower offering gift cards for favorable reviews.
I haven’t experienced any issues with my unit but there’s nothing about it that would make me recommend it over other products that would be easier to find. An example would be the Baseus 65w 20000mAh Power Bank I see many recommend.
I will say whatever you choose, you’ll want that 65w charging output as it’ll allow you to charge the Steam Deck or a small laptop up without issue.
When I can find an outlet to charge from, my 100w UGREEN charger is a perfect size for my bag. It’s admittedly a little overkill for the Steam Deck, though for my Win Max 2 it’s required to make sure I can get a full charge while push it. As for cables I have a 10ft Wireedge 100w USB-C cable with a LED display to show the charging rate along with an extra USB-C cable for data transfer and Lightning cable for my iPhone friends.
Docked Play On the Go
As I previously mentioned, my Steam Deck is what my friends and I use for our Jackbox nights, but in order to do that I need a way to connect my Deck to a friend’s TV. I ended up going with the Anker 6-in-1 USB-C Hub but this is another case where I need to mention a caveat. You may or may not be aware Anker is in some hot water for their Eufy brand lying to their customers and invading their privacy. Unfortunately I don’t have any immediate alternative recommendations I can give (though Gardiner has been using this one for years with his Switch and Steam Deck).
What I will say is that if you’re looking for a USB-C hub you’ll want to find something with at least 65w Power Delivery (PD) and an HDMI port that outputs the resolution and refresh rate you want. My Anker hub can put out resolutions up to 4K at 30Hz which isn’t an issue for me as I only run my Deck up to 1080p on a TV, but if you are planning on running your games at 4K at 60Hz you’ll need to shop around.
Once hooked up to a TV you’ll need some way of controlling your Deck. Luckily I feel like we’re living in a golden age of third party controller options. Cheap MadCatz GameCube controllers seem like a distant memory when holding my 8BitDo SN30 Pro. I’ve been a pretty big fan of 8BitDo’s products since they all feel great in the hand and have a retro aesthetic that plays off my nostalgia.
The SN30 Pro specifically might be the best compact controller as it has every input you need while being no bigger than a SNES controller. It has wide compatibility including for Nintendo Switch so it’s perfect when friends want to play Mario Kart but they don’t seem to have enough controllers. You’ll sacrifice some comfort without grip handles but again my goal was to have the smallest footprint for my bag so any other controller would simply be too large.
The Odds and Ends
Let’s finish off with a lightning round of the less flashy essentials I carry. External SSDs have gotten so compact that it’s so simple to have it in a pocket. Perfect in case I need work on large files on the go or even if I wanted to use it as a Steam library. The SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD has great speeds and is the first external drive I bought where I didn’t feel like I had to baby it. SanDisk advertises their drive having, “up to two-meter drop protection and IP55 water and dust resistance” which I’m not keen to test but find it reasurring to know when you throw it in a bag in a hurry.
SanDisk 1TB Extreme Portable SSD
Tiny, yet durable. You'll never have to worry about storage space with this SSD.
For quickly recording passing thoughts I’ve got an EVISTR V508 voice recorder. At my previous job I had to watch a lot of TV so this was perfect when I couldn’t have my head down writing notes.
As for my current job in IT, I can’t leave home without some tools like my trusty screwdriver pen and neat snowflake multitool. These combined with a multitool on my keyring and I’ve got a lot to work with without needing to pack my iFixIt Pro kit. I even have a SIM card remover clipped onto an internal strap of the TomToc bag to cover all my bases.
To maintain personal hygiene and safety an extra KN95 mask and bottle of hand sanitizer. Finally a snack for the road which is a single protein bar of my choice. When traveling I frequently miss meals so a protein bar is a great energy booster.
So there you have it, my list of favorite essentials to compliment my favorite gaming handheld. If anything I mention catches your eye, we’ll have Amazon affiliate links included that will help you get what you need while helping support us. Do you have an Everyday Carry for your Steam Deck? Feel free to share them in the comments below!
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