Valve originally promised a docking station would be available for the Steam Deck at the console's release, but it has been delayed. Now Valve has confirmed it has been delayed, again.

Valve said in an announcement on June 1, "Due to parts shortages and COVID closures at our manufacturing facilities, the official Steam Deck Docking Station is delayed. We're working on improving the situation and will share more info when we have it."

The official docking station was revealed alongside the Steam Deck itself, which works much like a laptop docking station or the Nintendo Switch dock. It has multiple ports for USB devices, displays, and network connections, which become functional once the Steam Deck is attached to the dock. It ties into Valve's idea for the Steam Deck to be a fully functional PC when needed, since you can plug in a keyboard, mouse, and external display.

The good news is that you don't actually need the official docking station to plug in other devices. Since the Steam Deck is just a Linux PC (or a Windows PC, if you switched operating systems), any USB Type-C dock should work. Ideally, you should have a dock with the ability to pass power to the Steam Deck, like Anker's USB-C Hub, so your Steam Deck won't drain its battery while other devices are connected.

Valve already confirmed that its official dock won't improve performance, since the Steam Deck already "runs at full performance in portable mode," so you won't lose out on anything if you purchase a different dock solution instead (besides the sleeker design). The company is also working on improvements for USB Type-C hubs and external displays in SteamOS.

Source: Valve