Turn the Steam Deck into...a Laptop?

The NexDock is a laptop without a laptop -- it's basically a screen, keyboard, trackpad, and battery. But you can plug any number of devices into it, like a smartphone, Nintendo Switch, or yes, the Steam Deck, to give your devices new functionality. So in this video we'll test one out and see if it's worth considering as a travel-friendly solution.

This was a review unit sent to me by the manufacturer. All opinions are my own, they did not see this review ahead of time, and no money was exchanged in any way.

Timestamps:
00:00 introduction
01:45 specs and pricing
03:39 unboxing and impressions
05:29 typing, trackpad,. and menu
09:09 Steam Deck testing
11:23 Odin, RG552, and Switch
13:24 summary (likes & dislikes)
15:01 conclusion

Theme song written by Jim Gray of Our Ghosts:

This video is for entertainment and educational purposes only.

#SteamDeck #NexDock #retrogaming

[OSON]

We've come full circle. From a laptop in handheld form factor back to a dongle in laptop shape

[bountoj]

I have this and its great for just hooking up to computers and configuring them without having to deal with a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Really versatile little device.

[TheSilverWolf]

I'd love it if more companies made docks like these, like framework. I'd love to buy a framework laptop just to support their right to repair ideal, but I really dont need one unless I were to have it as a steam deck dock.

[filipjovanovic]

These lapdocks have always been really interesting to me. I think they could be really useful for people who travel a lot, especially vanlifers. Unlimited 5G phone plans that never throttle exist now, so you could get something like a Samsung or a Motorola phone and use its desktop mode over the lapdock to get your work done, without ever having to worry about your internet speed throttling. Every hotspot plan sadly still throttles you after a specific amount used, so I think this would be a much better solution than using a hotspot for a laptop.

And to take it one step further, if you have a PC that you can leave at home, then you could remote into it with that setup, using something like Parsec or Moonlight. I was recently in New York and managed to stream my games from my PC in Virginia, over hotel wifi. Worked great, so I honestly wouldn't be surprised if I could use it properly even on the other side of the continent. The latency would probably be too high for gaming in that scenario, but it should be fine for work.

Now someone just needs to come out with a 16" 1600p lapdock. That would be perfect.

[bobxstar]

Had my nexdock since last September in anticipation of the Steam Deck, but then it got delayed. Fast forward to today and I'm loving this combo. Works just fine as a workstation, minus the SteamOS bugs they still have to iron out.

[RyanKarolak]

This seems like a really neat all in one portable dock that wouldn’t take up much space. I can see this being useful for devices and computers with USB-C.

It’d be nice if there was competition to bring the price down, which seems like the main barrier here.

[Genguts]

Ive been hoping you would do this video for a while. As always man, you rock!

[tdata]

The secret and AMAZING use case for this product is IT. I do a lot of that for my friends, so, I bought the UPerfect version that came out before this one but after their V1 Nexdoc. And it was great for setting up a desktop, running it, testing the video out, installing drivers, etc... has keyboard, trackpad and touch screen built in. Color's terrible and brightness is only OK. BUT the fact that it has its own battery, screen, keyboard, speakers, touchpad, and touchscreen means you can do a lot of trouble shooting on it as well.

[Rhomagus]

1:18 You are bringing a mouse, a keyboard, an extra screen, and a battery. That's what the Nexdock is. You know, you don't have to just stick with the default setup of the Steam Deck's desktop configuration. You can tailor it to suit your own needs. I have mine setup so that when I touch the center of the right touchpad it turns the entire surface area into a mouse. I lowered the trackball friction and upped the sensitivity for faster movements. When I touch the outer edges of the touchpad, it serves as a Left Mouse Click, Right Mouse Click, Spacebar, and Escape. When I hold the outer edges of the touchpad it serves as Drag, Middle Click, Enter, and Close Window respectively. When I have the Drag operation activated, it turns the left touchpad into a mouse which I can then use to easily move windows and icons around on my desktop. I primarily use the left touchpad as arrow keys, otherwise I use it to scroll by touching the center of the left touchpad and swiping up or down. If I want to scroll faster, I touch the right touchpad and Click on the upper portion or lower portion of the left touchpad for Page Up and Page Down. For more precise movements I enable the gyro and put the sensitivity down. Here it just seems like your trading two trackpads for one, more cumbersome, less convenient, less customizable one.

The keyboard and extra battery I can get behind. As of now the touchscreen keyboard cannot be customized to any significant degree in order to make it a pleasurable input device, even when compared to plain phone texting, but the extra screen and mouse are unnecessary. If I were to shell any money for an extra screen I'd just purchase a Head Mounted Display. That being said, if it had some more I/O to include at least Gigabit Ethernet and a higher power battery I could see myself dropping some coin.

[Grimlong]

I already owned a NexDock. I've been using it constantly with my steam deck since it arrived. I travel to a lot of conventions and I feel like its going to be with me at all of them.

[WickedGamerCollector]

Ok, that is one awesome find of a product.
I love this idea .. great video buddy ! 👌

[nfriedly]

I wish regular laptops just included this feature - I know the one GPD device has it, but nothing else I can think of.

I can't see myself buying a separate laptop-shaped device that isn't usable on it's own, but I would be willing to pay a bit extra for it as an added feature on a laptop I was going to buy anyways.

[PurpleMaleFroslass]

I was considering getting this after I got my PinePhone Pro next month. Between that, my GPD Win 3, and my Switch this just seems to be the best "all-in-one" solution for me. Hell, with a couple extra cables it would be great for my MiSTer as well.

[LyricalViking]

This is really cool. I never knew this existed. I could see someone building a proper laptop out of this using a raspberry pi 4/400 or even taking the proprietary steam deck parts and placing it basically inside the shell of the nex.

[demlovequeen]

thanks for sharing this, i really need this device

[Nexusc]

Something I noticed from the website that you didn't cover (which for most of what you were showing off, it didn't matter), you can bend the laptop screen in the other way so that you can have just the monitor side. That would be the best case scenario for anything that you can just plug a controller into (Steam Deck, Android based devices, Switch, etc.)

[MsFallenTears]

perfect I had the nexdock 360 for my phone with the idea to use it with my deck once it gets here...this week I got my email and its coming so finding this video is gold.

[AgentZeroNine]

I would love the reverse scenario; a dummy handheld that acts as an external monitor for a computer, just with controller inputs.

[kzgames]

Found my Nexdock 2 in my garage this week and have to say it's pretty useful if you want to sit down and work through some settings in desktop mode. Can't believe I didn't think to use it when I originally got my steam deck haha.

[larrybraham]

Love your content absolutely but everytime I hear your voice especially super early in the morning before work I wait for your voice to mention the rules of zombie land 😆 keep on keeping on. 🍻