9 / 10

Score

Valve Steam Controller

Pros

• Excellent response time
• Comfortable layout
• Great haptics
• Controls match Steam Deck options
• Included wireless transmitter doubles as charge puck

Cons

• Could be less expensive
• No headphone jack
• Doesn't work with Nintendo Switch, Xbox or PlayStation

Editor's Note: The Valve Steam Controller's excellent feel and generous set of control options, plus its Steam-friendly layout mirroring Steam Deck controller mappings, make this one of our favorite controller experiences in years. For that, it's earned a CNET Editors' Choice Award.

Guess what? Valve's Steam Frame and Steam Machine still aren't here yet, and there's still no price known for them either. But another piece of Steam hardware is arriving very soon. The new Steam Controller is coming May 4 for $99, and I've been living with one at home for a few weeks now. I bet it'll make your Steam gaming a lot nicer. Especially if you plan on connecting your Steam Deck to a TV. 

In fact, that's exactly how I've been using the Steam Controller so far. A Steam Deck OLED plugged into a Steam Dock, connected to my living room TV, and I'm sitting on my sofa playing my games as I do on the Nintendo Switch. And I love it. But this is a general Blueooth or custom wireless-enabled controller that works with other PCs, Macs, or even Linux computers, too.

You can pair other controllers to Steam Decks, or your PC, or anywhere else that's running Steam games. But I still love what the Steam Controller brings to the table for its price, and I just love how it feels and performs so far. Granted, I'm testing it with Steam Deck's beta software in prerelease mode, but even so, I have no complaints.

Watch this: Valve's Steam Controller Gets Some Major Design Changes

08:07

The Steam Controller is a simple proposition: It's basically the whole transplanted layout of the Steam Deck controls in a wireless controller form. 

That means dual analog sticks and familiar crosspad and button and analog trigger layouts as on most other controllers, but there are also two generous capacitive touchpads on the lower half of the controller. On the back are two sets of clickable capacitive touch-enabled paddle buttons. And the controller also has gyro controls if you want them, tilting to aim and point in games that support it.

I played with the Steam Controller last year at Valve's headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, and appreciated its feel then. I think I love it even more at home. It's not a surprising device, but it's remarkably comfortable and reliable. And I admire that even though I don't use those trackpads often, they don't get in the way of controller comfort for anything else I do.

I think it even feels better than the Steam Deck's controls. The vibrating haptics are wonderful, ranging from strong to impressively subtle (the trackpad's virtual clicks are haptic, too). The controller feels dense but not too heavy, a bit heftier than an Xbox controller, but something I find I love to hold.

Wireless puck brilliance

I adore the controller's solution to dedicated wireless fidelity: A small puck included in the box attaches to a USB-C-to-A cable that can plug into the Steam Dock. This puck also doubles as a wireless charger for the controller, magnetically snapping onto the back and popping back off easily.

The puck has its own dedicated wireless channel. You could also just pair over Bluetooth, but I found the puck's response time to be appreciably faster. Playing Sektori, a notoriously intense indie twitch shooter that I'm utterly addicted to now, the Steam Controller felt as good as holding the Steam Deck directly in my hands when it was connected to a TV.

Four controllers can connect to one puck at the same time, although each controller also comes with a puck in the box. It's a nice touch, though, to keep clutter to a minimum for multiplayer couch gaming.

Worth it? Yeah

If I wanted to extend my Steam Deck to a TV, the Steam Controller would absolutely be an essential part of the picture. For other Steam gamers, I think it's worth it too (but I haven't been testing it for wider PC gaming yet). I just appreciate its proposition, and to me, it gives the Steam Deck a true living room-friendly console feel at last, where it had felt just a bit more clunky before. That said, I'm still not wild about the separately sold $79 Steam Dock that you'd need to make this TV setup work, but you could buy other, cheaper docklike port extenders that do the trick, too.

Now, where are the Steam Frame and Steam Machine, Valve's promised VR headset and TV console-shaped gaming systems expected this year? According to Valve's software/UI designer Lawrence Yang and electrical engineer Jeff Mucha, who I talked with last week, they're both on target to arrive this year. Yang acknowledges the RAMpocalypse as a major part of why the hardware's been delayed, and no price has been set yet. It's why Valve decided to just release the controller first, apart from those new devices.

And that makes a lot of sense. The Steam Controller will be the cheapest part of Valve's new hardware lineup, and it already makes the Steam Deck (or other SteamOS-ready PC handhelds or PCs) feel more like mini Steam Machines, too. Alas, the Steam Deck is currently sold out at Valve, which hopefully changes soon. I'm already feeling like the Controller is breathing more life into my home Steam Deck use, and now I'm clearing away more mantle space for it next to the Switch 2. If only the Switch 2 Pro Controller were as good as this.