Razer Handheld Dock Chroma review

The thing about handheld docking stations is that they're basically just USB docks with a little nook for a Steam Deck, or a ROG Ally, or a MSI Claw, to rest in. They're not exciting. Sure, some can have more ports than others, some rock ethernet ports, and they usually support a higher charging capacity than regular docks, but you're essentially just buying an intermediary between your handheld and whichever screen you're plugging it into. You're not obsessively refreshing the mail tracking website when one of these babies is enroute. Until now, maybe?

Enter, stage left, the Razer Handheld Dock Chroma. This is the first attempt, as far as I can tell, to make a handheld dock aesthetically appealing. While most of us are happy with our meat-and-potato Jsaux or Sabrent, and the fancy among us might prefer Valve's own inexplicably pricey dock, this Razer is the first to rock RGB. In other words, it's the first to make even a halfway attempt at looking fancy.

But lets clear the fundamentals first: this dock has three USB-A ports on the back, a USB-C chargethrough port supporting up to 100 watts, one HDMI 2.0 port and an ethernet port. As is usually the case, the device docks the handheld via a cord that reaches from the back of the dock up to the USB-C port on the top of your device. In other words, it won't work seamlessly with any handheld that happens to have its USB-C port at the bottom of the device, such as the Nintendo Switch. Though it does fundamentally work with the Switch albeit awkwardly.

The Chroma arrives as a rectangular box. Via a hinge, the front panel can be lifted and pivoted upright and at an angle, thus forming the nook for the handheld to rest in. Unlike most—if not all —handheld docks, the Chroma offers support for the entire backside of the handheld, which definitely eradicates some of the concern around the handheld potentially being too easily knocked from its nook, but as I'll point out later, may prove more problematic than this advantage warrants.

This rear panel rests on a ribbed and modular floor. In other words, it's possible to adjust the nook according to the size of your handheld. It's useful, because while the Steam Deck OLED is 18mm thick (near the screen; the trigger button protrusions don't rest in the dock) the recent MSI Claw 8 AI+ is 24mm thick. Overall, the Chroma's dock can accommodate handhelds up to 28mm thick with a good snug fit and no wobbling.

But it's not really practicality we're here for, is it? The Handheld Dock Chroma is attractive mostly because of the way it looks. There's an RGB strip along the bottom of the unit that powers up whenever the handheld device is powered on, drawing from the same power source. A button on the right side of the dock can toggle between six in-built effects ranging from "breathing" and "wave" to "static", which you're going to need if you use Steam Deck because the more granular customisation afforded by Razer's Synapse and Chroma software will only work on Windows handhelds.

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The RGB is nice, as far as RGB goes. It's fairly discreet, lending just a touch of flair to what is normally an inconspicuous, functional piece of hardware. I especially like the portability: though it's bigger than, say, the Jsaux 6-in-1 docking station, it snaps back into a rectangular box that won't move around so awkwardly in a backpack. I'd have liked for the attached cord to somehow be hidden within the box, because I'm always worried about cords getting overly bent and worn in transit.

One thing that concerns me is that the resting surface, being much taller than is the norm for a handheld dock, can obstruct the rear air intake vent on most handheld devices. With the Steam Deck OLED, the back plate obstructs a little less than half of the rear vent.

If I don't mind too much about symmetry, I can place the OLED in the dock a little to the right to remove any obstruction, but on the Rog Ally X and MSI Claw 8 this won't be possible: there will be some obstruction no matter what. My solution with the Steam Deck was to extend the seat as far as possible and place the unit in the cradle less snuggly than possible, but that won't work for thicker handhelds.

On Steam Deck I tested with a few high pressure recent games, including Kingdom Come Deliverance 2. The fan's RPM hovered around the 4500 mark whether I had it docked or not. I couldn't engineer a situation where the rear intake fans being partially obstructed made an immediate difference, but I would wager that Valve decided on the vent dimensions for a reason, and obstructing them does make me anxious about long term problems.

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This isn't a problem exclusive to Razer's dock: my main go-to, the Jsaux 6-in-1, also partially obstructs the intake vent, but to a far lesser degree. The first image in the gallery above is the Razer unit, while the latter is the Jsaux unit:

There's also the fact that the connectivity is old at this price point: HDMI 2.0 is not HDMI 2.1. A single USB-C port, which you'll likely use for passthrough charging, feels stingy when many peripherals are moving away from USB-A. These limitations are basically the norm in the burgeoning market of Steam Deck docks (save the recent BenQ model) but for a $79 device, I would have expected a more premium offering on the level of functionality. As it stands, the extra money is really just getting you the fancy strip of lights and the Razer branding.

So yes, that strip of light is pretty nice, I guess, but given the price point and some of the larger concerns, it's hard to recommend Razer's handheld dock. Given the likelihood that the handheld market will boom over the next few years, more and more competition will arise in the space: for now, I'd stick with something cheaper.