For £8 / $8, these Steam Deck thumbstick covers are a neat stocking stuffer to end Prime Big Deal Days with
I’m told that if I do one more Prime Big Deal Days post, they’ll take off the metal clamps holding my eyelids open, and won’t put them back on until Black Friday next month. Result! So here’s a little after-dinner mint of a PC gaming hardware bargain: JSAUX’s Steam Deck thumbstick covers, which come packaged with some stick-on decals for £8 / $8. Both 20% off, they be, leaving a price so low I have real hope you’ll forgive me using the phrase “stocking stuffer” in October.
Affixing silicone areolae to your portable’s joysticks might sound somewhere between twee and pernickety, but having tried these on the original Deck – which has flatter, less grippy stick surfaces than the improved Steam Deck OLED – I do think they tangibly improve the handling. Especially if you’ve got big thumbs. They’re on our list of the best Steam Deck accessories for a reason. As for the stickers, I don’t care for these, and they can look hideously messy if you don’t perfectly nail the application, but frankly the thumbstick covers are worth the eight quid/bucks by themselves.
UK deal:
US deal:
For reasons that I’ve never seen anyone adequately explain, these covers also have the unusual quality of extending the capacitive sensor range in the thumbsticks themselves. This only really comes into play if you use the Steam Deck’s gyro controls, but it’s pretty cool regardless: whereas on a naked stick, your thumb needs to touch right in the middle to activate the sensor, resting it anywhere on JSAUX’s grips will have the same effect.
For non-gyro users, you’re still getting a dirt cheap and practical add-on. That would, by the by, easily slide into an Amazon basket that also contains Ugreen’s discounted docking station, a vast 1.5TB microSD card, and/or the Deck-compatible Crucial P310 SSD. Steam Deck fans, you have eaten (I believe that’s the term) these past two days. It is coming to an end, though, as Prime Big Deal Days closes up at midnight tonight.
…All good? Can you… ah, much better, thanks.