Valve has fixed the worst part of buying Steam hardware in the UK
Key Points
- Valve's new £85 Steam Controller has launched in the UK and is shipping via Royal Mail, a deliberate step away from the Evri-led delivery debacle that dogged the original Steam Deck rollout.
- Evri was ranked the UK's worst parcel courier by Ofcom in 2025 for the third year running, with 41% of users actively dissatisfied.
- The included Puck dongle pairs as a low-latency 2.4GHz wireless transmitter and a magnetic charging dock, supporting up to four controllers at once.
- TMR magnetic thumbsticks, a six-axis gyro, four rear paddles and dual trackpads sit on a Deck-style chassis with 35+ hour battery life.
- Hardware impresses across the board, but Steam Input's configuration complexity remains the controller's weakest link.
Valve has dropped Evri for the £85 Steam Controller UK rollout with the new Steam Controller being delivered through Royal Mail.
The shift comes three years after the original Steam Deck shipped through Evri and drew widespread complaints from British buyers.
Evri has been the lowest-rated parcel firm in Ofcom’s annual customer satisfaction survey for three consecutive years, with 41% of its customers reporting active dissatisfaction in the 2025 study.
The £85 controller sold out almost immediately at launch, with Valve acknowledging that demand outpaced expectations. It is also small enough to fit through a standard letterbox, where the Steam Deck was not.
The device ships with a magnetic dongle called the Puck, which pairs the controller automatically, connects to a PC over a low-latency 2.4GHz link, and charges the unit when it sits on top. A single Puck supports up to four Steam Controllers simultaneously, removing the need for a separate dock.
Two analogue thumbsticks sit below the face buttons in the PlayStation arrangement, the trackpads have shrunk and tilted inward, and four rear paddles sit where most middle fingers fall. The matte plastic finish matches the Steam Deck, and build quality at the price has drawn consistent praise from reviewers.
Valve quotes battery life of 35 hours or more, but a Gamers Nexus stress test pushed the unit close to 73 hours of continuous input before the battery gave out.
TMR magnetic thumbsticks are designed to resist the drift that shortens the life of many competing controllers. iFixit will sell replacement parts, an arrangement uncommon among 2026 peripherals.
TechRadar’s review highlighted significant hardware improvements over the original but flagged that Steam Input still requires configuration effort, with non-Steam games needing to be added to a Steam library for full functionality. Initial testing suggests Game Pass titles added to Steam work as expected.
The £85 price sits between the £50 8BitDo Ultimate 2, which tops most current PC controller rankings, and the £160 Xbox Elite Series 2. The trackpads, gyro and Puck justify the premium for users who plan to use those features.
The 2026 Steam Controller is a serious bit of kit, and for once, the box turned up on time.
Royal Mail, take a bow. Valve, keep them on retainer.
