In appreciation of charging docks

04 Jul, 2026

I recently picked my old 3DS back up and (outside of the games) one of my favorite parts of using it again has been the simple joy of dropping it into its charging dock. I know where I left it, I don't need to directly plug or unplug the charger, and the cord doesn't fall off the table or hide under anything. In the last few weeks it's only gotten to a low battery once and that's because I really was just playing for that long (Pilot Wings Resort free flight is a great time sink). Good design!

Nintendo has of course continued with docks with them being central to the identity of the Switch (2), and I still think they're great there. Obviously they're used for video output now too, but if you primarily or exclusively play handheld it's as nice as ever to drop it in to the dock and be able to just pick it back up later at full charge in one motion. This approach to the dock is in my mind one of the best features setting the Switch (2) apart from the Steam Deck and other similar handhelds. Sure, the Steam Deck has a "Docking Station" but it's not really the same, it's a stand with a separate cable that you still have to connect manually so you can't just pick it up and go in the same way.

On the note of Steam hardware, I was able to get my hands on a Steam Controller and I love the puck so much. Combining the receiver and charger in that way is great design and makes things easier than the AA batteries and finicky Bluetooth of the Xbox controller I have¹. While the Steam controller isn't quite as fluid as the 3DS or Switch dock, I can still pick it up and disconnect the puck with one hand, and charging is as easy as setting it down.

The major outlier when it comes to charging devices in a dock is naturally the phone. Apple figured this out a while ago but I really want more Android phone makers to just catch up already and support Qi 2! And not "It's Qi but we sell a case with the magnets in it" just build the magnets into the dang phone! I would love to not need to deal with fishing for the cable each time I want to charge my phone. Regular Qi accomplishes this but more often than not finding the right alignment is enough a hassle that I opt not to deal with it. Also magnets are cool! And it's a standard so I could probably keep using it whenever I get a new phone! (Wait that's not recurring revenue, manufacturers pretend that sentence doesn't exist, thanks)

This isn't what I expected to come out of getting the Steam Controller and picking my 3DS back up, but here we are. Android manufacturers: get on it with Qi 2! And Nintendo: maybe consider making a charging only dock for the Switch 2, $125 for a new dock is wild.