Best Steam Deck skins in 2023

The best Steam Deck skins will customize your handheld gaming machine to your liking and help to keep it safe from scuffs and scratches. Skins can also improve how the Deck feels in the hand if you’re not a fan of the stock texture. Unlike the best Steam Deck cases, a skin fits snugly around your handheld gaming PC to offer protection and extra grip. Having been in the wild for well over a year now, the Steam Deck aftermarket is booming, and there are endless options for Steam Deck skins. 

We’ve tried and tested the best skins for Steam Deck out there to help you find what you need more quickly, taking a look at the choice of designs, price, extra features, and materials to help you narrow down your choice. Trust our collective gaming might and knowledge to help guide you to the best Steam Deck skin for your needs and budget. 

Here are the best Steam Deck skins in 2023:

• Dbrand Classic Steam Deck skin – best overall
• JSAUX Skin stickers set – best protection
• Dbrand real leather skin – best premium skin
• ZoomHitSkins Steam Deck skin – best variety 
• Dbrand Switchdeck skin – best value Dbrand skin
• POP SKIN Gundam Edition – best-themed skin 
• Design Skinz Steam skins – best range of colors
• PlayVital Full Set protective skin – best budget skin

1. Dbrand Classic Steam Deck skin

The best Steam Deck skin for most people. Expect to pay $24.95.

Pros: 

• Great designs
• Dbrand quality fit and finish

Cons:

• More designs for the same price elsewhere

Dbrand’s tireless efforts to create the most coveted and sought-after wraps and skins have paid off. It earns our top spot for our best overall Steam Deck skin, for the quality, number of design options and value. Dbrand has nailed the price-to-performance ratio here, and it has great customer relations if there’s any issue when your skin arrives for that added peace of mind.

It’s easy to customize your Dbrand skin package. You can choose from the Essential Kit ($24.95) which includes a front skin, two trackpad skins and a microfiber cloth, or the Deluxe Kit ($39.95) which includes everything in the Essential Kit plus a back skin and top strip skin to cover the edges of your Steam Deck. While we think this is the best option for most gamers, there are cheaper options. Dbrand is based in Canada, but if you’re in the UK shipping is free on most orders over $30.

2. JSAUX Skin Stickers Set

The best Steam Deck skin for protection. Expect to pay $17.99.

Pros: 

• Great value with extra accessories
• Loads of designs

Cons:

• Not as worth it if you don’t want thumbstick caps.

Anyone who has spent more than five seconds researching Steam Deck accessories will no doubt be familiar with JSAUX. They make it all from cases to docks and skins and what they have on offer here is a very compelling package. 

Compared to other vendors, JSAUX is very generous with what they offer. Not only are you getting a skin, but you’re also getting protective stickers for the touchpads, options, rear buttons, rubberized side grips, and thumbstick caps which go a long way in keeping your Deck safe. The thumbstick caps will remove the inductive functionality of the joysticks however so if you’re a fan of gyro-controls then maybe leave these in the box.

3. Dbrand Real Leather Skin

The best Steam Deck skin for the most premium look and feel. Expect to pay $49.95.

Pros:

• Extremely pleasant feel in the hands
• Will look better with age

Cons:

• Expensive
• Thick edges of leather catch hands
• Not for vegans

If you want the absolutely most refined and distinguished Deck then you really couldn’t go wrong with one of Dbrand’s real leather Stem Deck Skins. As with other leather goods, the Dband skin will age like a fine wine and with care will look better as time goes on. It’s available in three different finishes – black, brown, and tan – so you’re sure to find a look that speaks to you.

It goes without saying that this is quite an expensive option so you’ll want to be extra careful when applying it. Also because of the thickness of the leather, it can catch your hands when you pick up the Deck. This lessens over time as the edges get compressed down but it will always be more prominent than a traditional vinyl skin.

4. ZoomHitSkins Steam Deck Skin

The best Steam Deck skins with natural designs. Expect to pay between $24.99 to $32.00.

Pros:

• High-quality 3M vinyl
• Good variety of designs

Cons:

• Some designs are rated lower than others

You’ve searched Dbrand, you’ve trawled through Etsy and you still can’t find a design quite to your liking. Enter ZoomHitSkins. On their Amazon shop, you can find a boggling amount of designs in one place. One such design is the pictured Boho Botanical Mushroom above which makes up only one of a huge number of nature-inspired designs, great if you want to blend in with the forest on your next outdoor gaming session, just be sure where you put it down in case it blends in! For an extra $7, you can get your skin with a glitter overlaminate to make it stand out even more. 

One letdown for ZoomHitSkins is that certain designs have noticeably lower ratings than others, which suggests quality control issues. The vast majority of them are rated highly.

5. Dbrand Switchdeck Skin

The best cheap Steam Deck skin is the Dbrand Switchdeck. Expect to pay $19.95.

Pros: 

• Best value Dbrand skin
• Quite funny

Cons:

• No other designs at this price

Dbrand is not only well known for its high-quality skins and cases but also for its shenanigans and dancing on the edge of copyright infringement. This extends to the aptly named Switchdeck which appears to take inspiration from another certain handheld console. We couldn’t possibly say which.

The only downside is that this is the only design at this price point. If you weren’t after this particular style then you will have to spend more money or shop elsewhere. You may also want to consider your friends ever trying to rip off the controllers thinking they’re joycons.

6. POP SKIN Gundam Edition Steam Deck skin

The best themed Steam Deck skin. Expect to pay $30.

Pros:

• Great nostalgic design
• High-quality fit and finish

Cons:

• Glossy finish not for everyone

We might be living in the future but where are the mecha? While we wait to battle it out in gigantic bipedal tanks, POP SKIN has suitably striking skin that is very reminiscent of fan-favorite RX-78-2 from the Gundam series. The precision of the cuts and resolution of the image is really impressive in person, it may even be a skin to surpass Metal Gear depending on your flavor of a mechanized fighting machine.

You might not be too keen on the glossy finish though. While it looks great on the coffee table, it can be a little slippy in the hand, especially on warmer days.

7. Design Skinz Steam Deck skin

The best colorful Steam Deck skins. Expect to pay $25.95.

Pros:

• Lots of fun colors
• Precise construction

Cons:

• Slightly pricy

One of the great things about the Nintendo Switch is the great colors on offer. It’s in stark contrast to the suitably businesslike gray of the Steam Deck, for better or for worse. If you are of the opinion that gray just isn’t your jam, then Design Skins may have a great Steam Deck skin option for you.

On the downside, they are a little on the expensive side given they are just solid colors, you may feel you get more for your money from more involved design. The colors may also be a little garish for your taste.

8. PlayVital Full Set Protective Skin

The best cheap Steam Deck skin. Expect to pay $15.99 (£14.99).

Pros:

• Cheap
• Lots of designs

Cons:

• No neutral designs at this price

You might hesitate to drop money on what is essentially a barrier for your Steam Deck that may end up needing to be replaced down the line. This is where PlayVital’s great budget options come into play. At this price you might be surprised to see the huge collection of designs there are to choose from.

There are however only busy motifs on offer here, which is a shame given how wallet-friendly the prices are. If you were looking for something a little more lowkey then we’d suggest then we’d recommend a plain Steam Skin from Dbrand.

How to choose the best Steam Deck skin

Firstly, decide how much you want to spend on a Steam Deck skin, then choose your favorite design – simple! JSAUX is a brand already well known for making the best Steam Deck docks, but it also makes great value skins with added trackpad and thumbstick covers. For the most premium Steam Deck skin you can buy, consider Dbrand’s leather skins. Dbrand also has a more affordable classic lineup with plenty of high-quality designs.

• Where next? To get more from your Valve handheld, pick up the best microSD card for Steam Deck and check out the best Steam games.