Ulanzi Studio Deck Dock D200H

The older I’ve gotten, the more I’ve realised how convenient having studio-grade tools is as part of your workstation. Thankfully, these tools have gotten cheaper and more readily accessible over time, and they’re all vying to be the best in the market. 

High-quality sound output is a great example of this. For sound, you can choose to have a sound card within your case, or even output to a mixer on your desk. You’ve got a plethora of options, and it doesn’t take much to get a massive boost in audio quality just by spending $40-60 more. 

That’s not the only place that these tools have seen huge competition in. Elgato’s Stream Deck is arguably the king of this castle, and has been so for many, many years. That’s very clear in how they price it. However, like every empire, they’re constantly having to fend off the attacks by rogue competitors who want a piece of the pie, and now and again, these empires fall. 

And that’s what Ulanzi Studio is trying to do.

The Deck Dock D200H is a macro-key competitor to the 15-key Elgato Stream Deck. That is, if the Stream Deck were also compatible with their external USB Hub like the Stream Deck + is. Visually, both Decks are extremely similar – offering 14/15 keys on the face that are mapped via software that you run on your PC, which must be running in the background at all times to use it, and they’re both using very similar-looking software that is extremely customizable and easy to use. 

But that’s where the similarities stop, because unlike having to spend over $200 with Elgato to get the same functionality as a Stream Deck with a USB Hub, it all comes in one $65 package. 

The Deck Dock D200H has a USB A 3.0 and USB-C 3.0 ports on the right side, an SD and Micro SD card slot on the left side, USB-A 3.0 and USB-C 3.0 ports, and a PD100W power supply on the rear next to the PC connection port. It’s all extremely convenient, as if designed as a middle finger to Elgato’s insane broken-up and expensive product catalog. It not only saves money, but it’s a huge bonus to have one or two less USB hubs on a desk.

However, one of the areas where Elgato is stronger is the Plugin catalog. With Elgato’s offering, you not only get a massive collection to choose from that’s almost never-ending, they’re also custom-built by multiple different creators. With Ulanzi, you’re limited to what they’ve created themselves, and that means you’re waiting on one developer to update any flagged issues. 

One thing I don’t like about the Deck Dock D200H is how it sits on the desk. It’s as if it’s designed more for a standing desk user, since its face points upwards at a 20-30° angle. Unfortunately, they don’t provide an additional 45° stand to mount it in, and it has a habit of slipping if you try to lean it against something. If you’re like me and have information displayed on the screen, like CPU usage or are trying to navigate multiple menus, it can be inconvenient having to lean over the screen to read it. 

Other than that, the buttons feel like a weird in-between of a membrane and scissor-switch keyboard, and need to be interacted with in the dead center for it to read your input. If you were using this as your go-to day in, day out, and you had to constantly interact with the button for it to read your input, you’d quickly get irritated.

At the end of the day, I really like what Ulanzi has put together – but where it falls short, it falls hard. It provides a lot of usability through USB-A/C and SD card ports, but it feels inconvenient to use at times. If you can get past its faults, I don’t see why this couldn’t be a great budget option to go with.

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