Let me level with you.

When I began to stream roughly a year ago, the Elgato name was often thrown around in the international streaming scene. Locally, not as much, largely because of the lack of availability here. As 2018 progressed, we had rumours of Elgato sneaking into our market, and my interest piqued past the expectation I had of "it's just a glorified macro deck for a streamer".

When I got the first glimpse of the Elgato's sitting at Nexus Hub, the butterflies invaded my tummy. When the Stream Deck Mini and HD60 S arrived, I couldn't wait to get home and open the boxes like a little girl at Christmas. I was far from disappointed.




The Stream Deck Mini blew me away.

I knew what its purpose was, but I questioned how it would manage with just these six buttons, especially when compared to the original Stream Deck's 15. It wasn't long until I realised how powerful these little buttons were.

The Hard Tech Specs:

The Elgato Stream Deck Mini is triangular in shape, coming in at 8½ cm by 6 cm by 4 cm. The compact size makes it a cozy addition to the desk, and it's small enough to fit snuggly under my monitor without affecting the difficulty to reach and hit the right target - I mean, button.

However, unlike my keyboard, the Stream Deck Mini still tends to move a little on my desk when I do press a button.

Underneath the Stream Deck Mini is a rubber padded foot, reminiscent of the footpads found underneath my Corsair K65 LUX keyboard. However, unlike my keyboard, the Stream Deck Mini still tends to move a little on my desk when I do press a button.

The cable used by the Stream Deck Mini is 1½ m (and I double checked this for you) in length. The connector is USB 2.0. In a technological world that's seeing peripherals keenly eyeing 3.0 connections for increased speeds and power, this makes me wonder if the little device will have enough to do what I want it to do. We'll discuss this shortly.



The most important part: the buttons. The six buttons are an almost soft, translucent plastic that reminds me of a rubber membrane keyboard, but feels more satisfying to the touch and gives a soft, pleasing thud as it bottoms out. The buttons are a decent size at 15 mm x 15 mm each, and are also not so sensitive as to accidentally slip and thud, but it requires a gentle intention before it registers.

The Soft Tech Specs:

This little gadget is not all just looks; what's inside is equally important - the software is the personality.

The Stream Deck Mini software is easily accessible from the Elgato website and incredibly quick and easy to install. It's even excited to meet you; I hadn't even finished the installation process and the software was open and ready for inputs!



The interface is simple and is the first to ensure you know that this Stream Deck is fully customisable. The first list of options you see is already customised to what compatible software you already have installed, such as OBS or XSplit. I personally use SLOBS, as it is on the list on startup. However, should you want to have access to all the usable software functions, you can open the menu to the right and add them to the list.

Being used to software like iCUE, there are general commands one would expect such a device to be able to handle. For my list of these, I include starting a stream, recording content, opening websites, opening software and allowing for a string of text to be added somewhere.



While most of the software I wanted to add into my list of "Open Sesame", there were some that were more challenging to add. Discord is one of them, a gamer's staple VoIP that just refused (or opened websites instead). But, is this Elgato's fault? Probably not. Should Elgato find a way around software like Discord, more brownie points will certainly be awarded.

Extra features it offered me was timers, multiple scene changes at the touch of a button and a clip button for those moments where you're focused on the game...

However, there had to be more. I'm here to be impressed, and the Mini didn't stop at the basics. Extra features it offered me was timers, multiple scene changes at the touch of a button and a clip button for those moments where you're focused on the game, but something hilarious and worth keeping has happened. The software also included Streamlabs games, which is an interesting touch.



I also feel that, while Elgato covered many of the features a streamer could use, there is room for growth. I always see growth as a positive thing and can have the community deeply involved in further software updates or even newer Stream Decks.

Remember earlier when I said that the cable was just a USB 2.0? Not at any given point did I feel that the Mini needed more than that. Even with the brightest setting, with all the buttons full (and extras with all the folders needed to house all the buttons), it didn’t flicker, it didn’t falter, the Mini reacted quickly with every button pressed.

The Stream Deck Mini does require one to log into (and verify) certain accounts, since it will be interacting directly with those accounts and its software. I logged into two of my accounts, namely Twitter and Twitch. This allowed me to post a pre-prepared tweet directly as well as moderation on my own live stream and chats.



And finally, the cherry on the cake was the Key Creator. This feature is an online editor that allows you to create your own buttons to the perfect standard so that your Elgato Stream Deck Mini feels like yours as it stares back at you on your desk. Add your streamer logo (my unicorn is everywhere now), but keep the logos of the software you want to use for familiarity. There is nothing like buying a piece of hardware and being able to make it special and unique to your own needs.



The Stream Deck Mini may be targeted at the streamer community but this little gadget offers so much customisation that anyone could benefit greatly from having one on their desk.

Mine looks stunning, I hope you get one too.