Venom Xbox Accessories – Charging Dock Review

Manufacturer: Venom
Where to Buy: Amazon
RRP: £19.99

There are some that bemoan the fact that the Series controller still doesn’t have an in-built battery. You won’t find such a moan here – at least, not from me – as I feel that allowing us to swap in and out our own batteries is a much more consumer-friendly way of doing things. Sure, you have to provide the batteries (rechargeable’s FTW) but it’s a small price to pay to have the flexibility when they run out to simple swap in a fresh pair. I’m not against solutions around this though, and the Venom Charging Dock provides a simple way to keep batteries topped up.

The dock itself comes in a few colours (we were sent the Shock Blue version for review). It’s a fairly large bit of kit, sitting a little longer than the Series X is deep, but this is to facilitate the easiest method of charging I’ve seen; simply place the controller in the form fitting groove and away it goes. The battery compartment has the charging points in the back which slot nicely onto the unit, and unlike other docks I’ve used it’s as natural as putting the pad down, no need to flip it upside down or try to get the pins lined up just right. Two lights on the front of the unit denote charging (red) or charged (green) and as with the USB Hub these are not so bright as to be distracting.

In another neat touch, the batteries are separate from the controller backs. This has allowed Venom to pack in not only Series controller backs, but also Xbox One versions too. It’ll still only charge two at a time, but if you’re still rocking a One controller thanks to Microsoft letting them be compatible with the new consoles then this’ll cover you as well.

It’ll take up a USB port on your console – naturally – but it does have an extra one in the back that can be used to plug in other accessories that need to be charged. I don’t believe this will work with external storage, but it at least keeps the USB’s on the console free for such use.

I wanted to put the batteries to the test so left them off the dock to see how long it’d take to drain. There doesn’t seem to be any mention on the product listing outside of “hours of playtime”, but by my count I got about 12 hours on a single full charge across 2 days worth of play. That’s still pretty respectable, though perhaps not quite as high as other solutions out there. I ran out mid-online game of GTA V, but it was quick enough to swap the battery pack from one pad to the other while the next race loaded.

Conclusion

As I say, I’m a big fan of letting us swap batteries in and out on the Xbox pads over having a built in one, but having a happy medium solution such as this is the best of both worlds. The dock is a little large, but it facilitates easy drop and charge use, while it’ll go nicely if you’ve got the Shock Blue pads especially (though my white and black ones looks pretty good on it too). At just under £20 this is highly recommended, especially if you’ve a couple of ardent gamers in the house.

Hardware provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.