RSS Feeds
Peripherals
Lightning Review: Penguin United Quad Charge Station Juices Four Wiimotes at Once
Posted by Jason Chen at 5:50 AM on September 18, 2008
The Gadget: Penguin United's Quad Charge Station, a device that sits in silence as you cram four Wiimotes into it and expect it to come out fully charged four hours later. It also comes with four rechargeable battery packs, which saves you money on AAs in the long run.
The Price: $US45
The Verdict: It's good. Not only does it come with four rechargeable battery packs for your Wiimote—which dock into contacts in the slots on the base station—there's also a complementary set of four coloured wrist straps so you can tell your controllers apart. All four Wiimotes are charged in about four hours, but you do have to remove the rubber safety condom prior to docking. You might not personally use them, but if you're like us, you force your clumsy family members to use them in order to protect your HDTV.
One complaint is that the base station's blue lights are always on, even if a Wiimote isn't docked. That blue neon look is fine for a casemodder's alien skull PC, but it looks out of place in a more subdued living room. It's a small complaint, but might be a dealbreaker for some. Also, the rechargeable battery place in the Wiimote makes contact with the charger via two metal pins that might wear down after a year or two; similar to the way Logitech mice wear down the contacts in their chargers after a while. We've no way of telling if it will, but it's something to watch out for. Our other complaint is that the four lights that indicate battery state default to on when nothing is docked. If you the Wiimote doesn't make proper contact with the charger, that means you may think it's full even when it's not!
If your family plays 4-player Wii games a lot and are always hunting around for batteries, $US45 isn't too big an investment for the convenience of just shoving your Wiimote into a dock. If you're not a huge gamer or already have rechargeable AAs, this might not be as worth it to you. [Penguin United]
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
turniptable
Posted 6:29 AM 18/9/08
Yesssss I've been waiting for this to come out. I'm not sure exactly where you can buy this though... Penguin united doesnt let you order this online
turniptable
Minotaar
Posted 6:25 AM 18/9/08
What I dont get is where the wrist straps go when you plug the wiimotes in. All the pictures I've ever seen have included the wiimotes without the wrist straps. I get that it probably looks uglier with the wrist straps, but is there any problem with correctly docking and charging when the straps are in place?
Minotaar
lldsandsll
Posted 6:13 AM 18/9/08
prepare to fire the quad laser
lldsandsll
lol123
Posted 6:57 AM 18/9/08
@Minotaar: the picture has wriststraps in it
lol123
csharms
Posted 6:47 AM 18/9/08
@Minotaar:
Ive thought of this too, because on my current
charger, the wrist straps sometimes cause the "wiimotes" to not make contact with the metal part of the charger.
csharms
jimmykay
Posted 7:24 AM 18/9/08
The first thing I did was take the wrist straps off my wiimotes. I got tired of them swinging around while I was playing tennis.
Of course I dont have 5 year olds throwing them around either.
jimmykay
RiceBandit
Posted 8:25 AM 18/9/08
I have been using this docking station for a couple of months now (that is, I think it's this one... I didn't even bother to remember what the manufacturers name was.) It works really well. It charges fine with the straps, although one of my complaints is that there isn't any indication on how the strap is supposed to be placed (just wrap it outward-- the connectors protrude out far enough to make the connection.)
I have the same complaint with the always-on lights. It's really bright and seems really unnecessary, but charging four controllers at once is very appealing to me.
I'd also point out that, unlike the Nyko rechargeables, the battery cover is shaped exactly like the original wiimote, so it'll fit perfectly in any of the Wii accessories like the Wii Wheel, and the Guitar Hero guitar. THe Nyko controllers always seemed to fit awkwardly, since there was an additional backside bulk created by the hand-grip.
RiceBandit
JEmlay
Posted 8:20 AM 19/9/08
@RiceBandit:
I doubt it. This item went on sale one week ago. It's only available from one online retailer and wont be available from Amazon until Sept 25th.
JEmlay
JEmlay
Posted 8:17 AM 19/9/08
I was going to buy this but then decided not to for a couple reasons.
1. The company kept promising the product would be released in two weeks. Then two weeks passed. Then another and another.... anyway, they finally released it but only to ONE company that has close to no history so screw it! Then they claim it will be available from Amazon soon.
2. It can only be bought online which means shipping charges. So it now more expensive then just paying $50 for a similar unit at your local Best Buy (or whatever).
3. A plus to this unit is it used Li-ion. But so does the other unit I mentioned. A negative to this unit is that the replacement battery covers have stupid bumps (or ridges) on them. Very uncomfortable. The other unit I mentioned (React) has rubber backed battery covers.
Do I need to mention that I bought the React unit from Best Buy instead? I'm very happy with it, it's comfortable to hold and I got it NOW while NOT paying shipping.
JEmlay