4Gamers Charging Suite – Hardware Review
The most annoying part of Wireless controllers and Playstation Move controllers is recharging. Especially when you need to recharge them with a USB cable. You can plug them into a PS3, pc or other device, but the device needs to be turned on to recharge the controllers. That’s why 4gamers came with this easy to use Charging Suite. No need to power on your PS3 to recharge the controllers, just plug the Charging Suite into the wall and you’re ready to recharge.
The first thing I want to discuss about this Charging Suite is the design. 4gamers used the same design as their headset: black with a small touch of red. Not really the coolest design choice ever, but it does the job. The shape of the Charging Suite is a bit weird though… Dirty minds might have seen it already before I even mentioned this.
The Charging Suite is pretty balanced for it’s size. You can easly move it, without any controllers or Playstation Moves falling on the ground, and they fit perfectly in the reserved spots.
There are 4 leds showing the state of the batteries. A small minor here is that red stands for “Recharging” and blue stands for “Fully recharged”, but also for “No controller inserted”. This forces you to turn the Charging Suite off, otherwise the lights shining. These lights are pretty strong (and even looks a bit blurry), which makes it almost impossible to put the Charging Suite in your sight all the time without turning it off.
One of the biggest disadvantages of this Charging Suite is that you can’t recharge your PS3 controllers AND your Playstation Moves. You need to choose one of the options with a small switch on the back of the Charging Suite. I’m not sure if this was a technical issue, but I don’t see why a Recharging station powered into the wall plug can’t handle 2 PS3 controllers and 2 Playstation Moves.
Summary
I’m not really satisfied with this Charging Suite. The design is ok, it’s pretty stable, doesn’t take much space and does the job, but there are too many disadvantages: you can’t recharge controllers and Playstation moves at the same time (you even need to flip a switch to change the “Recharge mode”), the recharging lights are pretty annoying to look at and these lights keep on shining when you don’t turn off the Charging Suite. This Charging Suite is an option if you are looking for a cheap recharge station but there are some better options on the market.
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