Venom Xbox One Twin Docking Station Review

[section_title title=Conclusion]Conclusion

There’s only so much you can cover with something like Venom’s Twin Docking Station, but it’s hard to argue against the batteries and the station working flawlessly. Although Venom claim 18 hours of gameplay from full capacity, I managed 8 hours out of a full charge after playing Forza 5 on the ‘Ring for a near solid eight-hours. I feel this detail is important as firstly, Forza 5 makes use of the controllers ‘impulse triggers’ as well as the usual vibration motors and secondly, the Nurburgring is an extremely demanding track leaving your hands aching after a good hour or so due to the amount of turning, pressing and vibrations you have to suffer through.

One thing I did notice though is that when the controller’s vibration function died off full control wasn’t far behind. With the official batteries you can get a good twenty minutes of control after the vibration has died, but with the Venom battery this was closer to 10 minutes. Venom’s claims of up to 18 hours probably hold true taking into account stand-by time and less demanding games. Even so, squeezing eight hours out of a single charge isn’t unimpressive by any means and should have most other game genres and sessions covered with a single charge.

The build quality itself of the package doesn’t leave anything to be desired, although the decision to go with a gloss finish on the dock is a definite clanger and makes the device look cheap. The batteries themselves don’t feel cheap and the compartment covers feel of similar plastic to what Microsoft use themselves on their own covers.

Another odd decision is the choice to go with the mini-USB and not a micro one. If your Venom battery dies you’ve got no way to play without sticking a micro-USB cable in the controller (or using some batteries) and wiring it up to the Xbox One. Why a cable of some use wasn’t included is strange.

Last but not least, the ability to only charge the controller when in the dock is a case of your mileage may vary and you also need two controllers to make the most of Venom’s offerings. Having only one controller myself, I was out of luck if the battery died as it meant sticking the controller on the dock and waiting for it to charge – which takes around two hours. There’s no way to charge the batteries without the controller in the dock and I’ve already mentioned the USB cable issue up above. Admittedly, you’d be hard pressed not to have a mini-USB cable hanging around but Venom would have done well to include a ~3m or so one in the box.

To bring this review to a close, The Twin docking Station from Venom has an obvious value aspect to it that can’t be argued with. Have two controllers and don’t want to get shafted on Play and Charge kits? £20 is a phenomenal price for a docking station from a reliable brand and the limitations of device are neutered somewhat if you do have two controllers. The decisions to go with the gloss finish and what is essentially the wrong USB cable are confusing, but otherwise, I think you’d need a rather outlandish reason not to pick up the Venom Gaming Twin Docking Station over other alternatives.