Intec's Wii Charging Station: decent dock or crap cradle?

by Eric Caoili { Apr 30th 2007 at 7:30PM }

We didn't even know that acessories manufacturer Intec was working on a Wii remote charging station until we saw one listed for sale earlier today. Much like Nyko's cradle, Intec's dock comes with two rechargeable battery packs and a base that lights up to signal when it's in use. That's about where the similarities between the two end.

Intec's dock does away with the AC plug and allows you to conveniently charge the battery packs via USB instead. Adding onto its appeal, at $25.00, the dock comes in $5.00 cheaper than Nyko's. Sounds like an easy choice between the two, right?

Where Intec's dock fails is its inability to charge both battery packs at the same time. You can't even charge the packs while they're in locked in the controllers! Those two slots for the remotes? Just for display! If you want to recharge a battery pack, you have to remove it from the controller and plant it into the dock.

This sort of half-assed setup might have flown back in November, but months after competitors have already put out more advanced solutions? Even with the five-dollar savings, you'd be wise to avoid this dock. That said, jump past the post break anyway, and check out the strange blurb we spotted on Intec's packaging.

[Via DCEmu]

What does this even mean?!

Tags: batteries, battery, charger, chargers, cradle, cradles, dock, docks, intec, nintendo, nintendowii, nyko, remote, usb, wii, wiimote

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Alex @ Apr 30th 2007 7:51PM

I'll stick with Nyko's then, thanks for the review, usually I go for the cheapest stuff but now I know which one is ultimatly better.

strongbad79 @ Apr 30th 2007 8:08PM

I just purchased the ones from nyko on newegg.com. I'll get them in the mail tomorrow. They are $24.99 w/ $4.99 shipping. They come out to about the same as the store but you don't have to pay tax and you don't have to leave your house.

perri @ Apr 30th 2007 9:19PM

I actually have this...

It's not horrible, the single charge isn't ideal but I was really aching for a recharger and since the nyko ones are so limited, I settled for this. The stickers that came on it are TERRIBLE. It was such a pain to get all the glue off, I'm talking a good half hour of scrubbing with a damp and soapy rag. Besides that tho, it isn't too bad. As a battery solution it works, taking the batteries off to charge isn't too inconvenient, but the battery life doesn't seem too long at all... I was told it was average for them to last 6 -10 hours? hope that eb guy didn't BS me when I said I thought it was malfunctioning...

I'd get the nyko one if you had a choice, but this isn't something that you can't live with.

Rich @ Apr 30th 2007 10:49PM

I have been looking for some reviews of this charging station, but couldn't find much. I saw these at Circuit City and the big selling point for me was the fact that it plugs into the back of the Wii via USB. What little I did read on this item said that the battery life was horrible. I'll be going with the Nyko station. Thanks for the heads up.