Fenolical Switch Charger Dock

Hardware Type: Dock

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Review:

(Note: This product was received at no cost for review via the Amazon Vine program.)

I have previously reviewed a few Joy-Con charging adapters designed to attach to Nintendo’s dock for the Nintendo Switch, as well as multiple third-party docks, but this will be my first time looking at a device that combines both of these functions into one.

The Fenolical Switch Charger Dock, released in 2024, is a Nintendo Switch dock that has four slots in the front for Joy-Con controllers, giving players the opportunity to charge four more of these controllers than the two attached to either side of the Nintendo Switch. But let’s start by looking at what this device brings to the table as a dock.

The first, most obvious thing of note is how small Fenolical’s dock is – it is absolutely tiny next to Nintendo’s own dock. While this is perhaps a nice way to reduce the footprint of the dock in your entertainment center, it comes with its own problem. When your Nintendo Switch (original or OLED model, not Nintendo Switch Lite, of course) is slotted into the dock, it’s wedged in pretty tightly. You actually have to make a little effort to physically force it in there. And trying to remove it is just as awkward, forcing you to hold on to the device as you remove the Nintendo Switch so you can pull them apart. Given how small the dock is, and how it may have Joy-Con controllers nested in it at the time, this makes docking and undocking using Fenolical’s dock unusually difficult.

Once your Nintendo Switch is in the device, it does work just fine as a dock, and even includes a button on the unit to swap between TV mode and the Nintendo Switch’s own screen. I’m not really sure how much use anyone will get out of this button, though – if you have Joy-Cons installed in Fenolical’s dock, they’ll be blocking that screen, after all.

Another issue with Fenolical’s dock is that it lacks any USB ports, aside from the one used to charge the unit. This means you won’t be using this dock to attach, sync, or charge any Pro-style controllers, nor will you be connecting this dock in any way to a wired network for online play. Honestly, this was perhaps the most disappointing thing about this dock – would it have really been so difficult to add even just one USB port? Strangely, something this dock does include on the back is an on-off switch… in case you want to turn it off for some reason?

Also, I have to mention that, while this dock sells for $25, well under the price of Nintendo’s own dock, it doesn’t come with any of the cables needed to use it – you’ll have to supply your own HDMI cable and your own Nintendo Switch power adapter (presumably the one that came with Nintendo’s dock).

Finally, let’s get to the highlighted feature, the Joy-Con charging ports. The four slots on the front all charge either left or right Joy-Cons, and have lights on the front that are red if charging and green if there is no Joy-Con or the Joy-Con is fully-charged. These lights are in the shape of plus and minus signs, apparently for no reason (they don’t change shape at all). This setup works, but the Joy-Cons feel a bit loose, and as I noted earlier, the way you need to firmly push in and pull out the Nintendo Switch to dock and remove it makes this fact even more worrisome.

In the end, for all the features the Fenolical Switch Charger Dock adds, it seems to remove far more important ones. Yes, it’s smaller and less-expensive that Nintendo’s dock, and lets you charge extra Joy-Cons, but it lacks the power adapter needed to use it, it’s a pain to get your Nintendo Switch into and out of it, and it lacks the USB ports you’ll want for any number of other uses. Plus, there seems to be some really questionable priorities in the creation of this device, as it lacks features like this while having other features like its on/off switch and the TV/screen button, which seem pointless when compared to what this dock is missing.

Overall, I can see this dock as being something you might opt to get if you really value charging Joy-Cons over everything else, if you want an inexpensive dock no matter what features you have to lose to get it, and if you already have a spare power adapter. But those are a lot of “if”s, which just seems like another way of saying that you probably don’t want this dock.

tl;dr – The Fenolical Switch Charger Dock is a Nintendo Switch dock that adds four extra ports for charging Joy-Cons, but it loses all of its USB ports to do so, doesn’t come with a necessary power adapter, and it’s really awkward to dock and undock your Nintendo Switch. In the end, I don’t think you’re getting enough in exchange for what you give up with this dock.

Grade: C-

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