Dobe Fomis Electronics Game Controller Charging Dock

Hardware Type: Controller Charging Dock

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Review:

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

Every now and then I review a game controller that comes with its own charging dock or cradle that lets you effortlessly drop a controller down into the dock when you’re looking to charge it, saving you the trouble of plugging in a USB-C cable. Personally, I’ve never been impressed by these things – it’s taking up permanent space, adding to the cost of the device, and all to save you the trouble of plugging in a cable when you want to charge your controller? It just doesn’t seem worth it to me.

However, I have to admit that this may just be my own personal view, and surely others out there see value in this concept. After all, if they didn’t, would so many controller manufacturers continue repeating this concept?

Apparently, Dobe Fomis Electronics decided to take things one step further by offering a controller charging dock that could be used with mostly any controller, so long as that controller uses USB-C to charge. Which, these days, is most controllers. The device itself advertises compatibility with Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and “Dobe / Third Party Controllers”, but there’s no reason this wouldn’t work with devices from just about any platform, even the Nintendo Switch 2, which uses USB-C for its controllers.

The dock itself has two slots for controllers, but comes with four small USB-C adapters that are plugged into the USB-C slot on your controller to make it compatible with the dock, meaning you can trade out two controllers you’re currently using and two you have charging, even if they’re all from different game platforms.

The dock itself has two lights on the front to indicate the charging state – blue for “ready” and orange for “charging”. And testing this device with a variety of controllers, it seemed to work quite well. I can’t really judge the rate of charging, but it seemed to work fine with a standard Nintendo Switch Pro Controller, a Sony DualSense controller for PlayStation 5, a ECHTPower Wireless Switch Controller (ES01), and a NYXI Master P1 2.4G Wireless PC Controller.

That said, not every controller was a success, and this really came down to the controller’s shape. For example, the Exlene Wireless GameCube Switch Controller (Upgraded Version) refused to fit in the grooves in the dock, making it unusable. And Joy-Con controllers and other controllers that don’t have USB-C ports will naturally not be usable with this device.

There is also another issue, and that is these USB-C adapters. They jut out of your controllers in an ugly, cumbersome manner that could catch on things, and because the port they transform the USB-C port into is apparently a proprietary port, you won’t be able to charge or physically connect your controller to anything other than Dobe Fomis Electronics’ dock unless you remove this adapter. And I found getting these things out of the controllers to be surprisingly difficult, and not something I would want to do on a regular basis. Plus, they’re so small I could see them easily getting lost, especially in a household with young children.

I am amused at the notion of an accessory like this that is essentially universal, to all platforms, and I imagine there are some players who might see this as adding a nice convenience to their gaming. But I personally think this is more trouble than it’s worth, especially at the $27 price tag this is selling for. If what this device offers seems worth that price to you, I can say that it does work, at least for most (but not all) USB-C controllers, but I do not think that most players will fit that very specific niche.

tl;dr – The Dobe Fomis Electronics Game Controller Charging Dock gives players a way to make (almost) any USB-C controller able to charge just by sliding it into a dock. It’s an interesting concept, but the USB-C adapters come with all sorts of issues, and the overall cost of this device just doesn’t seem worth what little benefit you’ll get out of it. Unless you are willing to pay a decent chunk of change for what this device offers, I don’t think this is for you.

Grade: C-

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