Reviewed: Wireless Wii Remote Sensor Bar

I’m a real wireless freak since my two cats seem to love to jump at all things dangling, even if they’re my $100 cables connecting to my audio equipment. When I first set up my Wii I was slightly concerned about the sensor bar as the cable is impossibly thin and has the structural integrity of a matchstick house. I knew that it was only a matter of time before one of my cats had their way with it.

Thankfully, a few minutes on eBay is all it took to save the day. To my rescue is a generic wireless Wii sensor bar. The brand itself is not important because it’s the generic model, meaning that all of the other manufacturers simply re-brand this sensor bar as their own. This little unit cost me $25, shipping included.

My sensor bar came about a week after I ordered it off of eBay (from ThumbMonkey games) and came with two main pieces of equipment:

• Wireless sensor bar - The actual unit itself looks nearly identical to the OEM piece, save the lack of wires.

• Four AA batteries - That was nice of ThumbMonkey to include them

Initial Impression and Usage Test

One of my major concerns was that the wireless sensor bar wasn’t going to read as well as the OEM unit. The OEM sensor bar is little more than a piece of plastic with two IR readers, but you never know. It never hurts to have a bit of caution when you are changing something as important as your Wii sensor bar.

My worries were quickly relieved once I set up the sensor bar and began playing. The auction claimed up to 30 hours of use and an effective range of 25 feet. We’ve found that the Wii OEM unit starts to mess up the signal at around 10 feet, so 25 feet should be an accomplishment. Of course we were determined to see how well it worked at that distance.

Our sensor bar has a switch on the back for turning it on and off, and there is also a timer that will beep after a certain amount of time to remind you that it’s still turned on. We have heard of other sensor bars with automatic power saving features but we haven’t been able to get our hands on one… yet.

Once we started playing we noticed that the wireless sensor bar worked better than our old OEM unit. At distances we found less signal degradation (or “jitteryness”), as our inputs were smooth as silk. Typing text on messages boards in the Wii browser was simple and painless thanks to smooth sensor operation. We couldn’t ask for more.

The only real downside to the wireless sensor bar is the fact that the batteries will need to be changed fairly often. If you play the Wii for an hour a day you’re looking at changing them once a month, and if you play it for three hours a day (as I do) you’re looking at nearly once a week. Still, if you don’t want wires running everywhere it’s a good solution, and at under $25 it’s certainly a good value.

Pros:

• Looks cool
• Look Ma, no wires!
• Strong signal output
• Reads the Wii remotes better than the OEM version

Cons:

• Have to replace the batteries fairly frequently
• If you accidentally leave it on all night say goodbye to your batteries

Overall: 7.5/10 - a good solution, but we’re going to stick to wired.

Reviewed: Phantiq Wiimote Rechargeable Battery Pack and Charging Station

When I first got my Wii I played that sucker for a week straight, five or six hours a day. Wii Golf, Wii Boxing, Super Paper Mario (weird, but good game… see our review that’s coming soon), and so on. Both my girlfriend and I had a blast playing Tennis, and as it turns out she can (repeatedly) kick my butt in bowling. I tell you, the Wii has really changed our lives. That is, of course, until I ran out of batteries while her and I were boxing. Ever watched your girlfriend (or boyfriend) kick your butt at something and not even be able to fight back?

Thankfully, that’s all changed thanks to the Phantiq Rechargeable Battery Pack. This little beauty costs $11.99 (if you buy it now from eBay) plus around $11 shipping, so about $23 in total. That’s a screaming deal for what you get:

• Wii remote charging station - Connects to your Wii via USB cable. Simply place the Wii remote into the charging station to begin charging. The system automatically stops charging once the battery is at full capacity, eliminating annoying things like overcharging.

• Wii remote back covers - In order to be able to charge you will need to replace the Wii remote battery cover with the one included with your Phantiq pack.

• Two rechargeable batteries - These batteries are custom designed for the Wii so that they fit into the battery slot without any issues.

Initial Impression and Usage Test

Once the item arrived (about five days after I purchased it from eBay) I quickly unwrapped it and set everything up. I didn’t bother reading any instructions since it really is stupid proof (take off Wii remote battery covers and store them somewhere, replace batteries with the rechargeable ones, plug recharging stand into Wii via USB cable, place new battery cover from Phantiq, put Wii remotes into charging station). It takes about four to six hours to get a full charge.

As you can see from the image everything is designed to fit and look OEM, and it does (to a large extent). The charging station looks pretty nifty when it’s got the Wii remotes plugged into it, and the red/green LED’s let you know if it’s still charging or if the battery pack is ready.

It’s important that you let the Wii remotes charge completely before using them. Since you’ll undoubtedly want to use your new batteries as soon as you can I recommend setting everything up just before you go to bed so that in the morning your batteries are charged and ready to go. They won’t overcharge as the charger stops charging once the batteries are full.

My only real “complaint” regarding the Phantiq package is that the color of the Phantiq battery covers don’t exactly match the color of the rest of the Wii remote- they’re off by a couple of shades. Now, since I don’t really spend much time looking at the back of my Wii remotes this doesn’t really bother me, but that’s about the only flaw I can find with this package. Aside from that incredibly minor gripe everything is as it should be.

On a full charge I get about three to four days of solid playing time (at roughly four hours a day between my girlfriend and myself). I’ve never had the battery level suddenly drop, nor has anything happened that is out of the ordinary or any different that what I was experiencing before. On the whole I must admit that this package is well put together, easy to find on eBay (I’d post a link but chances are good that the auction would be over by the time that you read this), and surprisingly high quality.

I’ve had this package now since July of 2007 and it works as well now (as of November 25, 2007) as it did the day that I bought it. The batteries still hold a great charge, nothing has broken or malfunctioned, and everything looks as good as it did when it was brand new.

The Phantiq Dual Wii Remote Charging Station gets my absolute recommendation. Anyone who has a Wii should have something like this, and instead of paying $40 or more for what you find in the stores you can get the whole thing shipped to your door for under $25- how’s that for a bargain?

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Direct replacement
• Five minutes for a five year old to install
• Good charge life

Cons:

• Battery pack cover slightly off-shade

Overall: 8.5/10 - go buy it!

I’d like to mention that there are many different brands available on eBay- after testing three or four different brands (among my friends and I) I have to say that all of them have greatly exceeded my expectations. Don’t worry about brand- get whichever one is affordable and convenient!