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!

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Hardware Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.