Nintendo Wii Fanboy

We've had some laughs over Dragon Electronics' ill-conceived accessories in the past, but the Chinese manufacturer really seemed to hit all the right notes with its latest charging dock. Taking more into account than just bundling battery covers and rechargeable AAA batteries, the cradle has every feature we're looking for in a budget solution -- USB adapter, unobtrusive design, room to charge two controllers simultaneously, and LED status indicators.

Play-Asia has the charging station listed for $14.90 ($6.70 s/h), while eBay auctions have it priced a few dollars higher. To compare, Nyko's dock sells for about $30. Check past the post break for the full fact sheet.

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]