Dual Charger AC

I imagine that the folks at Nyko had a giant party right when they found out what Sony was and wasn't shipping with the PS3.  You can almost hear the beer bottles being clinked together for toasts and backs being slapped as product managers begin to see all of the holes that need to be filled in the PS3 accessory market.  I'm not saying that the Nyko engineers aren't smart cats who wouldn't have come up with some cool stuff on their own but Sony certainly made it easy on them to innovate.

The Nyko Dual Charger isn't a particularly sexy device but it does fill a big void for the PS3.  Sony only allows you to charge controllers when the system is turned on. This means you have to leave your power hungry PS3 on if you want to charge your system or sit four feet from the TV and use the Sony provided charging cable.  Sony does include one charging cable with the system but if you buy another controller you’re going to have to get another cable as one is not included with the new controllers.

 The Nyko Dual Charger solves these problems by allowing you to charge two PS3 controllers while the system is off as it plugs directly into the wall instead of your PS3.  Nyko was also includes two charging cables as well so you don't have to purchase any additional ones. 

The unit is well designed.  The unit is about an inch thick, two inches wide, and three inches long.  The electrical prongs on the back slide away so the unit lies flat when not in use.  Using the unit is dead easy, plug the cables into the charger, plug the cables into the controllers, and play games.  Rinse, wash, and repeat as necessary.

I did try to see if I could charge my phone with the charger but that didn't seem to work.  I'm not sure if it's a limitation of the charger or my phone but I didn't have any other mini-usb re-chargeable devices to check it out with. It’s out of the scope of the device but it would have been pretty cool if it had worked.

At $20 the Dual Charger is a good investment for PS3 owners with more than one controller.  I'm stopping short of saying it's a must have for PS3 owners as you can get around it but I would say it's a must have for lazy PS3 owners (like me).