PlayStation 5 controllers use up so much more battery than older controllers used to

Most gamers have been in the situation where they’ve been gaming into the small hours of the morning only for the session to be cut short due to the controller running out of battery. This seems to be a much more common occurrence with PlayStation 5 controllers since the DualSense triggers and haptic feedback use up so much more battery than older controllers used to.

The best way to ensure that your gaming session isn’t cut short prematurely is to always have a second controller charged up and ready to go so you can hot-swap them out in a pinch. Right now, one of Amazon’s best-reviewed PS5 controller charging docks is on sale for a huge 45% off, taking it from £25.99 down to £14.99.

The dock features a simple design with it large enough to house two controllers at once. It charges via the native charging pins on the bottom of your existing PS5 controller with no need to insert additional USB C dongles like some other third party chargers.

Manufacturer OIVO has gone a long way to ensure the design of its dock fits in with the rest of the PS5’s aesthetic. Gamers will appreciate that the glossy black and matte white mimic that of the PS5, allowing it to blend in well when sat alongside the console itself.

It’s powered by a single USB C cable or two USB A ports which can be connected to the back of the PS5 for easy cable management. A handy feature over the official charging dock is that this one has LED lights that indicate when a controller is charging and when it’s ready to go.

At its fastest, this dock is capable of taking both controllers from completely dead to completely full in as little as two hours. That charging time increases to six hours if only one USB A port is plugged in.

Sony does offer an official charging dock that features a similar design to the OIVO one. You can pick it up here for £24.95.

Alternatively, PowerA has a charging dock for PlayStation 5 controllers that looks to have a slightly larger, more spacious design. It’s currently 13% off and available for £19.99 at Amazon.

Over 16,000 customers have left reviews of this PlayStation 5 controller charging dock, with the product achieving a 4.6 star rating overall. “A controller charging dock is a really handy piece of kit to make sure that your controllers are always ready to go and this is the best one I’ve used on PS5 so far,” writes one happy customer.

A second shopper says: “Overall I’m really happy with this. It functions really well, charges the controllers very quickly, and looks nice in my setup. It’s also a very affordable price and is a great alternative to the official Sony dock.” Another gamer left their review, saying: “It does exactly what it says on the tin. The charge is super fast, I had 1 bar on my controller, did a quick swap and topped it up in no time at all!”

Some customers did have a few complaints to voice though, including one customer who warns that this gadget might not work well if you own Sony’s premium DualSense Edge controller. “I recently picked up the 30th anniversary DualSense Edge, and it seems like the Edge controller doesn’t connect as easily as the regular DualSense. You can kind of rectify the issue by placing something for the DualSense Edge to rest on, to hold it up slightly, but I haven’t find something that works 100% of the time yet, like for the regular DualSense controllers,” they explain.

Another customer said that they started experiencing a fault after a few months. “About a month after bought though the charging indicator light for one of the dock points started to flicker… Not sure if it’s just the light or the actual connectors in the dock… About a month after that the second light is now doing the same thing and the first light has completely gone,” they say.

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