Venom Charge & Store for Nintendo Switch Review

If you’ve been taking advantage of all the Switch has to offer, then like me, you may have acquired an extra pair of Joy-Cons for those party gatherings, a Pro Controller for better extensive gaming sessions at home, and a Poké Ball Plus to feel more like a real Pokémon trainer in Pokémon Let’s Go. When it comes to charging them though, I’d mostly been just plugging in a USB-C cable when needed into the docked console. Meanwhile, the pair of Joy-Cons not attached to the system just sit idly as the battery gradually drains so that when I do need them for a party, I find that the battery’s quite low. At the same time, I’ve been wary of investing in separate space-invading charging stands.

With that in mind, the new Charge & Store dock from Venom has arrived at just the right time, acting as a complete charging and storing solution for multiple wireless Switch controllers, which you can just plug straight into your Switch dock via USB.

At the front is a slot to rest your Pro Controller, while on the sides are metal strips where each Joy-Con can easily slot in. LED lights at the front indicate that each controller is slotted in correctly, and will change from red to green when fully charged. So you can always dock your controllers at the end of a gaming session confident that they’ll be back to 100% charge when you return.

The only LED indicator missing is for the Poké Ball Plus charge point, which is really just a simple USB-C port that you flip up on the top of the device (so if you’re not into catching ‘em all, you’re free to just leave it as it is - although you could always use the USB-C port for charging a smartphone?). It’s a neat place to stick in the Poké Ball Plus to rest just in between the Joy-Con slots though.

The back of the dock is something of a bonus tail where you can store Switch game cases. Six slots doesn’t like much and if you already have a shelf filled with Switch games, you probably don’t want to mess with that. Yet for someone who prefers all of their games digitally on the Switch, I’ve actually found this sufficient for the few special titles I did buy a physical retail copy of, such as Nintendo Labo.

The only caveat then is charging the Pro Controller. Unlike PS4 and Xbox, there’s no built-in way to charge it from the bottom so the workaround to be able to drop it onto a dock and charge is a dongle that slots into the USB-C port on top and wraps around to the back. Beneath it are three pin strips which will align with three strips on the dock that will enable charging. This dongle is, however, not connected to the dock in any way, so you can either store it or leave it on that spot loose, which doesn’t sound ideal. You could just leave the dongle slotted in the Pro Controller, but when I tried playing a game of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, it’s impossible to grip the controller and not have my fingers run over this new protrusion without feeling weird and uncomfortable.

That’s ultimately a niggle and I wish there was a more elegant solution. However, it’s not a dealbreaker by any means, especially when all your wireless Switch accessories now have a single home that can comfortably sit next to your Switch dock or beside your TV.