Fosmon was quick to the punch in developing and releasing a DualSense controller charger, letting you effortlessly dock two PS5 controllers to easily keep them charged and ready for your next gameplay session. But the hastily designed charger comes with a number of caveats that make it less than ideal, especially considering Sony’s own DualSense charging station available for the same price. It’s functional, sure, but it’s not the ideal solution for charging your controllers.
In order to make for an easy drop charge and not have players fuss with jamming a USB Type-C connector into a slot, the Fosmon DualSense Charger comes with 2 L-shaped panels that plug into the USB port on top of your controller and give it a flat square surface on the back. They then set onto the charging station to power your PS5 controllers up. However, these panels aren’t ergonomic in any way and destroy the shape and feel of the DualSense controller, particularly if you have larger hands or longer fingers.
On the back of the controller, my fingers overlap the corners of these panels, while on top, the panel actively gets in the way of using the triggers. Unless you play holding your controller in your fingertips, you’ll most likely feel the panels at best, or have them completely get in your way at the worst. My wife, with smaller hands, can definitely notice the charging panel in between Overwatch matches, but largely forgets it’s there while actively playing. For me personally, the corners dig painfully into my middle fingers on the back and it completely messes with my trigger usage in first-person shooters.
I suppose it’s possible to take the panels off while playing and then reattach them before charging, but that kind of defeats the purpose of the easy drop charging that the panels are supposed to offer, letting you simply just place the controller onto the charging base when you’re done. I’m certain there was a better way to design this pad without it impacting the feel of the controller, but this model certainly didn’t accomplish it.
The charger base itself has nice low-profile design that doesn’t take up too much real estate wherever you decide to put it, and the white color scheme matches the PS5 and DualSense controllers well. The power cable it comes with is a USB cable, so make sure you have a free USB slot on your PS5 or a USB outlet plug in. Fortunately the power strips I use for my electronics have extra USB slots that I can use easily for this, so it wasn’t an issue.
The Fosmon charger charges as advertised, about three hours or so to hit a full charge with a controller, which isn’t any better or worse than other methods of charging the DualSense. LED indicators on the front of the charging base flash while it’s charging and remain solid once the controller is fully ready to go. The lights on the DualSense also still glow orange while pulsing slowly, letting you know the controller is charging.
Fosmon DualSense PS5 Controller Dual Charging Station Review – Beaten by Sony
Accessories like this are usually welcome additions to a gaming setup, but Sony smartly anticipated the need and desire for a dual controller charger and released a first-party branded one that uses the connectors on the bottom of the DualSense. Normally I don’t like to compare products within a review, but given the parallel pricing and purposes of these chargers, its inevitable here.
Retailing at the same price as the Fosmon DualSense Charger, the official Sony charger is just a much better option, skirting around the need to have any kind of cumbersome attachments on your controllers. The one thing the Fosmon charger has going for it right now is inventory. The Sony DualSense charger can be just as tough to find as the PS5 console itself, but you can easily grab the Fosmon right now. A sale price also has it going for $19.99 ($10 off retail), but that may have changed by the time you read this. Personally, if I had the choice, even on sale, I’d spend the $10 extra to get the official Sony charger.
I also find it slightly funny that the physical box for the Fosmon charger doesn’t say the words “PS5,” “DualSense,” or even “Controller” anywhere on it, and doesn’t even feature images of the PS5 controller either. If you were to see the packaging in the store, you’d have no idea what this “Dual Charging Station” is for at all. I’m not sure if these are headed to retail or limited to online ordering, but it seems like a huge oversight in the interest of not wanting to wrestle with Sony’s legal team about the usage of words or imagery representing the PS5 or DualSense.
Fosmon’s DualSense PS5 Controller Charger does what it sets out to do, giving players a simple drop-and-charge controller charger to make sure your DualSense controllers are ready to go, but it doesn’t respect the form and function of the controller itself, requiring the cumbersome charging panels that change the feel of the DualSense. Those with larger hands would particularly be wary of it getting in the way, though people with smaller hands may be able to ignore the lack of ergonomic design. It’s a workable design for charging DualSense controllers, but given its caveats and the availability of Sony’s own official charger, it’s not my top choice for a DualSense charging solution.
Fosmon DualSense PS5 Controller Charger review unit provided by manufacturer. For more information, please read our Review Policy.
