The Power Kit for the Xbox 360 is a three in one pack that includes a charging dock, rechargeable battery and a Power Play charging cable. The kit is very handy because it means you have two methods of charging your rechargeable battery and keeping your Xbox 360 wireless controller juiced.

Your first choice is to slide the battery into the charging dock, plug the charging dock into the USB port on your Xbox 360 console (or to any other powered USB port) using the USB cable included with the kit and you are good to go. You can also choose to insert the rechargeable battery into your Xbox 360 controller, plug the Power Play charging cable into the controller and connect it to your console to start charging your battery.

Let’s start by taking a look at the charging dock. The charging dock is white with a dark grey USB cable – a colour scheme that will fit in with your 360– and has two charging indicator lights. The red light will indicate that the battery is charging while a green light shows that it is fully charged. It took roughly five hours to charge the battery the first time I used it. The USB cable is quite short, just a bit longer than 1.1 metres, but long enough for you to plug it in to your 360 and leave it on top of the console, to the side or above it on a shelf.

Once charged the rechargeable battery will provide you with an impressive 18 hours of gameplay, enough to survive even a marathon gaming session. You also have the option to buy a second rechargeable battery which you can keep charged and ready for gaming while you use the other battery in your controller.

To plug the rechargeable battery in, simply remove the existing battery cover on the back of the Xbox 360 controller and plug the new rechargeable battery in. The battery is white so it matches the controller and fits snugly into its new slot. Plug the charging cable into the controller and you are ready to game! The charging cable is dark grey and the top of the charging cable white so it also fits in nicely with the console’s colour scheme.

The charging cable is quite long, 1.7 metres to be exact, but you may find you need to plug in an additional USB cable to give you a bit of extra length if you are sitting on a couch which is a bit away from the console. There is a light on top of the charging cable which will be red if the controller is charging and green if charged. Obviously it goes without saying that you can only charge the controller while the 360 is on.

The dreamGEAR Power Kit for the Xbox 360 is available now for an estimated retail price of R480 (including VAT) and is a logical addition to your gaming collection. You can either pick the dreamGEAR range up online or at retail shops including Budget Tech, Incredible Connection, Look ‘n Listen, Pick ‘n Pay, Dion Wired, Kalahari, E-Dream, Digital Planet and CNA.

Thanks to TCM Warehouse for supplying the review sample and make sure you keep an eye out for more reviews of dreamGEAR and iSound products in our accessories section soon!