Should you buy the PS VR2 Sense Controller Charging Station?

A barely-optional accessory

While the wired PS VR2 will last as long as the PS5 does, the Sense Controllers have a built-in lithium-ion rechargeable battery that you'll be recharging after every 1-2 play sessions. 

Allegedly, the controllers have a small battery capacity; combined with the powerful haptic feedback, built-in gyroscope and accelerometer, capacitive sensor for finger detection, and infrared LED for position tracking, these controllers burn through that limited capacity quickly, only lasting about 3–4 hours in our tests.

The PS VR2 comes with one USB charging cable to connect your controllers to the PS5. To charge both controllers without the PS VR2 Sense Controller Charging Station, you'll need to use that cable for one controller and the DualSense charging cable for the other, plugging both into two of the three PS5 USB-A ports. Then you'll need to leave your console on or in rest mode for the 90 minutes it takes to charge them to full capacity, which could raise your electricity bill.

With the PS VR2 Sense Controller Charging Station, you simply plug the AC adaptor into an outlet, attach charging adaptors to the Sense controllers' USB-C slots, and slot both controllers onto their respective charging docks. This way, your controllers charge regardless of your console's status. 

Once the controller finishes charging, the status indicator will "slowly blink white and turn off," PlayStation says. We assume this means that the dock will limit charging after this point in order to preserve the battery, but we've asked for clarification on this point. 

Personally, we prefer the simplicity of the Sense Charging Station to having to worry about multiple charging cables, especially since you'll need one of those cables to charge your DualSense controller as well. If you want to try a third-party option, the Charging Station uses 5.1V and 2.8A, so you'd need to find a charger with a split cable or two chargers that offer the same output. 

Too high, and the charger could damage the lithium battery; too low, and the controllers will take longer than necessary to charge.

Simplify your PS VR2 experience

Most people won't play PS VR2 games for more than a few hours, but if you do run out of juice, you can likely get another hour or so of game-time after just 30 minutes of charging. It's not the greatest ratio, but you'll find some PS VR2 launch titles like Gran Turismo 7 will let you use the DualSense controller in the interim. 

The PS VR2 Sense Controller Charging Station has one flaw: seating the controllers onto the docked USB-C ports is a little tricky. It's not always clear whether or not you've successfully plugged them in without checking on the PS5 control center or gently tugging on the controllers to see if they come loose. So if you're sloppy, you'll leave your Sense controllers "charging" when they actually aren't.

But this shouldn't be a deal-breaker at all. In the end, this Charging Station lets you seat the controllers in one compact spot instead of having them dangle at the end of cables in your living room. Aesthetics matter!

I understand why PlayStation didn't bundle the Sense Controller Charging Station into the official PS VR2 box. At $550, many already consider it too expensive; that extra $50 might put the price over the limit of what people would want to pay. But if Sony hadn't sent it to us as part of the review package, we would've found charging the controllers needlessly annoying.