All New Gaming Accessories From Bionik Enhance Gaming Experience
The third-party accessory market for gaming doesn’t usually get a good reputation. Many companies offer a more economical solution often sacrificing quality for the products or simply offer slight variations of existing products. The newest line of products offered from bionik, however, are a cut above the rest. Their innovative approach to the gaming accessory market is apparent in all of their products, but what stood out to me at their showcase last week were two products in particular: the Mantis audio system for the PSVR and the Power Plate for the Switch.
As owners of a PSVR might be aware, the headset doesn’t come out of the box with any earpieces for audio. You could use the sound from your television, but if you want a truly immersive VR experience you’ll certainly want earbuds or headphones. The Mantis earpieces are simply the best combination of sound and comfort I’ve tried for the PSVR, enhancing that sweet immersion. What’s more, they clip onto the headset so you don’t have to worry about losing them in between sessions nor do they cause fatigue on your ears after prolonged use.
While the Mantis earpieces were great, what I found the most exciting was the Power Plate bionik introduced for the Switch. At first, it seems like a simple battery pack, something that many mobile Switch players will likely confirm is a necessity. What sets it apart from other standard USB-C battery packs is the form factor and charging rails for the JoyCons on the side. This allows you to charge the JoyCons while keeping them in a controller-like configuration and charge the Switch simultaneously. As someone who commutes with their Switch often, this is something I could certainly see myself using, especially for long flights since it can hold enough power for 3 full charges of the Switch and JoyCons.
There were a couple of other accessories announced for the Switch as well, including a charging dock for up to four JoyCons and an ethernet adapter that fits snuggly into the Switch dock. Both have that similar look and feel of other bionik products, designed to fit with the first-party hardware seamlessly. The charging dock features a simple but effective cable management system that keeps things neat around your dock while the ethernet adapter is hidden from view but does take up a USB slot on the Switch dock.
At the moment, Bionik only has accessories exclusively for consoles, but I was assured they are working on PC accessories as well. As to what those are they couldn’t say yet, but we’ll be sure to follow up with them at E3 in a month to get more info on products we can expect to see later this year.