Wednesday, September 02, 2020
Venom is helping take Project xCloud on the road.
Venom is a UK gaming brand that puts out a decent array of products and accessories, typically at affordable prices. That "affordability" has historically come with some compromises in quality, but thankfully, that's (mostly) not the case with this Project xCloud Travel Kit.
The Travel Kit from Venom comes with a hardshell carry case, a controller clip for a phone, thumbstick caps, and a rechargeable battery for an Xbox controller, and it wants to be your one-stop travel buddy for Project xCloud streaming.
Going mobile
Venom Project xCloud Mobile Gaming Travel Kit
Bottom line: The Venom Travel Kit is an excellent product for £20, but it doesn't do anything particularly special to stand out in a crowded market.
Pros:
- Great price
- Sturdy controller clip
- High-quality travel case
Cons:
- Controller clip doesn't have a stabilizer
- Only available on Amazon UK
- Battery life is unimpressive for a travel pack
What I liked about the Venom Travel Kit
The Venom Travel Kit is an excellent bundle given that it costs just £20 ($27~ USD), giving you a decent array of accessories and products in a single package. The best part of it is arguably the carrying case, which fits the Xbox like a glove, with soft cushioning on the inside, and a hard-shelled, handled carry case on the outside.
The Travel Kit also includes some rubber joystick caps for your controller, which are a nice touch if yours have worn down over time. Even if they haven't, sometimes adding some extra girth to the sticks can improve their tactility and grip. It also includes a rechargeable battery, complete with charging cable. The battery replaces the base Xbox controller's battery door and has a charging light on the back to let you know its charge status.
Finally, this package also contains a plastic clip for clipping in a mobile phone. It'll fit virtually any mobile phone on the market right now, and has rubber grips to ensure that it won't scratch or damage your phone. The clamp is tight without being overly constricting, and the screws are easy to manipulate, allowing you to tweak the angle of your phone when it's sitting in the housing.
The Travel Kit clip does what it says on the tin, perfectly fitting your Xbox controller and phone for a portable Xbox gaming experience, but there are some annoyances with this product that shows a lack of design vision from Venom.
What I disliked about the Venom Travel Kit
The most annoying thing about many of the Xbox controller phone clips on the market right now is the fact that they're not designed to be set down on a table. Put your controller down, and the whole thing will just flop backward under the weight of the phone. This is a pretty lazy design and shows Venom didn't really test out the product before adding its name to it.
Some of the controller clips I've used, such as the PowerA Moga Clip or the Jovitech Phone Clip either come with dual-hinge mounts so you can center the gravity a bit better or an additional flip-out stand to let you balance the controller on a table when you have to put it down. And obviously, there will be times you have to set the thing down.
Additionally, the carrying case itself is strangely and needlessly bulky. The Xbox controller fills up one side of the case quite nicely and is held in place by a net on the opposite side of the case, which has more than enough room to contain a cable and perhaps some other bits and bobs.
Personally, I feel like this could have been a lot smaller, given that it's supposed to be a "travel" kit. As someone who is a frequent flyer (at least before the pandemic), I wouldn't use this case, simply because of the amount of extra space it would take up in my luggage.
Should you buy the Venom Travel Kit?
The Venom Travel Kit is a decent product and well-priced, given what it includes. Not only do you get a decent rechargeable battery that provides at least a day's worth of gaming, but you also get a high-quality hard-shell case and a phone clip that, at the very least, does the job.
When you break down the kit product-by-product, some of it seems a little half-baked. The clip needs some additional stabilizer so you can put the controller down without it sliding all over the place, and the travel case is strangely large for something Venom expects you to carry around. Either way, if you need all of the products in this bundle, £20 is a truly great price.
Right now, the whole kit is only available from Amazon UK, but the phone clip will soon be sold separately on Amazon US for $11.
A solid package
Venom Project xCloud Mobile Gaming Travel Kit
Take your Venom mobile.
The Venom Travel Kit is a high-value bundle. At just £20, you do get a lot of stuff, even if each of those individual products aren't particularly amazing in their own right.
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