Cost: $29.99
Receive: Xbox Chatpad, Chatpad Headset
Xbox once again has come up with an innovative accessory for the console’s controller (YAY). This product’s cost is great because its like buying a headset and receiving a chatpad (DOUBLE YAY) for free. But this bundle is far from perfect my friends, read on to hear my thoughts of pros and cons (mostly cons) of this product (-yay?)
I’m going to get straight to the point with this review. The chatpad is a nice size and is in the form of a qwerty keyboard. The buttons are easy to reach with your thumbs, and the keys light up so its great for the smelly kids who sit in the dark by themselves (no offense to smelly kids who sit in the dark by themselves).
If you’re using Windows Live Messenger with your Xbox, then this chatpad will be great for you. When your push the Messenger key on the pad it opens up a small window, even if you’re watching a movie or playing a game. In this window you can chat with any contacts that you have on your Messenger contact list, and when you close this window you can go right back to what you are doing without worrying about missing a message. The Messenger key will even light up when you are being “chatted” with.
The chatpad plugs straight into the bottom of the controller and the two pieces of plastic slide into the controller’s bottom two cylinder “screw holes”. The chatpad stays firmly connected to the controller, so there are no worries about it falling out or breaking. It is very durable and you would probably have to try fairly hard to destroy it.
Under the chatpad is a small port that you can plug a headset into. Only headset that comes with the chatpad will work in this port, because other mics have those black thingamajiggers in them that will not fit into the chatpad. I also found that cellphone mics will work in this port, along with any Xbox controller… I like to spread tidbits.
The headset you receive with this chatpad may be one of the top 10 things that will make you blow a blood vessel while playing online! The sound is alright and everyone on the other end can hear you, but instead of the mute being at the end of the port, they place is right in the middle of cord. You may be thinking that that wouldn’t bother you much, but when you’re playing online, and something horrible happens to you like online heart attack or something, you try to find that mute button so that you can yell “@$*(&^#” (you’re supposed to yell a curse word not ATDOLLARASTERIXRIGHTBRACEANDUPTHINGWITHNUMBERSIGN). So instead of being healthy and letting out your anger you just mumble mean things while using one hand to try not to die and the other hand trying to find that mute button, or to strangle a kitten!
Now that I have that mic problem out of the way I can focus on the flaws of the chatpad. If you’re not ready, then do not read on because I am about to use my con throw-up maneuver to get this all out.
-the chatpad’s lights go off in about 6 seconds, so that if you are in the dark you no longer know where to start when you enter into a conversation
-sometimes the buttons won’t react when you touch them so your message ends up looking like “he baby akes, anna g out soe tim”
-the window will often take 5 seconds to pop-up and 5 seconds to close, not to mention that if you’re playing a game you are then useless while this window is doing its own thing
-I still can’t get over that dumb mute button!
-Hard to get into the controller. I sometimes thought that I may be breaking something by hitting it on a table to get the chatpad locked into the controller (just kidding… a little bit)
-chatpad adds weight to the controller and that could effect the way you play games (or, even worse, give you unsightly muscular arms)
Now I know that I have said a lot of bad things about this accessory, but I’m going to give it a
7/10
I only recommend this product once your regular headset breaks or if you have hotmail buddies who can’t get enough of you.
Also worthy of note: you can just plug pretty much any USB keyboard into the 360 and it will instantly accept it and make it usable for all manner of text entry. This is often the better way to go, especially if you can afford a wireless one.