Function, form, convenience and aesthetics culminate in making the Fuel VR Docking Station for the Meta Quest 2 an essential purchase
- Manufacturer: Turtle Beach
- Model: Fuel VR Charging Dock
- Price: £69.99 (MSRP)
- Supported Platform/s: Meta Quest 2
- Supplied by: Turtle Beach
Turtle Beach Fuel VR Charging Dock Review
Turtle Beach’s Fuel VR Docking Station is an elegant solution to a common problem. The Meta Quest 2 is a phenomenal device, making the wonders of VR gaming accessible and wire-free. There is a whole lot to love about the Quest 2, but two things I struggled with were its battery life and storage. Out of the box, the Quest 2 has around two good hours of playtime, and when you have finished, it needs to be put down, charged, and then stored.
With no additional storage or charging accessories included with the Quest 2, this means finding somewhere to leave it plugged in charging and then having it perched awkwardly in your room or using the box it ships in as a permanent part of your space, which is not ideal. You’ll also need either a steady supply of environmentally unfriendly disposable AA batteries for your controllers, or separate rechargeable AA batteries with yet another charger.
The Turtle Beach Fuel VR Docking Station solves that exact issue. It is exactly what you want it to be, providing a simple, clean-looking solution for charging and storage of the Quest 2. With a minimal footprint, it slides perfectly into the Kallax unit my partner insists we have in our living room (IKEA Kallax is amazing, she has good taste! -Ed) and it doesn’t look out of place or messy like some of the VR storage solutions I have seen.
The Fuel VR uses just enough space to comfortably fit and display your Quest 2 without becoming bulky, and it manages to accent the look rather than take it over. Its mainly white plastic body is paired with a dark grey soft-touch layer on the inside of the headset and controller ports as well as on the base of the dock. This provides a complementary monotone theme that nicely matches the design of the Quest 2. Completing the look is a clean Turtlebeach logo on the front face and three small LED indicators. It doesn’t stand out too much, with a stylish, modern and more grown-up look, which is exactly what I look for in a dock.
The Fuel VR doesn’t just stop at being a nice-looking dock, though. Turtlebeach has taken it a step further by integrating a magnetic charging connector for the headset and contact-point charging for the controllers for a no-fuss solution to keeping your Quest 2 topped up and ready to go.
The dock ships with a magnetic USB-C dongle, two rechargeable batteries and two battery covers for the controllers. Once these are installed on your Quest 2, you simply pop your controllers and headset into their slots and they will automatically start charging.
The three charging indicator LEDs on the front identify the current status of the controllers and headset. They illuminate orange when the devices are connected, and will turn green once they are fully charged. This provides a useful at-a-glance check that you’ve seated everything properly on the Fuel VR, and also shows when everything is fully charged and ready to go.
The Quest 2 headset connects the second it’s in range thanks to the magnetic charging dongle; Even if you pop it into the Fuel VR slightly offset, it doesn’t matter. However, I had a slight issue correctly seating the controllers within the Fuel VR Charging Dock. Most of the time they connect fine, but the controllers need to be placed perfectly to begin charging. The controller slots feature a divot cutout for the wrist strap. You need to run the retaining piece up the wrist strap or the controllers don’t seat properly and won’t charge, which is unnecessarily finicky. It takes some getting used to, and sometimes you will need to pick the controller up and reseat it to get it going.
It’s a very minor complaint, and most times I have found it just needed a wiggle to get it going, but there has been the odd occasion where I haven’t noticed it hasn’t seated and come back to an unbalanced charge state when playing next. Fortunately, the controllers’ batteries far outlast the Quest 2 headset’s battery, so one missed charge won’t mean you are unable to play.
Another thing I do not consider a con but that is worth considering is that the Fuel VR will not work when using the Quest 2 Elite strap with battery. The Elite strap with battery plugs into the USB-C of the Quest 2, which would occupy the slot needed for the magnetic dongle. You could of course charge it separately with another cable and plug it all back in afterwards, but this is a less clean and straightforward method. Considering the Fuel VR is chiefly designed to simplify storage and charging, there may be better solutions if you rely on the extra battery capacity of the Elite strap and battery (I never spend more than two hours on my Quest 2, but this will depend on your play habits and needs.)
Construction-wise the Fuel VR feels great, which we’ve come to expect from Turtle Beach. The materials all feel sturdy and well-constructed, and so far I can’t see any issue with its build quality. All tolerances are nice and tight and the finish looks and feels good enough, though it lacks the feel of a high-end premium product. The Anker dock I tried a year or so back had a more premium feel, but it was also almost double the price for the same result, so it will be personal preference whether you would like to save some money and use it to pick up some of the best current VR games (like Pavlov VR, Ghosts of Tabor or Walkabout Minigolf VR).
Comparing the Fuel VR dock with the Anker dock, however, is exactly where I will truly sing the Fuel VR’s praises. The Fuel’s footprint is nice and compact, not wide and spread out like the Anker, and it’s not tall and obnoxious with an array of needless RGB like so many docks/ storage solutions I have seen over the years. Turtle Beach understands that the Quest 2 is something you might want to store neatly and not be forced to have on display (especially when after two years of use, and despite multiple attempts at cleaning, the Quest 2’s white paint job has seen better days.)
The Fuel VR Charging Dock feels like it has fully embraced providing storage over creating a display centrepiece, but still orienting itself in a pleasingly aesthetic way possible. I have seen plenty of docks where the controllers sit in front of the headset and it looks horrid. I much prefer Turtle Beach’s solution – hide the controllers, straps and headband at the back so the front can just be a clean white headset, three little LEDs and a nice Turtlebeach logo.
Summary
The Turtle Beach Fuel VR Docking Station is by far my favourite Quest 2 dock that I have used. It is small enough to fit tidily in a compact unit, it has a clean design, and it does its job very well. The Fuel VR dock elevates the Quest 2 experience, completing the part of the session that felt like it was missing by providing a smart and tidy solution to storing and charging an otherwise bulky and ungainly product.
Now, rather than fumbling with that huge box or a case, then unplugging cables and messing around with batteries, you just pick up your fully charged Quest 2 and controllers, have your fun, and then dock them back in ready for next time – It just feels right.
