Accessories: GAMEware Link and Charge Cable (PS Vita)

I can remember the old days of hand held consoles with the original Gameboy. Power was never really an issue with it’s longevity and even when the batteries did run low all you had to do was pop open the battery cover and just slip in a couple of fresh ones. It’s not as easy these days – more powerful systems require more intense power supplies and without heavy duty rechargeable batteries at the heart of the units we’d barely be able to use our Vitas for more than a few minutes with a couple of AA batteries inside them!

As is the norm these days for most chargers – whether it’s for a tablet, phone or the PS Vita – the one supplied in the original box also doubled up as a link cable between the Vita and the PC for use with Content Manager for transferring videos, pictures and most importantly games to make the most use out of our memory cards. However, these cables don’t last forever as I found out recently so what do you do when the Vita / USB cable needs replacing? You can either buy a replacement power lead or look to a cheaper alternative with one of the many third party link and charge cables on the market and that’s what I decided to do with this one from retail giant GAME…

Released under their GAMEware brand, it looks fairly unassuming and blandly packaged in their generic white and purple box. From the outside it looks cheap and the first impression you get is that you’re not likely to get anything particularly worth spending your money on. Opening the box carries on this – you’ve got the bagged cable itself and a small sheet with details of the one-year guarantee in five languages. No instructions are included although GAME no doubt felt that anyone purchasing this would already know what to do with it!

On closer examination, the cable itself seems slightly thinner than the original one supplied with the Vita but is considerably longer coming in at 2m long making it much easier to use when charging or connecting to the PC for use with Content Manager. With the original cable that was alway a main gripe that I had as I had little flexibility in where I could position my PS Vita when connecting it either to my PC or PS3 via USB with such a relatively short lead but that’s not a problem with this lead.

The connections at either end seem tight and secure. The standard USB plug fits nicely into the power supply and over at the Vita end it’s a comfortable fit and you’re never left with any concerns about the cable coming loose during usage. Normally with my PS Vita I either use it on battery power around the house or travelling or on mains power for late night gaming sessions in bed but with the reduced thickness of the cable I’ll be honest and say that I’m a lot less confident in using this in the long term running off the mains so I am tempted to use this predominately as a link and charging cable rather than as a mains power lead although I would guess that it’s not the main purpose of this lead anyway. You will need an adapter only if you travel a lot, as power sockets Japan, for example, are completely different.

As with most of the GAMEware range, it’s been aimed at a low budget market and it certainly does the job well. Transferring files to and from the PC works quickly enough so I have no problems with the performance as a USB lead and I haven’t experienced any issues charging either so it’s served it’s purpose admirably. If you’re in need of a replacement cable or just want to make sure that you have a spare on hand incase the worst happens, then you could do far worse than getting yourself one of these.

Simon Plumbe

At A Glance