The Xbox 360 Messenger Kit comes in that awful plastic packaging that you cut yourself trying to get into - but once you get past that initial hell, you'll find yourself with a very respectable product.
The Messenger Kit includes both a chatpad & an xbox 360 headset. I should mention now however that the headset that comes with this kit is not the original headset that we are all used to. The difference with this headset is that the volume & mute controls are in different locations to the previous headset. Previously the controls were located on a piece of plastic that connected to your controller, however now the controls are located half way up the wire that leads to your ear.
The location of the volume & mute controls may bother those gamers who like to have the mute button at their finger tips, but you soon get used to reaching up to the wire to mute yourself - it's really not a problem.
The chat pad itself connects to the bottom of your xbox 360 controller and then the headset connects to the bottom of the chat pad. The weight of the chat pad is quite light, so gaming whilst having it connected to your controller is by no means uncomfortable.
Typing on the chat pad does take some getting used to, however after about 10 minutes you soon get used to it and you'll be typing fast in no time. Gone are the days of spending 10 minutes writing a message to your friend on that on-screen keyboard, hoorah !
The chat pad has a neat little feature whereby if you're playing a game, you can press a shortcut key and a small msn window will appear at the bottom of the screen where you can scroll through your conversations and type to your friends from there. Press the shortcut key again and it disappears - simple & it saves a lot of time going through the xbox guide button.
The chat pad's build quality is very good, despite not weighing very much the parts of the plastic that are at their thinnest are still rather thick, I believe you would have a tough time breaking the plastic. Dropping the chat pad on the floor most likely would not damage it apart from possible scratches. The keys themselves are very flat, so keys coming loose would be a very rare occurance unless you had very long nails and purposely tried to dislodge them.
I'd recommend this product to anyone who frequently sends messages via xbox live, or people who play a lot of games that require you to name your items, etc. People with large fingers may want to give this a miss as obviously each of the keys is rather small so it's possible to hit 2 keys with one push. The headset is exactly the same as the original except for the location of the volume & mute controls so you know what to expect when it comes to the headset.
The RRP of this product is £24.99 but at the time of writing can be purchased from Gameplay.co.uk for £19.99. Slightly expensive, but in my opinion it's worth the money.
Advantages:
Light Comes with headset Easy to use Comfortable
Disadvantages:
Slightly expensive at RRP Keys may be too small for large fingers Volume & Mute controls location may bother some users
Thanks for reading, I hope this helps you make a decision. :)
Summary: Another solid product from Microsoft. Comes with the usual high price tag, but it's worth the buy.
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Review also published on DooYoo
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Jan 19th, 2009
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