Zoom’s Gamepoint! wireless adapter offers solid support for console play

Any gamer who plays online knows that wires can be a huge pain when it comes to setting up your gear. Unless you’re in the same room as your broadband connection, you’re up a creek if you want to take your system online. Therefore, a solid wireless adapter is a necessity to play over the net with your console. Enter Zoom and their Gamepoint! adapter. Zoom’s adapter offers a solid connection that’s free of lag for a pretty good price.

Connecting the Zoom Gamepoint! is a snap. All you have to do is connect it to a computer with a broadband connection, do a few configurations to set it up to your home network, and you’re good to game. There are no required installations or anything, and the enclosed installation guides are easy to follow even for the most computer illiterate of us out there. After the configuration, you’re good to connect to your PS2, Xbox or 360.

The adapter offers very solid performance, with no lag or dips in connection. Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence’s great online mode was tested on the PS2, and the game’s connection was fluid and showed no breaks. Halo 2 was tested on the Xbox (and, seriously, why wouldn’t it be?), and the game played very smoothly, which was a godsend considering the game’s fast pace and intense gameplay.

If there is one sore spot in the Gamepoint!, it could be considered the adapter’s PC performance. While the adapter is ideal for console performance, it did experience some lag issues and slowdown when attempting to do things like downloads and so on. This also became an issue when trying to use the adapter with the 360’s media center functionality, as there was a noticeable drop in speeds when streaming music to the console. Then again, this adapter is primarily geared towards console gaming anyway, and not really much else.

The Zoom Gamepoint! wireless adapter is a solid adapter that offers great performance at a good forty dollars less than Microsoft’s Xbox 360 wireless adapter. While the game’s PC performance leaves a bit to be desired, the console gaming aspects are a great deal for the price.

Pros:
Great performance at a great price. Easy installation.

Cons:
PC web browsing and downloading felt a little gimped, as was the Xbox 360’s media center functionality.

Overall: 9.0
A great adapter for getting your console online and won’t break the bank.