Zwift has launched their new Zwift Play and kindly sent me a set, which I have been having a play around with.
So what did I think? Let me tell you……
What Is Zwift Play?
When I was contacted by Zwift, I will be honest, I had not heard of this so was intrigued. A relatively small box turned up and I quickly fitted them to my bike to check it out.
I was sceptical and must admit I didn’t really get it. I use my set up with Apple TV and Companion App on my phone, which I have on my bars using a Quad Lock and it works well. However, I was pleasantly surprised that the controllers can be used for not just steering but also accessing settings, which is much easier.
Is It Easy To Set Up?
The controllers are clearly market left and right, easy to attach to the handlebars and out of the box there are also spacers if you require them.
- Log into Zwift you can connect via the pairing screen as easy as you would for heart rate or cadence sensor for example.
- Press the Zwift button and the light will come on and it will power on.
- You can see paired devices including battery life for the controllers too.
- Then you are pretty much good to go!
- Good to go after a short tutorial, which explains how to use them.
How Does It Work With Apple TV?
As I mentioned earlier I was pleasantly surprised that the controllers can be used for not just steering but also accessing settings, which is much easier.
When pairing using Apple TV, this is limited to 2 devices so in setting up I had to use the Companion App for this.
What Did I Really Think?
All of the pics I had seen showed the controllers level but I found that due to the handlebar drop I was unable to get them level unless I was to roll my bars right up, which I don’t want to do as it is set up following a bike fit.
The steering can be done both on the road and at junctions without having to use the app/Apple TV controller to select anything, which is much easier when you have the options of straight/left/right. I find depending on the road or if I am doing a structured training session the last thing I want to do is mess around too.
Think of the menu options and ease of use at your fingertips including power ups, ride ons, drafting (always a winner) and braking (which I have accidentally used more than once!).
I use Zwift with my road bike but I have seen others use with a mountain bike and I can’t see how these would work for that or bikes with flat bars in general and TT specific bikes too. Basically you need drop bars to use these.
It can be a little bit laggy and it did drop a couple of times.
Battery life says 20 hours and I have not had to charge mine but you can do this whilst riding, which is handy.
They are currently £99, whilst in beta, on the Zwift website so you can save £50 right now. Depending on how much you use Zwift this could be seen as really reasonable or a lot of money for a bit of functionality. Check out the technical requirements here before you purchase to make sure they are compatible with your set up.
Product was gifted but all opinions are my own.
[…] set up I had some of the Zwift add ons such as Zwift Play (which you can ready my review of here). With the new set up this is built in functionality to the bike frame so I can essentially so […]