Good Morning Folks! I am a sucker for a new controller because I seem to be on this eternal search for the perfect one. I have three hanging show storage units full of controllers that I have bought over the years, each of them with its own foibles. In the mobile space, I have been on a similar journey of trying to find the perfect controller that will turn my phone into a switch-like device. I’ve talked about this search before in the past, and have even tried the original Razer Kishi device. The core problem that I had with that device is it is connected by essentially an elastic band, which led to a certain amount of torsion as I apparently apply more force with one hand than the other. The end result was a controller that felt comfortable in the actual controls, but flimsy as a complete unit in the hand. When I saw that there was a revision in the works and that they were obviously taking notes from the Apple exclusive Backbone controller, I was interested… at least enough to purchase one. Please note that this entire post is going to largely be for Android users only. If you are in the Orchard and have an Apple device, just get the Backbone controller and call it good.
My unit arrived yesterday, roughly three days after I placed my order. This seemed pretty fast considering that I ordered directly from Razer instead of going through a service like Amazon with an already proven delivery track record. One of the things that initially excited me about this controller was the thumb sticks and how much they reminded me of the Nintendo Switch. This initial impression however appears to be cosmetic only, because the thumbstick is probably the deal breaker for me but I will get into those specific complaints a bit later. Essentially the device has a thing backplane that telescopes and a combination of a swappable rubber pad and a top lip that holds the device in place. The device comes with two sets of pads, essentially a thick set and a thin set and if you were so inclined with a 3D printer… it would be pretty easy to bang out a set of pads to fit the exact gap of your phone.
There is a fairly standard assortment of face buttons, and some of the best triggers I have seen on one of these wrap around mobile controllers. In addition to the standard bumpers and triggers, you have a second pair of buttons which are by default mapped to A and B but all of the buttons can be remapped using the Razer Nexus software. At first, I have to admit I was concerned about maybe hitting the little inset face buttons when I was pressing a trigger since I have notoriously large hands, but in the middle of the action, it feels very comfortable. The grip design also felt extremely comfortable in my hand as I played through a handful of different games over the several hours that I have already spent with the device. However, let’s get into the problems I found with the device.
The Case Against
First, let’s start with the Thumbsticks that I hinted at earlier. There is something odd about them and the comparison to Switch is only at a surface level because these do not feel good to use. It is really hard to pin down the problem but it is something about the thumbstick height and the actuation that end up feeling like a very shallow experience and remind me of what it felt like to use the thumbstick on a Vita. The rubber surface also feels a bit too soft for this controller and I would be concerned that after a hundred hours of regular usage, that it would begin to rip and tear, as I could already feel it giving underneath my thumbs. Again this could entirely be a “big hands” problem, but I am uncertain.
Another problem that I found more annoying than anything is the layout of the face buttons. I’ve become used to the “switch layout” of the miscellaneous buttons and as such, I have gotten used to the equivalent of “Start” and “Select” being towards the top of the controller and “share” and “home” being towards the bottom of the controller. On the Kishi V2, the “select” button is the “…” icon and appears in the correct place, however, the “pancake stack” icon is the one that represents “start”. It is placed underneath the home button on the controller, so your thumb always finds home before it does start leading you to accidentally press it. The functionality of “home” on this controller is thoroughly useless because it is designed to launch the Razer Nexus app, which will kick you out of whatever game you were playing. Similarly, the functionality of “Share” instead of just being mapped to an android screenshot, takes you to some built-in game streaming functionality within the Nexus App, which is a less than ideal option.
Then we get to the Razer Nexus app itself, which on the positive allows you to remap all of the buttons on your controller in order to support whatever layout you might need. The negative is this appears to be a global change and while the software itself offers the ability to launch into all of the games installed on your device, does not appear to offer any per-game profiling. I was honestly excited for a moment when I first saw the software because I thought maybe it might have some sort of built-in screen mapping to add in support for games that have no controller support out of the box. That unfortunately is not the case, it is instead an attempt to create a store-like interface that simply shows you games that are available in some form on Android, with the top row being games you actually have installed. As far as the game streaming option that I spoke of before, it seems to only support Facebook and YouTube… with seemingly no support for Twitch.
Now let’s use the coolest Razer website product shot to maybe blunt the impact of what I consider to be the worst problem. Remember I said that my core problem with the Razer Kishi V1 was the torsion issue, where I apparently apply uneven pressure to the two sides of the controller causing it to twist and feel like it is putting pressure on the phone? I have the same problem, admittedly to a lesser degree with the Kishi V2. The central backplate is significantly better than the elastic band design, but the strength of what I can only assume are elastic bands in the central column is not enough to hold your device securely. There is still a lot of twisting that takes place while I am playing games and I have to treat the controller very carefully for fear of twisting my phone in the process. The plastic is thin and the entire device feels a little on the flimsy side, which does not help the feeling that I could twist it in half taking my phone with it.
The Better Option
It is for all of these negatives that I can not recommend a purchase. I personally still recommend the Gamesir X2, and honestly, the only reason why I continue looking for other options is the fact that I would love to be able to play games on my phone without having to shuck it out of the case. I thought maybe just maybe since I have a Razer V2 Phone and a Razer-made thermal case… that someone inside their design lab would have taken this specific combination into account. That is not the case and I am forever likely to keep having to pop my phone out of its case in order to use any of these controllers. The Gamesir as a whole just feels like a more solid option. The wider points of contact with the phone essentially stop the whole torsion problem, and the thumbstick is at an ideal height… even if I wish the thumbstick pads themselves were a bit bigger. Then you have the face buttons thing, where they are more in line with the Switch standard that the rest of the android controllers use.
Then you have the price. While both controllers started out at $100, the Gamesir X2 has been around long enough to regularly be on sale somewhere in the range of $50, or potentially cheaper if you are willing to risk some sketchy Chinese websites. Razer could however make up all of this ground if they would do something useful with their Nexus application. If they added in screen mapping functionality, I feel like this entire discussion would shift significantly. That is a killer app that Backbone does, but none of the Android options seem to be able to do it. Technically I have software that will do it… but it requires so damned much work in order to get it working on a non-Rooted phone. Again if you are an Apple user then your choice is simple, just get the Backbone controller as it does pretty much anything you could want it to do.
Again the Razer Kishi V2 is a massive improvement over the original design, but when compared to other offerings I just cannot recommend it. If you are nonetheless still interested, here are links to the controllers I talked about during this post. Note, that Amazon seems to be completely sold out so you will have to go directly to Razer.
Wow, I would not have pinned those at that price point. But maybe it’s just me, not having bought a console controller since the 360 launched and buying Android phones for 300 bucks…
Even more astonishing that they’re not rock solid and useful 🙁