In the end, KFC cancelled it from their side. Wasted so much time. If there aren't any delivery partners available, just don't accept my order swiggy.
It took my all to not start swearing lol.
DISCLAIMER: IINE sent me these controllers to review for free. They don't pay me anything else for this. This doesn’t affect my opinions in any way, and the brand did not preview this review before posting. All opinions here are honest, unbiased, and my own.
I have also posted this review on hlplanet, so in case you also come across that, it wasn't copied. Anyways, here's the intro <3
I love carrying a controller with me to play games on the go on my smartphone. Modern phones are powerful enough to even emulate windows games. But the nature of the usual controller is such that it takes up a ton of space in my backpack. So I was interested in getting one of these pocketable controllers that I’ve been seeing, and I came across the IINE Retro Pocket controller. It looked perfect, and unlike some of its counterparts, it even has full fledged analog sticks!
It’s pretty affordable at just $28. I’ve been using it for a while now, and in this review, I’ll share my views on the controller. It has been perfect for my use case, but for the purpose of this review I also tested it in different scenarios such as proper PC gaming ranging from platformers to racing games to even FPS games. And through this testing I have formed my opinions.
This compact controller also comes in a pretty compact box. The plastic window in the front shows off the controller and it's quite appealing to the eye. In the box we get :
Information from product listing followed by my own verification and testing
SOME STANDOUT FEATURES :
The IINE Retro pocket is a cutie. I love the aesthetic choices made here, and IINE does it without compromising on functionality.
The build quality is solid - no creaking or flexing or rattling. Just a solid little plastic slab in your palm. It has a bit of a hollow feeling to it, but in return it's super lightweight. All the buttons and moving parts are seated well in the shell and they don't wobble when using.
In terms of ergonomics, well... this controller is about as ergonomic as this form factor can get. If you spend multiple hours at a time playing grueling platformers like Celeste on this controller, chances are you'll get cramps in your hands (especially if your hands are as large as mine). The one button that is particularly challenging in my experience is the L1 and R1 buttons. I managed to work around this limitation by using the first section of my finger to press them instead of the fingertip.
All in all, it's a good experience. I love that it's flat and slim. It's very easy to store anywhere. I've been carrying it in the card holder slot of my backpack and at other times in my pocket. It's perfect. It doesn't accidentally turn on or anything either because the power button is at the top next to the L2 bumper, which makes it very difficult to hit accidentally. And even if you do hit it on accident, it only turns on when you hold the button down for a second.
To my surprise, the IINE Pocket Retro controller comes with Hall Effect sticks. This is great for longevity. The sticks are fairly accurate and they're decently smooth to use. It's not a flawless smooth glide like in the Mobapad Chitu 2 that I reviewed recently, but it's a sufficiently pleasant experience. My gauge for whether a stick mechanism is smooth enough or not is whether it disappears into the background when I'm playing games or not. These ones do, hence they're sufficient. Pressing L3 and R3 feels nice and tactile.
The purple variant comes with a slightly different thumbstick design as you can see in the photo.
The included taller stick caps are quite nice. They fit well and don't slide around at all. I would have liked it if the material was a little grippier, but this hasn't hampered my experience at all.
The D-pad here is a simple membrane dome d-pad. It's a cross shaped d-pad, and it feels a tad mushy. There is enough tactility in the 4 directions but it lacks feedback during diagonal inputs. I've had missed diagonals more than a few times with this D-Pad unfortunately. It's especially inaccurate if you "roll" into a diagonal from a primary directional input. This is the one and only real downside of this controller in my opinion.
The central pivot prevents pressing all four directions at once, but you can still kinda press the centre down, which feels a little wonky. Doesn't really affect your experience when actually playing a game though, it's only noticeable when you deliberately press the centre.
The Retro Pocket controller has membrane ABXY buttons. They're pretty good! The buttons have a good amount of resistance and the bounce-back feels nice and quick. There's a nice amount of tactility to it too. The buttons are pretty small, reminiscent of Gameboy buttons. I thought it wouldn't be comfortable but due to the use of a flat top instead of convex as we see in Xbox controllers, it's quite comfortable.
The buttons are responsive and I have yet to miss an input on them.
The NS variant comes with switch layout BAXY buttons, While the PC version comes with Xbox layout ABXY buttons. This doesn't really matter much because you can swap between X-input and switch mode with a simple button combination. This is the only difference between the two variants aside from the available colours.
There are no "triggers" in this controller, so to say. L1, L2, R1, and R2 are all present as shoulder bumpers. Makes sense in such a compact form factor. The buttons have a decent tactile feedback. R2 and L2 are mechanical microswitches and L1 and R1 feel like membrane switches.
The position of R2 and L2 (or ZR and ZL if you have the switch variant like me) is perfect. It sits right under my index fingertip and is comfortable to press. R1 and L1 on the other hand are a little too far out for my large hands. They make up for this positioning by being very large, encompassing the entire corner of the controller where they sit, so you can press them with the first section of your finger if you would like to.
Having vibration in this form factor is quite the surprise, but the rumble here is weird. It's that really buzzy type of rumble like you're holding a bumblebee, except it also rattles some plastics and cables which makes a pretty annoying high pitched noise - like you know when something goes wrong with a hard disk? Kind of like that. I suppose that comes with the form factor of this little cutie.
I recommend using the rumble at low or off setting, but perhaps you won't mind the noise. Speaking of, the vibration intensity is adjustable with simple button shortcuts.
The IINE Retro Pocket controller has a 600mah battery which lasts from 20-24 hours in my usage. I keep rumble at low or off setting. With higher vibration intensity, you might run out of juice a little quicker.
The controller charges quite quickly. I got up to full charge from 25% in just 2 hours.
In wired mode the controller performs well and has a stable 1000hz polling rate with unnoticeable latency (I don't have the tools to test the exact latency numbers so I tested it using slow motion camera on my phone at 240fps and it was still really difficult to discern, so safe to say it's not noticeable by the naked eye)
In bluetooth mode, the polling rate is 160hz and there is noticeable, but inconsequential latency. Every controller will have this miniscule amount of latency at this polling rate with the Nintendo switch. It won't be noticeable at the low refresh rate screens that the Switch and Switch 2 have.
All in all the performance numbers are good.
There’s also no issues such as disconnecting or skipped inputs in my experience with android, windows and nintendo switch.
The software is good. It does all the basics right and it’s quite lightweight.
It’s quite a nice controller for what it sets out to be. Will it replace your primary controller? Most likely not. But it’s an excellent travel companion thanks to it’s incredibly pocket friendly design and it’s long lasting battery life. I recommend this controller for what it sets out to do, and it has earned a permanent spot in my backpack.
This doesn’t mean that it’s perfect though. It could have had a better D-Pad and a nicer R1/L1 bumper. But these are downsides that I personally can overlook easily.
Thanks for reading! 💕
DISCLAIMER : I bought this controller on my own and I haven't been paid or anything for this review. All thoughts here are honest and my own.
Also, I posted this review on hlplanet.com as well. So if you see it there, know that it isn't plagiarised or whatever.
GameSir is well known by now in the controller community. They make reliable, trustworthy controllers for a wide range of budgets. I knew that the Tegenaria Lite existed, but I never really considered buying one because it just looks like a basic, one note, wired controller. But I recently got to use the 8BitDo Ultimate 2C wired, and that impressed me. Being in the same price bracket as the Tegenaria Lite, I was curious as to whether this GameSir controller is comparable to the 8BitDo competitor.
So I bought one, and I've been very impressed by it. I've been using it for a couple of weeks now, and I've enjoyed my time with it. There are compromises, of course, but the whole package is pretty well balanced for this price. I'll show you why I think so in this review.
There's not much to see here. It's a simple box with the controller features listed on it, and it contains:
The Tegenaria Lite sports a pretty clean aesthetic. It's a simple grey colour with dark grey accents (the buttons, sticks, etc.) This colour is reminiscent of the PS1 to a degree, and it looks very nice. The back half of the controller is a dark grey which gives it that nice “shadow” aesthetic that I enjoyed in the GameSir Nova 2 Lite.
The other colour options are a white and a green and orange special edition. I do like them, but the grey is probably the easiest one to maintain, which is why I got this one. I would've gotten the green otherwise.
The shape of the Tegenaria Lite is reminiscent of a PS4 DualShock 4 controller, with shoulder buttons like the PS5 DualSense controller. It's very comfortable to hold, and the back half of the handles have a laser engraved texture on the plastic which helps add grip to the controller. It could have been a grippier texture, as the texture here isn't the best, nor is it the deepest, but it suffices for this lightweight controller.
All the buttons are placed in very ergonomic positions that are super easy to reach naturally. I especially like the position of the start and select buttons. On other similar controllers such as the 8BitDo Pro 3, you will find these buttons in the centre, which is a fairly difficult to reach spot. The placement in the Tegenaria lite is great.
The M button is multicoloured and has a customizable RGB light around it. I like this little touch.
The big empty space in the front has been filled with the GameSir logo. This looks nice but… it has potential for custom paintwork or stickers. The build quality is excellent and there isn't any creaking or sharp edges or anything of the sort. It feels solid in the hand. Since there isn't a battery inside this wired controller, the weight is also quite low. The cable is attached to the controller and cannot be removed. There seems to be ample breakage protection, but I would still have liked to see a detachable cable here.
Specifications are from GameSir website plus my own verification & observation.
Coming from other GameSir controllers, the sticks feel familiar. The Tegenaria Lite is equipped with Hall Effect sticks, and they perform well. The stick caps are grippy, and feel good under the thumb.
The joystick tension here is a little lower than what I usually prefer. I don't mind it though, and have found this comfortable for all genres and titles.
The stick centering isn't super snappy like you will find in the more expensive GameSir controllers, but it's not slow either. It's fine, and honestly reminds me of a DualShock 4 (PS4) controller. There is no inner deadzone by default, which makes this an excellent option for fine control, like in FPS games. You can enable deadzone on each stick individually with button shortcuts.
I don't see any metal anti-friction rings. So, while these sticks feel quite smooth right now, over time they will probably develop some roughness. This won't make them perform any worse, it'll just feel a little scratchier.
The circularity test looks good, and more importantly, the sticks recenter at 0.00002, which is a sign of proper recentering in hall effect sticks.
I was pleasantly surprised by the face buttons here. Even though they are membrane-based, they avoid the mushy feel that I dislike on cheap controllers. There is a tactile feel when you push the rubber dome down. It feels as good as any first party controller.
The flat profile of the ABXY buttons also lends to a unique feel which adds to the “stable” feeling of the buttons.
The START and SELECT buttons are tactile mechanical buttons, and the HOME and CAPTURE buttons are rubber buttons, like you would find on the START and SELECT buttons on a Game Boy.
The M button is also a tactile button. You use it to set macros, adjust settings, and utilize the mapping function.
The D-Pad works well. It's a membrane D-pad with a nice central pivot. If you've ever used a DualShock 4 or even a DualSense controller, you'll know how mushy and icky the D-Pad on those feel. The D-Pad on the Tegenaria Lite is significantly more tactile and stable. There is zero wobble, and the diagonal inputs are quite precise, thanks to the well implemented central pivot.
The bumpers are pretty good. Visually, they're reminiscent of the Dualsense controller. It's a pretty stable and tactile feeling membrane button. It's not as tactile as a mechanical bumper, but it's tactile enough that you won't not notice it. No complaints for the price here.
The triggers are perhaps the most obvious reminder that the Tegenaria Lite is a budget controller. While the rest of the controller has premium features, the triggers feel a bit more “standard” and less premium. They utilize traditional potentiometer-based sensors rather than the hall effect tech used in the analog sticks. This is a bit of a letdown for long-term reliability. While the sticks are essentially immune to drift and wear, these triggers rely on physical contact, meaning they could potentially develop jitter, or lose precision after a year or two of heavy use.
To be fair, a $20 controller working perfectly for a year or two isn't something I would complain about. But it is definitely something to note, so that your expectations from the controller are realistic when making the purchase.
Fully pressed. Not a lot of travel here
The physical throw is also quite shallow. For gamers who primarily play shooters, the shorter travel distance might actually be a benefit, as it allows for slightly faster “bottoming out.”
However, when playing games like Forza or Assetto Corsa, the lack of range here does feel a little limiting. It's harder to feather the throttle or find that sweet spot for braking when you only have a few millimeters of travel to work with. Other genres are more or less unaffected by this short travel.
For a $20 controller, having these back buttons is a pleasant surprise in and of itself. And the buttons are pretty good too. They're nice mechanical buttons with thoughtful placement and enough tension that I don't accidentally actuate them ever.
The back buttons can be mapped to any button on the controller. I always map the back buttons on my controllers to L3 and R3 because I hate pressing down on the sticks when I'm using them for movement. Note that the back buttons can't be used to set macros or in turbo mode.
Pretty decent. The haptics here are basic, standard and good enough. It uses dual asymmetric rumble motors, like a lot of other controllers, and the implementation is good.
The GameSir Tegenaria Lite has turbo functionality. Which means you can set certain buttons such that when you press it, it will repeatedly input that button instead of a “holding” that button. You can change these settings with button shortcuts.
A few features are lacking in this controller. Not that I would even expect any of these out of a $20 controller, but I figured I should still make sure that you, the reader, knows that these features are absent on this controller.
SOFTWARE – The GameSir Connect app is used here but only for firmware updates and controller testing.
GYROSCOPE – There is understandably no gyroscope in this controller.
TRIGGER STOPS – You can only use this in the analog mode. There is also no toggle to make it read it as a digital input.
The latency numbers are excellent. 1000Hz polling rate with about 3-5ms of latency. That's pretty good. Sure, some controllers like the 8bitdo 2C have even lower latency, but you definitely won't notice a difference of 1-2ms.
The GameSir Tegenaria Lite is excellent. Really, really nice for just $20. It cuts the right corners to offer this price too. I only have 2 realistic complaints about this controller:
These are by no means deal breakers, so I can wholeheartedly recommend the Tegenaria Lite for $20. You even get a couple of colour options!
I found a (br)ok(en) phone in my dad's storage room, which had been there for hours. It had a few issues, but the main one was a faltu speaker. I didn't want to spend 5-7k on a speaker, so I connected my old bluetooth speaker to my Poco F1. Now it's working fine. The screen is a basic 1080p one, and the microphone I bought back when I used to play PUBG on my PC. And I'm going to root this; fortunately, it's below android 13. any tips to improve my setup would be helpful. Thank you.
So I just upgraded from a 6800xt to a 9070xt. I was wondering if my 12600k would be good enough for my use case.
Light-medium video editing on Davinci Resolve. This is why I went Intel - quicksync is a lifesaver.
Gaming. Single 1440p 180hz monitor for now, but will be getting a triple screen 1440p 180hz (or higher refresh rate) setup for sim racing soon.
I'm guessing the 12600k will probably be a _bit_ of a bottleneck in some situations but do y'all think it will be too much of a bottleneck often? And if so, what LGA 1700 cpu would be a sensible upgrade?
The Thumbgrips are my own addition :3
This controller was sent to me by Flydigi for review. This doesn’t affect my opinions in any way, and the brand did not preview this review before posting. All opinions here are honest, unbiased, and my own. idk if the brand affiliate tag is appropriate here but I added it just in case.
Flydigi has been one of the most innovative and ambitious controller makers in the past few years. And again, they have launched their line-up of controllers for 2026. The Apex 5 is their flagship controller for this year, and boy is it good. It has been my main controller ever since I got it, and we’ll see why in this review.
P.S. I didn’t make a review earlier because Flydigi has somewhat of a history regarding questionable quality control. So I wanted to make sure that there weren’t any QC issues with my unit.
The Apex 5 comes in a pretty large box. The packaging is great and the presentation feels quite premium. There’s a note from the chief designer in the box, which is a nice touch. In the box, you get -
I also got the separately purchasable charging dock pro 2.
From Flydigi website and my own observations
The Apex 5 looks really cool. It has a futuristic vibe, and looks well put together. All the bits and bobs mesh well together. The RGB is well implemented as well, unlike most other controllers in the market. In this generation of the controller, Flydigi has added a light bar at the bottom of the controller, which highlights the shape and contours of the Apex 5. I'm a fan. All the RGB is very customizable as well!
The Flydigi badge can be replaced with a custom etched badge (implements included in the box)
There are a good number of "Limited edition" variants of the Apex 5 as well, which all look incredibly cool IMO. They cost more and come with some extra accessories usually.
The Apex 5 is also built really well. It features a magnetically attached, transparent, somewhat frosted faceplate at the front. This has a grippy handfeel. It's not matte or textured, but the material used prevents smudges and fingerprints from your hand while simultaneously dispersing glare and reflections. Great job here Flydigi.
The screen is nested in a triangle at the top, and this one does get some visible fingerprints on it, which is a shame. It's not a dealbreaker by any means of course. It just means that I have to wipe my controller every so often.
In the Apex 4, we had blue translucent triggers. This time, we have transparent triggers but with a blue inner section. This gives it a really snazzy and smart look. Combined with the way the bumpers and the extra bumpers look, this top face of this controller is quite the looker.
On the back, we see a grey textured rubber grip. The texture this time is improved from the last generation, which was already quite good. The Apex 5 pretty much sticks to your hands and it's very grippy. It feels excellent in the hand. The back buttons and paddles look a little stubby in my opinion, but the back of your controller is usually not in view XD. There's also the pins for the charging dock here, and right above is the ON/OFF switch.
We also see this little removable section at the top of the back side. This is likely for a phone mount.
All in all, the Flydigi Apex 5 is built like a TANK and it's the best looking controller in the market right now in my opinion.
I do have a couple of gripes about this controller though. First is the weight. Sitting at a whopping 345 grams, the Apex 5 feels quite heavy in the hands. I have adapted to resting my wrists on my lap or on the desk to accommodate for the heft of the Apex 5, but you might find this weight quite uncomfortable if you aren't a big ol' strong man with large hands like me.
The other minor nitpick I have with the Apex 5 is the grey rubber they have used for the thumb-grips and the back grips. They used this same material with the Apex 4, and it gets a little dirty looking over time. It doesn't wear out or lose it's grip, but the grey gets darker and a little yellow after using for a few months. I've been using external thumb-grips on the Apex 5 since the beginning so I won't have this issue, but the grips will inevitably get affected. Minor issue though.
Custom artwork designed by my GF
One of the flagship features of the Flydigi Apex 5 is the screen. It's a 150Hz LCD panel that you can customize with gifs, images, and a few animations that are available in the Flydigi Space Station 4.0 software.
Aside from being eye-candy, the screen is actually quite useful too. You can basically control and customize all basic features of the controller with the screen without needing to adjust it in the software. This is quite handy. Most controllers don't let you do this. You will still need the software for granular control like adjusting deadzones or changing stick curves, but most things that you would need to change on the fly, you can with the screen.
The Apex 5 features a similar stick mechanism to the Apex 4 from last year. This time, it comes with improved durability in mind (as there were a significant number of issues in this regard with the Apex 4). The dual rail system provides a smoothness and feel unique to the Flydigi’s controllers. This mechanism also has a funky snap back (in a good way) that feels very “in-control” when you’re gaming with the sticks.
The anti-friction rings are excellent and even after many months of heavy use, it remains smooth.
The tension adjustment is an awesome feature that Flydigi has implemented in 2 generations of controllers now, with minor improvements each time. The process to adjust the tension is a tad cumbersome, but it’s not something you would do often. It’s more of a set it once and forget about it situation.
At lower tensions, there is a tiny bit of snap-back. This hasn't been an issue to me. It's just what happens with centering the stick at such a low tension I suppose.
To change the tension, you take the faceplate off (it’s held on by magnets, so this isn’t difficult), then you use the tool under the faceplate to turn the screw clockwise for higher tension and counter-clockwise for lower tension. On the Apex 5, the tension you can set ranges from 30gf to 100gf. For reference, the tension on a standard current gen X-box controller is about 65gf.
The sticks themselves are pretty much perfect in my opinion. Accuracy is great and I’ve had no issues.
The Apex 5 uses mechanical micro switches for the face buttons as well as the menu buttons. The ABXY face buttons feel great and super responsive. There’s minimal wobble and the tactility is great too. There’s a little bit of pre-travel which adds to the bounciness of the buttons. The buttons aren’t too tight or too light, so there are practically zero accidental presses or misinputs. They sound light and clicky, without being super loud. I like em.
The buttons aren't removable, so you're stuck with the X-box layout ABXY and can't swap to the switch layout BAYX. But you can change it in the software, it just won't show as the proper button physically. So in Switch mode, pressing the A button on the controller will input B and pressing B will input A. I haven't found this to be an issue at all.
After years of using a circular D-pad, which is also quite to my liking, Flydigi has opted for a new Diamond shaped D-pad. They've also changed the feel and mechanism of the D-pad. I'm a big fan of the D-pad here. It feels bouncy, tactile and responsive. The feedback is excellent. It's a tad less clicky than the last gen circular D-pad, and that's an improvement IMO.
The D-pad on the previous gen Flydigi controllers had a lackluster central pivot. But Flydigi has addressed this issue with the new D-pad, and they've fixed this issue. The D-pad has very little, almost nil wobble.
The diagonals are also easy to press and accurate with no misinputs in my months of usage. Since the d-pad uses microswitches, the feedback when activating a diagonal input is impossible to miss.
There are also separate D-pad styles available to purchase separately. (at this exorbitant price, these should have just been included imo)
The bumpers feel nice. They're mechanical and feel quite light. They're excellent to press at all points on the bumper. The textured plastic grip also help.
There's also an extra pair of L4 and R4 bumpers which can be mapped to whatever you like in the Space Station software. I mapped the R4 bumper to toggle gyro control.
The flagship feature of the Apex series of controllers by Flydigi is the adaptive triggers. We'll get to this in a minute, let me tell you about what the trigger itself feels like before we get to this feature.
The triggers feel great. They're made of transparent plastic which I assume is polycarbonate. Feels nice to the touch. The textured surface of the trigger helps with the grip too.
There's pretty much zero inner and outer dead-zone when you set the setting to zero. You can set as much dead-zone as you need in the software. This is excellent for precise games like racing games. It's super smooth to press and the tension is perfect imo.
Now, let's talk about the signature feature of the Apex 5, the adaptive triggers.
Flydigi has developed their own tech to mimic the adaptive triggers from PS5's Dualsense controllers. In some games, it even feels better than the Dualsense controller.
A short explanation on what adaptive triggers are - they're different from just simple trigger vibrations that you find in Impulse triggers on Xbox controllers. Adaptive triggers actively change the pressure under your finger and the vibration intensity. For example, in Forza horizon 5, you can feel the texture of the road that you're driving on because of the adaptive triggers behaving differently on dirt surfaces and asphalt. You are also able to tell when your tires are about to lose grip. It's quite difficult to explain in words. It's an experience you should... well, experience. I tried to showcase it in this video -
https://youtube.com/shorts/1AQQenlkw7U
To use this feature, you need to enable it on a per-game basis on the Flydigi Space Station 4.0 app. It's just a simple button you have to click on in the software. Most of the games have presets made by Flydigi, and for some Sony games you can use the controller in "Dualsense" mode which uses the actual Dualsense outputs and translates it.
In case you want just trigger vibrations instead of adaptive triggers for some reason, then you have that option in the software as well. You can even tie the trigger vibration to the controller rumble if you want.
The Apex 5 doesn't have a trigger lock toggle slider like a lot of other controllers. In other controllers, engaging the trigger locks converts the trigger input from an analog lever to a digital, mouse click. In the Apex 5, we have software trigger locks instead. What this does is that it sets the motor in the trigger to maximum strength at your desired point on its path. This simulates a trigger stop mechanism. The input is digital at this point too.
If you squeeze hard enough, you can power through this stop and push the trigger down. But this requires deliberate effort and I personally haven't done this ever unless it was on purpose.
But yeah, proper trigger locks definitely feel better than this mechanism. But it's a trade-off I'd make any day. Adaptive triggers are too good of a feature in my use case to prefer trigger stops.
The Apex 5 features 2 permanent back buttons, and 2 detachable paddles that come included in the box. These are all mechanical buttons and they feel great to use. They're fully remappable in the software as well.
I like the new back paddle design. Overall, they feel great and are placed in very comfortable, natural position. The detachable paddles are great too because you can use the 2+2 button layout if you want (2 back buttons + 2 extra shoulder bumpers)
So all in all, you get 6 remappable extra buttons on the Flydigi Apex 5
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/aH4XuhDG5MM
The controller rumble feels great. It has an asymmetric motor system, and you can even see the motors rumbling because the front section is transparent. Fun.
Since this controller is so heavy, the rumble does feel a little dulled due to the inertia of the controller. But it is still very detailed and crisp feeling.
Combined with the trigger haptics mentioned before, the Apex 5 presents a very satisfactory haptic experience.
The gyro is... there. While it IS mappable to the sticks and a mouse input, the gyro has a decent amount of jitter which is a bad thing for use cases where precision and speed are required, like FPS games.
The gyro is great for Nintendo Switch games though, so if that's what you're going to use it for, don't consider this a deal-breaker.
The Apex 5 has a 1500mAh battery. Most controllers have 1000mAh or less, so 1500mAh might sound like a lot. But the truth is... it is. Hah gotcha. It lasts like 20-30 hours depending on how much vibration and RGB you're using. That's quite a long use time for a controller like this.
The separately purchasable Charging Dock 2 Pro is quite a nice addition. I haven't had to think about charging my controller in weeks now, because the dock handles all that. The RGB on the dock looks great. But the dock is quite bulky, and I would have taken a simpler, less bulky dock over this RGB laden chunk of space lol.
The Apex 5 is a tri-mode controller, and it works in 2.4gHz mode, Bluetooth, and wired modes.
It's compatible with windows, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS and MacOS.
The latency numbers are excellent. The best in the market even. The button and stick latency are about 3ms in wired x-input mode, and about 5ms with the 2.4gHz dongle wireless mode. These numbers are at 1000Hz polling rate.
In the Nintendo switch Bluetooth mode, the controller works at 100Hz. But I don't think that's Flydigi's fault. That's just how Switch mode is in every controller. It works well enough, and the 25ms or so of latency probably isn't much of a bother at the 60Hz refresh rate that the Nintendo switch has. I don't have a switch so I can't say for sure.
It's an excellent software that lets you adjust practically everything about your controller. It's super granular and I've been having a blast using this software. I don't know how "safe" it is to run on your device. Some of the functionality of this software, like the adaptive triggers, require it to be running in the background while using the controller.
I'll list out some of the functionality of the software that stood out to me-
There's more but these are the features I've used the most.
I would add screenshots of the software here, but apparently each post on reddit only allows 20 images to be uploaded lol.
RGB Dot Matrix or whatever they call it on the Flydigi Charger 2 Pro Max Ultra GTR
There a good number of separately purchasable accessories for the Flydigi Apex 5:
There's also a good number of third party accessories like 3d printed back paddles and D-Pads, screen protectors, Grip tapes, etc.
There's a lot to like about this controller, as you would have seen in the review. In fact it's too much to list here, so I'll skip that and just list out the things that I would have preferred to see instead.
Where it could be better:
This is a powerhouse of a controller - the best of the best. And boy does the price tag reflect this. At $160, you could probably buy 2 or 3 flagship controllers from other brands. But the price IS justified in my opinion. The adaptive triggers, adjustable tension sticks, the screen, etc. make it a unique controller like no other, and, in a way justifies the price tag.
I recommend this to anyone looking for a high-performance, eye-catching controller with PS5-style trigger features. The Apex 5 takes a lot of experimental tech and puts it into a package that actually works for a premium experience without feeling (too) gimmicky.
Thank you for reading :3
