With many aspects of the tech industry having reached a plateau and other blooming, one would say that now is the best and worst time to buy a product. In short, excellent but very homogenous products are available, especially in the gaming peripherals industry.
Many tried and many failed to change this status quo and a new product is ready to try doing that again. It is the GameSir G6s Touchroller mobile gamepad. When you are someone like me that reminisces the analog gamepads of Nintendo’s NES but at the same time loves the magic of the iPhone touchscreen, my expectations were not very high when I decided to try the upcoming gamepad.
Inspired by hybrid cars’ design and philosophy, the company’s engineers and designers unveiled their idea: combine the advantages of the traditional analog sticks and the fancy touchscreen controller. The GameSir G6s touchroller gamepad for iPhone (not a very intuitive name to be honest) comes in a decent package that includes the G6s gamepad, a micro-USB cable, and a manual. Simple and clear. Holding it in hand feels great and you an wait to start pressing the buttons while gaming, as the feel like a mechanical keyboard’s keys. Clicky with clear feedback and pressing distance.
Of course, no matter how fantastic an accessory may seem, it’s a no-go if it isn’t user friendly. Thankfully, it took just 30 seconds to connect it to my iPhone X via Game G-Crux. Apart from that, gamers can customize the button mapping via G-Crux, again, the entire process is just simple and friendly. But time had come for some serious PUBG gaming.
While playing, the left side hosts the analog controllers while my right hand controls the touchscreen and R1 trigger button. Of course, every new gamepad takes a little time to get used to but as good are the ergonomics of a gamepad the fastest you get used to it. And the G6s did a great job since it took just a few minutes for me to feel comfortable using it. Well-thought design GameSir.
Another interesting feature is that the G6s is equipped with dual vibration motors and you can decide which button vibrates relating which action you do in-gaming. With this function, when firing, you can feel a delicate vibration and you feel like holding the real thing in your hand.
Of course, the perfect product is yet to be released and the GameSir G6s has its flaws too. For starters, it comes in only one color (Black) and I hope that the company will add more options in the future. The other important flaw is that there is no information about Android compatibility for the time being. That’s bad news for Android users and I really hope that they take it into consideration. All in all, I would give it an 8.4 overall score:
- Innovation: 8.8/10
- Quality: 8.0/10
- Feedback: 8.5/10
- Portability: 8/10
- Control：8.5/10
The bottom line is that the G6s combines the advantages of an analog controller with the smoothness of touchscreen, and that could be very promising for the future of mobile gaming controllers. It certainly does serve the manufacturer’s vision of offering gamers the chance to enjoy the pure joy of gaming. The GameSir G6s Touchroller is currently in crowdfunding stage and you can back it on Indiegogo.
