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Which Bluetooth game controller is great for all devices? (kbin.social)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by LanternEverywhere@kbin.social to c/gaming@kbin.social

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I want to buy a game controller that will work with Android, iOS, Mac, and Windows. (Big bonus points if it will work with old OS versions.) I want it to be able to physically clip on with my phones.

(EDIT: If it's a common enough controller then it doesn't need to have a clip for phones because there are probably separate clips i can buy and add on myself.)

There are so many controllers out there that I'm overwhelmed! What's a great works-with-everything controller?

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[–] tal@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have a bunch of controllers that I got to use on a Linux system, and finally settled on the 8bitdo Ultimate for its Hall Effect analog sticks after nearly every other controller I had (a bunch of XBox or XBox clones) exhibited some degree of analog drift. Note that only their Bluetooth model has the Hall Effect sticks -- there are multiple Ultimate controllers.

I don't remember potentiometer-based analog sticks being this problematic twenty years back, so I'm not sure if the controller hardware is just running with a more-aggressively-small dead zone today or what.

Had moved away from a Logitech F710, which I was happy with except for the fact that some device somewhere near me had started occasionally causing its proprietary Logitech protocol to see drop-outs that Bluetooth controllers didn't see. Plus, OP wants to use his thing with an Android device, so he probably wants to stick with Bluetooth anyway.

I'd historically preferred Playstation-style controllers, but too many games detect and nicely configure themselves for X-box controllers and don't reasonably deal with the Dual Sense I tried. Also, there are few PC games that leverage some of the unusual hardware features that the Dual Sense has, so you're paying in money and weight for something that you won't be using.

While I like the controller itself and it's presently the best I've tried, I'll mention two major caveats:

It does not have rumble motors. This makes it lighter, but it is a feature that I would rather have than not. There are some PC games that do make use of rumble motors.
It has a Nintendo-style button layout rather than an X-Box style layout (at least the Hall Effect version does). 8bitdo does sell replacement buttons with XBox-style colors, if you're willing to deal with replacing them and remapping the buttons in software.

Also, specifically for OP's situation, it does not support pairing to multiple devices. I have a keyboard that can pair to three and then just choose the destination device with a wheel. He may want that, if there are game controllers that can do that, unless he's willing to get multiple controllers.