Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Mobile
  3. News

The Satechi gamepad is the Swiss Army Knife of Bluetooth controllers

By

the satechi gamepad is swiss army knife of bluetooth controllers wireless 06
Image used with permission by copyright holder
Hardcore gaming on mobile isn’t easy. Touch screens, it turns out, just aren’t very conducive to dominating death matches or besting fellow racers. That’s why the rise of smartphone and tablet titles largely coincided with the growth in popularity of third-party Bluetooth controllers, which aimed to bring some semblance of precision to first-person shooters and other genres on mobile. The accessories are now ubiquitous — a cursory search on Amazon alone yields 20 pages of results.

So why is Satechi, a San Diego-based company best known for mini routers, desk lamps, and USB-powered fans, putting out a Bluetooth game controller of its own? Because the firm thinks its new mobile accessory, called simply the Satechi gamepad, is more than the sum of its parts.

Recommended Videos

The gamepad, which looks a bit like an Xbox 360 controller, features an array of buttons and triggers to push and prod. It’s got twin joysticks, one on the left above a tactile directional pad and one below a cross-shaped arrangement of four buttons (labeled X, Y, B, and A), and five switches in the center for cycling between modes (more on those later) and for initiating pairing.

Related

But every third-party wireless controller has buttons, you might be thinking. Not every gamepad, though, has a spring holder: press a release on the back of the Satechi gamepad and a mounting grip for your smartphone emerges. The concept of a grip may not be entirely unique, but the one on the gamepad seems well-executed: it extends several inches in length and, when not in use, sits flush with the rear of the controller.

Satechi-Wireless-Gamepad-07
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Modes are the Satechi gamepad’s other differentiator. A special Joystick mode places the inputs in a remappable state, letting you pair the gamepad as a generic wireless peripheral to a Windows-based machine. Cade mode, meanwhile, is programmed specifically for the emulator-powered iCade arcade cabinet for iOS devices — the gamepad ships with pre-defined profiles for games like Pac-Man, Asteroids, Centipede, and Battlezone. And Android mode, as you might expect, puts the controller in a state compatible with Android phones, tablets, and set-top boxes.

The gamepad’s powered by a 220 mAh non-removable battery, and it’s got a power-saving sleep mode for those times when you’re far from a charger. The estimated range is 23 feet — plenty for mobile gaming and just about good enough for living room couch usage, in our estimation.

The Satechi gamepad retails for $34.99, which is comparable to other controllers in its category. It’s available in one color, black, through Satechi’s website and Amazon, and is presently discounted a few bucks on the latter.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Kyle Wiggers
Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 with a free S Pen is down to $199
A render of the front of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 2024.

There are tablet deals that slash the prices of devices that are designed to meet the requirements of creative professionals, but you can also take advantage of offers for tablets that are designed for simpler purposes. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite is a great example of the latter, and it's on sale from Walmart with a $150 discount that pulls its price down to a very affordable $199 from $349. It's not going to stay this cheap for long though, so if you're interested in this bargain you're going to have to complete your purchase as soon as possible.

Why you should buy the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite (2024) is now available, but the 2022 release of the tablet, which is the one that's discounted on Walmart, remains a worthwhile purchase today as long as you manage your expectations. It's not going to challenge the best tablets in terms of performance as it only offers 4GB of RAM, but it's going to be more than enough for daily activities such as browsing the internet, catching up on social media, and watching streaming shows. The tablet only comes with 64GB of storage, but you can use a microSD card for up to 1TB of additional space.

Read more
The Rabbit R1 is hiding a big secret
The Rabbit R1 standing upright on a wooden railing with its display turned on.

“This is supposed to be a simpler companion to my phone, yet the R1 often tells me to use my phone when asking it to do the most basic of tasks,” wrote Digital Trends’ Section Editor Joe Maring after taking the Rabbit R1 out for a spin. The biggest flaw here is not a slow interface or lack of functions, but what it adds to an average user's life on a day-to-day basis.

At this stage, it's not much, primarily because a budget Android phone can do the same tasks with apps — be it AI chores like summarizing an email chain or ordering a burger. "This could've been an AI app at best." That's a recurring theme in the online forums about the R1. And it seems the R1 itself proves that point.
The Rabbit R1's Android secret

Read more
How to turn off Activity Status on Instagram
Instagram on an iPhone.

Instagram is a popular social networking site that allows users to communicate through text, photos, and videos. One of its features is the app's Activity Status, which lets users know when someone was last active on the app or if they are currently online.

Read more