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If you spend any measurable amount of time with a gamepad in your hand, whether you’re playing on an Xbox, a PC, a mobile device, or a smart TV, it’s useful to invest in a higher-end game pad. There’s a form factor and function with the boutique models, like Microsoft’s Elite Series 2, that you don’t get with the stock Series X controller or its various third-party equivalents.
With the MOGA XP-Ultra gamepad ($129.99), PowerA has tried to make a high-end gamepad that’s flexible enough to work for a varied audience. Out of the box, it’s got the ergonomics and form factor of an Xbox pad with a long-life, rechargeable battery, but you can also pull the thing in half to turn it into a mobile-friendly mini-controller.
Woodinville, Wash.-based PowerA, acquired by ACCO for $340 million in 2020, specializes in making controllers and gaming accessories. In general, I’ve had good luck with PowerA’s products, many of which are cheaper but solid alternatives to first-party gamepads like the Switch Pro. If you’re looking for a second controller for the game console in your living room, or more specialized hardware like a six-button fight pad, PowerA’s got you more than covered.
The XP-Ultra is somewhere halfway between PowerA’s Fusion line of higher-end pads and its MOGA series of mobile-friendly game controllers. The idea isn’t that it can fit any role you need from it, but rather that it can fit every role and switch between them on demand.
Out of the box, the XP-Ultra comes with a gamepad, a long USB cord for charging and connecting, and a mobile clip so you can attach a small phone to the top of the unit. The setup is plug-and-play on Xbox or PC, or a simple Bluetooth job on other platforms. However, while iOS devices will recognize and even connect to the XP-Ultra, it does not, at time of writing, work on iOS.
Running it through its paces with a couple of nights of Street Fighter 6 on Xbox, I didn’t have any trouble with the XP-Ultra’s responsiveness or ergonomics. It’s got a few of the usual PowerA bells and whistles that don’t appear on a standard Xbox controller, like programmable buttons on the grips.
More to the point, it doesn’t quite feel the same. The XP-Ultra’s got all the same buttons as an Xbox pad, but with a few twists, like it’s trying to remind you that it’s not technically the same.
The bumpers are louder, the triggers are shorter, and the face buttons in the center of the unit have been rearranged just enough to screw up my muscle memory. It’s nothing I didn’t get used to in an evening, but there’s a slight learning curve. I’ve got a lot of random screenshots of nothing in particular because I hit the designated share button by mistake.
I never had a problem with build quality or responsiveness, however, whether I was playing wired or wireless. The battery life is a particular highlight, as I got over 40 hours out of the XP-Ultra on one charge.
You can also pull the grips off the XP-Ultra to transform it into a mini-controller mode, which is meant to be easier to transport if you’re planning to do some gaming on the road. It does make the XP-Ultra more compact, but it also inadvertently highlights just how important the grips actually are for a modern controller’s ergonomics.
It might work better for newcomers than professional nerds like me, but I can honestly say I’d never use the mini-controller mode on purpose. Taking away the grips makes it lighter and easier to throw into a bag, but it also makes the unit feel imbalanced, since you’re holding the entire thing with two fingers and your thumb.
In general, the XP-Ultra is a solid option if you play enough video games that you’re looking for something a little more durable and convenient than a stock Xbox pad. It’s got a few quirks and a couple of features of questionable utility, but it’s an entirely serviceable gamepad that stacks up well against similar luxury gaming products like Microsoft’s latest Elite.
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