The best mobile controller is here! Razer Raiju Mobile By Kevin Kenson

- Last night Razer had a big event announcing a bunch of upcoming hardware including two new Razer laptops and their Razer 2 phone, which is supposed to offer the best gaming experience available on mobile with 120-hertz refresh rate, awesome colors and lighting, and great speakers. But it's actually a peripheral tied into the Razer 2 phone that I am really interested in, and that's the Razer Raiju Mobile. (upbeat electronic music) Now, if you're not familiar with them, the Raiju controllers are Razer's line of traditionally pro controller options on the PS4 they released for the original Razer Raiju quite a few years ago, and more recently, they released newer versions, the Tournament Edition and Raiju Ultimate, and this controller design seems to be very heavily based on the tournament design. It offers a lot of the same features and functions but some new things as well that may get specifically fitted for mobile phone use. So what exactly does this controller get you over other mobile phone options? Well, first off, this is a full-fledged gaming controller. There's a lot of mobile options out there that are focused on trying to be also portable or pocket-sized or some kind of way to make it conveniently portable.

Not in this case, this is focused on being like a real controller, which is gonna give you a much more comfortable experience. Now, like I said, the Raiju Mobile is based primarily on the Tournament Edition Raiju controller for PS4. First let's talk about a bunch of features that are somewhat standard across a lot of different pro controllers, but the Raiju does really well. To begin with, it has a great grip design, really comfortable to use over a long period of time, and it does feature full remappable buttons, giving you a little more customization over how you can control games. Now, two of those buttons are located on the lower back side of the controller, so you can reach them with the fingers you're using to grip it, really easy and comfortable to use, and there's two additional ones that are on the top of the controller, kind of inside and in-between where the triggers are, just requiring you to reach over a little bit to grab them.

All four buttons are really easy and comfortable to reach, though, so they give a lot more options in how to control your games. It also features adjustable triggers. There's just a little switch you have to flip on the back of the controller, which allow you to either have a traditional full-pull trigger or a short-stop quick trigger. Now, one of the more uniquely Razer features that this controller has, and is honestly one of my favorite aspects of the Raiju line controllers, is their mechano-tactile buttons. Basically, they have a different button design that they use for the four front-facing as well as for some of the reprogrammable buttons that gives it this very sort of mechanical switch feeling that you'd have from like a keyboard.

And it's really satisfying and makes it super simple to do things like really fast button presses. If you ever have to just mash a button repeatedly, it is so much easier on this style of button versus a more traditional controller design. And I'm not gonna lie, there's also just something very oddly satisfying about the sound of that little click. (metallic screeching) (child clicking tongue) Now, all these features so far are things that are shared with the Tournament Edition Raiju controller that they have for PS4, but where things get more uniquely different for the mobile is, instead of having the touch pad that you would have for a PS4 controller, it's replaced by a phone grip. Now, this is an adjustable phone grip that is designed to work with a variety of different phones.

Obviously, the Razer 2 phone is the one that they're gonna want you to use, but the controller is designed to work with any Android phone that is working off of Android 6.0 or above, and you can connect it either wirelessly while it's in the vice grip, which is really simple and it makes a nice clean look, or if you'd rather a wired connection, you can plug it directly into the phone with a short USB-C cable. Now, along with being able to fit a variety of different-sized phones, the device is also designed to tilt up to six degrees upwards, so that way, you don't have to play where you have the controller like this, and the phone just straight above it. You're able to hold the controller in a more natural position where it's leaned more forward. Now, the hands-on experience I did have was not with a final version of the Raiju Mobile. It is a prototype one, but one of the last ones before the full production model, so it's very close to the final experience, and it's shaping up to be really nice.

All the buttons feel really snappy, the grip, like I said, is super comfortable, and I think the overall just design being based on the Tournament Edition, but adapting it for mobile phones, works out really great. Now, as for pricing and availability, not everything is fully set in stone just yet. They have said that they're going to be releasing the phone in the holiday of 2018, so it is on its way very quickly. You can order it through Razer's website, and they're gonna make it available worldwide as well, and it'll be running at an MSRP of $150. Now, if you're not used to pro controllers, 150 bucks sounds like a ton of money, and it is, but that's really the kind of standard a lot of these pro controllers run for.

Once again, this is basically the same design as their Tournament Edition on PS4. It offers a lot of the same functions and quality, but re-aimed towards mobile, and that's how much those run for as well. It's expensive, but you get what you pay for.

Source : Kevin Kenson