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My fellow gamers, rejoice! For we have

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been gifted from on high, the perfect device for PC gaming.

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Well, on paper at least. Since my hands-on a

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few months ago, >> [music] >> I have gotten some more intimate time

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with the Steam Controller, with all of its features, a launch date when [music]

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you can finally get your hands on one, and I've gotten a price.

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And I've got a lot of thoughts, especially on that last one. Some of you

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won't care about them. The die-hard fans of the original Steam Controller who

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have desperately waited over 10 years for Valve to follow it up, you guys

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might as well open your wallets now, because the new Steam Controller, it's

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the original, but much, much better. For everyone else though, it's something of

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an enigma. >> [music] >> It's a controller. It's a trackpad. It's

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It's a bridge between your traditional gaming battle station and your living

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room, and it's It's unlike anything else on the market. Up top is a standard

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symmetrical style layout with all of the buttons and sticks that you'd expect

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from a modern controller, plus a few extras that you might recognize from the

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Steam Deck that are going to help you navigate SteamOS and Steam Big Picture.

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Below that are the stars of the show, the multi-purpose trackpads. More on

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those later. First, I feel it's important to remind you guys how much of

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a controller review is preference. What's true for me and for David

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>> Woah. might not be true for you. With that said then,

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the feel of the Steam Controller is >> [sighs] >> it's just okay.

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The plastic of the body feels a little cheap compared to first-party offerings

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from, if I'm being honest, all of the big three. And I think a lot of fingers

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are going to land on top of some of these screw holes here on the bottom,

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which is kind of a surprising oversight for a

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company that is normally so thoughtful in their hardware designs. Or maybe it

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was thoughtful. Maybe it was an intentional nod to repairability. Valve

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has confirmed that they will continue their partnership with iFixit for

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replacement parts, so kudos to both of them. Even if I do like our precision

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screwdriver set just a little bit more. >> [music] >> lttstore.com. What I can't make the same

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excuse for is the ergonomics. While Valve did go to the effort to change the

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angle of the handle pieces here compared to the Steam [music] Deck, which is

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obviously meant to be held in a in a wider stance,

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I found that for my preferences, they didn't go quite far enough, and it feels

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more like holding an 8-bit D-pad controller compared to an Xbox

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controller. I also found that the thumbsticks were a bit of a far reach

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for those of us with smaller paws, and if you like to flat thumb them, their

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positioning increases the chance of thumb kissing. With all of that said,

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all of my complaints so far are pretty minor. And in terms of the thumbstick

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feel, the Steam Controller is both good

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and well-featured. I'd say the closest non-Valve analog, pun intended, would be

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the Xbox controller with its similar raised textured edges and flat smooth

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middle that makes it easy to both landmark your position and maintain

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traction as you're moving around. And the Steam Controller has an extra party

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trick with capacitive sensors in both tops that can activate or deactivate

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six-axis motion controls. The best thing about the joysticks though, is actually

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under the surface. But we'll talk about that a little bit later. First, the face

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buttons feel pretty close to what we've come to expect from an Xbox controller

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with a soft, and hey, if you game late at night, you might like this, quiet

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rubber membrane, but the way less clicky bumper might

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actually appeal more to PlayStation gamers. >> [music] >> I'm personally not a big fan. Moving on

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to the triggers, the spring gives them adequate resistance, but they have

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neither the rumble from the Xbox side nor the adaptive resistance of the

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DualSense. On top of that, they don't have a toggle between short and long

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travel, and they don't even have the two-stage activation of the original

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Steam Controller, which is going to be a real disappointment for its dozens of

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users. What won't be though, is the tactility of the four paddle buttons on

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the back. These are great.

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Now, to be truthful, I'm too old school to use them in most games, but when I do

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need them, boy do I ever need them, and I'm stoked that Valve is pushing this

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feature to be the norm for mainstream controllers. They sit at just the right

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spot for easy access, which does mean you'll get the occasional accidental

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press while you get used to them, but they're just stiff enough that with a

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bit of practice, you'll be able to press them intentionally without it

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interfering with your ability to hold onto the grip. Ooh, speaking of the grip, sensors

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inside it are actually another way to activate the six-axis gyroscope [music]

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inside. Valve has traditionally taken a very

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open approach to how you can use their hardware. And with the Steam Controller

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and Steam Input, you can configure pretty much any control scheme that

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you'd like, even in games that don't natively support remapping.

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>> [music] >> And if you don't feel like doing all that work, you can even use community

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configurations. Guys, [music] gyro aiming is such a game-changer for

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old-school keyboard mouse guys like me, and the flexibility to activate it

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either like this or like this is just incredible. Uh since we're back here

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though, this would be a perfect time to talk about the charging pins that

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connect to the included wireless 2.4 GHz puck. This is a major highlight for me

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of the Steam Controller. This is exactly

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the kind of thoughtfulness that I love to see from Valve. Why not make your

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wireless dongle also the charging dock? No more unplugging and plugging in a

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Type-C cable constantly, which should help save on wear and tear on the

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controller's port. And setting it up is simple. You just plug in the included

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Type-A to Type-C cable, actually a pretty nice feeling quality. It's a

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really similar sleeve to what we have on our True [music] Spec cables. Then, you attach it using a magnet,

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press the Steam button on your controller, and away you go. Up to four

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Steam Controllers paired to a single puck, meaning that you can use the extra

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ones that come with all of your other controllers to connect to additional PCs

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or to set up charging in convenient multiple locations. Like this convenient

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segue to dbrand who sent over >> [snorts and sighs]

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>> Oh my god. This is amazing! It's like a skin for

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your Steam Machine. Stick around at the end of the video for more info, or you

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can check it out at the link down below. There's so many great products on

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lttstore.com, but shipping is so expensive. That's why we're bringing

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back Ship Storm. From April 24th to May 7th, you can get free shipping site-wide

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on lttstore.com on any order over $150

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in the US and Canada or $225 worldwide.

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No code required. Just load up your cart and get free shipping. Link down below.

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Now, there was a major claim that we made before that has since gone

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completely unaddressed, that the Steam Controller would bridge controller and

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desktop gaming. All right. That's where the haptic trackpads come in. These are

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Valve's best haptic trackpads yet. Gone

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is the weird [music] concave, trying to be sort of a joystick, alien eye design

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from the original Steam Controller, and enlarged is the flatter, squarer design

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from the Steam Deck. If you've ever used one of those, you're going to know

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already what a lifesaver these things can be for navigating experiences that

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are not optimized for a controller, and in some cases, even playing games that

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outright don't support controllers. And then there's everything else that they

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can do. Check out this footage of an old-school Steam Controller fan playing

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Skate. [music] Tommy B loves his trackpad input so much

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that he went and created his own controller, and he's got gestures bound

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to his trackpads, and demonstrated how insanely natural this type of input

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scheme can be once you've set it up. Now, I'm not going to pretend that I'm

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the right person to show off that functionality, but what I'm absolutely

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the right person to test out is playing a traditionally non-controller-friendly

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game like [music] Anno. Hey!

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Okay, this is very intuitive. It's very WASD and camera for these two. I can

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zoom in, I can zoom out. >> And don't forget you could use a community profile as a starting point,

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and then customize it to however you like. Dude!

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I am playing an RTS on the couch right now. Come on! Ooh,

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all right. Do you think you could play the whole game without a mouse and keyboard?

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I could. Do you want to play the whole game without a mouse and keyboard?

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>> This particular game with its like very fussy, kind of finicky controls, maybe

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not. But I could see myself actually enjoying the genre with a controller

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where I otherwise completely wouldn't be able to. And in that way, the Steam

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Controller is a unique and maybe even solid value proposition at almost any

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price. But what if you prefer genres where the trackpads matter less than

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precise button presses and timing? The platformer. I can definitely see why

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people would like the ABXYs. I can also see some people not liking them. I think

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both are completely valid opinions. I

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wouldn't describe them as mushy, but because of the softness, they're not

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quite as responsive as some can be.

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Yeah, I've come around on clicky button controllers, and so these felt a little

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too soft for me, but they're definitely fine. They're fine. Yep. They're not

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bad. They're fine. One thing I can say with absolute certainty though, is no one's

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going to be bothered by the latency. And these joysticks are a pleasure to use.

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That makes a lot of sense. The Steam Controller 2 did really, really well in

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our Labs testing for input latency. I mean, you you got to imagine a company

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like Valve, gamers through and through, they're going to have that kind of attention to detail. Yeah, the only

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controllers that did better were ones that are kind of competitively geared.

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Ooh, I'm trying a D-pad now. You know what?

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It's one of those D-pads that doesn't feel good to me.

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No. But it >> for me. Yeah, when I talked to Valve,

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they said they put a lot of work into getting the diagonals down, but I

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actually think in just terms of feel, I think I like the Steam Deck D-pad

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better. Interesting. That being said, all modern D-pads are

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my [music] enemy. >> [laughter]

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>> That's a fair and valid take, quite frankly. This is not really testing some

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of the other faculties of this controller. Why don't we try Forza Horizon 5 to get a sense of the triggers

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and the haptics? To Valve's credit, while they may be missing haptic

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triggers, the actual tightness of the

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haptic feel of the controller itself is a really strong point.

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Definitely better than the Deck, and miles ahead of the original Steam

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Controller. As for the triggers, I remain

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uninspired. I don't feel like they contribute to a

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loss of control. That's just my crappy driving.

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But they are very unexciting. What I find with the rumble triggers and the

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haptic triggers is I don't really

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care that much when they're not there, but when they're there, they really do

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elevate the immersion and the experience. And so it is a little bit of

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a a missed opportunity here. I think that's enough racing. Why don't we try

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something where you get to use the gyro? Oh, yeah. Gyro aiming is such a freaking

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hack. Uh we don't have the toggle on right now, though. So, in this game it's

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built in by default, so you actually can't easily turn it on and off with the

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handles. That's more in the case where you're assigning mouse look to a gyro

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thing, cust- like customized via the Steam input. Right. I hadn't tried this

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game before, but that makes sense because Sony has support for that natively.

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>> Yeah. Which is nice. All shooters should include it.

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Dude, it's like it's it's sick being able to like make your your macro

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adjustments here, and then your fine adjustments here.

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Especially in a game like this where each shot matters so much. >> So much. You'll have like three arrows

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left, and you'll have like three absolute [music] ridiculous monsters

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charging at you. I'm still in awe that the customization in Steam input allows

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you to just assign gyro aiming into any game that has mouse [music] support.

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Like how flexible is that? How wonderful is that? Thank you, Valve. Yeah, and you

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don't [music] need a Steam Controller to take advantage of that. You could have

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like an old PS4 controller and do the exact same thing.

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So cool. I am not

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an FPS controller player, not by any

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stretch of the imagination. I suck.

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I got to make that really clear. So, while nothing I'm doing is

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particularly impressive, this is not my usual level of suck.

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Not even not even close. That gives me a great opportunity to talk about what is

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probably the best hidden feature of the Steam [music] Controller 2. It's TMR

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joysticks. Hall effect joysticks have been getting a lot of good press over the last few

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years because they offer better durability compared to potentiometer

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joysticks that use contact pads that measure the movement of the sticks.

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Contact pads that will inevitably wear out, causing [music] drift. By

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comparison, Hall effect uses magnets that don't make physical contact.

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[music] No wear, no drift. But power draw is a

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big downside. That's where TMR comes in.

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Tunnel magnetoresistance joysticks give us the advantages of both.

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Outstanding precision, so I can really get those dead zones down, so every

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little movement matters. Great reliability, and low power draw.

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While the Steam Controller does hold up pretty well against the most popular

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controllers on the market, there's kind of an elephant in the room.

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You're going to make the noise? >> [laughter] >> That's an elephant, right? As we

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discussed recently in our 16-way controller shootout, the popular

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controllers not necessarily the best [music] controllers anymore. So, let's pull out

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one of David's favorites, the Cyclone 2 from Gamester.

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>> [music] >> It's worth pointing out that the pairing process of the Steam Deck and the

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Cyclone seems like it would be similar cuz I have a dock for the Cyclone, but

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the dock doesn't actually pair it to the dongle. You still need like a manual

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Xbox pairing process, so that's definitely a win for the Steam Deck or

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Steam Controller. I love that we've both accidentally called it Steam Controller

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2 at least once. They should call it the Steam Controller

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2. You know the reason they gave me was because

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>> [music] >> they wanted it to not be confusing. Bologna. That's why they called it the

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same name as the old one. To avoid confused. That is like that's

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insane. I got to give up.

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I got to give full credit to Valve. It's a good joystick.

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According to our circularity test from the lab, it performs very similarly to

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the Gamester in terms of the accuracy of

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its circularity, but it does have a bit of a different response curve, so you

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might find that going from one to the other might feel a little bit different.

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That's all going to be down to personal preference, so that's not like better or worse.

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If anyone was looking for the proof of what I said earlier that I am not an FPS

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uh controller player. I will say it does look like you're having a little more

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trouble with this controller than the Steam Controller. This is an accurate

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controller by every metric, but it does go to show that the Steam Controller is

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a very good controller. And one of the ways that it's excellent is battery

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life. The lab used Forza Donuts in order to simulate regular use with the haptics

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going off, and found that the new Steam Controller put up a really impressive

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result, over 37 hours of continuous

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gaming. That is outstanding news for die-hard fans of the original Steam

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Controller who have so much to love about its successor. It may be a little

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less committed to the original touchpad vision, but it's in a way that offers

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reasonable compromises and refinement in pretty much every way. It's also a solid

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solution for folks who just want to throw away that Logitech K400 on their

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coffee table. However,

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if your plan was to use this thing as a traditional controller,

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I got to say I'm a little less enthusiastic about it. Not because it's

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bad. It's a good controller. It's just a

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$100 US dollar controller. And I'm not

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going to pretend like I can't afford one, but I'm also not going to pretend

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that I would buy one of these when I could get just about two of these

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or two Flydigis for the same price.

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How about you? >> [sighs] >> If it was $60, I would buy day one. If

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it was $80, it would be like two weeks later. At $100,

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I think I'm out. And I'm willing to bet that's not really going to be a hot take,

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uh but I also feel for Valve here. Can you imagine releasing hardware in this

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current market condition? >> [laughter]

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>> When I chatted with Valve, they felt like the retail price for the controller

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represented the hardware and engineering that went into creating that, and I

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can't argue with that fact. But a controller's also about the feeling. And

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compared to the DualSense, uh that I would argue has a pretty

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equivalent amount of value wrapped up in its features, I would say that the

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DualSense feels better.

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Yeah. Okay. Crazy theory.

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What if they made it $100 at launch to help make the Steam Machine look like a

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better value? Whether it's $800, $900, $1,000, $1,200.

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I mean, who knows with the RAM-pocalypse wreaking havoc on the market.

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If Valve could say with a straight face, "Yeah, but it includes a Steam

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Controller with a $100 value."

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Maybe that's part of their thinking. I could see that. There's no way that that's the whole

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picture, but it wouldn't surprise me if that was part of the consideration.

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It also wouldn't surprise me if you segued to our sponsor. Oh, Dbrand. Oh, we're

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going to look at the thing. Surprise, surprise, Dbrand is already

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hard at work making overpriced tape for the new Steam Controller. We'll have to

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put a photo of it on the screen for you, though, because while I'd love nothing

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more than to show it off on camera, there's um

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just one small problem. They only sent

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over these two little squares. Apparently, and these are Dbrand's

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words, not mine, the full controller skin isn't ready yet, and you'd probably

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up the install regardless. So, there you have it. Steam Controller

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trackpad skins. Get yours included with a full controller skin that apparently

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they couldn't trust me with. Speaking of things they shouldn't have trusted me with,

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from my understanding, this is the only

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prototype of this thing in the freaking world. This is a super early look at

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their Steam Machine companion cube case

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that they've been working on. And as And as much as I love to say anything mean

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about Dbrand, I can't think of anything [music]

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that I don't like about this. Obviously,

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I don't have a real Steam Machine to put into it yet, thanks to

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>> [clears throat] >> RAM prices, but this is going to be a

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must-have accessory when Valve does eventually release the Steam Machine.

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They went deep on the details on this thing, too. I mean, look at this footage

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of the packaging. The outer carton has a ton of Easter eggs and feels like it

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came straight out of Aperture Science. It even opens up to feel like you're in

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a test chamber, right down to the signage. It might actually be the

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coolest thing Dbrand has ever made. If

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you're planning to pick up a Steam Machine when it launches, you should definitely head over to dbrand.com/valve

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to register your interest for free. And by the way, Gabe, if you're watching,

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please don't sue these guys over it. You totally could,

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but just don't. If you guys enjoyed this video and you

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want to check out some more controller content, why don't you check out that

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epic 16-way controller showdown that we made last year? Not only was it an

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efficient way to get impressions on over 16 controllers, it was also really fun.

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Are we doing another one soon? I want to. Let's do it. >> I'd be down.

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There's been so much more advancements, man. The controller space is moving so

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fast right now. >> So fast.