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Who knows when the Steam machine is coming, but right now I've got the Steam

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controller and I absolutely cannot wait to open this thing and try it out your

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[music] games right at your fingertips. [laughter]

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It's in a pretty neat little packaging to be honest. This is actually a nice

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little box here. Flips open. It tells me

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plugs in. It's got a cable. All kind of

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stuff that you probably are just going to figure out if you game and you use a

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controller. Uh, we've got our USBA to USB-C cable. It's got a USBC connector

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up at the top here like basically every other peripheral these days. And this is

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probably 5 1/2, something like that. So, I would like something a little longer,

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but that's okay because the wireless on this is actually pretty decent. We did

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test it and I'll get to that later. But what I'm really curious about first is the puck. This is, in my opinion, the

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best thing to happen to controllers in quite some time because what you do is

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you plug it in here and then with this connected to your computer, if you want

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to charge your controller, boom, you're plugged in and charging now. Awesome.

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That was so satisfying, too. But the really cool thing is this acts as your

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wireless dongle. So, you don't have to plug in a separate dongle uh when you

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have your controller. You can just pl have this guy plugged in and then Oh, I

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want to go wired. Okay, sure. Boom. And then you just plug the dongle back in.

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Like do whatever you want. Okay, let's check out the actual controller cuz I

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love the idea of the original Steam controller. The trackpads were a great

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touch, but then I don't know the Steam they released it too early. But now with

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Gen 2, I think they've basically fixed everything. [music] First of all, I will

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say on the bottom you've got four extra buttons. And so we'll get to price

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later, but I do want to say that while I think it's a really expensive

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controller, considering it kind of goes up against like a Xbox Elite controller,

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the price is reasonable. But yeah, we've got, you know, your standard face

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buttons, D-pad, two thumb sticks, not offset. So, if you prefer a PlayStation

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controller, then you probably will prefer this. If you really need that

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like offset thumb stick that the Xbox controller typically has, this might not

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be the controller for you. But hey, maybe instead of the right thumb stick, you just use the trackpad,

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traditional hamburger button, uh, looks like a screen share back button or

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whatever, and then something in the middle that I'll find out later. [music] And then I love the little steam icon to

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turn it on. Oh, that was great. I didn't expect it to turn on. Made a nice little

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noise. I love the blue light. It does support Bluetooth. I wouldn't really use

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that if you can avoid it, especially because it comes with this nice dongle.

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Uh, that's 2.4. 4 GHz and also supports

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wired mode obviously. Aside from that, we've also got there's allegedly I mean

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I can't really see them, but there is apparently grip control for [music] gyro

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controls. I was expecting like a strip of rubber or something that you could

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maybe pressure sense, but maybe it's directly baked into the controller like

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into the plastic here. I don't know how. As for just like the feel and shape and

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holding it in my hand, I'm a big Dual Sense and PlayStation controller guy.

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But I don't have the biggest hands. Um, I have some complaints about Xbox

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triggers that I'll get to later. This feels very comfortable. It honestly kind

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of fits my hands like perfectly. Even the paddle buttons, like my fingers are

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resting on them basically perfectly. I don't use those personally, but they're

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definitely accessible and you get four of them like right out of the gate. So,

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that's awesome. One of the best features about the whole controller that a lot of

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you are going to love, these sticks aren't all effect. Instead, they're TMR,

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which is kind of just better hall effect essentially. And uh yeah, you shouldn't

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have to suffer from too much stick drift because they're magnetic. But yeah,

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great technology. Love to see it here. It's typically more expensive than Hall

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effect, and that's probably part of what's raising the price on this

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controller so much. But as for like just materials, I will say the plastic

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overall feels a little cheap. There's something about it that just doesn't

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feel quite as premium as like the Dual Sense controller does or uh even the

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Xbox controller. It might also be the weight distribution. It feels funny

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having this giant front here with the trackpads, but then it doesn't like it

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feels hollow or empty right here, whereas this like feels nice and solid

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all the way through the rest of the controller. But, you know, it's not that

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big of a deal. It weighs about 292 gram, which puts it on the little ever so

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slightly heavier than like an Xbox or a PS5 controller. Discernable? Probably

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not. I can't I don't know if I can feel 10 g and I used to like weigh meat at a

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deli. As for the feel of the thumb

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sticks, they feel good. I've been using uh the Switch 2 Pro controller quite a

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bit recently and that is like when it comes to fit and finish and overall

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quality feel and the thumb sticks and everything, that one is like kind of

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unmatched. But they feel pretty good and they don't feel grindy, you know. They

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don't feel like I'm wearing them down super fast. Uh the tension feels good,

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too. It's not too tight, not too loose. Not adjustable like we've seen on some

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of the uh nice controllers from third parties recently, but um you know, I've

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never been one to tinker too much with stuff like that. The shoulder buttons,

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these feel pretty good. I like these a lot more than the bumpers on an Xbox

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controller. They feel more like a PS5 Dual Sense. And then the triggers also

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more like a Dual Sense than an Xbox.

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Probably the best thing in terms of just comfort for using shoulder buttons. I've

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been playing a lot of Neo3 and I'm

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blocking and parrying a lot. Like I'm using the shoulders a lot. And the

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problem with an Xbox controller is um these ridges. So, the way my hand fits

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in a controller like this, if I'm using these guys, all of a sudden, the edge of

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my finger is up against this kind of hard edge here. And I notice that after

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a while, my fingers start to even slip up past this ridge, and it becomes

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really uncomfortable to the point where I take a break just because my fingers

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are starting to get a little uh worn out from this edge up here, this lip. But

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with this, it's nice and smoothed. It's a fully rounded edge over here. And

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there's also not a break in the plastic to dig into your skin.

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>> 5 minutes later, my middle finger is starting to naturally rest up in this

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spot here. That might be a dealbreaker for me.

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>> The triggers themselves, um, they are okay. I'm not going to go and say

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they're like amazing or anything. I do kind of miss the textured grip that now

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comes on an Xbox controller. I think that feels a little better. and uh not

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more premium, but just grippy, right? Like with this, sure they're curved, so

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chances are low that my fingers are going to slip off, but hey, you're getting sweaty.

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Make it happen. That just kind of sounds and feels cheap. I won't lie.

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[laughter] That's also just a mechanical keyboard guy sitting there complaining about, you

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know, how a switch feels, but um yeah, take that as you will. This like imagine

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if you're in a room. This just sounds and feels better. I

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won't I won't lie to you guys, but I I would trade the

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noise of this for the overall ergonomics

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of the Xbox controller in a heartbeat. I would take this so fast. The face

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buttons, these feel okay.

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They're not too wobbly or wiggly. There's like just enough travel. They're

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satisfying. I'm also just noticing like how much smaller these buttons are. It's

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hard to see on camera, but in person this looks like noticeably smaller. Oh,

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it's so much better. To be fair, this probably isn't super new. Uh whereas

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this is like a brand new fresh Steam controller. So, these are probably just loosened up over time as well. But like

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Oh, yeah. I really prefer these. That feels nice and tight, nice and quiet,

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too. Whereas this like that feels and sounds like an Xbox

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controller, [laughter] which I will say, even though I'm a

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PlayStation guy, I actually do love the like more circular D-pad on the Xbox

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just in terms of feel, but in terms of actually like pressing individual

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buttons. Ooh, this actually that feels good. It's really stiff, and I actually

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want that in a D-pad, it feels really like tactile, and I know exactly what

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I'm pressing it. And then, yeah, the silence of it is fantastic.

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And it moves. Yeah. I don't know if the moving around is like a good thing or

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not. It feels fine. It's super quiet, so you don't have to

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worry about waking up someone in the room. Uh if you're gaming and you know

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your partner is trying to sleep or whatever. How do the clicks?

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Feels pretty normal. It's funny how much I can feel when I click the thumb stick

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in on this. It's funny how much I notice it down in like the stem of the

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controller. Whereas with this,

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it feels all centered right around here. It looks so chunky. And I think it's

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just because of the trackpads. These are

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like pressure sensitive. You might not, it might be hard to see on camera, but

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you can move and press these a little bit. Um, but they are pretty stiff.

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They're also not huge. But I'm excited because like I especially as I get older

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and I want to like lean back in the chair more, um, and I'm not playing as

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many competitive shooters, I want a controller that kind of does it all. And

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with the trackpads, you know, if I'm playing like Civ for a while, I don't

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have to swap to mouse and keyboard and then, you know, I just I'm in Steam big

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picture mode and I go to like Neo and all of a sudden I've got like a full proper controller like or if you don't

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like big picture mode now, you don't have to use it cuz you control your mouse with one of these guys. It really,

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you know, the future kind of is now. And I love this thing. I I haven't even used

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it in game, but I can already tell you that I Yeah, I wish the plastic felt

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more premium 100%. But like they did a really good job actually in terms of

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just feel and comfort and ergonomics.

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Again, hand size is so big of a game

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changer when it comes to controllers. I know people with big hands that really

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prefer the Xbox. Um I know people that prefer the Duke of all things just

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because their mids are so big, but like this feels like it's right in between a

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PS5 and an Xbox controller and I'm really I'm really all about that

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actually. But enough about the controller itself. We've got a game on

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this thing to see if it's actually responsive and feels good to play games

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difficulties? You know, we've got this pretty early. I'm sure Valve will have

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it all sorted out by the time it launches. Um, currently we're having a

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little trouble getting our puck to connect wirelessly, so we're just going

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to stay plugged in. I will say now that I'm using the triggers a bit more. Ooh,

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that's registering something. Yeah, there's haptic feedback on the on the

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trackpads. [music] I don't know why it's giving me haptic feedback. I'm not doing anything. I'm

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just compiling shaders. But you can hear it, too. It's like a squeak noise.

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It's actually slightly annoying if I press it by mistake and then it starts vibrating. [music] Um, but I guess

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that's also telling me, hey, you're touching the trackpad, so maybe it's a good thing. Oh, yeah. That D-pad, that

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feels satisfying. Navigating menus has never felt so good. [laughter]

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I will say I kind of wish that the thumb sticks

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were a little bit lower. I do have slightly small hands and um it's not the

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end of the world. I think I still prefer this over an Xbox controller, but I do

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think I prefer my thumbs more like around here like on a Dual Sense, but

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you know, how else are they going to fit the trackpad in there? So, you're giving up something. Oh, there goes the

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trackpad, baby. Maybe I don't use the thumb sticks. Well, nope, cuz that's

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this is D-pad. [laughter] This is definitely D-pad, but this is

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camera, so that's cool. A great thing though about this is you can customize

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basically everything. You can remap the buttons to just about whatever you want.

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Um, so I'll never say no to that. I never remap anything, but I loved having

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the option to it. It's like getting invited to parties, you know? I don't want to go. I just want to get invited.

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Another really minor thing. Well, actually, I don't know if this is minor.

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This might be an issue for me. I mentioned [music] how my middle finger

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gets tired on an Xbox controller around that ridge. With this, I don't get

196
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tired. However, [music] my middle finger is starting to naturally rest up in this

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spot here. And when I press the trigger, it's sometimes touching my middle

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finger. And every now and then, it moves up just enough that it like almost it

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doesn't pinch it to the point where it hurts, but I feel like Yeah, I feel

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that. And I don't ever get that with a Dual Sense or an Xbox controller to be

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fair. As much as I dislike that, I've never like touched my middle finger with

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the uh trigger. So, that's tough. I

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don't know how much I hate or don't hate that. This is one of those times where

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I'd really prefer to like rent a controller for a week, see how it is,

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and then decide if I want to buy it or not. But hey, I guess that's why you're

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here watching this video. Yeah. What I wanted to do though was uh use a bunch

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of my ninja skills and hit these [music] face buttons a whole lot more. Chuck,

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poison shuriken. Poison shuriken. Poison shuriken. Yeah, you're poison now. I'm

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definitely finding my middle fingers coming up and resting in here more, but

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it actually on the regular does not feel

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as uncomfortable and sharp as the Xbox

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controller does. So, but then, you know, you do that and then you pinch your

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fingers. That's weird. I've never had that happen to me on any [music] controller in my life. And I guess

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that's why um this lip is so pronounced

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is it's to stop you from getting your fingers up there. I was so sold on this

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controller just on all the features and like looking at it and pressing the buttons.

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>> I love this thing. Very comfortable. They did a really good job.

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>> Feel and comfort and ergonomics. >> It's crazy how you don't really know

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until you actually game with something. That might be a dealbreaker for me.

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Let's try another game. It's definitely not the most intuitive gyro system I've

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ever seen. In theory, you're supposed to be able to like squeeze it or something

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and then it should work, but uh we can't seem to get that working right now. Um,

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[music] so the system, you know, it works. I will say the haptics feel

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great. Like the haptics on the on the whole controller as well as the

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trackpads feel awesome. One thing that I just kind of noticed while waiting for

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the game to load, the screw holes on the

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back of the controller, while they're very visible and it's great for right to

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repair, you feel them. Oh, the other thing we checked out while the game was

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loading, uh, just to confirm, see how big of a lip there is to prevent you

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from like moving your finger up into this space. And also, I think it's

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because this isn't like angled down. So, even if my finger's there, it's not pinching. Whereas with this guy, there's

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just kind of nothing. It just kind of exits up and then this is so curved down

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that it could pinch something in between. Yeah, the thumb sticks like

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they do feel good. They do. Nice and

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slippery, but like the grip feels great. Vibration is solid. I do like that. It

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really And even here, I'm not choking up. I don't know you guys. It might be

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the kind of thing that you slowly like train yourself to not do, but I think

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there's a reason why our Xbox controller is built a little different. Same thing

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with the PS5 Dual Sense controller. Otherwise, everything feels like it's in

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a good spot. Can I aim with this? I can. Yeah, you can aim with the trackpad. I

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don't know if I'd recommend it, but like it's doable. I'm doing it right now. To

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be fair, I am starting to naturally move my finger back when I go to use the

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trigger, but like I shouldn't have to do that. I shouldn't have to make these like micro adjustments as I use a

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controller. It should feel like an extension of your hands. And I think

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Valve is like so close. But I wish they

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would have done just a bit more testing with this ergonomically. A little

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disappointed. But you know what? I'm not disappointed by the rest of the

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performance for this controller because we did test it in the lab and uh the

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thumb sticks have really good uniformity [music] when you do a perfect circle.

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So, they're fantastic. I can't really complain about the thumb sticks at all.

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The latency, the polling rate for this guy is about 250 Hz and uh Xbox

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controller is more like 125. So, we actually measured really, really good

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latency wired, wireless over Bluetooth, and wireless with the dongle. So, no

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matter how you're using it, it's not going to feel like you're waiting for

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your inputs to actually take effect on screen. Another great feature is the

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battery life. It's absolutely phenomenal. Valve rates it at 35 plus

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hours and we measured 37 1/2 and that

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was with a pretty rudimentary test where we basically just like rubber banded it

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and we drove a car in donuts. But that's with like rumble, that's with input.

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Very impressive. a hell of a lot better than my DualSense controller or an Xbox

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controller with a couple of AA batteries in it. However, the battery life does

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diminish a little bit if you're using this with the Steam frame. So, if you're

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going to play a game, not not in VR, but like with a big screen in front of your

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face as if you've got the goggles on, you can still use your controller and it'll detect like where you are. If it's

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doing that, it will chew through the battery life a little faster. We

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obviously haven't tested that because we don't have a Steam Frame. Really solid

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technologically. I this is going to be a wild take. I

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kind of wish that Valve had teamed up

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with like Asus or Xbox uh or even Sony

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to try to figure out how to make the whole controller a little more

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comfortable. Cuz it feels great when you're just like holding it and like

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looking at it and you're like, "Oh, this is sick." But then as soon as you like you get you get into like gamer mode

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where you know you cinch up and you lean a little forward and all of a sudden my

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fingers are under the triggers. Um, I start to notice the screw holes a lot

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more. But it's, you know, it's tough because those are trade-offs because at the end of the day, you do get a lot of

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like elite level controller features, uh, like the gyro, uh, the back paddles,

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trackpads, which like you're not going to find that on, I don't know, many

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other controller, if not any. Does any other controller have a trackpad? The Dual Sense technically has one with that

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like big bar here, but like I don't know. I'm not going to use that all that

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often. Like, this feels good. The trackpad does feel fantastic. The big

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kicker is the price. It's $100.

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What's worse, we're in Canada land. Normally with conversion, that would be

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like $1 139. It's $150. So, they're

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giving us a bit of an extra tax. And that just kind of makes me a little upset as a Canadian. So, Valve, you're

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like so close. Like, I love the dongle idea. Like, that's a fantastic feature

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that I literally think everyone should adopt and I don't even care if it costs

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money. Like, please put that in. The TMR thumb sticks. amazing. Zero complaints.

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It's so close to greatness and I think it's going to be a fantastic controller

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for a lot of people. But unfortunately for me, I'm really happy I was able to

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try before I buy because I don't think this is going to be my next controller.

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Stay tuned for when we get the Steam frame or the Steam machine if those ever

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come out at this point because I don't know, RAM apocalypse, RAM again,

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whatever you want to call it. It is really screwing up hardware sales right

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now in the PC space and Valve unfortunately is not immune to those

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same issues that everyone else is. So, thanks for watching the ShortCircuit about the Steam Controller. Uh if you

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want to learn a hell of a lot more about it, uh David's writing a video right now

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and they're going to check it out by comparing it against a lot more

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controllers than just the Xbox One we had right here. And they'll go a lot

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more in depth into the testing and technology that's packed within this

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little guy. See you