Sometimes we unbox a product because we want to find out if it's good. And
sometimes we unbox it because we know it's good. And the Fly Digi Apex 4 is
the latter. It is the most premium
offering that Fly Digi makes in the controller space. If you don't know who
Fly Digi is, they are, I guess, a smaller company in, you know,
competition to Sony and Xbox. Uh, making
controllers in the PC predominantly space. Uh, and they are quite popular.
If you go over on r/controllers in the box, we have
a 6 ft cable cuz it's just longer than my wingspan. We have our USB dongle
because it's a wireless controller. It can do uh 1000 hertz over 2.4 GHz. It
can do Bluetooth. Uh it can do wired. Uh and with the dongle, it can actually
work with a Nintendo Switch, which is pretty nifty. And then we have the
controller itself. Also inside the box, we have this little package that I'm
guessing is going to be a quick start guide as well as illuminate your
personalized light panel.
I think that's to replace the Fly Digi
logo here. I guess presumably you could
put something on it. That's a weird one to have four of. Also, SIM card removal
tool. What? This isn't a cell phone.
Finally, we arrive at the controller itself, and it's got a pretty nifty white and transparent aesthetic, which
is pretty cool. The fa front face plate,
the front face plate actually comes off, which is pretty cool. Um, one of the
weird design oversight things that I don't like about it is that in order to
take the face plate off, you actually have to take the sticks and D-pad off. I
forgot you had to take the sticks, that's why I kind of forced it. But then when you're under here, you can better
see the rumble motors, uh, the Hall effect sticks modules that are pretty
freaking nice looking. These look very R2-D2esque.
But most importantly, under here is the sick tension adjustment, little
screwies. On the front is a pretty standard Xbox
layout. We've got our face buttons, our asymmetrical sticks, our clicky D-pad. I
really don't like this. It's not very tactile. It feels like there's really
not much response to it. It's not horrible. It also feels like it travels
more on the left side. I've had to give up finding a controller that is an
excellent controller but also has a really good D-pad because it's just such
an afterthought in the way that modern games are interacted with. This is for
your, you know, squad commands or your your inventory. So, this is sufficient.
The face buttons are also mechanical style. So, if you're used to like an Xbox or a PlayStation controller, it
might feel a little bit strange to you. I've come to really like this feel,
although this one has a bit of mush in it, too. Not bad. Better than most
controllers these days. The sticks feel
amazing. These ones have already been adjusted because we use this in a cool
video coming over on the LT channel. I'll tell you a little bit later about.
Um, but they just feel heavy and responsive and tight. Oh, so good. Start
select is fine. At the bottom of the front, we have a home and a function
button that you can assign using the software. Uh, and then we move to the
bottom. On the bottom, it's pretty simple. It's just pins for an optional
dock that you can buy. It's $20, which
is nice that they don't just roll it into the cost of this controller cuz you
might not actually want that dock. On the back, we have our onoff switch as
well as our four paddle buttons uh that you'll be able to assign in software.
And then on the top, we have our bumpers and our triggers, as well as our type-C,
cuz this is 2025 and things have type-C, which is great. As well as what I
believe are locking channels for a locking cable, so you won't just yank
out your cable. Although, I couldn't find uh a specific cable for this
purpose. Let me know in the comments down below if you have this cable that
would lock with this. Now that we're done exploring, let's see how this thing feels in the hand. It feels very premium
in the hand. It's quite heavy. It's over 310 g, which puts it definitely in the
heavyweight contender category. Uh the rubberized grip is actually pretty nice,
although you can already see we've barely used this one and it's already
getting dirty or worn and so that's definitely a consideration. The face
plate plastic is actually pretty nice. Um I was a little bit worried it would
feel super cheap. Sometimes the face plate units just feel so crappy. I
really like these bumpers. It doesn't seem like equal travel on every part of
it, but it does feel clicky and responsive uh on the whole button. And
these triggers, the shape of them is really nice. Uh and the resistance is
really, really nice. And they hide one of the killer features of this controller, which is adaptive triggers,
which we will get to in a little bit. Oh my gosh, there's so much to get to.
We're coming back to the sticks because this was actually the thing that started
getting me to switch my mind about alternate controllers. I knew that
sticks mattered to me when I first picked up an Asus controller and they're
like the lightest, least resistant sticks I've ever felt and it just felt
cheap and wrong. When I found out that the Fly Digi lineup you could actually
adjust your tension on the fly, I thought that was kind of a gimmick
because uh I'm not going to be adjusting it as I play. But what I realized is
that it's not about on the fly adjustment. It's about finding the tension you like and being able to set
that exactly how you want. Yo, what? Uh, secret compartment holds
the actual tool to adjust your stick tension. This is so cool. Okay, I dig
that. It's not just aesthetics, it's practical. So, the way it works is you
turn it and you adjust the tension of the spring, which resets the analog
sticks to their center. These are Hall effect sensors, which is great because
theoretically that means there shouldn't be any wear and tear that causes stick
drift in these. They should run for a very long time. At the light end, it's
about 33 g of force to move the sticks.
And at the heavier end, it's about 100. Just for reference, an Xbox controller
sits closer to the bottom at 55. I guess the only thing left now is to plug it in
and test it out in some games, but only after we tell you about our sponsor,
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ShortCircuit to get 25% off your first payment today. Well, that was easy. Plug
the dongle in, turn the controller on, and away we go. There's actually two
extra features that I didn't even mention in the unboxing portion. There's
RGB uh and a screen. I don't think it's
that great of a feature. Uh we looked at a controller recently that had a screen
on it. Uh that is more fully featured than this one. This one seems to be
mostly kind of an aesthetic thing and I would way rather have battery life than
a screen on my controller. But that's just me. Let's take a look at the software and see what kind of
configuration we can do. I literally just installed this brother. While this
is downloading, I can tell you that it's a little bit annoying, Fly Digi, that I
had to find a Reddit post to link to a Russian version of your website to be
able to get the software for my PC. Your North American website sees to only want
to push the phone app, which I have zero interest in using. If I'm using a
controller on a PC, I would like to use the PC to adjust the settings, not have
to connect to a phone via Bluetooth, disconnect from the phone, and then plug
into a computer and then hope that the settings have translated. Please make
your website a little more better.
There's no other way to describe it. That's uh kind of silly. We are in the Fly Digi Space Station software, which
looks kind of primitive compared to some of the peripheral maker stuff, but that
doesn't mean it's bad. Uh, in fact, it looks like I have access to more settings than I've seen on a lot of
controllers. At our home, we can reassign all the buttons. That's
actually really nice for accessibility reasons. Currently, our back buttons
aren't set to anything, and I don't want to do that yet. We can adjust our
joystick dead zone, which is by default at zero. And then also the sensitivity
curve. I'm going to leave it at default because I don't have a preference uh
across all games of how I want the sensitivity curve to be. Although, it's
nice they have some presets you can muck around with. We have our gyro settings,
which is pretty cool. And you can actually automatically assign the gyro
to one of the joysticks. So, if a game doesn't have gyro support, you can
actually force it uh in the controller
software, which is actually pretty nice. You can actually assign it to mouse sensitivity, which is kind of cool. I'm
not a gyro shooter guy, but there's a lot of people that seem to be swearing by it, especially for those little micro
adjustments when you're sniping and stuff. So, very cool. The thing I'm most
interested in is the trigger settings.
Um, like I briefly mentioned before, they are adaptive triggers, which are
similar to the PS5's Dual Sense controller. Basically, what that means
is that developers can set different resistance levels of the trigger uh to
simulate different effects. So, as you pull back on a bow, it'll kind of have
that stretch feeling or when you're excelling in a car, it'll uh mimic the
the resistance that accelerator pedal will give you or in a shooting game,
kind of a trigger feel. It's not on a per game basis. And so, when you play on
PS5, you know, you're getting that support. And on PC, it's a little more
hit and miss, although a lot of games do have it as well. So, you can per game
mode, uh, adjust the different settings,
uh, like the damping start position or the damping strength, which will
simulate more of that hair trigger feel. I think it's a little bit disappointing
that the best controller that Flag Digi makes is missing, I think, one of the
killer features of its mid-tier
brethren, which is the hair trigger stops. If you don't know what that is, it's basically a little mechanical
switch that you go that forces the triggers to be very short action. So
that when you're playing competitive games, you don't have to pull the trigger all the way to shoot your gun.
You can just kind of like tap it. Uh much faster reaction time on stuff. You
can simulate that with these adaptive triggers, but it's not nearly to the
same effect. It just feels a lot heavier to press and then the dead zone would be
set right at the top so that as soon as you're doing it, you can set the recoil
mode, vibration start position. That's fun. I wonder if this is a software
though that will kind of add this on top of games that don't support it or if it's just multiple settings I can change
uh that are all going to make it more messy when I'm in game later. You know
what? Doing the trigger lock setting makes it
much closer to what having a real trigger stop feels like. You set the
damping position to 20. If you're just lightly tapping, I could be convinced
that this was a mechanical stop. However, if you're like a squeezer and
you can easily get past that point and go all the way down, that's actually not
bad. I am kind of impressed that they
were able to simulate the the feeling of a mechanical stop that well. In the
general tab, we can mess with our RGB. Um, couple different settings that are
kind of cool. I'm going to turn it off cuz I like battery life. Does that turn the screen off? No, it doesn't. The
screen stays on. Oh, that's a big bummer. Control vibration. Vibration
intensity all the way. Let's go. That's a lot of vibration, baby. That's
the kind that like would actually probably make me lose a little bit of control. So, I'm going to bring it back
down to 69.
Perfect. It's not the highest resolution rumble I've ever felt then. It's just
rumble motors doing their their spinning. It's pretty dang decent. If you're not expecting haptic feedbacks
like there is in the JoyCons or the PS5 controller. Wow, there is so many
settings because I can make my different profiles here, but there's also this set
of tabs up top. So, PC config, we're at adaptive triggers. Oh, that's fun. Okay,
so we can go into individual games and turn on the adaptive triggers. Dual
sense mode. All right, we'll turn that on so we can test that out. I've also downloaded Derp 5, which is not on the
list. So, I think this is very specifically the games that are
supported. It looks like support isn't across everything, which is a little bit
disappointing. All right. Screen settings. Where's the off button?
There is no off button. Oh, you got to
plug it into the wire to update the
graphic. I'm really not interested in having an animation on my controller.
I'm going to try and find the one that has the least amount of movement for the least amount of distraction. Uploading
one of 17. Oh, I guess it's individual frames. Yo, rule the game, dog. I can't
wait to have that just going off non-stop in my peripheral vision. They
got uh off-brand Mario and Luigi. I think I've got to go Luigi in terms of
class solidarity. Is this one?
Is it Mario twerking and Luigi pointing? I've got off-brand Mario twerking on my
controller. The thing I'll say is that the frame
rate's wacky on the computer. It looks like it's holding the frames uh twice as
long and then here it's moving real fast.
Maybe I do want a screen on my my controller just so I can stare at Mario
twerking nonstop. Strangely enough, the controller really wants to be in slot
two. So, I'm going to pretend that I'm in a boss fight against Psycho Mantis.
Let's test the circularity.
That's pretty good circularity on the sticks. Uh, we actually had Labs test
this controller because it's part of a big roundup we're doing on LT that you
should make sure you're subscribed so you can see that as soon as it comes out cuz that's going to be a sick video.
But, we tested these sticks to be pretty dang good. Uh, and it's appears that
they still are pretty dang good. It appears that they're kind of bottom left
heavy. This amount of circle error is definitely within the realm of very
good. Well, let's play a game. All right, we're playing one of my favorite
games of all time, Psychonauts 2. Uh, just to get a general feel of the
controller before we get into the specifics of the specific features.
These sticks feel absolutely phenomenal. They're rubberized in the right way. Uh,
Fly Gigi claims they're the first alloy adjustable tension sticks. I don't know
what the alloy means. I'm guessing it's just, you know, there's multiple
materials in the stick, so that makes it an alloy. But in terms of real use, this
feels freaking fantastic. Fantastics.
Face buttons are nice. Uh, clicky feels a little weird to me on a platformer
like this, but this is going to be a preference thing.
These bumpers and triggers feel amazing right now. I think the resistance point
is a little too early. So, I'm going to go mess with my software. I've set it to
regular mode, which allows the game to control the resistance, and that makes
it's just regular triggers. These feel very solid. They're very good baseline
triggers. So, this controller has passing the first test, which is kind of
just a general all round. This would be a great controller to play Psychonauts 2
or any 3D platformer with. Let's try the next thing. One thing of note is that
because I've enabled the Dual Sense mode in the software, I think that the
computer thinks this is a Dual Sense. And so, I'm getting PlayStation button prompts. Not a big deal. I'm used to
playing on PlayStation, so I know what they mean. The resistance feels kind of light uh as a default setting. It's
there, but it's not as heavy as I think
I'd want. That being said, it's a it's a competitive game, so it makes sense. My
immediate reaction in this game is uh this is the best controller I've ever
used in a shooter. I'm normally a mouse and keyboard guy. Uh, I can definitely
play controller games just fine, but the
way this feels in the hand, the way the sticks uh resist, the way that the
triggers feel, this is about as good as
a controller as I think has ever been made. This is an extraordinary
experience. Yeah, input latency feels spot-on. Uh, based on our testing from
the Labs, this is up there with some of the best. not the absolute top uh but
well within the realm of very competitive controllers in this game.
The clicky buttons feel much more at home. It feels like it makes a lot more
sense to have it be uh mechanical style here. I made the joke before starting
this video that I'm never going back to first party controllers. I don't think
it's much of a joke. Like these are so superior than even the expensive
PlayStation and Xbox controllers. Like I would pick this a 100 times out of 100
over an Xbox Elite. I guess unless I'm playing on an Xbox console. This can't
currently be used on either console. Uh although it can be used on Switch, which
is nifty, although it has to be in dock mode because you need the USB dongle in
there. I didn't even talk about like how the shape is basically just an Xbox shape overall. If you're used to an Xbox
controller and you like the shape uh and you play lots of shooters, uh let me
tell you, I've got a way better controller to sell you. I've actually
been surprised uh based on like the feedback from our last video how many
people really don't like asymmetrical stick layout. So, I think that's going
to be a preference thing. And so this isn't necessarily the ultimate
controller for everyone, but if you're used to asymmetrical sticks or willing
to sacrifice a little bit of that, you know, hand shape. I haven't even talked
about the back paddles. I'm not a huge user of back paddles, but these feel
really nice. They're very clicky, very responsive, but not so light that you
would accidentally press them, and they sit in a very good spot. You got to give
it up to Fly Digi. They know how to make one hell of a controller. I think the
one big downside is to get all those features. uh including a 1500 milliamp
battery inside of this package.
Ah, it's not cheap. It's $160.
That's definitely more than I am in the habit of spending on a controller.
However, I think if these features like adaptive triggers and the screen and uh
the t stick tension matters to you, it's
pretty easy to justify the complete package even at that price. And if that
is too expensive for you, I've got great news for you. Just the best news. Fly
Digi makes two other controllers that
are very, very good as well. We've got the Vader 4, which is the step down at
$80. It has a lot of the same features, no adaptive triggers, but it does have
the trigger stops that I actually think I prefer if I'm exclusively playing
competitive games. Uh, it has the stick tension, which is amazing, and it's
actually a better implementation IMO because you can do it without taking the
face plate off. You just spin these dials, and it changes the tension. Let's
go all the way to the max. And these sticks, they still feel amazing. These
triggers, too. Face buttons feel good, huh, I actually think I like the face
buttons on the Vader more. And there's also two extra face buttons, which is
pretty nifty. So, 80 bucks, you got the Vader. And then at 50 bucks, you have
the Direwolf 3, which is another very good controller. A little more price
conscientious. This one's a very solid alternative to an Xbox controller as
Hall effect sticks as well. Uh, so that reliability should be better longterm
and back paddles. Otherwise, it's very similar to an Xbox controller, if not
just slightly better. And all three of them are really good options. The best
one is the most expensive one. Uh, and I can without reservation recommend this
thing. It is awesome and the best controller for a shooter I've ever used.
I am going to start saving my pennies up for one of these. Maybe save half the
pennies and get a Vader 4. I don't know. You tell me in the comments which one I
should go for. Just like I'm going to tell you that this video is over. Thank you so much for watching ShortCircuit.
If you like this video, why don't you check out my recent unboxing of the Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot?