The Modular Gamevice Flex Controller Wants You to Keep Your Phone in Its Case

The greatest problem dealing with the rising variety of clamp-on gamepads that promise to show your smartphone right into a handheld console is their restricted compatibility, particularly relating to becoming your cellphone. The Gamevice Flex needs to vary that with a modular design that may be reconfigured to help virtually any cellphone, even when inside a case.

A few months in the past, Razer revealed a brand new model of its smartphone gamepad, however what made the Kishi V2 well worth the improve wasn’t the Backbone One-inspired inflexible extending bridge on the again, however the easy inclusion of swappable rubber inserts that allowed the controller for use with not simply thicker smartphones, however these with a protecting case on them. As neat as the thought of turning a smartphone into a robust gaming system is, smartphones are costly and value defending with a case, and having to pry a cellphone out of that case each time you wish to play a sport simply isn’t value it.

Unfortunately, at launch, the Razer Kishi V2 solely supported Android units, and its compatibility with units in a case was restricted. That’s a giant draw back that Gamevice, the corporate who initially partnered with Razer to make the Kishi, needs to treatment with a brand new clamp-on controller of its personal referred to as the Flex.

Not surprisingly, the Flex appears to be like like the primary era of the Kishi, with an asymmetrical joystick format and a versatile adjustable strap on the again connecting each side that additionally securely holds the gamepad to the cellphone. Unlike the Kishi V2’s change to a inflexible bridge connection, the versatile strap additionally permits each side of the Gamevice Flex to be connected to one another, making a smaller footprint when not connected to a smartphone.

What truly offers the Flex its title, nevertheless, isn’t that strap, however the inclusion of assorted spacers of various sizes and supplies that assist the controller securely match all kinds of smartphones and cellphone instances. The spacers additionally assist make sure the Gamevice Flex’s USB-C or Apple Lightning connector is positioned on the correct top to hook up with an inserted smartphone, even whereas the system remains to be in a protecting case, which usually provides fairly a little bit of thickness across the connection port.

Gamevice guarantees the Flex gamepad can be utilized alongside 1000’s of various smartphone instances, and particularly mentions manufacturers like OtterBox, Urban Armor Gear, Casetify, in addition to first-party case choices from Apple and Samsung. That being mentioned, in case you’re utilizing a folio-style case with a flap that covers the display, you’ll nonetheless must pop it off to make use of the Gamevice Flex. The controller additionally isn’t suitable with folding telephones, like these from Samsung and Motorola.

The solely factor not versatile in regards to the Gamevice Flex is that you just’ll want to decide on between both the $100 USB-C model designed for Android devices, or the $110 MFi-certified Apple version made for iPhones with Lightning ports. Being in a position to swap the connector kind as wanted could be a neat trick, however the higher resolution is for Apple to lastly undertake USB-C for all of its cellular units.