Razer Kishi V2 Pro Mobile Game Controller Sends Out Strange Vibrations

When the Razer Edge cloud-gaming handheld shipped earlier this yr, it included a higher-end model of Razer’s $100 Kishi V2 — an on-phone recreation controller eerily much like well-known competitor the Spine One. Now you will get the $130 Android-only Kishi V2 Professional controller by itself, in considered one of two variants: the usual model and a specifically licensed Xbox Version that features — look forward to it — an Xbox button underneath the best joystick for an additional $20 (out there solely in North America).

The Professional fashions supply two options you may’t get for the additional bucks: a 3.5mm audio jack, which implies now you can use a wired headset and cost on the identical time, and rumble assist (buzzwordly identified lately as “haptics”).

So, yay for the three.5mm jack, which works as anticipated, however I am not a giant fan of Razer’s HyperSense audio-based haptics. For many video games, it is not primarily based on cues within the recreation, it is primarily based on sound frequencies, so that you get some bizarre vibrations. Right here it is even weirder, as a result of there’s so little bass within the cellphone’s sound system (a minimum of in my Samsung Galaxy Extremely S22), so, as an illustration, background music vibrates and nothing seems like a rumble. 

The design is in any other case the identical. It comes with further rubber tabs you may slide in at both finish to supply a extra cosy match or increase the digital camera bump barely so it does not press in opposition to the again assist, however I have a tendency to search out that makes it harder than I prefer to snap within the cellphone.

Razer up to date its Nexus app together with this rollout, and I am nonetheless not loopy about it. As an illustration, moderately than realizing I am signed in to Xbox Recreation Go through its app, it at all times tells me that to allow haptics for it I’ve to launch Chrome and allow a browser setting that is not there and tries to make me play in Chrome. 

And should you exit a recreation or the app unexpectedly — say, when it is attempting to throw you out to Chrome however the message does not have an choice to cancel since you hold forgetting it does not deal with Recreation Go login appropriately — it loses the connection to the controller. Then you must disconnect and reconnect it bodily, as a result of there is no technique to pressure a connection refresh in software program. That is not the solely scenario through which the cellphone stops recognizing it, both.

So whereas I proceed to love the Kishi V2 line for the crisp controls and simple in-and-out, and I am glad to see the devoted audio jack within the Professional, it is nonetheless extra irritating than I would like in some methods. Possibly V3 would be the appeal.