Games on Android devices have really improved in the last few years. The powerful processor and GPU are capable of delivering a highly detailed and an immersive experience. However, there’s one area that majority of the Android games lack today – user friendly controls. There are games like Asphalt that take advantage of the phone’s built-in sensors but a game like GTA, Virtua Tennis is difficult to play with onscreen controls.
Thankfully, companies are trying to address this issue with gaming controllers. Samsung has a solution of its own known as the GamePad and we took it for a thorough test to see if it’s worth the money.
The first iteration of Samsung’s GamePad never saw the light and understandably so as it looked like a heavily inspired Xbox 360 controller. But things changed with the second generation (EI-GP20). Samsung reworked the design that not only looks different but also has been ergonomically designed.
Design-wise, the gaming accessory has a glossy black finish on the front with grey on the sides and the back. As far as buttons go, the GamePad features a Directional-Pad, 2 Analog Control Sticks, 4 Action buttons and L1/R1 Trigger buttons. There’s also a big Play button on the front while the power/pair slider, select, start buttons and the microUSB charging port at the bottom side.
One interesting feature of the GamePad is that it has a retractable metal phone holder on the top hand side of the controller that allows users to place their smartphone. The phone holder is nifty that gives a handheld console-like feeling while playing and flushes nicely inside the Game Pad when not in use. Samsung claims a device with a screen size between 4-inch to 6.3-inch can easily fit in. Sliding a smartphone in or out of the phone holder is really easy. However, in our use, we found that the phone holder made the volume and the power buttons on the side of the smartphone inaccessible.
The GamePad uses Bluetooth 3.0 to establish a connection with the Android device and users can even pair it with the one-touch NFC (if your device supports). Once connected, all a user needs to do is hit the Play button that opens the S Console app. This free app is downloadable from the Samsung’s Galaxy Apps store and serves as a gateway to all the games (68 games as of this review) that is supported by the GamePad.
While the S Console app gives the list of games in an eye pleasing interface, here’s where the app goes wrong. The S Console app lists the games that are installed from the Galaxy Apps only and in case, you’ve already bought and installed the game from the Play Store, you’ll have to buy the game again from Galaxy Apps to take advantage of the GamePad controller. It’s understandable that Samsung wants to keep the user inside their ecosystem but it’s not that a user will appreciate.
That said, S Console does make easy discovery of games but it’s not the only way a user can play games with the GamePad. If you’re wondering, yes, the controller works with other games and non-Samsung devices but it’s a hit and a miss. The GamePad worked flawlessly with Riptide GP2, Badland and even Rayman Fiesta Run on the Galaxy S4 and was able to play Asphalt 8 on a non-Samsung tablet.
Gaming with the GamePad is a good experience. The controller sits nicely in the hands with a good feedback from the controller buttons. The Play button also acts as a call rejection key for an uninterrupted gaming session. As for the battery life, Samsung claims up to 60 hours of play time with up to 640 hours of standby and with our gaming session of good 6-7 hours over a course of few days, the battery indicator reflected over 80 percent of juice left, which we feel is pretty good.
Samsung GamePad is a good companion if you game a lot on your Samsung device. However, the controller is not without its share of drawbacks, the biggest one being tied to Samsung’s ecosystem. There’s also an issue of availability in many regions. The GamePad is not available officially in India but online retailers like MobileFun sell the GamePad for under Rs. 6,000.
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