With this terrible health situation underway, the prospect
of a "home" period made us resort to buying a new toy with which to
spend time playing this time from your smartphone.
We are talking about the Razer Kishi , a product of the
well-known Korean gaming accessories brand, which offers the player an optimal
solution to be able to play on their smartphone, effectively eliminating the
problems related to the use of a bluetooth controller.
We then experimented with this product for a while with
services like Xbox xCloud , Steam Link and Nvidia GeForce Now. to see how it
performs compared to a classic bluetooth controller for Xbox One.
Packaging
As a classic of any Razer product, the Razer Kishi also
comes in a minimal package where black and green are obviously the masters .
On the front of the package we obviously find an image of
the product and some basic information ( in our case related to the Android
version of the controller ) in addition to the strong point of the product or
the " Ultra-Low Latency " obtained thanks to the direct USB-C
connectivity .
The strong points of the product and a small list of
compatible devices are again shown on the back and sides ( aspect on which we
will discuss more later ).
Inside the package we will find instead very little or a
small user manual and the controller itself equipped with some stickers
designed to indicate some of the fundamental use features of the product.
Design and materials
As soon as you pick up the Razer Kishi for the first time,
it immediately reveals its nature entirely in black PBT which, although it is
not the finest material in the world, falls largely within Razer standards
resulting in excellent quality and that, especially in this case, it helps a
lot to reduce the weight of the controller itself ( 163 grams ).
The dimensions of the controller are really small and when
closed ( i.e. in the transport configuration ) it measures only 94.3mm x
134.1mm x 37.3mm making it extremely easy to store in a bag or even simply in a
jacket pocket without too many problems.
On the front we find what we would normally expect to find
on an Xbox One controller ( given that the Android system itself recognizes it
as such ) with the two asymmetrical levers, the D- pad and the Xbox-style
function keys ( although the colors do not return with the official Xbox keys
and are reversed from normal ).
In our version, the customized keys with start, select and
Xbox are missing ( instead present on the version of the pad dedicated to
xCloud ) but there are still the same "generic" keys that the system
recognizes exactlyin the same way as those of the official Xbox pad .
We were largely surprised by the analog sticks on this Razer
Kishi and would not have expected such a level of accuracy and feed on a
portable device like this.
Both have a good elastic response very similar to that of
the 360 pads and obviously have the possibility of being pressed ( which is
often not present in the cheaper mobile controllers ) responding with a well
perceptible click.
The directional cross is a little disappointing , a thread
that is too “ soft ” for our tastes and that does not make the feed that we
find instead in the original pad.
Of course, this does not means that it works badly indeed,
it works perfectly in every game environment but the tactile feed is not as
clear and decisive as we would like it to be.
Also on the front, on the side of the Razer Kishi that
connects to the smartphone with the USB port, there are two slits to allow the
lower speakers of the phone not to be plugged and instead project the sound
towards the player .
Not all phones have speakers in this position of course, but
in our case, as for most of the devices on the market, the result is largely
satisfactory and translates into a clean audio without any alterations
The keys on the top are also very good, although they are
not at the same level as a full-size pad, they still offer an optimal feed for
worry-free play.
Furthermore, the L2 and R2 triggers , unlike many mobile
pads of this type, have a gradual stroke and are not simple on / off buttons
making them perfect for machine games ( which in our test refer to Forza
Horizon 4 ).
The only weird thing about these triggers is a slight noise
when you press them which doesn't give a good quality feel although in the end
it doesn't affect the use of the pad itself in any way (probably due to a
slight friction between the triggers and the inner shell ).
On the underside of the pad, on the other hand, there is a
USB-C Pass-Through port used for charging the smartphone while using it inside
the pad.
Although not universally compatible, there is the convenient
fast charging function (which in our test worked optimally).
The Kishi itself obviously does not need any recharge as it
is not equipped with any type of internal battery ( it feeds directly from USB
) and connecting USB-C headphones to this port ( as we tried to do ) will not
allow the use of the same as audio output .
Compatibility and smartphone connection
The compatibility of the Razer Kishi requires two
fundamental elements, namely the presence of a USB-C port on your smartphone (
in the central position at the bottom ) and precise maximum dimensions for the
device to be used.
Razer Kishi supports smartphones with maximum dimensions of
145.3 - 163.7 mm x 68.2 - 78.1 mm x 7.0 - 8.8 mm making it compatible with most
of the Android devices on the market.
If you are able to connect the phone and let it enter the
pad, the configuration will be finished and it will be immediately recognized
as a standard Xbox pad .
The only thing you will most likely have to do is remove any
cover from your smartphone as increasing the thickness of the phone will not
allow proper alignment with the controller's USB-C connector.
To insert the smartphone inside its slot it is necessary to
expand the pad and to do this you will have to use the two small switches on
the back to release the latches and manually extend the two parts of the
controller ( joined by means of a semi-rigid and elastic connector rear ) up to
the size necessary to correctly insert the smartphone in its housing.
In our test we use a Samsung Galaxy Note 9 ( ex-flagship
Samsung with a couple of years of life ) whose dimensions are quite generous
and for which (as it will generally be necessary to do with all devices ) it
was necessary to remove the cover as we had previously mentioned.
The final sensation is that of having a sort of Switch in
hand although the slight play that the two parts of the pad play compared to
the smartphone makes it a little less “monobloc” compared to the Nintendo
console.
However, given the ease of use and the relative simplicity
with which the pad can be expanded and collapsed, we would like to widely
promote it for use on the road or away from home .
Performance
In testing this peculiar controller we used some of the most
famous mobile gaming services, namely Microsoft's XCloud , NVIDIA's GeForce Now
and Steam Link of the homonymous Steam .
As expected from the excellent hardware conditions of this
product, all the various services immediately identified the controller by
indicating it or with the name of Razer Kishi ( Steam Link ), as an Android
Controller ( GeForce Now ) and as an Xbox controller ( XCloud ).
In all cases it was enough to simply connect the controller
and boom, we were immediately ready to play without any effort.
But how does this controller behave? We would say very well,
much better than the classic bluetooth controllers that are normally found on
the market for mobile gaming.
On XCloud we have extensively tested many of the titles in
the library such as Frostpunk , Halo: MCC , Forza Horizon 4 , Sea of Thieves
and in each of them we have not encountered any problems whatsoever.
Being identified as an Xbox controller (which mimics the
features ) navigating the interface of the Xbox Game Pass application and
playing the various games offered in the catalog was really easy and satisfying
.
We could not test the remote play function from Xbox One as
we are still waiting for an Xbox Series X but from previous experience we can
tell you that the behavior of the controller will be exactly the same .
On GeForce Now we tried A Plague Tale: Innocence , Black
Mesa ( a remake in UE4 of Valve's classic Half Life that we highly recommend
you to recover ) as well as other games present and even in the desktop server
environment the controller has been correctly recognized allowing us to play in
peace.
Of course, in this case you will have to make sure that the
game in question has full support for the controllers as otherwise it will
obviously be impossible to play ( for example by starting Frostpunk from our library
we were promptly informed to connect a keyboard and a mouse in order to play.).
So except for this little detail, playing with the
controller was perfect , and despite the Nvidia servers occasionally having
some lag on the controller side, everything went smoothly .
On Steam Link , then playing streaming from our PC gaming
platform we have widely enjoyed games of Hunt: Showdown (although playing with
a controller in this title is pure madness) and Metro: Exodus as if we were
directly in front of the computer.
Here, being a service that only works in the home ( maybe
you want to play sitting on the sofa or on the veranda ) it is very important
to have a good 5GHz local network to avoid lag and image distortions.
In our case with a FritzBox 7590 everything went well and
even in this situationthe controller has given its best by offering truly
uncompromising game control.
What do all these various experiences have in common? Latency zeroed.
You know that annoying latency that, albeit minimal, is felt
while playing with a Bluetooth controller on a mobile phone? Here with the
Razer Kishi this unfavorable element of mobile gaming is completely canceled
and all data inputs through buttons and analog sticks are immediately recorded
in the system with a reactivity equal to that which you would have playing on
consoles .
Of course, the overall latency will obviously also depend on
the quality of the network with which you are connecting to the various online
services but in our case thanks to the networkThe 200mega / 20mega controller
has greatly contributed to reducing the albeit low latency present in these
services.
This is not to say of courses that playing with a bluetooth
controller is not good , even that method certainly does its job without
excessively affecting the experience in negative terms, but if you really want
to aim for an optimal gaming experience on-the- go you will hardly find better
( at least currently ) than the Razer Kishi.
As already mentioned we wanted to experience how this
controller would have behaved if connected via an extension cable to an Android
tablet with USB-C and during our match in the seas of Sea of Thieves we had
again confirmation that even when wired the Razer Kishi keeps all its speed and
ease of use (although our cable was not small enough to use the Kishi closed ).
For those who want to buy the controller to play on Android
we are not as likely to give our approval.
The Razer Kishi at this juncture behaves exactly like any
other controller for mobile ( although it still has a higher quality than most
of those on the market ) and if the title you want to play ( for example PES
2021 ) does not support the bluetooth controller it does not he won't even
recognize this Razer-branded gem .
The Razer Kishi application is also present on Android but
although it shows some compatible titles its usefulness remains questionable .
If, on the other hand, you still want to use the controller
where it was not foreseen, you can use Octopus , a convenient application that
allows you to map touch areas of the screen with the relative physical buttons
of the controller but only for single player games without online component .
Using Octopus in online games ( especially in competitive
shooters ) could cost you the ban so do it only at your own risk!
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