Over the past year, Gamevice has been quietly working on revising their line of iPhone and iPad controllers. Today, they announced the fruits of their labor: the Gamevice line has been replaced with new, second-generation products.
There's a whole new iPhone Gamevice
The most significant upgrade is for the iPhone Gamevice – a product that had serious design problems in its original form. I’ve been using the new iPhone Gamevice for the past week, and while I haven’t had enough time yet to write a full review, I can already say that most of my problems with the previous model have been addressed:
The sharp, plastic, convex analog sticks have been replaced with textured, rubberized, concave sticks. This makes them feel much closer to those of an Xbox One controller or full-sized iPad Gamevice.
The Micro USB charging port has been replaced with a female Lightning port. No more carrying around a second cable!
The terrible-sounding headphone jack has been replaced with a somewhat-better-sounding part.
The Gamevice no longer has a separately-charged internal battery, and now draws power directly from the iPhone. The power draw is minor, and roughly equivalent to plugging in headphones.
Analog stick sensitivity and dead-zones have been dramatically improved. This has been an area of focus since the debacle with some of the early iPad Air Gamevice products, and the result is some of the smallest dead zones I’ve ever seen on any controller – bravo!
Lastly, this new model supports the iPhone 7 Plus. The previous model was too tight to fit the larger camera bump on the newer phones.
In the case of the iPad Gamevice products, the improvements seem to be limited to removing the internal battery, replacing Micro USB charging with a female Lightning port, and possibly improving the headphone jack and analog stick sensitivity – I’ll have to wait until I get my hands on one before I can say one way or another about those. The iPad Gamevice line was already quite good, and didn’t need the level of work that went into revising the iPhone product.
Also, as far as I can tell, the current 12.9-inch iPad Gamevice already counts as a Version 2 product. Many of the things I mentioned in my review – that it charges via Lightning, lacks an internal battery, and has the revised box art of the new product line – seem to be rolling out to the rest of the product line with this new update. I’m not sure what they’d change with this model. And since it’s only been on the market for a few months, it would be odd to see it replaced already. If it turns out that it has been replaced by a new model, I’ll update this article with specifics about how the new model is different.
If you are looking for one of the new Gamevice models, you can tell the difference by checking the box art. The Version 2 products have a revised box design featuring an angled picture of the product, whereas the older version shows the product directly from the front, without an angle.
The new Gamevice is on the right, the old is on the left. Note the angle of the product photo
The new Gamevice products are rolling out to Apple Stores now. The people behind the Gamevice say that the 9.7-inch iPad and 12.9-inch iPad models are available in-store now, and the iPhone 7 and iPad Mini models are scheduled to be released on the 31st. However, in my experience, the new iPhone model seems to already be available in the Apple Store. My advice: head to your local store to check for yourself.
The iPad Gamevice has long been my favorite MFi controller. Ever since I used an early prototype of the iPad Mini model, I’ve been convinced that the Gamevice is the best way to play iOS games. If you’ve seen my review of the smaller Gamevice, you know the general gist of what I’m going to say here. I love the form-factor, the build quality is excellent, and the price – while high – is reasonable for the quality of the product. The question with this larger device is simple: does the Gamevice form-factor still work on a big-screen iPad?
Unlike its predecessors, the 12.9-inch iPad is large enough to be comfortably used on a table, like a small TV, and controlled with a wireless Bluetooth controller. Some gamers might prefer this, but I’m not one of them. To me, this play style fails to take advantage of what the iPad has to offer as a gaming device – it turns the iPad into a (rather tiny) Apple TV. The beauty of the iPad has always been in the way you can hold it in your hands and directly control what is happening. There’s an intimacy to iPad gaming – it is fundamentally different than console and PC gaming, and you lose this intimacy when you use a traditional Bluetooth controller with your iPad.
The Gamevice is different from other iOS controllers. It embraces everything great about the iPad, rather than trying to turn the iPad into something it was never meant to be. And unlike with the iPhone Gamevice, the design and build quality of this iPad Gamevice model is excellent.
The Details
D-Pad
When the iPad Mini Gamevice launched two years ago, it had a better d-pad than every other MFi controller – by leaps and bounds. Amongst a sea of mushy circular d-pads, the Gamevice launched with a responsive, plus-shaped design. The competition has improved since then. The PXN Speedy, Horipad (regular and Ultimate), and SteelSeries Nimbus all have better d-pads than any of the Gamevice’s old competitors. Many of them even feature plus-shaped d-pads.
Because the original Gamevice was so far ahead in its original design, it still holds up against its new competitors. It isn’t quite as nice as the d-pad on the new Horipad Ultimate, but it’s a close second. The size is perfect, the texture is pleasantly grippy, and it is calibrated well enough to prevent accidental diagonal movements, without making these movements too difficult. If I’m nitpicking, it is a bit stiffer than I’d like – you have to press a bit harder than you should to activate it, which is why I’d rank the Horipad Ultimate’s d-pad a little higher. But overall, this is a great d-pad, and fans of retro games should be happy with the Gamevice.
The new Gamevice - same design as the Mini model, but with a far larger screen
Analog Sticks
The shape and feel of the Gamevice’s analog sticks feel like they’ve been lifted straight from an Xbox One controller; that’s a good thing, because the Xbox One controller has great analog sticks. And because the Gamevice is a Lightning-connected controller, its analog sticks communicate with the iPad at a much faster rate than older Bluetooth controllers, meaning they are potentially more responsive to quick motions.
Some early-production-run 9.7-inch iPad Gamevices suffered from major calibration issues, leading to significant analog stick dead zones. In short, you had to push the analog sticks noticeably far before they start registering movement, and the analog sticks think they’ve reached the end of their range well before they’ve actually been pushed all the way to the edge. Deadzones can cause issues in any game that requires responsive, precise motion. Because there’s a buffer between when your thumbs start moving and when the controller starts reacting to your thumbs’ movement, it can often feel like what’s happening on screen isn’t corresponding to what you’re doing on the controller. Camera movement that is supposed to be gradual instead feels sudden. Characters move in octagonal patterns instead of fluid, 360-degree motions.
This 12.9-inch Gamevice model is significantly improved from its predecessor, but not as much as I was hoping. Things have gone from terrible to adequate. It has the worst deadzones of the three modern MFi controllers, by far. The people at Gamevice have known about this problem for over half a year, and have been in direct contact with me throughout the prototype phase. I was hoping that this problem would be resolved. As it stands, the deadzones on this Gamevice don’t ruin the controller, but they are well behind those of the SteelSeries Nimbus and the Horipad Ultimate.
The ABXY Buttons
The Gamevice’s ABXY buttons have the exact same same size, shape, texture, and layout as an Xbox controller – medium-sized buttons, generously spaced away from each other, with a convex outer surface. These buttons are unchanged from the previous iPad Gamevice models, and thats a good thing, because they’re pretty much perfect.
The three-dimensional ABXY buttons on the SteelSeries Nimbus look a bit cooler, and are a bit larger, but the more generous spacing between the Gamevice’s buttons make for a better playing experience.
In my experience, the games that make the most demanding use of the ABXY buttons are button-combo-based games like Tekken and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. I spent time playing both of those via emulation, and no matter how intricate the button presses, the Gamevice never missed a beat. These buttons are first-rate.
Gamevice makes certain console ports playable on iOS
Triggers and Shoulder Buttons
Poor-quality triggers have ruined multiple MFi controllers. Thankfully, the triggers on the iPad Gamevice are excellent. They’ve been excellent ever since the very first iPad Mini model, and they’re still top-quality. The texture is grippy, the sensitivity is perfect – nothing to complain about here!
The shoulder buttons are similarly solid. They’re a bit more recessed than I’d like, requiring you to strain your fingers just a little bit more than would be ideal. But this is just nitpicking – considering how badly some of the other controllers dropped the ball with their shoulder buttons and triggers, the Gamevice deserves credit for getting this right.
Charging, Power, and Sound
The biggest upgrade to this 12.9-inch iPad Gamevice is something you can’t see – way it manages power has been completely redesigned. Previous Gamevice hardware included dedicated batteries. These batteries didn’t supply power to the iPad, nor could the Gamevice draw power from the iPad once its integrated battery died. This never made sense to me, and I couldn’t get a straight answer from anyone about what the logic behind this was. Anyways, it’s gone now – the 12.9-inch Gamevice draws power directly from the iPad. That means no more keeping track of its battery life – when your iPad dies, your Gamevice dies; until then, game on.
In addition to removing the superfluous battery, this Gamevice finally ditches the Micro USB input, in favor of a female Lightning port. This is an extremely welcome addition – no more extra cable required to charge the controller! When you’re running low on power, you don’t have to remove your iPad from the Gamevice – just plug it in to your standard Lightning cable, and keep playing as long as you want.
Lightning replaces Micro USB, but no headphone port
One caveat: the Gamevice is only capable of passing through 12W of power to the iPad Pro from its Lightning connection. This is not enough to actually charge the 12.9-inch iPad Pro while playing performance-intensive games – merely enough to tread water. Apple solved this problem by releasing a 29W USB-C power charger and cable. Unfortunately, the Gamevice doesn’t take advantage of this high power charger, and instead caps the input to a maximum o 12W. I can’t think of any non-Apple devices capable of charging the 12.9-inch iPad Pro at full speed, so I think this is probably a restriction of the MFi program, rather than something to blame Gamevice for.
Lastly, the Gamevice’s dedicated headphone jack is gone. It wouldn’t have made sense on this model, because the Gamevice doesn’t block the 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s headphone port. But who knows what the future holds? If future iPad Pro devices ship without a headphone port, the makers of the Gamevice might regret omitting one. Apple’s new Lightning EarPods do not work with the Gamevice’s Lightning port, so if Apple decides to ditch the headphone jack on future iPads, Bluetooth headphones will be your only option.
Gamevice Live
I rarely spend much time talking about controller software in my MFi controller reviews, because the software is rarely worth talking about. However, Gamevice Live is worth discussing in more detail, because it is more ambitious than software from other controller makers.
The Gamevice Live app (much like this website) is designed to be an interface for finding controller-compatible iOS games. It acts like a mini-App-Store, complete with featured app banners at the top, and genre-sorted sections for browsing catalogued games. Select a game, and the app shows you its iTunes description, price, and (for popular games) a map of the game’s controls.
Full disclosure: the Gamevice Live app is technically a competitor to my site. Although they paid me a lump sum over a year ago for one-time access to the AfterPad Game Database, I no longer have any ties to their app. Every game downloaded through the Gamevice Live app is a commission I don’t make on AfterPad. This is different than apps from other companies, where AfterPad supplies data directly to the apps, and I get a commission on app sales. I do, however, like the Gamevice, and I know and like the people behind the product. If you have any doubts about my ability to be objective, take the following with a grain of salt.
In my objective-as-possible opinion, the Gamevice Live app is a mess. Right of the bat, it isn’t optimized for the 12.9-inch iPad’s screen, resulting in blurry text and oddly sized graphics. This makes no sense when you consider that it merely a web view containing the Gamevice Live website – a website that scales perfectly fine to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s screen.
Even forgiving the blurry interface, the app doesn’t feel like it belongs on iOS. Scrolling is jerky and lacks rubber-banding, button presses are laggy and offer no visual feedback, there’s a hamburger menu at the top right that merely acts as a second way of loading the All Games screen, many of the graphics aren’t optimized for Retina, the list of genres includes a bunch of non-English entries… the list goes on and on.
It gets worse: every time you connect your Gamevice, it displays a pop-up notification prompting you to install the Gamevice Live app. If you already do have the Gamevice Live app installed, it will prompt you to launch the app. Worst of all: if you leave your iPad connected to your Gamevice, you will receive a push notification every 5-10 minutes asking you to launch the Gamevice Live app. It is impossible to disable these notifications. The only way to make the notifications go away is to uninstall the Gamevice Live app.
If you still want to use Gamevice Live after this, you should save the Gamevice Live website to your bookmarks or home screen, instead of using the app. The website is the exact same thing, but without the incessant pop-ups, and with support for the iPad Pro’s screen support. Personally, I’ll be sticking with my own site instead – although I probably should borrow their idea of listing detailed control layouts for popular games.
The Gamevice - my personal favorite way to play
Final Thoughts
If holding your iPad and controller in your lap while you game appeals to you, the 12.9-inch iPad Gamevice is an excellent controller – one of the best on the market. In every regard except the analog sticks and the app, the 12.9-inch iPad Gamevice is first rate. The analog sticks aren’t that bad, and nobody buys a controller for the companion app.
If the form factor of the Gamevice appeals to you, buy it. The polish of the product and the quality of the gaming experience is well worth the price.
I’ve actually been using a prototype of this product for the past several months, and I can say this: unless they dropped the ball in a critical way with the final product, this should easily be the best Gamevice yet. Two of the bigger issues with previous models have been solved: the Micro USB input has been replaced with a Lightning input jack, and the questionable-quality headphone jack has been removed entirely (it isn’t necessary since the iPad Pro’s headphone jack isn’t obscured by the Gamevice).
Gamevice makes the iPad Pro even more amazing for gaming
For me, the only question mark is the analog sticks. I’ve had many conversation with people from Gamevice after the questionable analog sticks in the 9.7-inch iPad Model, and I know that significantly improving the analog sticks was an area of focus with this product. What I don’t know if if they were actually successful in improving the analog sticks. I’m hoping to find out as soon as I can get my hands on the final Gamevice hardware.
Big, big news for iOS gamers: Apple is in the middle of rolling out MFi game controller sections to all of their retail stores! You read that right – if you head down to the nearest Apple Store, you’ll probably be able to play with any of the current top-tier MFi controllers, right now. Most Apple Stores opened these gaming sections yesterday; the rest will be rolling them out throughout the week.
Apple is giving iOS gaming its own featured section, sometimes even with a hands-on area
Every single Apple Store – all 465 locations – will be receiving a dedicated “gaming” space, highlighting the best available MFi controllers and recommended accessories. You’ve been able to buy MFi controllers in Apple Stores before, but they’ve never been collected together and presented as a platform before – this is a big deal for the ecosystem.
To be clear, this is a world-wide rollout, and it hits every single store, from the biggest flagships to the smallest mall outlets. Every Apple Store, everywhere, will have every top-tier MFi controller in-stock and in a dedicated section.
Apple seems to be promoting the Gamevice in a big way
Giving gaming its own section is good, but it gets better. In addition to the gaming sections, many of the larger Apple Stores will feature usable Gamevice controllers, out of the box, connected to iPads loaded with games. This is important; I’ve always said that the most important thing Apple could do to promote MFi controllers is to actually let people use MFi controllers. Once gamers get a chance to play Minecraft on an iPad Mini connected to a Gamevice, the controller will sell itself.
Many Apple Stores already had the Horipad Ultimate and SteelSeries Nimbus controllers hooked up to the Apple TV. While that is great for TV gamers, but it doesn’t make it clear that these controllers work with iOS. This new section fixes that problem, and presents tvOS and iOS as a unified gaming platform – a great move, considering the iOS audience is tens of thousands of times larger than the Apple TV audience.
Gaming is a defined section, separate from other accessories
I was curious about how knowledgeable Apple was about these controllers – when the MFi controller program first started, Apple retail employees generally had no idea what the controllers were. Chatting with a couple of the Apple Retail employees at the new Union Square Apple Store eased my worries – these people know a lot about MFi controllers. More than that, the people I talked to were enthusiastic iOS gamers – one employee was very much looking forward to the iPad Pro Gamevice for personal use.
This push with Gamevice represents one of Apple’s biggest commitments to the MFi controller program. Not only are they promoting a product exclusive to iOS, but for the first time, they’re stocking every single available Gamevice in every Apple Store – the iPhone, iPad Mini, and standard-sized iPad models are all available, with the iPad Pro model coming later this year. It’s a welcome sight, and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.
It’s finally here! About a year behind schedule, but at long, the time is upon us: the 9.7 inch iPad Pro / iPad Air version of the Gamevice is available right now from the Apple Store!
THIS is the controller you've been waiting for
Mine arrives tomorrow. I’ll have a review up shortly thereafter. I’m expecting my opinion of this Gamevice will closely mirror my opinion of the iPad Mini Gamevice – and I still think the iPad Mini Gamevice is the best MFi controller you can get.
If you’re a fan of the Gamevice, the good news just keeps on coming. Not only is the long-delayed iPad Air version of the Gamevice finally coming this month, but a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro Gamevice is planned for later this year!
19 inches of Gamevice!
In addition to its larger size, the iPad Pro version seems to have a few additional changes from the other models. According to the tech specs, the Pro version of the Gamevice has a Lightning receptacle instead of a Micro USB port, meaning no more carrying around two cables just to charge your device and controller. Even more importantly, the size of the iPad Pro means that the Gamevice no longer blocks the iPad’s headphone jack. This means the Pro Gamevice no longer has its own headphone jack and DAC. Considering how terrible the sound quality on the previous Gamevices was, this is a huge upgrade.
I haven’t had a chance to use this Gamevice myself, and I have no idea how far along it is, or whether it actually will be released this year. The good news is, the folks at Gamevice are showing the controller off at GadgetShowLive right now, so there’s at least one prototype out there.
For many people – perhaps most – the iPad Pro’s 12.9-inch screen is large enough that you can stand your iPad up on a table and enjoy games with a standard Bluetooth MFi controller. Still, there are plenty of gamers out there – myself included – who would still rather hold the iPad in our laps while we play. It’s great that Gamevice has a controller for us, and personally, I’m very excited to get my hands on this controller later this year. Assuming it doesn’t suffer a massive delay.
It’s over a year late, and months behind its brothers, but at long last it’s coming: the Gamevice for the non-mini iPad should be released this month!
If you’re a regular reader of my site, you know I’m a huge fan of the iPad Mini Gamevice. It’s the best MFi controller you can get, in almost every aspect. It’s only downside is that it works only with the iPad Mini – one of the weakest devices Apple sells, and a device poorly suited for gaming.
This new Gamevice model takes the same design from the iPad Mini model, but stretches it out to work with the full-size iPad Air and new 9.7-inch iPad Pro. I got a chance to use a prototype a little over a year ago, and it worked great then – presumably it’ll work even better after an extra year of development.
Many people have been waiting a long time for this product – I know I have – and I’m glad the wait is nearly over. The Gamevice is scheduled for release this month, presumably as a timed exclusive at the Apple Store; I’ll be keeping a look out for it, and I’ll post an article when it’s available.
The iPad Mini version of the Gamevice is one of the best controllers ever made. For prospective customers, the only questions are “do you own a compatible iPad?” and “are you okay spending $99 on a controller?” If the answers to those questions are yes, you should buy the iPad Gamevice immediately. The iPad Mini Gamevice truly is a controller without compromise.
The iPhone Gamevice, on the other hand, is not a slam dunk. It is a flawed controller. Unlike the iPad Gamevice, the iPhone model is full of compromises, done with the goal of making the controller more portable. As I’ll cover in this review, these compromises are not enough to stop me from recommending the iPhone Gamevice. They do, however, add up to make it worse controller than it could have been. You’ll be happy with the iPhone Gamevice, but throw away any expectations of getting something as good as the iPad model.
Overall Design
The iPhone Gamevice tries to talk a delicate line: be portable, but without losing features. As such, it is a full Extended format controller, featuring real analog sticks, decent buttons, 4 shoulder inputs, and a full d-pad. This is a first for any MFi controller that connects directly to the iPhone, and it means the Gamevice is compatible with virtually every one of the almost 900 MFi-supported games.
The build quality of the Gamevice is first-rate. The plastic is nicely textured, with a pleasant matte finish reminiscent of the iPhone’s aluminum. The whole thing feels first-rate – no creaking, no blemishes, and no seams. Absolutely worthy of the $99 price tag.
Inputs are positioned modern-Nintendo-style, with analog sticks placed in the prime position and the d-pad and ABXY buttons placed in the harder-to-reach lower position. This worked well on the full-sized Gamevice, but the tighter layout of the iPhone Gamevice makes the lower inputs much more difficult to reach comfortably. For the handful of games designed around using both analog sticks at once, it makes for a nice layout. But as I’ll cover further in this review, this layout often makes the ABXY face buttons painful to use over long game sessions.
iPhone Compatibility
The Gamevice is compatible with both the regular and the “plus” variants of the iPhone 6 and 6S product lines. The way it achieves this compatibility is really quite clever. Each half of the Gamevice is connected with a folding rubber bridge, both for stability and to route wires between each half of the controller. Using a sliding switch on the back of the controller, you can adjust the width of this bridge – roll some of the rubber up inside the controller, and the controller goes from Plus sized to regular sized. This makes for an extremely sturdy connection, regardless of which iPhone you go with.
Presumably, the Gamevice can also be used with the iPod Touch, but it isn’t designed to do so. The connection would likely be unpleasantly loose. The iPhone 5 and iPhone 5S don’t appear to fit at all.
Adjustable size makes a perfect fit for regular and plus-sized phones
Size
The iPhone Gamevice is designed with portability as its focus. Everything exemplifies this. It has tiny plastic analog sticks that occupy much less space than console analogs. It has small buttons bunched close together. It has oddly shaped handles that are uncomfortable to hold for extended periods of time.
The problem is, even with all of these sacrifices, the iPhone Gamevice is not particularly portable. Attached to your iPhone, it more than doubles the space the iPhone occupies. Removed from your iPhone and folded up, and it becomes a big block of plastic almost the size of a bunched-up fist. Neither option fits in any reasonably-sized pocket. You’ll need a backpack or purse to carry the Gamevice with you. And if you’re carrying your Gamevice in a bag, then what was the point of all those sacrifices in component quality? If needs to be transported in a bag, would giving it real analog sticks have made much of a difference? Would making the handles slightly wider and outfitting the controller with full-sized console-quality buttons make it that much bigger? Would real triggers have broken the design?
This is the crux of the Gamevice: it tries to walk two paths at once – portability and quality – and it doesn’t really excell at either. If you require a controller that is portable enough to fit in a pocket, the Gamevice won’t work for you. And if you don’t care about portability, many of the Gamevice’s design decisions will be baffling.
This doesn’t fit in a pocket
The Details
The Analog Sticks
The goal with the iPhone Gamevice’s analog sticks was laudable: bring real, honest-to-god analog sticks to a portable device. No analog nubs, no circle pads – these were custom designed by the people at Gamevice. The problem is, while they’re real, pretty much everything about them has been compromised for the sake of portability. They are tiny, sharp, plasticky, and generally uncomfortable to use. They’re functional, and superior to the analog disks used by the MOGA Ace Power and PSP, but they’re not pleasant.
These analog sticks are particularly bad compared to the excellent analog sticks on the iPad Gamevice. It further highlights the difference in focus between the two products. The iPad Gamevice is designed to be an amazing controller that just happens to be focused around the iPad; as such, it’s analog sticks are comparable to the excellent sticks on the Xbox One controller. The iPhone Gamevice is focused entirely around being portable, and sacrifices much usability in order to achieve that goal; as such, its analog sticks are comparable to the middling sticks on the PSVita.
The iPad Gamevice has console-class analog sticks
The D-Pad
Good news: the iPhone version of the Gamevice might make a ton of compromises in most of its components, but it does not compromise on the d-pad. Just like the iPad version before it, the iPhone Gamevice contains one of the best d-pads you can get on any MFi controller. Seriously, Gamevice did a great job on this one – the d-pad is the best part of this controller. No surprise, since it’s the only part of this controller that is identical to the iPad model.
The iPad Gamevice was the first MFi controller to ship with a plus-shaped d-pad. And even though the Nimbus and the Horipad Ultimate have subsequently shipped with plus-shaped d-pads, the Gamevice is still the best of the bunch. This d-pad is glossy, perfectly sized, and activates with just the right amount of pressure. Because it isn’t oversized, there are no issues toggling diagonals. But because it isn’t a circular d-pad, you won’t accidentally trigger diagonal inputs. The iPhone Gamevice’s d-pad is a bit more shallow than the iPad Gamevice’s d-pad, but it is still top quality.
The Gamevice’s d-pad is first rate
The ABXY Buttons
The iPhone Gamevice’s ABXY buttons are fine for an iPhone-focused controller. They’re small, but not painfully so, in the way previous iPhone controllers’ buttons were. They’re made of a premium double-shot plastic with a gloss finish – not as nice as the Nimbus’ buttons, but still high quality.
Still, something about these buttons feels off. It took me a while to determine what it is, but I figured it out: they’re too low. The A button – the button that should be your primary input – is positioned so low that it’s furthest away from where your thumb naturally falls. The B button – the second most common input – is almost as difficult to reach, positioned right up against the right edge of the controller, near your palm.
I get that the design of the controller limited the layout options, but I think they made a mistake here. Switching the seldom-used right analog stick with the constantly-used ABXY buttons would make for a far more usable layout. And unlike one of the many areas where iPhone Gamevice is functionally compromised in the name of increased portability, there wouldn’t be a trade-off here – putting the buttons this low was simply a mistake.
A full complement of buttons allows full game compatibility
The Shoulder Buttons
The iPhone Gamevice’s shoulder buttons are top quality for a controller this size. They’ve accomplished a task that has proved impossible for Sony, Nintendo, and SteelSeries: they fit 4 shoulder buttons on the back of a portable controller without making them feel cramped.
One thing to keep in mind, though: these are shoulder buttons, not triggers. Unlike the iPad Gamevice, which uses Xbox-style triggers, these are buttons that happen to be shaped like triggers. They’re pressure sensitive, so they’re fully capable of analog movement. It’s a bit off-putting at first, but it feels great once you get used to it. These shoulder buttons actually work better than the MOGA Ace Power, which used console-style triggers.
Audio Output
Sound with the Gamevice is a very mixed bag. The Gamevice includes a built-in DAC for sound output through the integrated headphone port. In short, the iPhone doesn’t actually do sound processing itself, and instead sends the sound digitally to the Gamevice, which uses its DAC chip to turn the digital audio into sound you can here.
Unfortunately, the Gamevice’s DAC chip is terrible. Seriously, unequivocally terrible. Most games work fine, but if you attempt to listen to music or audiobooks while you play, you’ll run into a whole host of problems. Low maximum volume, static, choppiness in certain frequencies, stuttering between songs, audible noise, distortion – nothing about this DAC feels like it belongs in a controller that costs $100.
Again, to be fair, most games sound okay. This problem is most noticeable on music, audiobooks, and podcasts. But if you’re like me, sometimes you want to put on some other audio while you’re playing a game. And the Gamevice really doesn’t work well for this.
It’s a shame. The iPad Gamevice had issues with its DAC, and I’d hoped those issues would be solved by now. I let the makers of the Gamevice know about these issues many times in the lead up to the launch of the iPad Gamevice, but I didn’t have a chance to test this iPhone version in advance, so I didn’t know if it was fixed here. Sadly, no such luck.
The Gamevice vs the MOGA. The Gamevice wins
Batteries and Charging
Because the Gamevice connects directly to the iPhone via Lightning, it doesn’t require a separate power source – no fumbling with batteries here! And unlike the previous iPhone controller to try this design, the Gamevice allows you to charge your iPhone and charge the Gamevice at the same time, while you’re playing.
Charging happens over a (included) USB Micro cable, rather than Lightning. Perhaps the Gamevice was in production before Apple started allowing Lightning connections for controller charging, but still, it feels like a mistake to ship a supposedly portable-focused controller without a Lightning charge port. The Gamevice isn’t small enough to leave attached to your iPhone all the time, so you’ll want to bring a separate cable for the Gamevice to be safe – a solution that doesn’t seem particularly portable.
The iPad Mini Gamevice and the iPhone Gamevice
Just like the iPad model, the iPhone Gamevice includes it’s own integrated battery. This small battery doesn’t actually charge the iPhone, and is used solely to power the Gamevice. This makes absolutely no sense to me – I don’t understand why the Gamevice doesn’t simply draw power directly from the iPhone, and instead includes yet another battery that could die or go bad. And if it does need to include a battery, why not include a big one that can power the iPhone? The MOGA and PowerShell controllers could double your battery life with their integrated batteries, and the Junglecat was able to be super-slim by eschewing the battery entirely. I’ve asked the people who make the Gamevice about this several times, and I’ve yet to get an answer – not saying there isn’t a good reason, but if there is, I can’t see it.
Still, battery questions aside, there isn’t much to complain about here. The Gamevice never ran out of juice while I was using it, and power pass-through worked perfectly, as long as I remembered to bring a Micro USB cable.
Conclusion
I like the iPhone Gamevice. I’ve enjoyed using it in bed, I’ve killed time with it while waiting for appointments. I intend on continuing to use it in the future. But I have to review the Gamevice for what it is. And fundamentally, the iPhone Gamevice is a confused product. It is a product that doesn’t know what it wants to be. It can’t choose between trying to be portable and trying to be full-featured, and it does a decidedly mixed job at both. It sticks you with tiny analog sticks, awkward buttons, and uncomfortable handles in order to make itself as small as possible, but it fails to be small enough to actually be portable; it makes these sacrifices in vein.
All of this is frustrating, because I want to love this controller. I can’t stand gripping my iPhone into a clip on the back of a Bluetooth controller. Controllers like the Gamevice, where your device is centered in the middle of the controller body, are the only designs I like. So it kills me to say that this controller is okay, when it should have been amazing. It is the best iPhone MFi controller, but in a sense, it wins that title “by default”, since it’s the only MFi controller actually designed for modern iPhones. Anything is better than nothing.
The iPhone Gamevice is available for $99, right now, today. If you’re looking for the best (and only) controller specifically designed to work with an iPhone, pick one up. Just understand that you’re making a lot of compromises in order to get that iPhone compatibility. But even so, the Gamevice is the only controller I want to use with my iPhone 6S, so it gets my recommendation.
At long last, the controller I’ve been waiting for is here.
For many, a Bluetooth controller, console-style, perhaps with a phone grip, is the perfect design. But while I’ve diligently reviewed these controllers, I’ve never particularly liked that form-factor. Even at it’s best, Bluetooth is finicky. Phone grips are nice to have, but the angle they hold the screen at has always been unpleasant to me. These controllers work great for playing on a TV, but to me, they just don’t feel suited to mobile play.
The Gamevice is the controller I wanted from the beginning. A purpose-built controller that actually feels designed for iOS. A controller that connects directly to the iPad, fits it like a glove, and doesn’t distract with random bluetooth disconnects or battery life concerns. A controller that gets out of your way and lets you play.
This review might re-tread familiar territory for those of you who’ve read my extensive Gamevice Preview article. But as this review will make clear, much has change between today’s Gamevice and the one I first used at CES. Pretty much every nitpick I had has been corrected, every rough edge polished, leaving a practically perfect controller.
In my opinion, the Gamevice is the best MFi controller ever made. But it’s also not for everyone. That statement might sound strange, but I’ll attempt to go over everything, good and bad, in this review, and explain exactly why I’ve reached the conclusions I have.
Design and Feel
Everything about the Gamevice feels premium. This should be expected from the $100 price tag, but is isn’t always the situation.
The plastic is nicely matted thoughout, with a surface texture reminiscent of the aluminum shell of the iPad itself. The buttons and triggers are a glossy, thick-feeling plastic.
Connecting your iPad Mini to the Gamevice is painless. Insert the iPad Mini (any version), Lightning-side-first, into the Gamevice, then pull the other half of the Gamevice outward and slip it around the other end of the iPad. The connection is snug – the Gamevice uses tension to pull both halves gently into the iPad, keeping it from wobbling. iPad cases are not supported, but I’ve never been a case person anyways.
Snap your iPad Mini into the Gamevice and start playing
The Gamevice’s shape is arguably its most unique – and controversial – feature. Unlike every other controller I’m aware of, the handles are angled away from your hands. Instead of your wrists facing inwards to grip the controller, they face outwards. The reason for this design was explained to me by the CEO of Gamevice as such: your hands grip inwards when holding a regular controller because of how small the controller is. Widen the controller, and your hands will naturally bend outwards.
That’s how it works in theory, anyways. In practice, I think the folks at Gamevice were a little too clever for their own good. The outward handles of the controller might make sense if the controller was wider than the distance between your arms. The thing is, an iPad Mini and a Gamevice just aren’t that wide – for me at least, they’re very close to the width between my arms. So my wrists end up being bent slightly outwards when holding this controller.
This isn’t the end of the world, but it gets a little unpleasant after several hours of continuous play, especially while lying down. Making the sides of the controller perfectly parallel would have made sense – indeed, this is the approach Nintendo took with their Wii U gamepad, and it’s the one Gamevice prototyped before redesigning their controller to the current form.
This inverted handle design might turn out to be more comfortable with the larger size of the iPad Air Gamevice. As it stands with the iPad Mini, they overthought this situation and made the controller a little bit less perfect than it should be.
The inverted handles contrast with traditional controller design
The Details
A good controller is more than the sum of its parts. But those parts still count for something. Many MFi controllers have been great in most ways, but suffer one fatal flaw or another in the details – the Stratus XL has terrible triggers, the PowerShell has a painful d-pad, the Stratus has flimsy analog sticks. Does the Gamevice have any deal-breaking flaws? Read on.
The Analog Sticks
The analog sticks establish what turns out to be a common pattern with the Gamevice: borrow the best aspects of the Xbox One controller. Just like an Xbox One controller’s analog sticks, these are pleasantly rubberized, concave, and full-size. They feature a ridged rim around the edges of the stick, creating an exceptionally grippy surface that your thumbs will never slip from.
The Gamevice uses concentric rings for the edges of the analog sticks. It isn’t quite as pleasant as the cross-hatched ridge on the Xbox One controller, but it feels almost identical, and it’s far superior to the stick design of any other MFi controller. In fact, it’s probably the second best analog stick design I’ve used, just behind the Xbox One’s.
After relatively heavy play for the past 9 months, the rubberized ridges show minimal wear, and still grip my thumb perfectly. This serves as a testament to how much better this stick design is to the Xbox 360’s, which wears down notoriously fast.
Perfect buttons, perfect joysticks
The ABXY Buttons
The face buttons on the Gamevice are perfect. They’re large – the same size as those on an Xbox controller, and slightly smaller than those on a PlayStation controller, making them perfect for pulling off difficult button combos. They’re rounded off, with a pleasant beveling that prevents the type of thumb pain I find my self getting after extensive gaming sessions on a Wii U gamepad. They’re double-shot plastic, meaning the colors on the buttons are never going to fade, no matter how much you use them. They activate smoothly, meaning they’ll never have the sort of plastic-on-plastic grind a few controllers occasionally exhibit.
As I said, they’re perfect.
Killer buttons and d-pad make the Gamevice perfect for retro gaming
The D-pad
The Gamevice has by far the best d-pad of any MFi controller. Just one look goes a long way towards telling you why. This is the only MFi controller without the dreaded circular d-pad. Many of us assumed that Apple’s MFi spec required controllers to have circular d-pad; this was inaccurate. The Gamevice’s d-pad fits perfectly well within Apple’s standard, thus making the terrible d-pads on (almost) every other MFi controller even less excusable.
The Gamevice’s d-pad takes the shape, texture and position of the Xbox One d-pad and couples it with the activation feel of the Wii U’s d-pad. It’s a good fit. The mechanical clickiness you get when you activate the Xbox One’s d-pad is a little bit nicer, but hey, I’m not going to complain – again, the Gamevice’s d-pad is far better than that of any other MFi controller.
The first excellent d-pad on an MFi controller
The Shoulder Buttons and Triggers
The triggers and shoulder buttons are as close as the Gamevice comes to having a weakness, and they’re still not bad.
Ironically, the problem here is that the Gamevice copied the Xbox One controller almost perfectly, and the Xbox One has a flawed shoulder button design. Unlike the excellent shoulder buttons on the Xbox 360 controller, the Xbox One changes the shape of the upper shoulder bumpers such that it’s difficult to reach them with the side of your pointer fingers. You either have to adopt a middle-fingers-on-the-triggers grip, or you have to reach your finger awkwardly around from the triggers to the upper shoulder buttons. It would have been nice if the Gamevice had corrected this problem, but no such luck. It’s better than many controllers, but it’s a slight blemish on an otherwise great design.
In my preview of the Gamevice, I mentioned some roughness activating triggers. This was corrected in the final controller – the triggers are smooth, pleasant, and activate with a nice (though light) degree of pressure. It would just be even nicer if moving your finger between the triggers and shoulder buttons wasn’t so awkward.
The Gamevice borrows much from the Xbox One controller
Extras and Ports
Using one micro USB cable, you can simultaneously charge both the Gamevice and the connected iPad. This is an essential feature for marathon game sessions, and I’m happy to say it works exactly as expected here. This may seem obvious, but the MOGA Ace Power doesn’t charge the iPhone it’s connected to while the controller is charging.
Audio output for the Gamevice is handled via an integrated headphone port. This means the Gamevice itself handles audio decoding, rather than the iPad. This had issues in prototype versions of the iPad – the left and right stereo channels were inexplicably reversed on most of the prototypes I used – but this issue appears to be resolved on the final version. Sound quality is good, though not quite as good as the sound from the iPad’s integrated headphone jack. It’s perfectly serviceable for gaming, but disconnect the Gamevice when it’s time to listen to music.
Use AirPlay to beam your iPad gaming to the TV
iPad Compatibility
There has been some confusion about exactly which devices the Gamevice is compatible with. Let me be clear: the Gamevice I’m reviewing today – the only Gamevice currently available – is exclusively compatible with the iPad Mini, iPad Mini 2, iPad Mini 3, and upcoming iPad Mini 4. I have personally used a prototype of the iPad Air version, but not nearly enough to review it at this time.
This leads to an important point: in terms of gaming performance, the iPad Mini line is the weakest line of iOS products Apple sells.
When the Gamevice was first conceived, this wasn’t the case. The iPad Air and iPad Mini 2 were equally powerful, meaning there was nothing to dissuade gamers from buying the smaller iPad, and the folks designing the Gamevice from targeting those gamers. Then Apple changed the rules. The iPad Air 2 was released as a quantum leap in performance over every other iOS device, whereas the iPad Mini 3 was stuck with the same aging A7 processor from the previous generation. Suddenly, gamers had a clear reason to opt for the larger iPad Air and avoid the Mini.
So here we are. The Gamevice is out, but only compatible with the weakest iOS device Apple sells. There was some hope that Apple would change this with the iPad 4, but unfortunately, even with its upgraded internals, it is still the weakest gaming device Apple sells.
That is not to say the iPad Mini is a bad device for gaming; it’s actually quite excellent. The A7 chip in the Mini 2 and Mini 3 and A8 chip in the Mini 4 are more than capable of holding their now. The problem is, they’re far weaker than the chips in the larger iPads, meaning most hardcore gamers would probably opt for the larger devices, making the market for a hardcore iPad Mini gaming accessory potentially small.
I can’t help but feel that the upcoming iPad Air version and iPhone version of the Gamevice will be much better – and more successful – products.
The Gamevice combines Wii U layout with the Xbox One design
Conclusion
In the past, every MFi controller review talks about how well (or poorly) a controller works within the confines of Apple’s MFi spec. I’ve always had to use that crutch – the controller is great for an MFi controller. With the Gamevice, this clarification is unnecessary. The Gamevice isn’t just a great MFi controller. The Gamevice is one of the best controllers ever made, of any kind, for any platform.
Sure, it borrows a lot from Microsoft’s Xbox One controller. But so what? The Xbox One controller is great. The history of game controllers is comprised of companies copying features and layouts first pioneered by other companies. The Gamevice takes the best aspects of the Xbox One controller, puts them in a form-factor similar to (but superior than) the Wii U Gamepad, and packages it all together to perfectly the iPad.
The Gamevice is the best MFi controller, period.
I can’t tell you whether or not you should spend $99 on a controller. What I can say is that this is the best MFi controller ever. I can tell you that unlike other controllers that launched at this price point, the build quality actually reflects the asking price.
The only thing holding me back from wholeheartedly recommending the Gamevice is the exclusive compatibility with the iPad Mini. The Gamevice is an incredible controller, but as a gaming device, the iPad Mini is questionable. Investing $99 dollars into a controller that only works with Apple’s weakest iOS device might be a mistake. The iPad Mini 4 remedies the issue somewhat by including an A8 processor, but that still places it firmly at the bottom of Apple’s range. The Gaming iPad is unquestionably the iPad Air, and that version of the Gamevice makes a lot more sense to me.
But that’s a topic for another review. The fact of the matter is, if you want the best controller you can possibly get for your iPad Mini, this is it. In fact, the Gamevice is far and away the best MFi controller, period. The price is intimidating – $99 is twice as much as other perfectly serviceable controllers – but the Gamevice is more than twice as good as the competition.
My iPad Mini no longer leaves my Gamevice; this is how I play iOS games now.
