Take gaming on the go together with Scuf’s iPhone sport controller [Review] ★★★★½ – Uplaza

The brand new Scuf Nomad makes taking part in superior video games in your iPhone rather more enjoyable by including bodily buttons, triggers and sticks. It’s designed to go the place you go, and works on almost each iPhone.

The controller emphasizes customization, permitting you to alter what the buttons do even when the sport itself doesn’t help that. And there are rear paddles along with all the standard controls.

I fortunately performed hours of video games on the Nomad — right here’s what it’s like to make use of.

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Scuf Nomad evaluate

The times when the perfect iPhone sport was Offended Birds are lengthy over. It’s now attainable to play console-quality titles in your telephone. Cloud-gaming providers are one good possibility for this, and Apple organized for a number of Resident Evil video games to be ported to the iPhone 15 Professional fashions, and different AAA titles, too.

However don’t attempt to play these with on-screen digital controls. It’s the quick lane to frustration. Get an exterior sport controller as an alternative.

The Scuf Nomad is among the many finest out there. Wrap it round your iPhone and also you’re prepared for critical RPGs, FPS… any sport the place pace and exact management are mandatory.

Desk of contents:

Transportable and cozy iPhone sport controller

Take a normal sport cotroller, cut up it in half, add a telescoping arm within the center, and you’ve got Scuf Nomad. The sticks, buttons and triggers match neatly underneath my fingertips whereas the iPhone is well viewable.

Designing a cellular sport controller requires mixing portability and luxury. Scuf leaned a bit extra towards consolation and gave up a bit on portability. The accent is 7.75 inches by 3.6 inches by 1.8 inches, and slightly below half a pound. I’ve examined smaller ones, however Nomad has rather more snug grips than they do.

The accent matches a variety of iPhone fashions. I examined it with an iPhone 15 Plus, one of many largest iOS units. And, not like many rival sport controllers, I didn’t must take the protecting case off my handset.

I just like the look. Whether or not you select the black out white shade possibility, you received’t be embarrassed to tug it out of your bag and use it in public.

Nomad feels strong. The outside is all plastic, however the product offers solely barely when I attempt to bend and twist it.

Customizable buttons, triggers, paddles and sticks

Like all players, I’m accustomed to the usual format of of a sport controller, whether or not it’s Xbox, PlayStation or another. Scuf adopted the sample, so I used to be in a position to decide up Nomad and instantly begin taking part in with out my fingers fumbling for controls.

The one variation is the addition of paddles on the again. When taking part in, I made these the replacements for the left and proper bumpers — the paddles are all the time underneath my fingers, and the configuration lets me maintain my index fingers on the triggers.

And that brings up an necessary characteristic: configurable controls. The free Scuf Nomad iPhone utility lets me swap buttons, and so on. round. And this may be set for particular person purposes. I’ve a Star Ward sport wherein I’ve by no means been snug with what the X,Y, A and B buttons do. With Nomad, I can change these for simply this app, and decide a very totally different configuration for different video games.

It’s also possible to alter the sensitivity of the sticks with Scuf’s software program. You received’t have to regulate for drift — the sticks use the Corridor impact to stop this. And the controller

Bluetooth vs. Lightning vs. USB-C

iPhone is transitioning from the Lightning port to USB-C, which is one thing of a problem for accent patrons. If in case you have an iPhone with a Lightning port, you’ll be able to’t purchase a sport controller with USB-C however one with a Lightning connector received’t help your subsequent iPhone.

Scuf Nomad’s reply is Bluetooth. The peripheral connects wirelessly to your handset so the connector is irrelevant.

This implies the accent wants its personal battery. Scuf guarantees that is good for as much as 16 hours of gameplay, which is excellent. Particularly as I’ve used the controller for 4 or 5 hours and its battery stage continues to be at about 75%, so the battery life estimate appears cheap.

Recharging is so simple as plugging a USB-C cable into the Nomad. There’s a top-quality charging cable within the field.

Let’s play!

One of the best a part of reviewing a sport controller is spending hours taking part in video games and calling it “work.”

As a result of retro sport emulators are all the trend proper now, I began my Scuf Nomad testing with Delta. I then logged into Amazon Luna and went by means of a few ranges of GarfiedKart simply to substantiate the controller works with cloud-gaming providers. Most Apple Arcade video games additionally help this sort of accent, so I performed some Oceanhorn 2 — the perfect RPG on Apple’s gaming service.

I by no means had an issue with Scuf Nomad with any of those numerous gaming choices.

Scuf Nomad video

Scuf made a video demoing the Nomad. Give it a glance:

Scuf Nomad closing ideas

One of the best gaming console is the one you’ve gotten with you. Your Xbox does you no good when it’s at residence and also you’re at work. However your iPhone goes with you all over the place, and with Scuf Nomad, you’ll be able to play console-quality video games at any time when you’ve gotten the time.

★★★★☆

The sport controller is snug to carry, if not as small as a few of its rivals. I really like how straightforward it’s to reconfigure the buttons on an app-by-app- foundation. There’s no

Pricing

Scuf Nomad is $99, the standard value for a top-of-the line iPhone sport controller… which that is.

Purchase it from: Scuf or Amazon

Comparable merchandise

As I discussed, designing a cellular sport controller is a balancing act. An excellent rival product that’s barely extra transportable however marginally much less snug is the Spine One — I reviewed this earlier in 2024.

Shifting within the different route, the design of the GameSir G8 Galileo makes it extra snug for longer sport classes, however it’s bigger and due to this fact much less transportable. I reviewed it, too.

DodoCase offered Cult of Mac with a evaluate unit for this text. See our opinions coverage, and take a look at extra in-depth opinions of Apple-related objects.