TECH REVIEW | GAME:PAD 4 S WIRELESS CONTROLLER

Shopping for gaming peripherals is usually a tricky thing due to the lack of accurate information on most of them, and controllers are usually the worst to shop for. Most people just purchase first-party controllers to alleviate any complications, but first-party usually comes with a premium. In essence, what I’m trying to say is that most third party controllers suck, but surprisingly this one doesn’t. The GAME:PAD 4 S WIRELESS CAMOUFLAGE by Snakebyte is an amazing product, and quite frankly I’m surprised by how good it is.

I’ve been using this controller for quite a few months and there’s a very important reason why. The reason being that I’ve had 3rd party controllers that worked fine for the first few months then randomly stop working. For that reason I decided it would be best to put this one through it’s pacing and managed to exceed my expectations.

The GAME:PAD 4 S WIRELESS CAMOUFLAGE is a PlayStation 4 controller. It’s design mimics that of the Dualshock 4 and a bit of the XBOX ONE Gamepad. The button placement is similar to the Dualshock and the controller shape is XBOX ONE Gamepad-like. The controller does have a few unique variations from those two, however they didn’t seem good. The grips are a bit more angular which does make it a bit less comfortable, and that’s not all. The buttons are also much more clicky that the other two, and they don’t have the symbols like the Dualshocks. Instead they’ve got the names for the symbols, just coloured similarly. When I first noticed this along with the clicky feel of the buttons, I wasn’t too pleased with the controller. Quite frankly it seemed cheap, and not the good way like saving money, but rather the cheap as in poor quality trash.

That being said, I kept using the controller and slowly grew to appreciate it for what it is. So let’s go over the specs and then dive into the details.

Manufacturer Specs:

• Lag free low latency wireless
• 3.5mm Headphone Jack
• LED Status Home Button
• Fully working Touchpad
• Twin analog joysticks and trigger buttons for precise control
• Dual vibration motors enhance the haptic feedback
• -5 Years Limited Manufacturer Warranty

Notice there is no mention of the light bar? That’s because there is none on the controller. Not that it matters though, because no one uses that as far as I know. I’ve never used mine on my Dualshocks, so it’s not going to be missed from this one either. The rest of functionality is there however. From the touchpad to precise triggers, it’s all there and they all work as expected. The touchpad is smaller than the one on the dualshock, but it works as well as that one.

Battery life is about the same as that of the Dualshock, so that’s about 7-8 hours of play time on a single charge with about 2 hours needed for a full charge. The controller can be used during charge, and it’s also possible to use it on the PC similar to the way one would do with a Dualshock. This was one of those nice surprises for me, because I do a lot of my gaming on the PC which meant I got to really put the controller through its paces. During extended use I got accustomed to the feel of the device, and really got a good feel for it. Even after more than 4 months of use the buttons are still as clicky as ever and everything still works.

It didn’t take long to forget that the symbols on the buttons were replaced by words, because no gamer worth their trophy score watches their buttons during play. The Joysticks function well enough and every button works as you’d expect them to. I particularly like the triggers because there’s less travel time on them that the those on the dualshocks. It’s also nice that they’re a lot stiffer, so that you can be more precise when applying pressure to them. This will come in handy in games like Project Cars 2 and DRIVECLUB, where precise trigger input is most important.

The Share and Option buttons are smaller and situated more centrally than the ones on the first party controllers, which I also like, because there’s less travel time for your thumbs between the joysticks and those buttons. On the first party ones they’re required to travel more than about 3 cm. That’s an astronomical distance if you’re playing an online match and want to quickly press the share button to capture a clip. I’ve had a few times where I pressed the touchpad instead while using the dualshocks, but the GAME:PAD 4 S wireless’ design eliminates that issue since the joystick and the option & share buttons are less than a cm apart.

The controller also has a functional home button with an LED under it. The colour of the LED can’t be changed as far as I’m aware. It’s either blue when it has enough charge or red when the battery is low. The 3.5mm Headphone Jack also functions as as you’d expect. I used it for streaming with my Lucidsound LS30s and they worked perfectly. It should be noted though that there is no port for connecting a keypad to the controller. As someone who doesn’t have a keypad the port isn’t missed, but I can see how it can be since the keypad is a fairly useful accessory.

The rumble feedback is indistinguishable from that of any other controller I’ve had the opportunity of using, and that’s a good thing. It means that that it works just as well as everything else about this controller. There was no issue with the Bluetooth connectivity, or any other function of the device. What Snakebyte has managed to do with this device is meet all the requirements of a PS4 controller in a neat solid package.

Aesthetically it’s an attractive device, and comes in multiple colours including: Pink camo, Blue camo, Plain Black and Plain White. I like the blue camo I received a lot, but I can also see the charms of the pink one. I don’t really fancy the look of the other two, however that may just be because I’ve grown to love the look of mine.

Final Verdict

So what do I think about the GAME:PAD 4 S WIRELESS CAMOUFLAGE by Snakebyte? Well, it’s a solid well built controller that is perfect for a secondary controller. I’d actually purchase more of these for local multiplayer instead of the regular Dualshocks, because they’re cheaper yet don’t lose any of the core functionality of a Dualshock 4. On average you’ll save between $10 and $20 by picking up one of these instead of a Dualshock 4, and what do you lose? Not much. Gimmicks like light bars and motion controls are not necessary for a controller so the omission of stuff like that will surely not be missed. The only thing that may be missed is the port for the keypad accessory, but even that isn’t commonly used enough to have much influence on a purchase.

The GAME:PAD 4 S WIRELESS CAMOUFLAGE used for this review was provided to us by it’s manufacturer Snakebyte.