The RiotPWR ESL controller is a wonderful marvel. It is easy to use, comfortable to play, and its simple design just makes sense. The price tag isn’t bad either, as you get sturdy quality with hardware that puts you into the competitive mobile gaming world quickly.
Over the years, Digitalchumps has reviewed various phone-to-controller devices. While the devices in the past might have been more about making a mobile phone more…mobile, they were also ahead of their times. As the world starts catching on to this ‘Esports thing’, the mobile market, especially in Asia, has been heading towards competitive mobile gaming big time. PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile have picked up momentum on the Esports scene, as well as other mobile games such as Clash of Clans, the world needs something Esports-related that is easy to use and emulates a controller. Thus, we get the RiotPWR ESL controller. This controller has a lot of nice functionality with an Xbox design.
Let’s get right into it.
Design
The design of the RiotPWR ESL controller is simple yet with a slight ounce of complication mixed in. It does what it advertises it’s going to do, and it is thoughtfully designed to make sure that the functionality is a bit more than what you would expect. It’s certainly ready for competition, as it should be.
Phone Holder and Comfort
The controller has a plastic phone holder that sits right over the main middle buttons. Putting the phone holder into the controller just requires the removal of a rubber placeholder and then snip-snap, it’s in. The phone holder is akin to the DJI Osmo 3’s phone grip, where pretty much any size of phone can fit perfectly into the holder. It firmly grips it too, which is important for weight and balance. Having that phone in the right place means that you don’t feel like a huge weight is barring down on your wrists and hands. You never want the phone to become a burden on your hands and a distraction when you should be concentrating on which is gaming, and you especially don’t to risk fatigue during long periods of play. The latter is the most important.
Solid Feeling
When I first unboxed the controller, I was worried that it would be cheaply made. In the past, controller ideas that mixed with mobile usually meant plastic-y parts and easily broken dreams. Surprisingly, the RiotPWR ESL controller felt and looked as solid as it played. The weight of the controller made it feel like an Xbox One controller, but minus the batteries, as it is charged and hooked up through the phone’s charge port. It was sturdy and felt like it could take a beating, which is a problem nowadays with controllers of this type, especially those going through Esports competitions. You will feel how good it is instantly when you hook up your phone and get gaming.
Speaking of gaming…
Functionality
The RiotPWR ESL controller simply works as advertised. You put in your phone, you hook up the lightning cable end coming from the controller into your phone, and you’re off and going. It’s easy as that and the phone’s power lights up for reassurance that all is well. As an added bonus, the phone also comes with a lighting port input that allows you to charge the phone while you play. While that is super simple when you think about it, it’s a great design to play games long-term (especially, competitive ones) and charge your phone while you do it. The controller also comes with a headphone jack in case you want to go that route. Altogether, it’s more than advertised when it comes to functionality.
Once the phone is snuggled and plugged in, it recognizes the controller and sends you to the app store to download the LUDU MAPP app (that was fun to type). This app contains games on it like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, the Luna App, XCloud Gaming App, and a shit ton of other types of apps. It’s a one-stop app that allows access to games and gaming-related apps quickly. For someone like me that has a disorganized phone that makes my wife cringe when she looks at it, it’s a godsend to have everything I need for this controller in one place. If I had any issue with this app, it would be that it’s a bit lacking in information architecture, but it’s more than manageable.
If you don’t like using this app, no problem.
The controller is compatible with pretty much anything, at least everything I tried to play. My youngest daughter used it to play Minecraft on my phone (a separate app) and didn’t have any issues with it whatsoever. It just simply worked. For an ESL-advertised controller, that’s what I was hoping to get out of it. Again, it’s comfortable, it’s accessible, and it feels good in the hands. What more would you want from a competitive mobile gaming controller? Not much.
Other Odds and Ends
I’m still a bit shocked that this controller worked so well. I’m honestly taken back a bit that someone built a competitive mobile gaming controller that works as it was advertised to work. That’s such a rarity these days with hardware not called PlayStation 5, NVIDIA, or otherwise. This controller does it all and how it works helps to simplify a lot of things so that gamers don’t have to fuss with much to get going with the experience. It’s quite intuitive out of the box and that bodes well for its survival.
What also bodes well is the cost. The RiotPWR sits at $59.99, which isn’t bad considering that actual controllers cost that much. If you’re a competitive gamer in the mobile world, then how can you pass this up? It’s a steal of a deal when it comes to functionality, design, and especially comfort.
Anyway, let’s wrap this long-winded review up.
Conclusion
The RiotPWR ESL controller is a wonderful marvel. It is easy to use, comfortable to play, and its simple design just makes sense. The price tag isn’t bad either, as you get sturdy quality with hardware that puts you into the competitive mobile gaming world quickly.
