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December 17, 2013

Game On With Samsung's New Galaxy Phone Gamepad

Mobile gaming of late is an increasingly large part of the mobile world—as well as the gaming world—as we know it. But not all games are really equipped to work with mobile devices, and several measures have been taken to try and get phones better set to work with the mobile field. While Apple recently started allowing third-party solutions to step in thanks to the newest release of iOS 7, Samsung seems eager to upstage Apple by not just letting the third party market take care of this problem, but rather by taking care of its own business and bringing out a new gamepad of its own.

Dubbed the “Smartphone Gamepad,” it's geared toward phones running Android 4.1 and up, particularly phones like the Samsung Galaxy S4, though there are reports that suggest all Android smartphones can get in on this action. The gamepad itself is wireless, using a Bluetooth connection—like so many things do these days—rather than directly attaching to the device like many iPhone gamepads do. The Smartphone Gamepad is easily taken along for most any ride, weighing in at a meager 195 grams—about 6.89 ounces—and boasts both a pair of analog sticks and an eight-direction pad for a close approximation of many common gaming systems. There are also four separate action buttons, select and start buttons on the device's edge, and a pair of shoulder buttons.

Just to round things out, the Smartphone Gamepad also boasts an app—the Mobile Console app by name—which allows users to find games supported by the Smartphone Gamepad, both ensuring that users have plenty of titles on hand that work with the new device and that game developers have access to a substantial market of interested players. The Smartphone Gamepad is currently available in certain countries in Europe, and will be following into other markets in the near future, or as Samsung put it “in the coming weeks.” Price, however, is also unclear, which is odd given that the device is apparently already available in certain places.

A lot more people are taking up mobile gaming, thanks to the combination of an increasing number of mobile devices in the field matched up by an increase in the number of game players that identify as casual players, out for a quick game of something while waiting for something else to start, end or otherwise interact with the gamer in question. But controls on mobile devices—unless specifically dedicated to gaming—have often proven less than useful since game movements are often specific to games and don't translate well to most any other function. Short of going to a full keyboard, something like a gamepad can be the perfect tool for a gamer to put to work. If controls improve, then it's not too far a reach that the numbers of gamers who make the migration to mobile devices will likewise improve to match.

Whether or not Samsung's Smartphone Gamepad will drive users to mobile gaming—or at least get more Samsung users into it—remains to be seen. But better controls are seldom a bad idea when it comes to games, and something like this should do the job nicely.




Edited by Cassandra Tucker


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