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Introducing, the Mobapad M073 – a third-party Bluetooth controller, compatible with phones, PC and Nintendo Switch consoles.
It’s no surprise that the third-party controller market is a pretty important part of the gaming experience. As great as first-party controllers can be, it’s great to have other manufacturers explore what other directions to push gaming peripherals.
How exactly does the Mobapad M073 do this? read on and find out.
No Hassle
So the first thing I have to praise this for is it’s surprisingly low-hassle. A big problem you have with third-party controllers is often setting them up, especially when Bluetooth’s involved. Thankfully, the Mobapad gets around this by having its own Bluetooth receiver that it’s paired to. It’s really convenient especially if you’re using the Mobapad as your everything-controller- jumping from your Switch to PC whenever you wanna try a different game, et cetera.
Admittedly, this does come at a trade off. That means wherever you carry the controller, you’ll also need to carry its receiver too- which means one more thing to lose in the car, or potentially get damaged. Worse still, not every machine is rich in USB ports. If you’re playing some kind of 4-player game, you’re going to need to diversify your controller pool lest you run out of space to plug in your contorllers.
That being said, as someone who constantly has to dig around for extra controllers whenever friends come over for Smash (remember when we could do that?), the idea of a controller that just plugs in without having to constantly press reset buttons is a godsend.
It’s also a double-boon for mobile gamers- an easy-to-connect method means you’ll be tearing apart losers in games like PUBG with no problem, though you will need some extra work to get the USB receiver to connect to your phone.
One more note, it uses the USB-C cable for charging, similar to the Dualsense controller. While a lot of us may have already raided Daiso for more Micro-USB cables, the USB C does feel way more comfortable to use, so it’s neat that they went with this foramt.
Hands-On With The Mobapad M073
One problem I’ve always had with third-party controllers is the weight. To maintain their main selling point of “cheaper than a first-party”, a lot of controllers are really light, which can feel jarring if you’ve also got something like the Dualsense in your house. To me, I’m a fan of heavier controllers- and to this end, the Mobapad M073 doesn’t disappoint.
One thing of note is that the Mobapad is totally just a Switch controller. It uses the Nintendo Switch’s button notation, with X as the top face button, A on the right et cetera. Unfortunately this does also mean it uses my least favorite cofiguration- where the D-Pad is at the bottom of the controller, and the left analog stick is at the same height as the face buttons.
This isn’t a knock against the controller- your taste may vary, heck you might even like this. But it makes sense that they would follow this setup considering it’s how the Switch’s pro controller is set up too.
With regards to playing, the Mobapad is a pretty solid controller. I’m especially fond of the textured shoulder buttons, which feel good to press down on. The sticks also have a really nice amount of give to them, so even though the controller itself is heavy you never have to feel like you’re fighting it.
My one gripe does once again bring me to the D-pad. Sadly the people who designed the Mobapad felt it necessary to follow the Switch Pro Controller a little too closely, and stuck with the single-piece D-Pad, despite it being the worst type of D-Pad. If you’re a fighting game player who prefers arrows over stick you’re definitely gonna get annoyed rolling your finger over these, so maybe learn to do a DP motion on stick instead unless you really like getting frustrated.
At The End of the Day
When all is said and done, the Mobapad is a good jump up from other third party controllers- it feels good to use, supports things like a screenshot button, and even has a decent battery life. I’m also a huge fan of the color, it’s got that nostalgic grey that reminds me of the PS1/NES days.
It’s also a decent price- like I said, the lower price point is a huge win for third party controllers, especially as the feature-rich Dualsense basically costs the same price as a game. You can get the Mobapad M073 for RM140 from the M4G website, who also provided us this unit for review.
That being said, it doesn’t work with non-Switch consoles like the PS5 or Xbox Series X, so don’t expect this to be the solution for the “second controllers are expensive” problem if your Dualsense needs replacing. If you’re playing on anything else though, this is pretty much the perfect one-controller solution.
