Valve's Steam Controller Gets Some Major Design Changes
CNET
0:00 Hey, I'm Scott Stein.
0:00 I review a lot of stuff at CNET.
0:02 I'm Will Greenwald.
0:03 I review a lot of stuff at PCMag.
0:05 And we're here to talk about the Steam Controller.
0:08 Not the old Steam Controller, the new one,
0:10 which is coming out very soon, and we've had a chance to play with.
0:13 So, I mean, we have different perspectives on this because um I
0:16 use it as an extension to the Steam Deck connected to a TV.
0:20 To me, that's what wowed me is that it's a really nice controller and it
0:25 feels like basically I mean we saw a little bit of this preview last year,
0:29 but it's basically those controls, but then you can take it with you,
0:33 which because these aren't detachable controllers and maybe you want
0:36 to connect this to a TV with a Steam Dock.
0:39 I don't like the idea of third party controllers not feeling exactly the same.
0:43 The haptics, the touchpad,
0:44 all of that feels the same and the response is really great.
0:47 I'm not a Steam Deck user.
0:49 I have a Lenovo uh Legion Go and really
0:52 the difference between Windows and Steam Deck isn't that much different,
0:55 but it really is I think we've been playing it kind
0:57 of the same way just on different devices and I've been approaching
1:01 the review a lot closer to how I dealt with the first
1:05 Steam controller which is 11 years old now and I hated this thing.
1:10 This was experimental as if they were Sega in 1999
1:13 because this has one analog stick like it's a Dreamcast controller,
1:16 which is one of many, many problems with it.
1:20 It felt practically hollow.
1:21 Uh the rear buttons, it does have two rear buttons,
1:24 but this it uses this like plastic door that kind of it bend.
1:27 It flexes the plastic.
1:28 It was weird to use and just wasn't
1:30 good compared to even controllers at the time.
1:32 And this is a lot closer to that because it
1:33 feels like a game pad and it feels good to use.
1:36 Well, in that time they were trying to think about expanding into the living
1:38 room and doing all these like connected things and now they're doing it again,
1:41 but they already have the Steam Deck footprint.
1:43 Now, while like the new systems are not here yet,
1:46 they're at least saying, "Okay,
1:47 we're going to get the ball rolling on this because
1:49 it works with a lot of different things." Again,
1:51 yeah, that's what I really appreciated is that it
1:53 felt really natural to set up the haptics, the um the controls.
1:56 It has a lot of features.
1:58 It has the touchpad, it has gyro, it has capacitive buttons on the back,
2:01 which, you know, I don't even use, but you could potentially use that.
2:04 You could use it for like pointing like a remote and it works
2:08 with uh the existing Steam Deck controller
2:10 profiles which I haven't even played with.
2:12 But that's interesting because it means like you do not have to fiddle with it.
2:16 It's already you can already kind of get it to do what you want to do.
2:21 This is the first game pad that has more
2:24 stuff in it than the Dual Sense because yeah,
2:27 it has all of these weird things like it has two touch pads.
2:30 It has the like the the grip sensors on the back.
2:32 the touch things on the grip but better than the Valve Index controller.
2:35 What does it do?
2:36 Because I haven't played any game that actually
2:38 uses that specific control, the grip controls.
2:40 I mean, I think it's just extra customization.
2:42 Like I I haven't gotten stuff like the use of that either.
2:44 But I do like the idea of touching those buttons to activate
2:47 gyro as I I tried a few demos where you you
2:49 just kind of touch your finger and then you go into gyro
2:51 mode and so you don't have to like press anything else.
2:54 But um what I really appreciated about this was
2:57 that it didn't feel as bulky as it looks.
3:00 Like it it fit the fingers well.
3:02 the trackpads don't get in the way um unless you want to use them.
3:05 But I agree, I don't use them all the time.
3:08 But I also am really into the idea of this little charge puck,
3:11 which was like one of my favorite things because it's
3:14 it's um it uses like a high-speed local wireless bridge,
3:17 but instead of a a separate plug-in dongle, it's also the charger.
3:21 So, this snaps on the back to charge it, so you don't lose it.
3:23 And then it can can actually connect all four controllers.
3:26 So, it's a it's a pretty brilliant little idea.
3:29 You can also uh sync the game pad to two different pucks.
3:32 So like you can swap between them using I think a hot shortcut.
3:35 So you can have like Yeah.
3:36 a puck at your friend's house and just bring your controller or any of these.
3:40 Exactly.
3:41 A lot of weird interesting implementations for this.
3:44 Yeah.
3:44 So it's like I mean 100 bucks is
3:47 like I don't like spending a lot on peripherals,
3:49 but also that's increasingly kind of the going
3:51 price for a lot of game controllers lately.
3:54 So I feel like for what it includes, I really like it.
3:57 You technically don't need to buy it,
3:59 but if I were if I had a Steam Deck setup like I do now,
4:02 and I want to think about connecting this to my TV at all,
4:06 this completes the picture.
4:07 Like, this is this is great.
4:08 And I like the fact that you get all this and not have
4:11 to spend too much because we don't even know what the Steam Machine costs.
4:15 We don't know what the Steam Frame costs.
4:17 I feel like they're going to be quite expensive.
4:19 With how SSDs and RAM are going,
4:21 I will be shocked if the Steam Machine is less than a 1000 bucks.
4:25 Uh, and like I think the sweet spotish last year was like 600 700 at most.
4:30 Like we are the market for half of the components that are in these systems,
4:34 including the Steam Deck, which is still out of stock.
4:36 Like it is sold out.
4:38 Uh, and I mentioned the Legion Go,
4:40 like the new the Legion Go 2 with the most storage.
4:43 That's all going up.
4:44 That's 2,800 bucks.
4:45 Yeah.
4:46 Uh, so that's going to be an issue.
4:48 But honestly, if you just have a PC or a Steam Deck, the game pad's really good.
4:53 And I could definitely see this is just like a regular PC gaming game pad
4:57 if you have your it doesn't even need to be connected to your uh TV.
5:02 You can just have it at a desk, but it's useful in both ways.
5:05 And there's a lot of stuff going for it, which makes the price pretty good,
5:09 especially if you compare it to the really high-end like
5:12 the enthusiast game pads like I think Razer's Wolverine, the Xbox Elite.
5:16 Uh and those are well more than that.
5:19 They're, you know, 200 bucks.
5:25 One thing I did note with this, it
5:27 does feel way better than the original Steam controller.
5:29 It doesn't feel quite as like, you know,
5:32 solid, bulletproof, like premiumish like those higherend controllers.
5:35 But that's also kind of a good thing because
5:38 it feels just it's good to it's good to use,
5:41 but it has a good dense quality feel.
5:43 like compared to all of the other
5:45 game controllers that are from like PlayStation controller,
5:48 Xbox controller, you know, Switch Pro, this would be my favorite of all of them.
5:53 Um, I like that it also is not like you said for this.
5:56 It's not bending you into a weird idea that pushes
5:59 you outside of the way you want to play.
6:01 It's just got a lot of options that it's throwing
6:03 in, but they don't they don't really get in the way, which I I do admire.
6:06 And all the options are pretty reasonable because yeah, it's a h 100red bucks,
6:09 but it's chunkier, feels more solid, and it's impressed me so far.
6:13 Yeah.
6:13 So, I mean, no, it's not a steam frame.
6:16 It's not a steam machine.
6:17 Um, and and again, Valve said they're coming.
6:19 Uh, they also admitted that it has to do with the RAM situation.
6:23 So, again, you know,
6:24 I would say buckle in and expect whatever comes to maybe not be so cheap.
6:29 But it yeah, in the meantime,
6:31 this is out and it actually might be a better solution for a lot of Steam gamers
6:34 that may not want to have to pay
6:36 for a big upgrade for something else down the line.
6:39 Yeah.
6:39 Although honestly with it's a controller.
6:41 It is.
6:42 That's the thing.
6:42 It's a controller.
6:43 And talking about the Steam machine, coming at it from a different direction.
6:46 Um like you remember these Steam machines a few years ago.
6:49 They just didn't do anything.
6:51 They were just gaming PCs that ran Steam OS.
6:53 And that's probably going to be what the Steam machine is.
6:57 It's just another thing that'll run Steam
7:00 games and so many things run Steam games that I I don't know how many people
7:04 are holding their breath for the Steam Machine.
7:06 Yeah, I cover a lot of AR and XR and VR stuff.
7:08 So, the Steam Frame really interested in it
7:10 is but even then it's the same question
7:13 cuz it's like it's kind of almost a Steam
7:15 Deck for your face and many people might
7:18 just prefer it's cool but then they might go I just prefer to have a Steam
7:21 Deck and again we don't know the price
7:22 so it's even hard to to judge against that.
7:24 So that's the story of Steam Controller.
7:26 I'm Scott.
7:27 I'm Will.
7:27 And you can find our reviews of Steam Controller on PC Mag and CNET.
7:31 And they're going to be two different perspectives because you're a Steam Deck
7:35 user and I'm using a laptop and also we have two different experiences.
7:39 When was the last time you touched this?
7:41 Uh just when you showed it to me now 2014.
7:43 I've kept this in the shoe box and I'm I was kind of surprised I still got it.
7:47 I think I got this one because it was on clearance for like five bucks.
7:50 Oh my god.
7:51 Well, you can follow all of her stuff there.
7:53 And if you have any other questions about anything Valve,
7:56 I mean, you know, the upcoming stuff,
7:58 more questions about the controller that we missed,
8:00 standing frame, what deadlock is, yes, uh, let us know.
8:04 Thanks for watching.