Welcome to my review of the GameSir X2 Type-C mobile gaming controller. GameSir is known for making great hardware for mobile devices at fairly acceptable price points.
Dominate Your Mobile Opponents
Continue reading to find out how this bit of hardware held up against the various mobile games I tried it with. You can also read our previous hardware reviews.
The Hardware
Upon opening the box we’re presented with a GameSir X2 carry case. This tough case will help protect your GameSir X2 Type-C when you’re on your travels, if you chuck the device in your bag, or even when popping it in a drawer. Inside the case is the GameSir X2 Type-C device itself, as well as a little box labelled “accessories”. This box contains a quick start guide, some stickers, and some thumbstick grips which slip onto the existing thumbsticks to give you additional grip during those intense sessions in games such as PUBG Mobile and Fortnite.
The hardware feels quite durable and has a couple of rubber grip areas on the rear to assist with keeping the controller in your hand. The device connects to your mobile phone by sliding your mobile phone into the USB-C plug on the controller. This is quite useful as it has an adjustable angle up to 51° to assist with placing your phone into the controller.
Down on the bottom left of the device you also have a USB-C input port. This allows you to charge your phone whilst playing games with the GameSir X2 Type-C connected. Very useful. Whilst I mention power, the device uses 2mAh whilst connected to your phone. This is very low, so you won’t need to worry about it draining your phone battery too much.
One negative is the controller feels a little flexible when it comes to connecting larger phones such as the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra to the device. This is due to GameSir having a gap to help your phone cool off and have a little bit of room for air flow.
Design and Functionality
The design is reminiscent of the Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons, in my opinion. The entire layout just reminds me of them including the location of the home and screenshot buttons.
The GameSir X2 Type-C has two modes of operation. One is our standard layout for playing games on Android, and the other is designed to be used with Xbox Game Pass. You can toggle these modes by pressing the G and home buttons together for a short period of time, around 3-5 seconds. You can also change this mode in the app, but we will get into that further down.
The buttons themselves all feel very responsive and high quality. The main buttons have a nice feel to them when being pressed, I found the d-pad and clicking in the thumbsticks (for L3/R3) quite loud. However, they were all very responsive.
The triggers and shoulder buttons all have micro switches, so they sound very clicky when pressing them. Personally, I prefer it when they’re quiet and not so clicky. But I know people love the sound of switches at times. Here’s to you mechanical keyboard fans.
Connection and Software
If you hadn’t guessed by now, the device uses USB-C to connect to your mobile phone. You can connect the phone to the USB-C plug, and then slide out the device to fit mobile phones up to 167mm in length. However, I actually found that the connection with my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra wouldn’t work if I had a case on. I had to remove this.
I also have a Samsung Galaxy A70 which did work with the case on. Although it is a very slimline case. It seems like it varies by device and also case when it comes to the connection to your phone.
GameSir has a free app that you can download that assists with changing your controller mode, updating firmware, joystick calibration, and more. However, I feel the translation to English in this app means some options are a little difficult to understand properly. It’s not the end of the world and you can easily work out what does what. The app is quite clever also as it allows you to map buttons on your controller to the touch buttons you have on screen.
The app also has an area for apps that gives you ideas of which games are supported with the GameSir controller config, or even native controller support. This is quite useful, kudos to GameSir for this. Apologies for the long-ass portrait image up above, but for some reason, the GameSir app does not rotate to landscape. I found this a bit annoying as when having the controller connected. You have to hold it in portrait mode or tilt your head to the side.
Conclusions
The GameSir X2 Type-C is a solid piece of hardware that you can not go wrong with. The only real issues I see are the little bit of flex I mentioned when used with larger phones, and how cramped it feels. Other than this, it feels like a solid bit of kit. Should you wish to purchase this device you can do so from the official Gamesir website.
I score the GameSir X2 Type-C an 8/10.
A sample was kindly provided for us to review this product.
