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Best Bluetooth controller for sub $50?
Hey all I own a pixel 8a if that's relevant and am looking for a controller that is Bluetooth and costs 50 dollars or less on Amazon. I'm not too picky as long as it can hold the phone and is of good quality. Thank you!
From my buyer's research and my experience with the Ultimate, 8BitDo controllers are pretty good. Great quality for their price, the right set of features and compatibility.
8BitDo sells the Ultimate Mobile Gaming Controller for 45€ on Amazon and I'd expect it to have a similar level of quality to the regular Ultimate. (Some surface-level duckduckgoing led me to a convo on reddit saying Gamesir had better options for the price, like the G8, but that seems to be going for 90€ at the moment, so uh)
You could also consider one of 8BitDo's other controllers alongside one of the mobile clips they sell separately if you're okay with that form factor. The Pro 2 and SN30 are both quality controllers under 50€ which have mobile clips available. There seems to be one for the Ultimate series too, and I know the low-cost Ultimate 2C exists, but I'm not sure that has Android compatibility.
The ultimate 2C is fully supported on android through Bluetooth. I use it frequently with my android tablet. 8bitdo controllers have always been unbeatable quality in their price range in my experience.
Thanks for the correction!
I have an 8BitDo SN30 Pro I picked up on eBay for $25 and I love it.
My only complaints with it are that it doesn't have analog triggers, which is minor and only comes up if I want to play something focused on driving where I need variable throttle (rarely) and the other complaint that it's a bit of a pain to change the buttons. I like to switch between Nintendo and XBox layout depending on what I'm using the controller for.
Those are very minor complaints. It's a pretty great controller and I love that it fits in my pocket, though there's not really a need for that.
Funny, I've got the opposite problem with the Ultimate! Everything about this thing is great, but I play platform fighters on this thing and the analog triggers are not great for those; the digital ones are the one thing I miss from the Switch Pro I was using before. The Ultimate 2 has trigger latches that are supposed to make it go from analog to digital, but I don't know if it's exactly the same in practice or if they just make the triggers stop higher.
Great products overall. And great-looking, too.
I've been using an 8BitDo Pro 2 as my main pad for a few years now and can fully recommend it. Mostly used on PC but also works perfectly on my Pixel 6a. Another big plus point for the brand is that they offer replacement parts at a very reasonable price. It saved an otherwise fully functional controller when the rubber tore on a thumbstick, I had the parts within a week for under €10.
8bitdo makes one. I use their Ultimate regularly for PC, this is just that for phone. I have one but, frankly, don't use it much as if I'm gaming not at home, i usually have my deck or Ally, but it's been good so far.
I do not own this specifically but I do have 3 other 8bitdo controllers and I love them all.
https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Gaming-Controller-Bluetooth-Joysticks-Console/dp/B0DK36N98Q
I bought a GameSir Nova Lite controller here in the UK for £18 ($25) Amazon/Argos and it really punches above its price. This won't hold your phone though!
Comparison: https://gamepadla.com/gamesir-nova-lite.html#latency