Tag Archives: slider

MagSafe iPhone sliding game controller gives off PSP Go vibes

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The iPhone has always been a powerful device, but like many smartphones, that power is always tested when it comes to gaming. Of course, there are plenty of games that run smoothly on the iPhone, especially those either designed specifically for iOS or optimized for it under the Apple Arcade ecosystem. Recently, however, the chance for emulators and emulated games to run on iPhones has become more feasible, which puts game controllers under a microscope. Although these have been around for years now, the large majority of them felt inconvenient, clunky, and less ideal for gaming on the go. This upcoming design tries to address those concerns from a different angle, and it takes inspiration from sliders like the PSP Go or, closer to home, the Xperia Play.

Designer Name: Josh King

Phone game controllers these days mostly come in two flavors. One is a bulky, traditional controller with a clip to hold your phone, while the more popular design flanks the phone with split controls. The latter is more portable but still tedious to use, especially when it requires taking off your iPhone’s protective case every time you want to play. To fix this design problem, the M-Con looks to other portable gaming systems that are more suitable for phone-sized devices, and it turns out that Sony already answered the same problem years ago.

The short-lived Xperia Play smartphone, and the PSP Go handheld console before it, utilized a sliding mechanism to keep the buttons and joysticks out of the way when you’re not playing. This, however, was built into the devices themselves, which made the Xperia Play too bulky to be used as a regular phone. The M-Con, in contrast, is removable just like those other smartphone controllers today, but the difference is that it uses MagSafe technology to easily and securely attach to an iPhone’s back. You can opt to have it attached all the time or quickly separate the two pieces to shove them into your pockets separately.

The design, however, has one more trick up its sleeve. The controller part and the MagSafe plate can also part ways, as the latter can also be used as a stand for the iPhone. Since M-Con uses Bluetooth to connect to the iPhone, the controller can still be used as normal, allowing you to play with the phone standing on a table. In fact, you can even connect the iPhone to a larger screen to have a home console experience in the same manner.

M-Con is said to be coming soon, but availability details and pricing are still unknown. Since it was born from a DIY and 3D printed project, the quality of the resulting product is also an open question. And while this sliding controller does have a more compact and convenient design, it also squeezes the controls tightly together, which could lead to a cramped and uncomfortable gaming experience.

The post MagSafe iPhone sliding game controller gives off PSP Go vibes first appeared on Yanko Design.

AYANEO SLIDE Handheld PC design demonstrates another way to play games on the go

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Handheld gaming devices are in vogue again, and not just the smartphones we always have in our hands these days. The success of the Nintendo Switch has given rise to a new breed of portable PCs built specifically with gaming in mind, and now even big brands like ASUS and Lenovo are playing in this very niche field. While both the Switch and the Steam Deck have become the poster children for this category of devices, they aren’t the only way to play PC games anywhere and everywhere. Another contender is pushing a new entry into the race, and this one hides a QWERTY keyboard for those times when you need keys rather than buttons to play, communicate, or even work.

Designer: AYANEO

Handheld PCs like the Steam Deck, ASUS ROG Ally, and Lenovo Legion Go are probably PC gamers’ dreams come true. They allow them to play their favorite modern and even retro titles without having to worry about finding a place to set up a laptop. That convenience, however, comes at the price of relying only on controller buttons and joysticks for movement, while being at the mercy of a touchscreen and an on-screen keyboard for everything else. That’s not a problem for something like the Nintendo Switch with games specifically designed for such an input scheme, but for a PC that can potentially play and do anything, it’s severely limiting.

The AYANEO SLIDE addresses this problem by introducing a physical QWERTY keyboard that doesn’t get in the way when you don’t actually need it. Its trick is to hide that keyboard underneath the display using a sliding mechanism, not unlike the slider keyboards of smartphones from long ago. That makes it trivial to type out messages for games that require chatting with other players or to even play games that might not fully support game controllers. And since you can easily hide it when you’re done, it doesn’t take up too much extra space when it’s not in use.

Granted, the AYANEO SLIDE is hardly the first to use this design to address the problem of an absent keyboard. The recent GPD WIN 4 and the old Sony VAIO UX from 2006 both used a sliding mechanism to hide a QWERTY keyboard. AYANEO’s design, however, also lets you set the screen at an angle when you slide it up, which offers a slightly more ergonomic viewing angle compared to a completely flat screen.

While the addition of a hidden keyboard does fix one problem, the design has some drawbacks in the current implementation. Given the large size of the device, thumb-typing on that keyboard isn’t exactly comfortable or fast. A sliding mechanism also invites trouble because of moving parts. An alternative design, one employed by AYAENO rival GPD, uses a mini laptop form factor to offer a different way to mix gaming and typing on the go, but that also brings its own problems in terms of portability and bulk.

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