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In case you go for a scroll on the r/Controller subreddit, it received’t be lengthy earlier than you come throughout individuals speaking concerning the Flydigi Vader 4 Professional. This Chinese language model has clearly made an impression on a big subset of PC gamers, as a result of the Vader 4 Professional is heralded as top-of-the-line controllers lots of Redditors have ever used. For that motive, I’ve been very eager to attempt one out.
With so many optimistic evaluations, I believed the Vader 4 Professional was going to be a shoo-in for our greatest PC controllers record. There’s no smoke with out fireplace, and I believed there actually have to be one thing to all of those evaluations. I’ve been testing gamepads professionally for the higher a part of three years now, and my curiosity in, and use of professional controllers has gone on far longer. Flydigi has escaped me till now, as a result of I have to say, this was a model that was tough to come up with.
To avoid wasting of you a while, I’ll get to the underside line shortly. Out of the numerous controllers I’ve examined because the resident professional right here at GamesRadar+, the Vader 4 Professional is the toughest one for me to advocate. Sometimes, I’ll want to simply accept that I’ve been despatched a defective unit, so if I run into some quirks whereas testing, I’ll forgive them. The Vader 4 Professional has been out for years, so it doesn’t get a cross for being an early testing pattern. It has bugs upon bugs, and its person expertise, which is all all the way down to Flydigi, is the worst of any model I’ve reviewed. There are too many pink flags to disregard right here, and though I’d like to see what all these Redditors love about this $50-80 controller, I can’t advocate towards shopping for it extra strongly.
Design
The Flydigi Vader 4 Professional doesn’t look like something too distinctive at first look. It seems like an Xbox controller because of that typical offset thumbstick structure, and has some good V-shaped design thrives that set it other than Flydigi’s different professional pads. There’s a pleasant strip of RGB lighting that’s (alleged to be) customizable within the model’s PC software program.
There are two noticeable design factors on the face of the controller I need to spotlight. Firstly, there are some gray rings across the thumbsticks. Once you twist these round, they alter the stick rigidity of every module. That implies that if you happen to want to flick and whip your thumbsticks round at gentle pace with no resistance, you may spin these rings all the way in which to the left. If you’d like a tighter expertise, flip them to the appropriate and have sticks that can take extra stress to maneuver in any path, and can flick again to their central place instantly.
That’s an excellent little bit of controller design, and one I want was current on every other professional controller nowadays. It’s both a characteristic that different controllers ignore fully or one they flip right into a pesky DIY job since you want particular instruments for the job.
The opposite intelligent design level I need to highlight is the 2 further face buttons. If a controller needs to supply six face buttons, it often pulls again on each different characteristic to pursue combating recreation enjoyers. I’m glad this can be a gamepad that may supply two further face buttons in addition to the 4 again buttons it has. That’s distinctive, and I hope extra manufacturers take be aware. It’s a little bit of a disgrace that these buttons are cheap-feeling plastic ones that don’t align in any respect with the common AXBY buttons, that are clicky microswitches.
Options
The 4 again buttons that characteristic on the Vader 4 Professional are just a little disappointing if I’m sincere. They’re positioned horizontally, which isn’t all the time a foul factor. However these ones remind me of the Asus ROG Raikiri Professional as a result of their design and form are at odds with having the ability to use them comfortably. The outer buttons are positive and are angled appropriately with the grips to make urgent them simple. For some motive, the interior ones are angled away out of your center fingers, which means it takes a bigger readjustment in your fingers to make use of them with one finger. The again buttons as an entire are positioned far too excessive up in your ring fingers to be in play, so I’m undecided what the pondering was right here. It doesn’t assist that the graceful plastic floor is extraordinarily slippery, and the buttons are angled, which means you consistently slip off them.
The Vader 4 Professional options set off cease switches, which flip them into clicky mouse-switch-style actuators. The D-pad is a round one which additionally clicks in, albeit with a less expensive plastic really feel to it.
The Vader 4 Professional is suitable with Flydigi’s lineup of charging stands and has two wi-fi charging capacitors on its backside. That helps to offer this controller sufficient juice to energy its wi-fi battery, which, I’d like to let you know lasts a sure period of time, however as I’ll come onto, testing wasn’t profitable sufficient for me to search out out. There’s wi-fi connectivity for PC gamers, in addition to wider compatibility for Nintendo Change and Bluetooth gadgets.
Efficiency
I believe one of the best ways to elucidate why I am not a fan of this controller is to stipulate my testing course of from begin to end in as a lot element as potential. I’ve laid this out as truthfully and as clearly as potential as a result of I really feel it’s one of the best ways to make it clear to Flydigi and any potential consumers that this was an unsalvageable product.
After I unbox a brand new controller I’m about to check, I all the time begin in the identical means. Almost all of them have again buttons nowadays, so job one is getting these mapped. Some gamepads want you to obtain a PC utility to assign further buttons, whereas others solely want you to open up the instruction pamphlet and use some useful button combos. One of the best controllers have an choice for each. The worst ones power you to obtain the additional software program.
After I unboxed the Vader 4 Professional, the directions made no point out of the six further buttons this controller put in my fingers. A small desk talked about “key mapping” and pointed me towards some companion software program known as “Flydigi House Station”. I wasn’t so certain about this, as a result of on different controllers, “key mapping” might imply mapping the conventional buttons on the controller to mouse and keyboard features to assist with common use on PC. Because it was the closest factor to button assignments I might see within the info in entrance of me, to Google I went.
I looked for the official Flydigi web site since that is the place I believed I’d discover the official software program simply. The Google search introduced it up, and I clicked. Nothing. Only a clean display and a discover saying “This website can’t present a safe connection en.flydigi.com makes use of an unsupported protocol. ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH”. This discover primarily means that there is a downside with the safety protocol of the web site you are making an attempt to go to, which ought to increase some suspicion.
I as a substitute googled “Flydigi House Station Software program”, and no official web site consequence got here again for it. A couple of outcomes pointed towards software program known as Flydigi Recreation Middle, however I could not entry any obtain hyperlinks for that both as a result of the model’s web site saved throwing up the identical safety subject.
My expertise with this controller has been a catastrophe. In all my testing, reviewing, and protection of the controller market, I’ve by no means run into as many points with one gamepad as I’ve with this one.
Hm, that’s weird, I believed, possibly if I scan the QR code on the instruction leaflet, I’ll have extra pleasure attending to an in-depth person handbook. I scanned it, my cellphone instantly warned me that I is likely to be getting scammed, and that I ought to critically take into consideration whether or not I need to proceed to the URL. Each of those safety warnings again to again weren’t encouraging, so I exited out. I attempted in a number of territories utilizing a VPN, I attempted completely different browsers, completely different gadgets, and even tried eradicating the “en” from the start of the URL, and each time I used to be met with the identical subject. This web site was clearly problematic, and I couldn’t discover a technique to entry it.
It was then that the pink flags actually began to seem. From a search on Reddit, regardless of all of the individuals recommending the controller, there have been threads of individuals speaking about points the place they couldn’t use the software program, or that they lastly downloaded it, and it instantly triggered their programs to take a number of screenshots. Granted, this could possibly be a Home windows 11 replace quirk somebody has run into, however when all different indicators level to this software program being problematic, it doesn’t fill me with confidence. Others who had purchased the Vader 4 Professional have been completely unable to make use of the software program they wanted to get their cash’s value out of this controller.
I discovered a YouTuber, MikeTheTech, who had uploaded the House Station software program to his personal web site round 3 years in the past as a result of it was so inaccessible, even again then. From all my analysis, that gave the impression to be the one technique to truly obtain what was mentioned to be Flydigi’s utility. When that’s your solely choice as somebody who has spent cash on a peripheral, that’s completely tousled. I’ve by no means seen that from any of the opposite controller manufacturers I’ve reviewed. Moreover, if the complete Flydigi web site isn’t accessible, that doesn’t simply imply you may’t assign button mappings; it means you may’t attain out to Flydigi for buyer help, or to arrange a alternative product or refund.
I made a decision to at the very least give the controller a whirl with out utilizing the additional buttons for now, and see if I might get previous the software program hurdle one other day. I plugged into my PC, loaded up Celeste, and the controller labored positive. It was pretty comfy, it had respectable suggestions, and I cherished having the ability to mess around with the stick rigidity. Sadly, when navigating menus, I felt the D-pad reacting very slowly to my presses. After a fast look, that’s as a result of the pad was truly getting caught within the down path. Not encouraging from a design standpoint within the slightest.
After some time, it felt completely pointless reviewing a controller with six further buttons whereas not having the ability to use them.
I made a decision to check out the Android Flydigi app to see if linking it up there would work. It didn’t. There was a technique to join the Vader 4 Professional to my cellphone through Bluetooth, however the one button that seemed like it will let me configure any settings was sitting beneath my cellphone’s navigation bar, and the app didn’t scroll to let me press it.
Reluctantly, I knew what my final remaining choice was. I headed to MikeTheTech’s video as soon as once more. The feedback appeared to attest to the obtain he was speaking about not being malware, so I made a decision to offer it a attempt since I had no different choice.
I downloaded the software program, I loaded it up, and instantly, the controller and my PC began behaving very surprisingly. Spotify toggled play and pause, Steam huge image mode opened, and a keyboard for the controller to make use of inside Home windows 11 appeared on my display. It wasn’t malware, and a fast safety scan confirmed that a lot, but it surely was not what you need from a easy little bit of controller software program.
As soon as I acquired the appliance to relax, I did handle to set just a few again button assignments. That mentioned, every time I assigned one, the window would reduce. I had learn from just a few customers on Reddit that the software program needed to stay open for these adjustments to avoid wasting, although, so I saved it open. I loaded up Celeste once more, and it doesn’t matter what I did, the sport now didn’t acknowledge the Vader 4 Professional as a controller. I attempted all the things within the software program that I might, I performed round with Steam controller settings, and I went again to the web to search for individuals who had related issues. There was nothing. Related to my PC through the wi-fi dongle or a cable, the Vader 4 Professional now wasn’t working in any recreation. After closing the software program and unplugging, it wasn’t even being acknowledged by the House Station software program anymore. It was bricked.
Must you purchase the Flydigi Vader 4 Professional?
I believe it is protected to say that my expertise with this controller has been a catastrophe. In all my testing, reviewing, and protection of the controller market, I’ve by no means run into as many points with one gamepad as I’ve with this one. There have to be one thing nice about it that lots of Redditors take pleasure in, and energy to them. All I can share with you is my sincere expertise, and after I evaluate it to the multitude of controllers I’ve reviewed all through my profession to date, that is in all probability essentially the most problematic.
I strongly advise that you simply avoid shopping for this controller, as a result of there are such a lot of others which are value your cash. There are pads on the market priced equally, supply nice options and work with out all of those factors of friction.
How I examined the Flydigi Vader 4 Professional
I tried to check the Flydigi Vader 4 Professional in the identical methods I check any and all different controllers. For a full rundown of all the things I tried to make this controller work, try the efficiency part.
For extra on how we check, try the total GamesRadar+ {Hardware} Coverage.
For extra on the great world of controllers, try the greatest Xbox Collection X controllers, the greatest PS5 controllers, and the greatest Nintendo Change controllers.
