 The Steam Controller is weird, and this review is gonna be kinda weird. Just straight up feature to feature comparing it against a standard style controller like one made by Microsoft or Sony for their game consoles is useless, and it definitely is not a Wiimote. So what do we do? Well, we're gonna go on an adventure investigating the games and game types that this controller works well or doesn't work well with. By the end of this adventure, I don't expect you to think that the controller isn't weird, but I expect you to understand when I say weird, I don't mean bad. Some of the best things and people I know are weird. Hi, Karen! Also, I believe that you'll understand what it's for and who might or might not be interested in it, so stay tuned. Corsair's RMI series power supplies feature premium components for great performance with very low noise. Check out the link in the video description down below to learn more. Alright, first off, starting off with the hardware, it doesn't feel fantastically premium, especially compared to the Xbox Elite controller that I recently reviewed here. But it doesn't feel that horrible either, and it comes at a pretty damn fair price for a controller. 50 bucks, USD at least. This puts it below the cost of most other first-party controllers. In terms of physical layout, you have two paddles on the back, shoulder buttons, triggers, A, B, X, and Y buttons in a really weird position, a thumb stick just to the left of middle and down a bit, left and right arrow buttons, which are essentially just start and select, a Steam Home button, and the main event, the dual opposing touchpads with haptic feedback. Haptic feedback on here is basically when you move your finger across the touchpad, it will vibrate ever so slightly just so that you know that the input is going through. It's actually very satisfactory. On the bottom, there's a switch that releases the dual paddles and reveals the batteries if you don't want to use the wireless dongle either directly plugged in or through an extension. And on the front, there's a micro USB plug just in case you like wired. So the haptic feedback actually felt really good. I totally knew what was happening under my fingers while they were on touchpads, which is actually a huge relief. When I first saw this controller, I was very worried about that. That being said, none of the other inputs amazed me in terms of their feel. They still made me feel very in control, which is actually more than what I was expecting when I saw the price tag. And even when I picked it up for the first time, it felt kind of cheap. So what is it actually good for? Well, I think of it as an enabler, which is why I don't really want to compare it much to other controllers. Personally, I will always prefer a standard controller for driving games or like a racing wheel or something and a keyboard and mouse for things like shooters. For anyone who isn't diluted, these are widely accepted strengths to these input methods. And I don't expect the Steam controller is going to change anyone's mind about this. Actually, I would go as far as to say that the Steam controller should pretty much never be used when seated at a desk because there's always a better option. But that's just my opinion. But when you're sitting on a couch, using a keyboard and mouse either totally sucks or makes you look like a complete doofus. Yeah, I know there's some options like the couch master. But honestly, when I'm couch gaming, I'm going to want a controller so I can sit comfortably, whatever my comfortable might actually look like, which is why many games like Civilization or Papers, Please, can't really be played in what I would call a satisfactory way on a home theater couch based setup. Until now. Playing Papers, Please with this thing felt entirely natural. And playing Civ V on the couch, nice and relaxed, expanding my civilization, trying to hold off barbarians and whatnot, that felt like home. I wouldn't use this for every game. And those were easy examples, but it does enable games that wouldn't really normally be a thing for couch gaming controller users. The controls seem to be endlessly customizable with people online even doing auto hotkey setups in order to control their desktop better, which is pretty cool. Many reviews that I've read leading up to this one have proclaimed that there is a steep and scary learning curve. I'm going to go out on a limb here and completely disagree. In my opinion, if you've ever used a laptop with a touchpad, you should be able to get pretty familiar with this guy pretty quick. Sure, if you're going to play something like a shooter on it, it's going to take some time to get proficient with it. But I don't really think that's what it's actually designed for anyways. Although your mileage may vary. I personally didn't enjoy the over the shoulder games like Mass Effect with the Steam controller, but I've read rave reviews online about how it's great for this style of gaming. So, none of this addresses the people who don't want to customize their controllers, however, which doesn't mean tinkering is the only way to enjoy Steam controller. In fact, in many cases, not tinkering at all may be a better route. Steam will warn you when a game may not work very well with the default profile and suggest that you customize things. At this point, you'll probably utilize the sometimes awesome hive mind power that is the Steam community. You can see community submitted controller configs and even see how many people are using which one. Every single time I needed a config, I just use the most commonly used community config and it worked splendidly. No reason for me to fight with things when somebody else has already done the heavy lifting. I'd love to see Valve improve this functionality by allowing the profile creators to upload short videos demonstrating how to use their profiles most effectively. So all good then. I should rush out and buy it? No, not necessarily. I have some concerns about making a sweeping recommendation that you should buy one. Your grandma should buy one and your dog should buy one. The cost is cheap, but it feels pretty cheap, which is a little disappointing. Not to mention, damn, Gabe, why is there glossy plastic on the top? What is this? What purpose does this serve? It looks like crap in like three seconds. God. Anyways, and aside from those minor quibbles, this is my biggest problem. It doesn't really have a home at the desk and unless you're one of those six people who bought a Steam machine or happen to have a home theater PC, how much time are you going to spend couch gaming on the specific titles that will actually benefit from this? I actually don't know. For me, at least with the hours of Civ 5 on the couch I see in my future, this is a $50 pill that I can swallow. So if that interests you at all, then check it out. And I guess the real bottom line here is that while my initial impressions were why did they try to reinvent the wheel? It's just weird. After spending more time getting to know it and in the appropriate context of not forcing myself to use it as a replacement for my existing controller or keyboard or mouse, but rather an entirely new beast, I'm glad that they did. iFixit is your complete DIY electronics repair solution from their 15,000 free step-by-step repair guides to their huge inventory of replacement parts and tools with lifetime warranties. iFixit has got your repair needs covered, but today they want to introduce you to their latest and greatest entry on their tool side. It's the all new ProTech Toolkit with the completely reimagined design which maintains the portability and rugged nature it had with even more features. First off, their 64-bit driver kit over their previous 54-bit driver kit with a swivel top precision driver and a vast array of other repair tools. It's the same price as the classic ProTech Toolkit at $64.95 and is still backed by their lifetime warranty. So head over to ifixit.com slash Linus and use the offer code LINUSTECH to save $10 on your purchase of $50 or more for yourself or maybe a holiday present for a friend. Thanks for watching guys, if the video sucked you know what to do, but if it was awesome, get subscribed, hit the like button or even consider supporting us directly by using our affiliate code to shop at Amazon, buying a cool t-shirt like this one or with a direct monthly contribution through the forum. Now that that's done you're probably wondering what to watch next, so I called it out earlier in the video, but check out the Xbox One Elite Controller review here to see like a more standard controller but with a super premium feel. It's actually pretty cool.