iQOO has launched the G1, a dual-sided telescopic gaming controller priced at ¥499 (about $74) in China. The clamp extends to 211mm for phones and 8.8-inch tablets, the 176.5g unit also pairs Hall effect joysticks rated for 5 million cycles with 256-level Hall effect linear triggers.
iQOO has launched the G1, a dual-sided telescopic gaming controller for smartphones and compact tablets, in China. The price is ¥499 (approx $74) and it will be sold on November 4 at 10:00 local time. With the purchase of the same time, the iQOO phone or tablet, the price drops to ¥399 (approx. $59).
Clamp width is 211mm to accommodate large phones and 8.8-inch tablets. It is modular, with two different sizes of magnetic grips; a smaller pair for travel purposes and a longer pair for a complete hold like a console. The larger grips add a weight of 176.5g to the unit and help to stabilize it while playing.
Hall effect sensors drive both the joysticks and the linear triggers. The sensors don’t rely on physical contacts and are thus not as prone to wear as contact sensors, and iQOO gives a 5-million-cycle rating for the sticks. The triggers are capable of detecting 256 amounts of input. There are two mini shoulder buttons labeled L4 and R4 that can be programmed to one or two actions, a microswitch beneath the ABXY buttons and a D-pad with tactile feedback. Swappable joystick caps come in the box to suit different grip styles.
A USB-C connection links the G1 directly to the host device, so there is no Bluetooth pairing or wireless lag to manage. The controller doesn’t come with a battery of its own but instead gets power from the phone or tablet. The controller has a USB-C port for charging and 15W pass-through charging, so that the device can be charged for a long time.
Button mapping, joystick dead-zone tuning, and rapid-fire settings run through iQOO’s Game Space and Game Magic Box software. Those features are being introduced for four devices on launch; the iQOO 16, iQOO Neo 12, iQOO Pad Ultra, and the 8.8-inch iQOO Pad Pro, running OriginOS 7 or higher. G1’s come in only one Cool Black colour.
The Neo 12 smartphone and the Pad Pro tablet launched alongside the G1. They both come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, iQOO’s own Q3 gaming chip and an inbuilt cooling fan.
The controller was initially teased by iQOO in September prior to the launch of the iQOO Pad Ultra, where the dimensions were revealed to be 209.67 x 107.76 x 60.4mm. The company is also bundling the G1 with the iQOO 16’s PC game emulator as a hand-held controller for PC games, and this stand-up option looks promising.
Lenovo’s Legion GamePad G3, a comparable telescopic controller, sells for about $25 in China and also offers Hall effect joysticks and pass-through charging. Other phones with first-party controllers from Chinese companies include Redmi GamePad and RedMagic (Redmi 4) controller. However, iQOO has not revealed its intentions for the G1 in other markets.
