Phonejoy review

 

Our phones are getting more and more powerful, and looking at games like Bastion and XCOM running on your iPhone shows just how far things we've come since the days of playing Snake on a Nokia phone. The catch is that games like Angry Birds or Threes are a lot more fun than playing most typical genres on a phone because while a full touchscreen is great to look at, virtual buttons and virtual thumbsticks are a nightmare to actually use.

Half the screen gets obscured by your fingers and you spend more time repositioning your thumbs than actually playing leading to a highly compromised experience. Some games, like Epoch or Infinity Blade can find a middle ground between the high action games that we're used to on consoles, and finger friendly controls that will work on a mobile phone or tablet, but they're a compromise that falls short on the innovation that is possible with mobile phones, and the twitchy control that come with a real gamepad.
We tried out the Phonejoy controller which just started delivering gamepads to their Kickstarter backers, and came away pretty impressed. The controller costs $79.99 (approximately Rs. 4,806) to order, and takes between one to two weeks to reach India.

The packaging for the Phonejoy is actually pretty clever in its own right - everything is packed away into foldout compartments, and the box has a ruler on the side which you can hold against your phone, to see if it will actually fit inside the controller. That'll be a lot more useful if this gamepad is ever available at retail here, but for quick reference, you can easily fit a 5-inch phone in there; we were able to put a Sony Xperia Z inside the Phonejoy, and also a Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
If you're using something even bigger than a Note though, this might be a problem, because the Phonejoy is stretched from the middle to accommodate your phone, and larger devices probably won't fit. Of course, since the connection is taking place over Bluetooth, you could just prop the phone (or tablet) in a stand, and play with the gamepad in your hand. It looks like it would be too small to hold comfortably in that mode, but having spent a fair amount of time gaming on the iPad in just that fashion, it's safe to say that the Phonejoy is comfortable to use even without a phone.

Design and Build Quality

The Phonejoy is small, slightly chunky, and does not look like it would be very comfortable to hold. It's very slightly taller than a PS Vita, and about twice as thick. The width is adjustable, but with a 5-inch phone inside, this thing dwarfs the Vita.