Trying the Ultra-Compact Controllers for MacBooks - No More Clutter!

Highlights

• Keypads that connect to gaming controllers have a clever design but impede on grip and sacrifice controller comfort.
• Unconventional keyboard layouts can make typing difficult and low-quality speakers re a distraction.
• It’s best to opt for a traditional Bluetooth keyboard over controller-connected keypads, even if they are a lot bigger.

As the range of games available on consoles expands to include genres previously exclusive to PC, many couch gamers are seeking to add a Bluetooth keyboard to their arsenal. One popular option is a keypad that plugs into the bottom of your controller, but are these gadgets as nifty as they appear?

Controllers Weren’t Designed with Keypads In Mind

For the past two months, I’ve been using one of these keypads: the MoKo Keyboard for PS5 controllers , which Amazon lists as its “Overall Pick” among many near-identical offerings. The add-on is clever in concept and aesthetic, filling the gap between grips with an easy-to-access keyboard.

It’s positioned at such an angle that the keys are in the range of the player’s thumbs at all times, allowing for a seamless transition between controlling your character and typing.

Tim Rattray / How-To Geek

However, it’s by this same measure that we come to what is the keypad’s fatal flaw: it occupies the space where your fingers would typically curl around the controller’s grips. Instead, your fingers are jammed up against the flat rear of the keypad.

This caused me some discomfort and threw off my ability to perform in-game as my fingers didn’t rest on the analog sticks, buttons, and triggers in the way I’d expect them to. On top of this, the natural grip movement that occurs during gameplay often causes the keypad to slip off the controller. The 3.5mm headphone jack which stands as the only direct tether between the keypad and controller isn’t sturdy enough to withstand standard use.

The headphone jack also serves another purpose by routing all sound through the keypad. This not only includes a headphone outlet placed along the bottom of the keyboard but also a speaker in the back that outputs sound that would typically come out of the controller’s own internal speaker. Unfortunately, the keypad’s speaker is of a notably tinny low quality.

It didn’t need to be this way. The DualSense’s speaker is located below its touchpad and therefore isn’t obfuscated by this device. While this won’t seem like an important flaw to many gamers, it makes the keypad feel distractingly cheap every time sounds are played (something common for Final Fantasy XIV, the most popular game that benefits from a Bluetooth keyboard).

There’s a myriad of smaller issues that unfortunately add up to making this an impractical product. Some buttons are rearranged from where you’d expect them on a standard QWERTY keyboard , such as the placement of the backspace key to the left of the space bar and Alt functions being assigned to different buttons than they normally are.

The process of installing the keypad can also be frustrating as the headphone jack is on a hinge, meaning it often pivots out of the correct angle to connect to the controller. Given that these keypads are controller-specific, the unnecessary inclusion of this hinge only leads to frustration.

While these issues have led me to stop connecting the keypad to my controller, I still use it as a tiny Bluetooth keyboard. It connects seamlessly and immediately to my PS5 after being turned on and holds a charge for a long time (I haven’t needed to plug the device into a USB-C charger since topping it up upon receiving it two months ago). It becomes less comfortable to type on without the grips of a controller, but it gets the job done.

Lastly, it’s neat that the keys light up in case you’re gaming in the dark, something applicable to me as I game on an OLED television so the darker the room the better.

If you’re in need of a typing device for your console, I’d recommend going with a traditional Bluetooth keyboard . It may take up a bit more space on your side table or under the TV, but it’ll be much easier and quicker to type on.

You can find regular Bluetooth keyboards at far cheaper prices, and they’ll work across a range of devices, gaming and otherwise. Perhaps future iterations of controller-connected keypads will fix some of the issues that made this product a non-starter for me, but until then it’s probably worth passing on this admittedly novel concept.