After selling my PS5 and getting a new PC, I was left without a controller, so I was in the market for one. A couple of months ago I bought this, the GameSir Nova Lite - and after all this time using it I can finally give my verdict.
GameSir was a brand I'd had heard of because of their X2 or whatever it's called controller for phones, which you slot your phone in and it basically turns into a PSP, but I was unsure of its product's quality.
After asking on a group of friends which controller I should buy, a couple of them said the GameSir T4, which is a bit more expensive than this one brand new. So I did some research and found videos about GameSir controllers.
I immediately fell in love with the Nova Lite, it seemed to have really great build quality and it had all the features I needed.
Analog triggers, hall effect analog sticks, a share button, support for tons of platforms, a wireless dongle, USB-C charging, it's perfect.
And how does it feel? Really really good!
This is one of the best, if not the best, third party controllers I've used and I highly recommend it.
It wasn't all smooth sailing though.
When I bought this, I was mostly using Windows, so the wireless 2.4GHz dongle worked just fine, when I moved over to Linux late last year the controller began to be recognised as a "ShanWan Gamepad" or something like that and rumble wasn't working.
Luckily, the guys behind xpadneo (a Linux driver for controllers like these) were working on an update to support these controllers via Bluetooth with rumble support.
I had to downgrade my controller's firmware from FW 6000 to 4200 so it could do Xinput via Bluetooth instead of Dualshock 4. Sure, this leaves me without Playstation support but I really don't need it.
After that, it's working perfectly as an Xinput device on my PC, and a Dinput device on my phone.
I used it a lot when I travelled to my aunt's house to play Yakuza: Kurohyou and it worked really well with no noticeable latency.
I decided to put the 2.4GHz dongle on my Fire Stick on the living room to play emulators and run Steam Link, it works there too.
Conclusion
It's a really great controller, with buttons that feel quite good and supports a wide variety of systems. What's not to love?
I wish it came with a phone support handle out of the box, but it's understandable, this is more meant for consoles and PCs.
I highly recommend it!
It also comes with a nice carrying case too, really good for transporting it around in your backpack!
Thanks for reading!
