Just when it seems like all the momentum behind Microsoft Xbox’s Cloud Gaming and Remote Play initiatives have all but ground to a halt (a $75.4 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard can sometimes cause that to happen), new mobile gaming grip products like the X4 Aileron from GameSir emerge to stir things up again, rekindling the “Cloud Believer” fire deep within my soul.
It’s been over two years since I reviewed the Nacon RIG MG-X Pro, a smartphone gaming grip that left me highly impressed with how closely it replicated the form factor and feel of a standard Xbox controller (including its Xbox branding and button layout) while sporting an “open-top” design that allowed it to work comfortably with larger mobile screens.
To this day, it remains my sentimental favourite, but I noted a number of drawbacks in my review and subsequent play experiences that I genuinely hoped Nacon would address in future iterations, like an improved D-pad and the inclusion of programmable back buttons like those found on their Revolution X Pro. Sadly, a follow-up never came.
Enter the X4 Aileron, a competing “Designed for Xbox” grip that not only brings a pair of those aforementioned back buttons to the table but also offers surprisingly in-depth customization, programmability and compactness for a device of its type. Readers who have checked out our previous reviews of GameSir’s X2 Pro and/or GameSir G8 Galileo mobile controllers will immediately notice a considerable amount of cross-pollination between those two devices and this one when it comes to features.
“On a more positive note, where the X4 Aileron truly sets itself apart from the Atom is in customization options.”
Not content to rest on their laurels, GameSir appears to have gone all out with this latest entry, bringing in additional innovations from competing products like the Razer Kishi V2 and Turtle Beach Atom to create what I can only describe as a bizarre yet aesthetically pleasing, “Frankenstein’s Monster” of a gaming grip that cleverly balances style and function.
Taking a page out of the Atom’s playbook, the X4 Aileron uses a two-piece, split design in which the two halves of the controller attach securely to either side of one’s mobile phone using rubberized clamps. When not in use, the two halves are smartly designed to magnetically slide into one another and snap together perfectly.
The result is a gaming grip that can accommodate a wide variety of smartphones regardless of width while also creating a shockingly compact footprint when one’s smartphone isn’t attached, making it extremely portable. Naturally, there are still limits to the type of phone that can be used with the X4.
Its vice clamps can extend vertically to fit smartphones measuring between 68 to 95mm, and the cavities in which the left and right sides of one’s phone are meant to rest will allow for a maximum thickness of up to10mm. So, while big phones are generally preferred, the X4’s height restriction effectively rules out physical compatibility with extra tall devices, like a mini tablet or a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold.
“The X4’s height restriction effectively rules out physical compatibility with extra tall devices, like a mini tablet or a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold.”
Unsurprisingly, GameSir’s decision to emulate the Turtle Beach Atom’s two-piece form factor means that the X4 Aileron has also inherited several of the Atom’s shortcomings regarding connectivity. There is a female USB-C port located on the bottom of the left half grip, but this port is only for charging the device with the included cable.
There is no corresponding male connector on either half of the device to enable passthrough charging to one’s phone while playing. Additionally, the X4 Aileron can only charge both halves when they are interlocked, and it can’t be used as a wired controller in said mode (though to be honest, it would be impractical to do so given its reverse configuration when compacted).
On a more positive note, where the X4 Aileron truly sets itself apart from the Atom is in customization options. For starters, the X4 Aileron incorporates a pair of RGB/LED light rings at the base of its two analog sticks that immediately wake up and glow in unison upon sliding one’s phone into the grip’s two halves.
It’s a cool, futuristic-looking effect that makes the device stand out, similar to a gaming keyboard. There are different light patterns to choose from, and one can tweak the colours and brightness settings of the LEDs to one’s liking via either the GameSir Android app or the M-button found on the X4 Aileron’s lower right, found immediately next to the “Capture” (i.e. screenshot) button.
The M button allows users to quickly access various handy shortcuts and reprogrammable button mapping options without leaving the game to open the mobile app. These options include enabling hair-trigger sensitivity for the analog triggers, assigning button commands to the X4’s programmable back buttons (L4 and R4), and swapping A-B, X-Y (i.e., switching between Xbox and Nintendo layouts).
“The X4 Aileron uses a two-piece, split design in which the two halves of the controller attach securely to either side of one’s mobile phone using rubberized clamps.”
Since leaving your game for even a few seconds to open another app can be highly disruptive when streaming from the cloud, the ability to bypass the GameSir app and make basic changes directly is a brilliant idea.
The X4 Aileron’s D-pad and face buttons are also swappable. The ABXY buttons are held in place by magnets and can be switched around if the user doesn’t prefer the default Xbox-inspired layout. This means Nintendo Switch enthusiasts can have their preferred BAXY layout physically represented.
However, as explained earlier, they’ll need to go into settings to change the actual button values to match the new configuration. Strangely, the alternative radial D-pad that came with my review unit is a mystery. As far as I could determine, the underside of the radial pad lacks the necessary connector to attach it to the device as the default pad does, so I was unable to properly snap on the radial pad and test it out.
Then there are the button and stick customization options. Along with a nifty carrying case for the device and all its accessories, the X4 comes with three pairs of analog sticks. One pair closely resembles the small, convex sticks found on the PS Vita in both size and feel, while the other two larger pairs have a slightly thicker ridge, similar in size to the sticks on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series gamepads, respectively.
Both on the box and its website, GameSir claims that the X4’s analog sticks are Anti-drift Hall Effect, which is an encouraging trend to see. The majority of its face buttons, namely the D-pad, ABXY, and bumpers, employ microswitches, which sound and feel satisfyingly crunchy to the touch.
On top of all of this, the GameSir app for Android allows players to test, customize and tweak their settings in detail. They can adjust their joystick dead zones as well as their anti-dead zones, set a precise throw for each analog trigger, and apparently even enable button mapping for games natively installed on one’s phone that are touch-only, like Genshin Impact and Call of Duty Mobile. It’s highly unusual to see software this robust for a mobile grip, much less see such devices get a standalone app at all. On the whole, it’s an admirable effort.
Unfortunately, it’s all for nought, thanks to poor implementation all over the place. The aforementioned mapping of touch-only games can only be achieved by using the GameSir app to dive into your Android phone’s developer options and enable a laundry list of permissions. This entails following the app’s poorly translated instructions as to how to take the training wheels off of your system’s debugging options and hoping that your particular device’s menus can guide you properly to the slider that will activate the feature. Obviously, I wasn’t able to and could only tolerate up to an hour of wasted effort before I completely gave up, because beyond the basics, the app is an obtuse, confusing mess.
Even if the software was better, it can’t fix what is arguably the biggest problem with the X4 Aileron. For all of its clicky, tactile goodness, the D-pad accuracy is atrocious. It’s hypersensitive and lacks the resistance needed to reliably input simple cardinal directions (up, down, left, right). Don’t even think about Street Fighter. It’s an absolute dealbreaker if you intend to use the X4 to play classic, arcade-style games like Shinobi, where the difference between crouching and crawling forward at the wrong time means instant death.
Even if the game you’re playing only uses the D-pad to navigate menus or weapon wheels in action-adventure games or first-person shooters, finding oneself in a clutch situation and having the cursor slip diagonally to select an item you don’t want is infuriating. The app does provide a slider that can lock the D-pad to 4-way motion, but this option simply mitigates the issue rather than eliminating it. It’s a total shame because games like Dying Light 2: Stay Human, Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Halo Infinite otherwise play great on the X4 and take excellent advantage of the back buttons, even up to a competitive level in the latter game’s case.
Additionally, while I still believe that the ultra-compact design of the Aileron deserves to be commended, its cool factor ultimately comes at the cost of ergonomics and stability. As mentioned earlier, the X4 Aileron abandons the larger, official Xbox-inspired grips of the G8 Galileo and Nacon’s MG-X Pro for a much slimmer profile approaching that of the Razer Kishi V2 or Backbone One, which necessitates a vertical button layout that I personally find awkward and uncomfortable when coming directly from using a standard game controller.
Whereas the positions of the D-Pad and Left Analog-stick on the left side versus the Right Analog-stick and face buttons on the right are diagonally offset on a regular Xbox controller, on the X4 Aileron, these inputs are stacked directly above one another, resulting in the user having to clumsily “reach up and over” RS with one’s thumb to hit either A or X.
In other words, your right thumb has to travel in a more unnatural direction to hit the action buttons and takes a split-second longer to do so, requiring that you release RS for just a tad longer. The same goes for alternating between the D-pad and LS on the left side with your left thumb. This positioning all but guarantees that the wrong buttons will be pressed often.
When you combine this awkwardness with the X4 Aileron’s narrower, shallower grips, the gameplay feels a touch less accurate, and holding onto the device feels less secure in general. I’m sure I could see myself getting accustomed to the ergonomics and altered button/stick layout over time, as most mobile gaming grips, as well as the Nintendo Switch, subscribe to this design, but as someone who games primarily on a standard gamepad, I can’t say I’m a fan of this trend.
Finally, the X4 Aileron’s most outstanding feature is also a bit wobbly. Using the X4 with a slimmer, naked smartphone (such as my LG Velvet) will cause the halves of the X4 to wobble and bend at the edges, as the phone isn’t thick enough to fill the entire cavity on its own.
Included in the box are four adhesive pads that can be stuck to the bottom of the cavity to stabilize the phone in such a predicament, but they look very sticky. In the end, I decided to leave my phone’s case in place and insert the phone into the X4 as is, which ended up fitting just fine and providing enough thickness to all but eliminate the wobbling and bending, with the pads aside as a last resort.
To wrap up, the GameSir X4 Aileron is a fusion of great ideas that, for all intents and purposes, should have resulted in an excellent, Xbox-themed mobile gaming grip product but is tragically held back by a sub-par directional pad, obtuse software, and a handful of poorly made ergonomic design decisions that negatively impact the overall game feel. Hope still springs eternal with this Cloud Believer, though, and I pray that next time, GameSir will revisit its G8 Galileo design, steal the best elements that it lacks from its Nacon RIG MG-X Pro equivalent, drop the 2-piece gimmick, and just call it a day, size be damned.
