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Chainpus Bluetooth Gamepad |
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Written by Alex Abraham
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Thursday, 09 June 2005 |
You may recall a couple of week�’s back I told you about a great new product from Chainpus, creators of this excellent Bluetooth keyboard, the Bluetooth gamepad. Well the lovely folk at Chainpus saw fit to send me one to cast judgement over, so I shallÂ…
The Chainpus BGP100 Bluetooth gamepad is the first serious gaming add-on we have seen for Smartphone and when I say serious, I mean seriousÂ…this baby weighs in at a hefty $99 but don�’t let that put you off. It comes in a variety of colours (black, white, grey and blue), is adjustable to fit most phones and is compatible with Windows Mobile for SP / PPC and Symbian devices.
What�’s in the box:
Gamepad
Driver CD
1 x AAA Battery
Lanyard (wrist strap)
Driver installation was simple. Insert CD, run the setup program, select your device and wait for the driver to be installed on the phone. Once you�’ve done thatÂ…its play time!
A quick browse of the gamepad configuration tool will allow you to map the gamepad keys to emulate those of the phone (except power). Once you�’ve connected to the gamepad, mapped the keys and started playing you favourite game the way it should be, you�’ll start to notice one huge differenceÂ…the gamepad supports multipress! Although it looks like a 4-way d-pad, you can still go diagonally, so in essence, its 8-way! Obviously Chainpus know a bit more about Smartphone users than HTC do.
That�’s great news I hear you say but how does it perform? Well, to be perfectly honest, it�’s a bit hit and miss. While playing games on your beloved Smartphone is now a joy to behold, it�’s no PS2 Joypad. The build quality is good but you�’re never really sure if you have released a button properly, there�’s no real feel feeling of on/off and on rare occasions you may notice a bit of lag from when you hit a button to when it registers on the phone. Apart from that though, it�’s an excellent little invention. Skyforce, Flux Challenge, Eclipse, in fact every game I have has suddenly become ten times more playableÂ…except VP MobileÂ…for obvious reasons ;) Being able to turn a corner and accelerate at the same time in 6th Gear Ultimate Challenge is finally a reality and shoot ‘em ups are now a whole lot more fun.
So is it really worth $99? Well, I hate to say it but no. Although the gamepad comes with a battery, it�’s not rechargeable which, given its 3.5hr battery life (39hr standby), is a bit poor. The system of holding the phone, while pretty cool, isn�’t great. As you�’ll see from the pictures, the C500�’s slender form factor means that in order for the gamepad to properly grip the phone, the d-pad and buttons aren�’t in line with each other. Not a big problem but could be for slimmer phones (I also took a picture of the MPX200 being held by the gamepad to give all you MPX220 owners an idea of what it would look like). I would have liked to see the pivot points moveable along the horizontal plane for maximum adjustability but you can�’t have eveything. I do, however, like the adjustable rubber grips, very handy for ensuring the gamepad doesn�’t foul any of the buttons along the side of the phone.
If Chainpus cut the price of the gamepad and make it rechargeable, I could see it appealing to a much wider audience. However, for the moment, I think this is one for the serious gamer/gadget junkie only. Don�’t get me wrong, this is a great idea and Chainpus have implemented it very well but I think the expense and the niggly little problems may put most off.
For more information go HERE or to purchase the gamepad go HERE
nedge2k
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 28 February 2007 )
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