With the rise of cloud gaming, there has been a new focus on game controllers for smartphones and there have been some unique ideas. From cooling fans to compact sizes, there’s something for everyone. For the Xbox Game Pass player, the Moga XP7-X Plus may be the ultimate game controller, but one element leaves it behind.
Moga XP7-X Plus: The Good
Comfortable operation
The biggest advantages of the Moga XP7-X Plus are without a doubt the controls and ergonomics. The controller feels a lot like a super-wide Xbox controller in the hand, and the layout is comfortable! Buttons are easy to click and have tactile feedback, while the triggers and shoulder buttons are silent.
Especially the triggers are unique to this space. Overall, this split design means giving up real, resistive triggers for glorified buttons. But here you get triggers that really push it. I found the resistance here a little too stiff for my taste, but it was solid nonetheless for the various games I’ve played on Stadia and Xbox Game Pass. My wife also seemed to generally enjoy it while playing Dreamlight Valley on Game Pass.
Elsewhere, the D-pad and joysticks are pretty solid too, with the former having a quiet press with solid travel and the latter showing no sign of drift but responsive movement. This is far from the best setup I’ve felt, but it’s certainly one of the better mobile options I’ve tried in recent times.
Perhaps my only problem with the controls is that some power options are hard to follow. On the top and bottom of the controller you’ll find an on/off switch, a Bluetooth button, a green button and a switch for Bluetooth and USB – you can use this controller wired to a PC when this switch is flipped. But, somewhat annoyingly, none of these actually turn the controller on. Instead, the Xbox button on the front does that. It kind of beats the logic in my opinion, but this is something that can be easily overlooked. What does that green button do? With an app, it can be programmed to whatever you want, but out of the box it doesn’t do anything. There are also reassignable buttons on the back of the controller – always nice to see.
Once paired, I found that the Moga XP7-X Plus works about as well as any other Bluetooth controller. Input lag is kept to a minimum, not or barely noticeable when the controller is used wirelessly. Battery life is manageable and I’ve never killed it in a single gaming session, but there’s a bit of a snag there.
Wireless charging is a nice perk of questionable value
This last feature fits into the “pro” column for me, but it could also easily be seen as a “con”. Using the juice from the internal 2000 mAh battery, you activate wireless charging using the Qi standard on this controller. Your phone starts charging right away, no cables needed.
In practice this works quite well. Charging was immediately recognized with a Pixel 6 Pro and a Pixel 5 and both devices received a significant boost from the internal charger. However, I found that my Galaxy Z Fold 3 and my Fold 4 both struggled to line up with this charging pad, making the feature more of a headache than an added value.
For cloud gaming, this is a great addition, but wireless charging seems like a bad idea for local gaming. Even mobile games can heat up a smartphone quickly, and the extra heat from Qi charging is a recipe for thermal throttling or even overheating. I would have liked to add a fan to combat this, but such an option is not available. If you’re planning to buy this controller for local gaming, I don’t recommend using Qi.
The biggest issue I had with this feature was how it affects battery life. Simply put, it can easily kill the controller if you’re not careful. Qi is inefficient, so charging takes more power than a direct USB connection. But otherwise the “power bank” works independently of the rest of the controller. If you disconnect the controller, the power bank will remain on, even if there is nothing on the controller. This is a cool idea in theory to use the controller as a portable power bank, but more often than not, it made me sit down to play games and find out the Moga was dead. Plus, the hardware here is far too bulky to be a useful travel option.
In general, wireless charging is something that l I really liked this controller, but it could have been implemented better, and it’s definitely not for everyone.
Moga XP7-X Plus: The Bad
Large phones and cases fit well
Despite being a large and bulky mobile controller, the XP7-X Plus still fits well with modern flagship phones. The Pixel 6 Pro barely fits into the smartphone slot of the controller when the relatively thin official housing is installed. The Galaxy S22 Ultra also fits well in this space, both in terms of width and thickness. The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is better in thickness, but it’s the absolute maximum width this controller can handle.
That’s a bit of a shame, because in 2022 most phones are pretty big. Plus, bigger phones make for a better mobile gaming experience. It really feels like PowerA didn’t think about modern phones when designing this controller.
Speaking of…
It’s 2022 and this is using micro USB
The thing that I just can’t get over on this controller is that it charges via micro USB. This, a $100 product released in the year 2022, uses a charging standard that smartphones largely ditched five to six years ago.
Charging via micro USB would have been an annoyance a few years ago, but in 2022 it is an active customer hindrance that this controller is going after. I think it’s a pretty safe bet that most people looking to buy a $100 controller also largely have devices that use USB-C, and as such no longer have micro USB cables just lying around. The Moga XP7-X Plus does have a charging cable in the box, but it’s of questionable quality and too short to be useful in many cases.
The logic behind this choice just baffles me. Virtually every smartphone at the moment, regardless of price, uses a USB-C port – unless it’s an iPhone, of course. But even with that in mind, I’d say someone with an iPhone is still more likely to have a USB-C charger nearby rather than one with micro USB, if only because the iPad , MacBook, and the aforementioned plethora of smartphone accessories on the market today also use USB-C almost exclusively.
There’s just no excuse for this.
There’s a lot of love for the XP7-X Plus, but personally I can’t overlook the charging method. Battery life isn’t good enough to be an afterthought, and smartphones in 2022 just aren’t using this archaic standard. Despite the solid controls, smart charging, and the fairly reasonable $99 price tag, micro USB just makes this product an inconvenience.
If you’re still interested in the Moga XP7-X Plus despite the charging method, you can pick it up on Amazon for $99.
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