Kiss sweaty controller palms goodbye
We’ve all been there before- Your bud passes you the controller after a marathon single player session and it feels like the biceps machine grips at the local gym. You urge your friend to have his condition of hyper-hydrosis checked out by a sweat gland doctor, but he simply won’t which makes the sweaty controller situation even worse. Okay, this might not be the most common of situations, but every hardcore gamer has felt the S controller slip from their perspiring hands at some point. NYKO has come to the rescue of Xbox gamers worldwide with the release of their Airflo EX controller. Say goodbye to Sweaty Palminson at your next LAN party...
Features:
Patented Air Flo Technology ends sweaty hands and allows for comfortable gameplay
New, improved design for added comfort and control
Multi-speed fan for customized ventilation
Rubberized grips for added comfort and control
Responsive dual analog control sticks and 8-way D-pad
Built-in variable vibration function
Pressure sensitive analog buttons
Dual expansion slots for memory cards and accessories
10-foot cable
Setup
There really isn’t much to the setup of the Airflo EX controller since it functions on the surface as a normal controller. Once the ten foot cable is plugged in, the fan will be receiving power and can be controlled via octagonal button on the low-center face of the controller. Pressing the fan button once will turn the fan on “high”, pressing it again will set it on “low”, and once more press will return the fan to its off position.
Feel
So what does a controller with a built-in fan feel like? Pretty much like a Standard S controller with slightly more heft. The weight difference is minute so it probably won’t feel like a major difference unless you are comparing the two side by side. The Airflo EX’s physical size is definitely bigger than a Standard S controller but still smaller than the Winnebago-sized Duke. Gamers that actually prefer the Duke my like the size of the Airflo EX, which seems to hit a happy medium for gamers with averaged-sized hands. The controller stocks have been shortened so that the stretch from thumb to face buttons isn’t drastically different than an S, but gamers with smallish hands will have to extend their thumb an extra ¼” or so to reach the Y button.
The rubberized and vented grip areas go a long way in improving the tactile feel of the Airflo EX, even with the fans off. The Airflo EX feels more solid when grasped and the dimensions won’t send any 3rd party naysayers running for the gaming forums. One area to note about the button layout is that the start and back buttons are not accessible with the right thumb since they are located in the center of the controller’s face, right above the fan button. This is only a big deal on games where the start/back buttons are frequently used, which is barely any.
Another area of concern for some gamers may be the way in which the fan protrudes out from the bottom of the controller. Depending on your grasping style, you may feel like the fan shroud is hindering your ability to extend the pinky and ring fingers. I personally found the fan shroud to be a positive thing, since it allows pressure to be placed ******d with the grasping fingers, offering a more solid hold.
Just as almost every 3rd part controller that has passed through the Teamxbox offices, the Airflo EX has a funky feel to most of its buttons. The feel (that most third party controllers share) either feels overly loose or overly chunky, depending on what control you are accessing. Both analog sticks feel a tad bit sloppy as compared to the S Controller; not enough to hamper gameplay, but different enough to let you know that this isn’t an official Microsoft peripheral. The face buttons protrude much farther from the face of the controller and have the actual letter designations etched deeply into the button itself instead of being smoothly covered by acrylic. The recesses of the buttons like to grab the fingerprint area of the thumb, which could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on your playing style and the disc in the machine. When depressed, the buttons have a much more audible “click” which has something to do with the pad underneath and the increased throw distance; the buttons just feel chunky. Chunky is a good word to describe the clicking of the right and left analog sticks. If you do much gaming with analog stick clicks, the Airflo EX and most other 3rd party controllers are probably not for you. The triggers feel pretty solid and mimic the S controllers in feel and pull distance, and the D 8-way D-pad is actually better than the S controller’s configuration. So, the normal gripes for 3rd party peripherals exist with the Airflo EX as well- if all of the money is spent on innovation, there isn’t much left over for the basics like tight analog sticks and smoothly operating face buttons.
Play
This thing actually works! I was extremely skeptical at first how a small computer fan would be able to draw enough current from the Xbox to spin at high enough RPM’s to actually cool off my hands. I don’t really see a point to having two speed settings unless it’s too cold to have it on the highest setting in Antarctica or something (Antarctica actually sells more Xbox’s per year than Japan). The high setting is where its at, instantly keeping the hands cool and making for a more positive feel on the controller after long gaming sessions. The secret can be seen though the vanes of the rubberized grips where out of which the air actually flows. There are cooling fins and turbulators over which the air flows to keep any heat inside the controller form affecting the cool charge. There are also pin-hole sized vents on the back of the grips which also help to more evenly distribute the cool charge. I am pretty impressed that NYKO was able to include the fan feature while retaining the vibration function. The vibration motors are not the strongest, but it still adds value to the controller for it having a standard feature and a completely innovative feature in the same package. The chrome center plate of the controller’s face even serves as a mirror to remind you every gaming session just how pretty you are! Thanks for feeding my ego NYKO.
As mentioned earlier, much of the controller’s $29.99 price tag goes towards manufacturing all of the extra technology for the cooling charge. There is a price point that needs to be hit, so materials are sometimes sacrificed in certain areas. The Airflo EX feels no worse than many other 3rd party controllers, but it would have been nice to have a higher feel of quality when it comes to the business of actually moving a stick or pressing a button. No matter how cool your hands are, you will probably say in the back of your mind “the sticks don’t feel like an S” or “the buttons feel chunky”. This is the world of 3rd party peripherals for the most part since there are extreme budgetary constraints. Could this controller have benefited from another $5 worth of materials in the button/stick department? I would say so. The actual controller body, grips, and the Airflo technology have no issues, and still make the Airflo EX quite a bargain at its price point.
The Bottom Line
If anybody has had the displeasure of using the old Airflo controller, they would be extremely wary of other Airflo controllers due to the low quality feel, the high fan noise, and the odd “burning electrical” smell. The Airflo EX is leaps and bounds ahead of NYKO’s last offering, with a whisper-quiet fan, a great overall feel, and perfectly functioning Airflo technology. The buttons aren’t of the highest quality, but this is almost the standard for 3rd party peripherals these days. Hitting a price point is one thing- producing a controller that gamers will actually play with on a regular basis is another. Bring the quality up, and they will come.
Performance: 8.8
Perfectly operating fans that actually cool the hands and a great overall feel to the controller body- check. Standard, crappy third party analog sticks and face buttons- check. The Airflo EX functions well when utilizing its innovations, but fails to equal the S Controller in the overall gameplay department; no big surprise. Doubles as a hand drier when the one in the McDonalds restroom has been vandalized by bored teens. Wipe hands on pants? I don’t think so bub.
Features: 9.5
The Airflo EX is filed with features, including a ten foot cord, two expansion slots and a great 8-way D-pad. This is all on top of the main feature which is the internal cooling fan. This is a great bargain for $29.99 unless you are needing turbo or memory features.
Installation and setup: 10
Installation and setup is a snap and there is actually nothing to it so long as you know how to plug a controller into your Xbox. The cooling fan is controlled with a huge face button, and everything else is self-explanatory.
Documentation and support: 10
NYKO has a great website to support their Airflo EX and gamers can also register their product there. The manual is sufficient- we aren’t trying to set up a multi-channel oscilloscope here.
Overall – 9.6
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Originally Posted by Variation
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