Review | Nikon MG-X Pro

Review | Nikon MG-X Pro – In recent years, the computing power of smartphones and tablets has exploded and so we see more and more full-fledged games popping into our pockets. Cloud gaming is also starting to gain traction, so it’s almost obvious that we can play the biggest and latest games on our phones — wherever we are. However, there is one drawback: the lack of buttons. Manufacturers have been making accessories with which we can hook our smartphones for quite some time and now Nacon has sent us an updated version of the Nacon MG-X Pro, specially designed for iPhones.

Excellent feeling

The first thing you notice when you pull the MG-X Pro out of the box is that it feels like a solid product. Nacon already had one before MG-X for Android It was released in black, but for the iPhone version, they chose to release it in white. In terms of the layout of the buttons and sticks, we see an asymmetrical design, just like a standard Xbox controller. two analog sticks, a d-pad, face buttons, two bumpers and two triggers; They are all present. In addition, you of course have a Home button (to turn on the console and open Game Center) and a Bluetooth button at the bottom to do the first pairing.

Also amazing is the big hole in the middle, where you can slide your iPhone. This mechanism looks very sturdy and also offers more than enough space to hold the largest iPhone model, in our case the iPhone 13 Pro Max including the cover. Even with the phone in the console, the MG-X Pro feels very solid and the plastic flexes a bit if you put too much pressure on the “arms”. In addition, the interior has some textured rubber to keep the smartphone in place, as well as a tab on the bottom so that it does not accidentally slip out. Either way, this phone attaches securely and won’t budge. On the bottom left is a USB-C port, which you use to charge the MG-X Pro, the battery lasts about 20 hours.

Slide open and go

So, everything is pretty straight forward and the same goes for the process. After turning on the controller for the first time, you must, of course, first pair it with your iPhone. With little more said than done and you’re basically ready to play. Nacon has brought the MG-X Pro together with Microsoft to make xCloud more playable via Game Pass, so you already have quite a few games ready for you — if you subscribe. Connecting to your iPhone via Bluetooth 5.0 and we really have nothing to complain about the connection. The connection is very stable and we did not experience any delays.

The feel of the controller itself is also good: It’s basically an Xbox controller with a hole in the middle. The analog sticks provide just enough reach so you can make the best aiming or aiming adjustments and the face buttons provide a tactile bump that you can clearly identify when pressed. The bumpers also have a nice but soft click to it, and the triggers have a very good ride, nice if you’re racing, for example. The exception here is the d-pad, which is sufficient for traditional games, but too rigid to do nice combos in a fighter, for example.

Your mileage may vary

A prerequisite for this console is of course that xCloud work properly, which in our experience doesn’t always happen. So we recommend first checking xCloud performance on your internet connection. Fortunately, the MG-X Pro also works natively with a number of mobile titles, of which we tried Apex Legends Mobile and Call of Duty Mobile, for example, both of which work flawlessly and have you battling together for kills in no time. That’s cool, because with MG-X for Android, but also with HyperX clutch We never talked about this.

However, they are not all horses and then we mainly look at how much they cost. The suggested retail price for the MG-X Pro is €119.99, which is quite a lot. So, you actually get a great controller that you can use with your iPhone, but that’s about it. For example, you can’t charge your iPhone while gaming — the port is blocked — and obviously not ideal if your battery is dying. By the way, oddly enough, the Android console brother is much cheaper for one reason or another. We also noticed the inaccessibility of the ports there, something Nacon never learned from.