Logitech Powershell + Battery – A cool iOS Gamepad

This is one of the first gamepad controllers for iPhone 5/5S and iPod touch 5th generation. It let’s play most of the games and turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a game station. Let’s take a look at the review now.

Design

The Powershell is much from the other pads on the market. It is designed to encompass your device like a case. It’s very slim and quite light and it gives you easy access to the hardware controls. It even has a cut up for the rear facing camera on your iPhone.
You can charge the Logitech Powershell with a micro USB cable.
The control layout is the basic setup.
On the left one thumb pad and a switch that will press your iPhone’s lock button. On the right four face button named “A”,”B”,”X” and “Y”, and a pause button. And top two shoulder buttons identified as “L” and “R”.  The buttons have good spacing and I feel they feel nice and responsive. Then thumb pad is a bit less impressive. I’m afraid to say for my tastes is a bit spongy. I will say more about the D-Pad down in the review. On the bottom it has a micro USB port for recharging, on the left side is a switch that enables the battery of the Powershell and on the right side is a space where a large headphone adapter can be used.

Hardware

The Logitech Powershell is a hardware device. The Powershell connects directly to you iPhone or iPod touch by the lightning connector. The Logitech device does actually still have it on rechargeable battery on board but instead of chewing up power itself this device actually powers up your iPhone keeping you gaming for longer, which is a handy thing. This is an amazing feature because the more graphically intense games out there in particular will drain your phone’s battery faster. It’s a 1500 mAh battery so it won’t get you a full charge but is enough for a good top-up.

In-game

Let’s talk here about the mushy D-pad. The mushy D-pad in some types of games can be a bit of a killer like Pac Man for instance which really need a very crisp and highly responsive control to play probably. On the other hand in most other games I tested it feel absolutely fine. It was responsive enough to get good control in races, no real issues weaving through traffic or making turns. Some other games including the RPG and old-school console, they particularly benefit hugely from having proper control. Of course having a single thumb pad is not ideal for FPS. In Battlefield for example where the thumb pad moves you around and you still have to use the touch screen to aim but the buttons for all other actions. For me FPS game are unplayable without proper controls.

Feel

The overall feel of the control shell in hand was really very pleasant. It has a nice balance to the overall layout is very comfortable and very natural feeling with everything falling right at the thumb and finer just as it should and the subtle curves and texture of the grips on the back meant a very secure feeling.

Conclusion

So overall the Logitech Powershell is a good option for those of you wanting a basic controls, built-in backup battery and all in a package that doesn’t even stop your device from being completely pocket able while still inside the controller shell.

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