Our EasySMX M20 was sent to us by EasySMX, with no condition mentioned in our video; this origin may have influenced our appreciation. We tried it on an 8.8-inch tablet (iPlay 80 mini Ultra) and an Android smartphone, with a few iOS trials.

It is a telescopic USB-C controller for a smartphone or tablet up to 8.8 inches. The asymmetric Hall-effect joysticks, a little smaller than an Xbox controller’s, fall well under the thumb; the app can raise polling to 1000 Hz, which is rare at this level. A clever touch: the button letters are backlit and turn into PlayStation symbols when you turn a central screw with the supplied screwdriver; only Xbox and PlayStation modes are offered, not Switch, and we would have preferred a dial. The RT/LT triggers are pressure-sensitive with a click-mode switch, two rear buttons M1/M2 are programmable on the fly, there is a second D-pad shaped like the Xbox Elite cross, 10 rumble levels and a turbo mode. The plastics struck us as middling, like ABXYLUTE’s, and the plastic D-pad a little fragile; the triggers have no ridges. The app, initially in Chinese, can be switched to English, with four profiles, macros, response curves, screen mapping (a mode that is not easy to grasp) and game lists. A protective case requires removing a pad to reach the port.

There is no headphone jack. Bluetooth needs external power (smartphone or battery): we see it as a fallback, not a selling point. Price €60 on the official site at the time of the video: at that price we find it very appealing.

Watch the video test