The Dedicated Razer Kishi App: A Comprehensive Review

As I started using the Razer Kishi controller, I was excited to explore its features and capabilities. One of the first things I noticed was the dedicated Razer kishi app that comes with it. This app allows you to update the firmware of your controller, which is essential for ensuring that you have the latest software installed. To access the app, simply tap on the little icon in the top left-hand corner of the controller's screen. From there, you can check for a firmware update and follow the quick and easy walkthrough to complete the process.

Unfortunately, at the time of writing this review, the dedicated app does not allow users to customize any of the controller's binds. This is a significant drawback, as I would have liked to have more control over how my controller responds to different button combinations. However, it's worth noting that Razer has stated that they plan to address this issue in future updates. In the meantime, the app does include a discovery section with games listed that are 100% compatible with the Kishi controller. I was pleasantly surprised to find that Call of Duty Mobile and PUBG Mobile, two of the most popular mobile games, are not detected by the app - instead, they have proprietary drivers for Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 controllers.

Testing the Pass-Through Charging Capability

One of my first tests with the Kishi controller was its pass-through charging capability. I plugged in the red magic 5G, which features a USB Type-C port, to ensure that this feature worked as expected. I'm happy to report that it does! The controller can charge while your phone is plugged into the same USB Type-C port, making it a convenient option for on-the-go charging.

Testing the Button Layout and Triggers

Next, I tested the button layout of the Kishi controller, which includes pressure-sensitive triggers. I was pleasantly surprised to find that these triggers are indeed pressure sensitive, with L2 and R2 being adjustable in terms of sensitivity. This feature is particularly useful for racing games, where a bit more precision can make all the difference. The trigger functionality also impressed me, as it allows for smooth and precise control.

Gaming Experience: Grid Autosport and Minecraft Pocket Edition

One of my favorite tests with the Kishi controller was playing Grid Autosport on Android. This game is available on the Google Play Store for around $11, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a great racing experience on their mobile device. The Kishi controller worked seamlessly with Grid Autosport, providing precise control and a immersive gaming experience.

I also tested Minecraft Pocket Edition, which has been a favorite of mine since its release. As expected, the Kishi controller worked perfectly with this game, allowing me to build and explore with ease. The only notable issue I encountered was that the controller did not support PUBG Mobile or Call of Duty Mobile - these games have proprietary drivers for Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 controllers.

Streaming Services and Emulation

Another exciting feature of the Kishi controller is its compatibility with streaming services such as XCloud. When my connection was stable, I was able to stream Forza Horizon 4 without any issues, which was a great surprise given that this game typically requires an Xbox or PlayStation controller. The Kishi controller also works well with Steam Link, Stadia, and GeForce Now - making it an excellent option for gamers who want to play on their mobile devices.

Emulation Support

Finally, I tested the Kishi controller's compatibility with various emulators, including RetroArch, Redream, and Dolphin Emulator. To my delight, these emulators work seamlessly with the controller, providing precise control and a smooth gaming experience. One minor issue I encountered was that I had to perform some calibration to get everything working perfectly.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Razer Kishi controller is an excellent option for anyone looking for a high-quality mobile gaming controller. Its features, such as pass-through charging, pressure-sensitive triggers, and compatibility with streaming services and emulation, make it a top contender in this category. While there are some limitations to the app, particularly when it comes to customizing controller binds, I believe that Razer is addressing these issues in future updates.

Overall, I would highly recommend the Kishi controller to anyone who wants to experience the best of mobile gaming on their Android device. Its combination of performance, features, and convenience makes it an excellent choice for gamers looking for a top-notch mobile gaming experience.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey what's going on guys this ETA prime back here again if you're a regular viewer of the channel you know I do a lot of reviews on these Bluetooth Android controllers and a lot of them do work great but today we're gonna be taking a look at a new offering from Razer that doesn't use bluetooth it actually connects to your phone over USB type-c and on paper this looks like it could be one of the best mobile controllers on the market right now this is known as the Razer kishi and it comes in at about $80 yes it's very expensive all of these Razer mobile controllers are expensive but if you're looking for ultra-low latency for emulation or your native Android games the Razer key sheet could be the best option out there right now so real quick this isn't compatible with every single Android device on the market obviously you need USB type-c you have to be running Android 8 or higher and on their website they list the Galaxy series from the SA all the way up to the note 10 plus the Google pixel 2 all the way up to the 4 XL but it actually looks like you have to contact customer support to get the grip inserts for the razor phone 1 & 2 now these are the officially supported Android devices that they have listed on their website but this will work with a ton of other Android phones on the market now razer also recently released the jungle cat i did a full review on it but unfortunately it only fits basically three different phones because you have these middle inserts here the note 9 the galaxy s 10 plus and the razer phone personally I really like this controller but it was very limited on what you could hook up I mean as you can see here you have this little insert here it's kind of a case for your phone and on the ends you can slide the controllers right into it it does connect over bluetooth but overall it works well if you have one of the three supported devices now that all changed with the release of the key sheet I'm really excited about this this was actually announced at CES and I finally got my hands on it let's go ahead and get it out of the box here I have watched a couple videos on this before I receive mine and overall I do like the design of it but it does look like some phones are still going to struggle to fit inside of here it doesn't have an internal battery because it connects to your phone over USB type-c but it does have pass-through charging so you can charge your phone while it's in the controller itself and that's why the only thing you're going to get box is the controller and a user manual there is no charger or USB cable so the design of the controller does look a little funky we got a weird-looking d-pad here it actually feels pretty good we have dual analog sticks ABXY we have a play button home button and a back button for Android and on the top here we have for trigger buttons l1 l2 r1 and r2 so we have plenty of buttons to play any of our favorite native android games emulators and it also supports streaming services like stadia x cloud steam link and g-force now as the controller sits right now it's actually in the closed position but this is what's known as a telescopic or a stretchy controller we can unlock it from the back and this is how we're gonna fit our phone right in the middle there's actually no support on the controller itself for the two halves so the phone you use will work as let's say the backbone here to keep everything stable so obviously with something like this a lot of people will be using gaming phones with it unfortunately the asus rogue phone 2 will not fit because the USB type-c is offset on the bottom but I did want to test some phones that weren't listed on their website like the red magic 5g this does fit along with the red magic 3 and pretty much all of the other red magic phones that contain a USB type-c port it's actually super easy to set this up and they do offer the kishi app on the Google Play Store but I really only use that for updating firmware but once you have the controller plugged into the USB type-c port on your phone it's going to register as a USB controller and since the controller is using X input you can navigate the full Android operating system just like you would with an Xbox 360 or an Xbox one controller setup is super simple you're just going to plug your phone into the USB type-c port over here and then we're going to kind of stretch the other side over and the first thing I recommend doing is going to the Google Play Store and downloading the dedicated Razer kishi app it's going to allow you to update the firmware and this is something you definitely want to do you're just gonna choose the little icon in the top left-hand corner and right here you can check for a firmware update I've already updated mine it'll give you a quick little easy walkthrough and it updates in seconds unfortunately at the time of making this video the dedicated app does not allow you to customize any of the controller binds and that's a big letdown hopefully they change that in the future but you never know but it does have a discovery section with games listed that a hundred percent work with this controller and this one actually came as a big surprise to me but Call of Duty mobile and pub G mobile two of the biggest mobile games right now do not work with this controller they have proprietary drivers for the Xbox 360 Xbox one and the ps4 controller and this one here is not detected yes you could always use a controller mapper if you really want to but I was kind of expecting this to work out of the box with those two popular games alright so I have the red magic 5g plugged in I just wanted to test this pass-through charging make sure that works go with the USB type-c here and there we go so yes it can charge while your phone's plugged in over USB type-c next thing I wanted to test was just the button layout here I did a full update on the controller itself everything seems to be functioning perfectly fine here and one thing I actually wasn't expecting was the rear triggers to be pressure sensitive so l2 and r2 are pressure sensitive triggers it's going to be great for racing games as you can see here I just press a little bit on it and they're pretty accurate so let's move over to some games first one we have here is grid Autosport this is the port for Android it's about eleven dollars on the Google Play Store and if you have a phone that will support it I definitely recommend it it's awesome on a mobile device especially with this controller here so I just wanted to check those pressure-sensitive triggers out and you can adjust this in the settings for grid Autosport they're working pretty decent here I'm sure I could set the sensitivity a little lower but it's working pretty good here and this would be perfect for drifting you just need to give a little bit of gas you can do it with a controller like and obviously this game does support controllers right out of the box there was no setup required whatsoever here's Minecraft Pocket Edition I always throw this in because it does support controllers right out of the box and it works fine with it I mean this is a great little Android controller for native Android games but like I mention this isn't working right now with pub G or Call of Duty mobile they have it just set up so you have to use an Xbox or a ps4 controller now this controller does work with all the major streaming services X cloud which I have here running Forza horizon 4 and when your connection is good unlike mine right now everything works great it also works with steam link stadia and GeForce now now one of my main use case scenarios for a controller like this would be emulation yes this does work with the retroarch so we have tons of different systems covered there works with redream I did have to do a little bit of calibration here and it also works with the dolphin emulator basically this controller will support your emulator long as the emulator supports the controller so I wanted to test this with some Android phones they don't have listed on their website we have the Motorola G fast the Samsung Galaxy a 10 e the essential phone pH one the red magic 3 the red magic 3 asked the red magic 5 G the poco f2 Pro the redmi note 9 pro and the red Mino 8 pro and the controller worked perfectly fine with all of these phones the only phone I have with USB type-c that was not supported is the Asus rogue phone 2 and that's because it has that offset USB type-c connector but in the end I got to say this is one of the best mobile controllers that I've ever tested for any Android device and I've tested a lot I'm personally used to using bluetooth so I kind of compensate for the lag with emulation and gaming it's never really bothered me before but it's gonna be hard to go back to bluetooth after using something like this with virtually no input latency whatsoever so yes I could definitely recommend this controller if you're into mobile emulation mobile gaming or even mobile cloud streaming this is just a great controller choice but that's pretty much it for this video I really appreciate you watching if you have any questions let me know in the comments below and if you're interested in picking one of these up I'll leave a few links in the description but like always thanks for watching youhey what's going on guys this ETA prime back here again if you're a regular viewer of the channel you know I do a lot of reviews on these Bluetooth Android controllers and a lot of them do work great but today we're gonna be taking a look at a new offering from Razer that doesn't use bluetooth it actually connects to your phone over USB type-c and on paper this looks like it could be one of the best mobile controllers on the market right now this is known as the Razer kishi and it comes in at about $80 yes it's very expensive all of these Razer mobile controllers are expensive but if you're looking for ultra-low latency for emulation or your native Android games the Razer key sheet could be the best option out there right now so real quick this isn't compatible with every single Android device on the market obviously you need USB type-c you have to be running Android 8 or higher and on their website they list the Galaxy series from the SA all the way up to the note 10 plus the Google pixel 2 all the way up to the 4 XL but it actually looks like you have to contact customer support to get the grip inserts for the razor phone 1 & 2 now these are the officially supported Android devices that they have listed on their website but this will work with a ton of other Android phones on the market now razer also recently released the jungle cat i did a full review on it but unfortunately it only fits basically three different phones because you have these middle inserts here the note 9 the galaxy s 10 plus and the razer phone personally I really like this controller but it was very limited on what you could hook up I mean as you can see here you have this little insert here it's kind of a case for your phone and on the ends you can slide the controllers right into it it does connect over bluetooth but overall it works well if you have one of the three supported devices now that all changed with the release of the key sheet I'm really excited about this this was actually announced at CES and I finally got my hands on it let's go ahead and get it out of the box here I have watched a couple videos on this before I receive mine and overall I do like the design of it but it does look like some phones are still going to struggle to fit inside of here it doesn't have an internal battery because it connects to your phone over USB type-c but it does have pass-through charging so you can charge your phone while it's in the controller itself and that's why the only thing you're going to get box is the controller and a user manual there is no charger or USB cable so the design of the controller does look a little funky we got a weird-looking d-pad here it actually feels pretty good we have dual analog sticks ABXY we have a play button home button and a back button for Android and on the top here we have for trigger buttons l1 l2 r1 and r2 so we have plenty of buttons to play any of our favorite native android games emulators and it also supports streaming services like stadia x cloud steam link and g-force now as the controller sits right now it's actually in the closed position but this is what's known as a telescopic or a stretchy controller we can unlock it from the back and this is how we're gonna fit our phone right in the middle there's actually no support on the controller itself for the two halves so the phone you use will work as let's say the backbone here to keep everything stable so obviously with something like this a lot of people will be using gaming phones with it unfortunately the asus rogue phone 2 will not fit because the USB type-c is offset on the bottom but I did want to test some phones that weren't listed on their website like the red magic 5g this does fit along with the red magic 3 and pretty much all of the other red magic phones that contain a USB type-c port it's actually super easy to set this up and they do offer the kishi app on the Google Play Store but I really only use that for updating firmware but once you have the controller plugged into the USB type-c port on your phone it's going to register as a USB controller and since the controller is using X input you can navigate the full Android operating system just like you would with an Xbox 360 or an Xbox one controller setup is super simple you're just going to plug your phone into the USB type-c port over here and then we're going to kind of stretch the other side over and the first thing I recommend doing is going to the Google Play Store and downloading the dedicated Razer kishi app it's going to allow you to update the firmware and this is something you definitely want to do you're just gonna choose the little icon in the top left-hand corner and right here you can check for a firmware update I've already updated mine it'll give you a quick little easy walkthrough and it updates in seconds unfortunately at the time of making this video the dedicated app does not allow you to customize any of the controller binds and that's a big letdown hopefully they change that in the future but you never know but it does have a discovery section with games listed that a hundred percent work with this controller and this one actually came as a big surprise to me but Call of Duty mobile and pub G mobile two of the biggest mobile games right now do not work with this controller they have proprietary drivers for the Xbox 360 Xbox one and the ps4 controller and this one here is not detected yes you could always use a controller mapper if you really want to but I was kind of expecting this to work out of the box with those two popular games alright so I have the red magic 5g plugged in I just wanted to test this pass-through charging make sure that works go with the USB type-c here and there we go so yes it can charge while your phone's plugged in over USB type-c next thing I wanted to test was just the button layout here I did a full update on the controller itself everything seems to be functioning perfectly fine here and one thing I actually wasn't expecting was the rear triggers to be pressure sensitive so l2 and r2 are pressure sensitive triggers it's going to be great for racing games as you can see here I just press a little bit on it and they're pretty accurate so let's move over to some games first one we have here is grid Autosport this is the port for Android it's about eleven dollars on the Google Play Store and if you have a phone that will support it I definitely recommend it it's awesome on a mobile device especially with this controller here so I just wanted to check those pressure-sensitive triggers out and you can adjust this in the settings for grid Autosport they're working pretty decent here I'm sure I could set the sensitivity a little lower but it's working pretty good here and this would be perfect for drifting you just need to give a little bit of gas you can do it with a controller like and obviously this game does support controllers right out of the box there was no setup required whatsoever here's Minecraft Pocket Edition I always throw this in because it does support controllers right out of the box and it works fine with it I mean this is a great little Android controller for native Android games but like I mention this isn't working right now with pub G or Call of Duty mobile they have it just set up so you have to use an Xbox or a ps4 controller now this controller does work with all the major streaming services X cloud which I have here running Forza horizon 4 and when your connection is good unlike mine right now everything works great it also works with steam link stadia and GeForce now now one of my main use case scenarios for a controller like this would be emulation yes this does work with the retroarch so we have tons of different systems covered there works with redream I did have to do a little bit of calibration here and it also works with the dolphin emulator basically this controller will support your emulator long as the emulator supports the controller so I wanted to test this with some Android phones they don't have listed on their website we have the Motorola G fast the Samsung Galaxy a 10 e the essential phone pH one the red magic 3 the red magic 3 asked the red magic 5 G the poco f2 Pro the redmi note 9 pro and the red Mino 8 pro and the controller worked perfectly fine with all of these phones the only phone I have with USB type-c that was not supported is the Asus rogue phone 2 and that's because it has that offset USB type-c connector but in the end I got to say this is one of the best mobile controllers that I've ever tested for any Android device and I've tested a lot I'm personally used to using bluetooth so I kind of compensate for the lag with emulation and gaming it's never really bothered me before but it's gonna be hard to go back to bluetooth after using something like this with virtually no input latency whatsoever so yes I could definitely recommend this controller if you're into mobile emulation mobile gaming or even mobile cloud streaming this is just a great controller choice but that's pretty much it for this video I really appreciate you watching if you have any questions let me know in the comments below and if you're interested in picking one of these up I'll leave a few links in the description but like always thanks for watching you\n"