Where to buy? Banggood
I’d say that many of the IPEGA bluetooth controllers are quite standard, even generic, but some of them can be unique, and this is the case of the PG-9028. But let’s begin from the beginning.
The build quality of this unit is nice, it brings a rubbery material which if soft to the touch, and the front controls are good. The ABXY buttons respond well, the analogue sticks have proper size and satisfying resistance to pressure, and I like the D-Pad click feedback, it’s nice for retro games.
I just don’t think this has the best of the fittings in my hand. It’s kind of clumsy, and my palms never fit neatly, it sort of “floats” a little when I’m playing. This is potentialized by the position of 2 triggers, the R1 and L1, which are at the rear of the controller rather than at its shoulders. It’s necessary to press them with the middle fingers, while the indicators go for the R2 and L2. And I find the feedback from those 2 back triggers kind of weird as they don’t travel too much. So that’s it, the overall build of the controller is pretty good, but the ergonomics is only average.
One of the things that make the 9028 unique is its multimedia commands at the bottom, which make this controller interesting for those who use TV Boxes such as Mi Box or Mecool models. It’s nice to have a gaming controller connected to, let’s say, a Mi Box, and being able to control movies or TV shows through that unit (volume up/down, play/pause and so on).
In addition to that, it also brings a touchpad, which ends up expanding this experience with TV Boxes. Many of these boxes have Android systems equal to those of smartphones, so it’s common that some applications will require a mouse or something similar plugged in so that you can access all possible menus. In regard to that, although 9028’s touchpad isn’t as accurate as those of current laptops, it gets the job done.
It’s not noticeable at first, but there’s a clamp to hang in a smartphone up to 5.5 inches at the top of the controller. It does not seem to be the toughest thing in the world… Actually I think it’s on the fragile side. But anyway, I was able to put a Moto G7 Plus (6.2 inches), which is nice. But as the phone fits very closely to the controller’s body, there will be some contact with your indicator finger, what contributes to that not-so-nice ergonomics I mentioned before.
Happily that won’t affect your gameplay, and the performance of the 9028 in Android games was good, with no noticeable input lag and a good experience delivered by the ABXY buttons, which respond very well. I only note that the analog sticks won’t perform that good in FPS games like Unkilled. There are clear “dead zones” from the analogs in this game, which I also noticed on other IPEGA controllers, maybe due to some lack of software tuning.
Of course I also played games on my TV Box, which is a Mecool KM9. The experience here was satisfactory. Running Beach Buggy Racing, the response to the commands was great, and the signal stability was good too, no interruptions noticed when I was up to 4 feet away.
I need to say that when I opened a SNES emulator on the TV Box, I noticed some input lag when I played Super Mario World. I know that input lag somehow exists in almost all wireless controllers, but here it was perceptible, some milliseconds were enough. This became perceptible specially in this Mario game, which is known to require a lot of precision and responsiveness from the controller. I couldn’t notice the same issue in less demanding games such as Super Bomberman 3.
So the overall result in games was OK, both with smartphone and TV Box, only with that input lag I noticed in the SNES emulator running Mario on the TV Box.
The battery, according to the manufacturer, lasts 20 hours. And I really couldn’t make a very precise measurement here, because I played in interrupted sessions. But roughly counting, I can say that it lasted 17+ hours in my use, a good result.
This is a product that sits in the 30 USD price point, which is the middle of the way in the IPEGA’s portfolio – they have some at the 20’s and others that reach 40 USD. About the quality of the item itself, I can guarantee that it’s OK, but I think the recommendation here can only go for those who have a TV Box and use this type of device a lot. For those who are mainly looking for gaming on smartphones, there are better options, such as the PG-9099 or the PG-9087, which are cheaper and will also do the job.
PROS
– Versatile for TV Boxes users
– Good battery
– Good build quality
CONS
– Questionable ergonomics
– Noticeable input lag when used in SNES emulator for TV Box