ASTRO Gaming C40 TR Controller - PlayStation 4

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The software features a great UI that makes remapping a trivial matter and is the best experience I’ve had since the Steam Controller – though that comes with its own performance issues I won’t discuss here.

There is software customization as well. I can reassign any input from one button to another in just a few seconds using Astro’s software on a computer. Settings are all saved locally on the controller itself, meaning the changes will carry over no matter what machine I’m playing on. The only disappointing limitation: Astro doesn’t allow reprogramming of the touchpad button. On the PS4 the touchpad will default to its normal function, but on the PC it is essentially worthless. It’s not a dealbreaker, but given just how customizable the rest of the controller is, this is a letdown. All of your changes get written directly to the controller, so you can use them with your PS4, or any other PC you want to play on that doesn't have the software. The C40 can store two profiles at once, and switch between them on the fly using the mode switch on the top edge of the gamepad. You can also store unlimited profiles in the Astro software itself, so if you want to tweak your controls for every game you play, you can have them ready to sync and use whenever you want. Playing With the C40 Which is why I prefer the C40’s, Elite-like, screw system. Here you have to manually remove a plate from the front of the controller. This can be done with most correctly sized screwdrivers, though the controller includes an “upgrade” tool out of the box. From there, you have to remove and replace the parts you want to tweak and re-attach the plate. The system is more fiddly, but it leads to improved build quality and makes the controller feel significantly more sturdy and slightly more accurate than its magnetic competition. The Astro C40 is designed to work with PC and PS4. As a result, its button layout is tailored to Sony’s console, not Microsoft’s out of the box. But that doesn’t stop it having a completely unique look and feel to competing controllers with the same layout, like the Razer Raiju Ultimate Edition.

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The software will not detect any other ASTRO Gaming products prior to the generations of products mentioned above, and is not compatible with the C40 TR Controller Or A20 Wireless Headsets. The buttons on the controller feel pretty great, too:just the right amount of give, without feeling too squishy – until you got to the triggers, at least.Now, we get that this controller is for people who play shooters competitively – a scene that needs reactive triggers – but they feel a little too easy to press. However, that could just be down to the fact that we're using this controller while playing an intensely stressful, precision-requiring game like Sekiro.

It lets you remap and adjust critical things like sensitivity on pretty much every one of the controller’s inputs. As an added perk the controller can store two configurations locally, so you won’t have to start from scratch if you connect it to a second PC.This gamepad has angular lines all over it, and the face of the controller looks like it's an extra in a Metal Gear Solid game. Because this is a PS4 controller, it has the square, circle, triangle and cross buttons on the face of the game pad. This absolutely makes sense, but you can't switch them out if you bought the controller for PC, so if you're accustomed to Xbox buttons, it may take some adjustment, especially if you don't have the muscle memory.

PS: if anything gets worn out, yo u can replace analogs and arrows and quite frankly, it is not expensive to do so. Read full review And while that branding does exist, both the words written on the sides and the faceplate don’t look quite as dorky as expected. Regardless, I’m not a fan of all the red accents on the controller. Astro has all but confirmed plans to sell additional faceplates, and the red lettering and trigger stops are going to make many—if not most—color combos look kind of weird. Pop a green faceplate on this thing, and it’ll look like a Christmas miracle at the local GameStop. On the underside of the controller, you'll find paddles, like those typically found on the Xbox One Elite Controller, and other similar gamepads. On PC, you can bind these keys however you want, though we leave them alone. Our hands are already having trouble dealing with how large this controller is without introducing foreign buttons. Over the last few years, gaming peripherals have been growing sleeker, thinner, lighter and more attractive. The Astro C40 ignores all of that.Turning the C40 over shows several of the hallmarks of pricey enthusiast and custom controllers. Two additional triggers, UL and UR, sit against the grip where your middle fingers rest naturally. A small remapping button between them lets you manually assign them inputs, if you don't want to use the Astro software to customize everything. Two small rest switches above the triggers activate or disable mechanical stops that shorten the L2 and R2 trigger pull distances. On the top edge of the gamepad, two more red switches toggle between wired and wireless modes, and one of two control profiles you can set. A deeply recessed micro USB port between the upper switches lets you plug in the C40 with the included six-foot cable for charging, using the gamepad as a wired controller, or customizing it with Astro's software. Astro claims that the C40 boasts up to 12 hours of battery life, but we didn't get a chance to sit down for an all-day gaming session to put that claim to the test. We can attest that we didn't really have to worry about having to stop playing games to put it on a charger. It's good that we didn't have to worry about the controller running out of battery, because when you're on PS4, you can't actually see the battery status. One thing we can't get out of our minds is that Astro could havetrimmed this controller down in size shrinking that PS4 TouchPad. You could shave off half an inch, and not only would it be more comfortable to hold, but it might stop us from hitting the pad on accident when we're going for the options button.

Then, at the top of the controller, between the aforementioned triggers, there are two more red switches. One will switch the controller betweenUSB mode and wireless mode, while the other will let you switch between two profiles. You can create as many of these profiles as you want, and then sync two to your C40 at a time. Switching between the onboard profiles is simple: you just flip a switch at the top of the device. That means unless you’re often switching between three games with vastly different profiles mapped, once you've got a few customizations you prefer, you really won’t have to rely on the software—especially given the C40’s UL and UR remapping. Another hiccup: The C40 TR has wireless and wired modes, but the wired port on the controller is limiting. The micro USB cable included with the controller fit fine, but a number of other micro USB cables I had lying around the house were not narrow enough. The passage required to reach the USB port is supposed to be there for protection of the hardware, but Astro may have gone a bit overboard.

Taking your controller game to the next level

The only workaround I found was to go into the PC’s system settings and manually force the machine to view the C40 as an Xbox 360 remote. This meant it would work for gaming, but the configuration software still wouldn’t recognise it, removing one of the key reasons you’d want it. Once the “Get” becomes “Launch” hit the “Launch button to launch the ASTRO Command Center software.