Pelican "The Edge" Wireless Xbox Controller: Decent Design, Poor Implementation
Written: Apr 04 '05 (Updated Apr 04 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: white and black buttons on shoulder, great range, durable
Cons: poor responsiveness, transmission delays, analog sticks not calibrated, headset input on receiver
The Bottom Line: This controller may seem appealing to buy, but it just doesn't work well with many Xbox games.
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| kjell1979's Full Review: Pelican The Edge Wireless Controller for Xbox PL-2... |
I've been in the market for an Xbox controller for many months. Simply having one handy in case you have a person available to play Halo 2 or one of my various collections of sports games is invaluable. Even better is having a wireless controller to avoid kids running around is another matter. What sealed the deal for me on this impulse purchase was when I noticed that there were replicated black and white buttons on the shoulder of the unit. Being that Walmart priced it reasonably at $27, I took a chance.
The Design
While not without its issues, I have to say Pelican's "The Edge" wireless Xbox controller had a decent design. As I mentioned earlier, one of its most attractive feature is having the black and white buttons available on the shoulder of the unit makes this controller very useful for first person shooters and other Xbox games that make frequent use of both analog sticks. The wireless aspect of this controller operates on 2.4 GHz technology; the same as many phones. The technology is about 5 years old and the price to release a product like this is significantly reduced, but has a fair amount of reliability. If you run into any problems with interference, there's a button on the base that connects into the controller port that finds a clear channel of operation.
Speaking of the base receiver unit, its design is somewhat clumsy. Instead of mounting onto the Xbox controller port like the receiver in the Xbox DVD playback kit, there is a small 3 inch wire that runs from the connector to the small base unit. This base unit would either hang down, or rest on top of the Xbox unit. While this wasn't a major issue for me, I realized that it might be an issue for people with kids or playful pets without room to rest the unit on top of their Xbox. The other major design issue with the receiver is that the input slot for units like the Xbox communicator are on the receiver unit. This completely eliminates the value of having a wireless controller. The good part is that there are wireless headsets available which would solve this problem, however the good ones can run up to $50 or more.
The controller itself is designed pretty well. Aside from the black and white shoulder buttons, there is a power button and indicator light where the start and back buttons are located on the Xbox S Controller. The power on switch has to be depressed for about a second or two to either power on the device or power it off. This is really useful in case you instinctively press the power button thinking it's the start button. The start and back buttons are stacked bottom to top respectively in the middle of the face of the controller. Aside from those alterations, and the lack of input slots on the front of the controller, it's layout and look is exactly the same as the Xbox S Controller.
The buttons themselves are a little bit more "sticky" than the 1st party Xbox controllers. They seem to click into place, but are still silent. The analog sticks have a little bit more resistance than the 1st party controllers, and even more resistance when you try to click them. Similarly, the main triggers have a little bit more resistance than I'm used to.
Performance and Implementation
While the design is pretty solid, this controller's downfall is in the implementation. The implementation of the wireless technology is a huge issue with "The Edge" controller. The latency involved with communicating signals from the controller is too great. For games like MVP Baseball 2005 and ESPN NBA 2K5 having to press a button a split second earlier than you're used to really can affect your enjoyment of the game. Now if you're more into the management side of sports games or turn based RPGs, then this lag won't be as much of an issue. Also some aspects can be compensated for like controlling the pitch meter in MVP Baseball or running an offensive set in a basketball game. However swinging the bat in MVP Baseball or hitting that one-timer in ESPN NHL 2K5, timing is critical and this controller creates a greater reliability that really affects my enjoyment of these games.
Making things even worse, the responsiveness of the controller itself in registering depressed buttons is horribly engineered. Those black and white shoulder buttons that I raved earlier? They aren't worth the hype. Those buttons do not register half the time. You're almost better left to use the main ones placed in their original locations.
Another responsiveness issue is that the analog sticks aren't calibrated. This is especially evident in MVP Baseball when trying to position the pitching cursor. Moving the analog stick a little bit will not move the cursor, but it will jump all over the place once you hit that magic "sweet spot". What's worse is that the pitching cursor will be maxed out to one side while only using 1/3 of the pitch. I compare this to the Xbox S Controller where the the pitch is calibrated properly for use in the whole strikezone. Another indication the analog stick isn't calibrated is when you watch the pitching cursor without moving the analog stick, it will dance a few pixels all over the place. This is just sloppy and really affects my overall impression of the device.
One aspect of the controller that is implemented well is the rumble feature. The advantage it has over the Xbox S Controller is that the rumble is silent. This makes it easier to say pitch in MVP Baseball without your opponent knowing that you're trying to paint the corner or throw it way out of the zone just by listening to the severity of the rumble. While the varying rumble speeds aren't as dynamic as the Xbox S Controller, I would gladly trade that in for a more silent rumble.
Compatibility and Durability
While I don't exactly trust many 3rd party controllers in being compatible with all the games out there, I have to admit that Pelican's "The Edge" wireless Xbox controller worked on a wide variety of games. Analog stick calibration aside, the controller responded properly to games like Halo 2, MVP Baseball 2005, all of the ESPN 2K5 sports games, and other titles like Crimson Skies. Obviously, responsiveness issues played a larger role in my enjoyment of some of these games, but the buttons responded well and the analog sticks at least weren't so out of calibration that they registered as constantly in one maxed out pitch.
Both the receiver and controller proved to be pretty durable. They still worked consistently after being dropped on a hardwood floor and a carpeted floor. My daughter also used the controller to as she put it, "play the drum". Neither really affected the transmission rate nor the responsiveness of the buttons. However as bad as they already were, that isn't saying much.
Conclusion
To put it bluntly, this controller stinks. I could imagine getting it for your PS2 if you're a huge Final Fantasy fan. However for many Xbox titles, you need precision response and working black and white shoulder buttons. Unfortunately, there aren't many good wireless controllers available for Xbox. I hesitate to mention the Logitech one because while the transmission lag is negligible, its durability is very poor. I remember using one at Best Buy where the vertical pitch on the left analog stick was broken. While it probably saw a lot of abuse from being used by customers, I suspect that type of abuse is common among typical home use as well. My conclusion is to simply wait. Given the age of the current crop of consoles, the best chance to see a good wireless controller (aside from the Wavebird will probably be on the next generation of console gaming machines.
EDIT:
I forgot to mention that this controller takes 2 AA batteries. The battery life lasts roughly between 20 and 25 hours depending on the quality of the batteries you're using. When the batteries are running low, the battery indicator light (above the power button on the controller) will turn red. Overall the power consumption is more than reasonable.
Recommended:
No
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kjell1979
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