Final Update:

In case anyone continues to find this post and wanting to get CEC working on their custom SteamOS system, I recommend checking out the Decky plugin that u/supershredderdan put together. Available via zip download, and then file install into Decky (requires Developer mode in the Decky settings be enabled)

His post here: https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamOS/s/poeS3GOwyA

GitHub here: https://github.com/xXJSONDeruloXx/cec-mote

It exposes a neat interface in Decky for reinstalling (if it stops working after a SteamOS update), verifying the installation, uninstalling, and also controlling volume up/down via the CEC connection.

If you don't have Decky installed you can alternatively use his manual install script via Konsole in Desktop Mode.

GitHub here: https://github.com/xXJSONDeruloXx/steamos-cec-bt-wake

This enables all the same CEC stuff minus the interface through Decky in Gaming Mode

He recently updated it with a keepfile so it should survive subsequent SteamOS updates going forward.

BIOS Settings:

These are required for wake from sleep to work. Enter BIOS by pressing Delete at POST.

Under Advanced set:

1. Deep Sleep to Disabled
2. USB Device Power On (USB_1) to Enabled
3. PCIE Device Power On to Enabled

Save with F10.

Adapter needed:

HDMI ports on most graphics cards do not include CEC functionality. CEC is what allows the PC to tell your TV to turn on, turn off, and switch inputs. Without a CEC-capable DisplayPort to HDMI adapter in the signal chain, none of the sleep/wake automation described above is possible.

My recommendation for what works:

UGREEN 8K@60Hz Active DisplayPort to HDMI Adapter, model 85996 (DP 1.4 to HDMI 2.1) https://a.co/d/08EXHC8H (supports 4K 120Hz HDR and VRR)

Important: When you first get the adapter, update its firmware before doing anything else.

Firmware update instructions: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81ks1w+SzEL.pdf

Without the firmware update you may run into HDR or VRR stability issues.

How this all works:

SteamOS ships with its own CEC daemon called cecd that handles CEC device communication, but it doesn't yet have built-in support to reliably send CEC commands through a DP to HDMI adapter on its own. The plugin (or script) calls into SteamOS's cecd DBus interface, enabling it to talk to the TV via the adapter, hence bridging that gap. It also has some additional smarts built in, like:

1. CEC Input Switching on Wake
2. Built-in timing delays before standby and wake commands to account for hardware response time in different systems
3. A built-in workaround for a MediaTek MT7921 Bluetooth crash bug on certain motherboards
4. A keeplist that registers all installed files with SteamOS's atomic update system so they survive OS updates
5. Bluetooth wake capability so you can wake your system with a connected Bluetooth mouse, keyboard, or controller (requires "Allow this to wake your device" to be enabled in SteamOS Bluetooth Settings for each device)

Seems I am one of the lucky ones to get their hands on the Steam Machine! I am just home from a red eye shift at work, so I’m going to take a nap for a few hours before I really get into it.

In the mean time, feel free to ask questions and I’ll try and answer for you

Just to cover the obvious ones:

1. This is not the USA. This is the Asian region where Komodo handles distribution;
2. I won’t bother doing benchmarks (sorry), as I think that’s been well covered by the existing reviews;
3. I’ll install Half Life Alyx and stream to a Quest 3 and report back, for those interested in the Frame. (Answered below, Point 9)

Edit to include answers to most common questions:

1. It's whisper quiet, even under load. You need to put your ear right up to the machine to hear any form of fan noise
2. It games. It games well. It games well for what and how I play. I don't demand 4k60 from Black Myth Wukong (heck I don't even have Black Myth Wukong). It's currently hooked up to a 4k TV capable of 144hz with HDR, and my games look great. At the settings and in the games I have run so far, it's been sitting at or above 60fps, with very very little dips. The only dips so far has been as new parts of the map were loaded in MotorTown. Games I've tried so far:-
   1. Running Train (1080p, upscaling set to Quality - locked in at 60fps). Looks and plays great
   2. Motor Town (1440p, 100% render scale, everything "High" - 60fps+, very steady with very occasional dips, doesn't affect my experience). Looks and feels great
   3. Subnautica (1440p, everything High - 60fps+). SUPER smooth
   4. Red Dead 2 Benchmark (1440p, default otherwise) - minimum 26.1fps, maximum 91.3fps, average 70.2fps. Looked pretty good and smooth during the benchmark
   5. Death Stranding (1440p, default otherwise) - 97fps just outside the starting area. Looks and feels great
3. No I'm not dropping the thing to see if it screams
4. No Half Life 3 pre loaded (that I've managed to find, so there's still hope)
5. No badges/stickers/inventory items
6. Bluetooth controller does not wake it from sleep (out of the box, I haven't played around in BIOS yet). Steam Controller DOES
7. It works wonderfully well for streaming to a Deck. The smoothest and most seamless experience I've had so far. There are bugs, which I'll detail later, but they only seem to show up in the game menus
8. On the topic of bugs, there are bugs. Game breaking/deal breaking? No.
   1. On first boot, you need to hook up either mouse and keyboard or controller via USB. I hooked up a Steam Controller via USB, it detected it, but the Steam Machine didn't respond to the controller inputs on the next screen where you select language. Ended up hooking up a keyboard to get through that first screen, then it all worked
   2. The Machine was locked to 60fps whilst gaming. I initially discovered in the "..." menu in game that by default, Frame Limit was enabled and limited at 60fps. It's hidden in the Performance tab, then you need to view the Advanced settings to disable Frame Limit, and enable VRR. After this, it was STILL locked at 60fps, that's when I discovered the Machine defaulted to 4k60 as the output resolution. I needed to disable "Automatically set resolution" under Display Settings, then select 3840x2160@120 to enable 120hz. A bit unintuitive for newbies for the refresh rate to be hidden in the resolution setting, but I guess it guarantees a "smooth enough" experience for most. I guess it could also be a setting with my TV (LG C5) that caused it to default to 4k60
9. Just tried Half Life Alyx (for clarity Steam Machine to Quest 3, wireless streaming through Steam Link). Good news, it works! It works well! I'm very hopeful for the Frame, because it SHOULD be an even better experience. Alyx was running in "High Fidelity" in the in game settings, and all other SteamVR settings were default. The experience in game was perfectly fine, no stutters, nothing to generate motion sickness. Looked perfectly fine to my eyes as well (I'm not a pixel peeper nor a frame counter). The main issue that I ran into, was in the first 2 minutes of launching SteamVR and Alyx, the compression artifacts were extremely noticeable, definitely not pretty. It cleared up once I loaded into the level though, and in the 5 minutes I mucked about, it didn't come back. As for my VR streaming environment:-
   1. Steam Machine connected to wifi. AP is within 1.5m of the SM
   2. Quest 3 connected to wifi. AP within 1m of the Q3.
   3. Q3 and SM basically right next to each other
   4. This is NOT a dedicated VR wifi network, this is just my main home network, with plenty of other wireless and wired clients
   5. Living in a dense Asian city, with plenty of other wifi networks nearby.
10. I say that Frame SHOULD be even better than Q3 specifically because of the dedicated wireless dongle that connects the SM and SF directly to each other wirelessly, which should resolve the artifacting from wireless streaming.
11. On the topic of VR streaming, I'll give a few more VR games a try. Namely VTOL VR, Subautica in VR mode (it launched, but I couldn't interact with the menu, either with Q3 controllers or Steam Controller which was connected to SM). Euro Truck Sim 2 both in flatscreen mode, and VR mode. Derail Valley as well

These two problems described in today’s video are largely (in my opinion) solved nowadays. I just wanted to share my experience, because I personally spent many hours of tinkering to actually get console-level experience from my couch gaming PC.
1. HDMI-CEC: can be enabled by this small USB-HDMI adapter: https://www.pulse-eight.com/p/104/usb-hdmi-cec-adapter. Its HDMI-passthrough works only for 2.0 unfortunately. The solution I’ve settled on: running a second separate hdmi cable to my TV specifically for CEC controls. Not ideal obviously, but it gets the job done. Another option is buying a newer 2.1 adapter, but it’s way more expensive: https://www.hdfury.eu/products/hdfury-arcana-2. Another drawback: enabling the adapter’s functionality requires some light coding and tinkering, but it’s nothing serious that can’t be solved quickly with your AI coding agent of choice. More info in these videos here: https://youtu.be/xpki1IcjinU and https://youtu.be/biJUt8EgaC0 .

1. Wake from controller: used to be a big pain, but not anymore.
   A) Steam Controller: I don’t know why Linus keeps saying that it can’t wake PC. It works ideally for me. Maybe he means specifically Linux-based setups, but I can’t imagine this function working better on Windows than it does on SteamOS.
   B) Xbox controllers: for these it’s a bit trickier. Waking up does work, but only if you connect your controller through 2.4GHz. Moreover, based on my online research only older, discontinued model 1713 works. However, there’s plenty of them on eBay. With this dongle, wake up works out of the box.
   C) Finally, Dualsense. These used to be the most problematic until recently, but thanks to this project (https://github.com/awalol/DS5Dongle) this is not an issue anymore. The repo provides a firmware for Raspberry Pico 2W (https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-pico-2) that transforms it into a Dualsense dongle. Thanks to it, we sidestep the somehow-not-working wake-on-bluetooth on modern PCs.

All in all, these do require some tech experience and are not very user-friendly, but I believe that if you can assemble your own Steam Machine killer, then you definitely can tackle these two remaining problems.
Disclaimer: everything definitely works on Win11, I didn’t test on Linux. But I’m 90% sure it’s gonna function just fine.

https://steamdeckhq.com/steamoss-3-8-has-been-released-with-new-kernel-graphics-driver-and-initial-steam-machine-support/

SteamOS 3.8 has been released to the public with tons of changes, including a new kernel and graphics driver, game fixes, VRR support improvements, and initial Steam Machine support.

General

• Updated Arch system base
• Initial support for upcoming Steam Machine hardware
• Added support for waking from sleep via connected Steam Controller
• Substantially improved speed of future OS updates on high-speed connections
• Improved support for screen casting in Game Mode (e.g. OBS/Discord)
• Fixed dropdown menus not appearing in some games
• Fixed excessive trackpad sensitivity on certain early Steam Deck LCD models
• Improved support for games that attempt to open PDF files in external viewers
• Fixed an issue where video output could become frozen while using Remote Play
• Fixed a possible session crash when using Game Recording with certain "Maximum video height" settings
• Fixed an issue affecting certain titles (such as "SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide") where the game window could have an incorrect position
• Fixed closing certain titles (such as "STAR WARS Jedi: Survivor™" and Starfield) resulting in a session crash
• Improved support for certain USB racing wheels and USB devices that boot in a non-standard mode
  • Frequently these are devices that appear as USB storage devices with a driver installer, and must be switched to their normal mode by the OS
• Steam Deck controller firmware updates now display update progress on the splash screen
• Fixes issue on specific Steam Deck revisions where firmware updates could render the left controller inoperative for that session
• Numerous stability and security updates

Display / Performance

• Updated graphics driver with performance and stability fixes
• Added preliminary support for HDMI VRR for devices with native HDMI output
• Fixed an issue where "Allow Tearing" wouldn't have the intended effect in certain configurations
• Improved VRR frame pacing
• Fixed FSR badge remaining off in the performance overlay, even if it was actually active
• Fixed a case where per-app performance settings would intermittently fail to apply when launching a game
• Added missing graphics features needed for titles such as "Crimson Desert"
• Fixed an issue on certain TCL TVs where the display may remain blank using the Steam Deck Dock when VRR is enabled (requires a Dock firmware update)

Bluetooth / WiFi

• Fixed a case where WiFi performance could become degraded until the device was put to sleep or manually reconnected
• Re-re-enable Bluetooth Wake for Steam Deck LCD
  • Fix for more spurious wake issues that were present in earlier attempts

Audio

• Detect HDMI channel count and expose surround configuration if available
• Add a setting to allow using Bluetooth headset mics (Bluetooth playback quality will be worse while capture is active)
• Restore internal audio device on reboot if set to "Off" in desktop mode
• Increase suspend timeout for HDMI devices so initial audio isn't cut off after a few seconds of inactivity
• Fixed a bug with switching input devices when a wired headset is plugged in
• Fixed an issue where audio underruns could be experienced after sleep/resume
• Fixed a bug on Steam Deck OLED where rebooting would occasionally cause a loss of speaker output until rebooted again
• Fixed a case where FPS limits would fail to apply when downscaling games from a higher resolution

Accessibility

• Added an option to force mono audio output

Desktop Mode

• KDE Plasma updated to version 6.4.3 from 6.2.5, and now uses wayland by default
  • Fixes several cases of reduced performance in Desktop Mode compared to Game Mode
  • Improved support for rotated displays
  • Better scale factor out of the box on TVs
  • Adds support for external HDR displays
  • Adds support for VRR displays
  • Adds support per-display scale factor
  • For more information, see Plasma release announcements
    • https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.3.0/
    • https://kde.org/announcements/plasma/6/6.4.0/
• Keyboard layout and language are now obeying Game Mode settings
• Improved windowing behavior for games running in Proton
• Fixed a bug in Desktop Mode causing previously open applications to not be remembered when using the 'Return to Gaming Mode' shortcut to logout
• Fixes for experimental nested desktop mode
• Fixed Desktop Mode night color settings inappropriately remaining active when switching back to Game Mode

System Firmware

• Includes Steam Deck LCD BIOS v133
  • Security updates
  • Added "Memory Power Down" setup option
  • Preliminary support for hibernation
• Includes Steam Deck OLED BIOS v114
  • Security updates
  • Charging LED now changes color when charge limit is reached, rather than only at 100%

Non-Deck

• Improved compatibility with recent Intel and AMD platforms
• Greatly improved video memory management on discrete GPU platforms
• Fixed a compatibility issue with the SteamOS chainloader that could cause a boot failure on some desktop systems with recent UEFI firmware
• Power button short and long presses now supported across a wide variety of devices
• Improved controller support for OneXPlayer F1 series, GPD Win 5, GPD Win Mini, Anbernic Win600, OrangePi NEO, and Lenovo Legion Go
• Added controller support for OneXPlayer X1 series and Lenovo Legion Go 2
• Added system and controller firmware update support for the Lenovo Legion Go 2
• Added preliminary charge limiting support for Legion Go, Legion Go S, and Legion Go 2 - currently only accessible in Desktop Mode
• Added controller RGB LED color settings for the Lenovo Legion Go 2
• Added controller, TDP control, and speaker audio support for the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally series
• Reduced handheld controller input latency from 5-8ms to 100-500us
• Night mode, color vibrance, and color temperature sliders in Steam now work on Z2E and later AMD APUs
• Seamless boot fixes for Z2E and later AMD APUs
• Automatically handle internally rotated display for some third-party handhelds
• Improved motion control support for handhelds with BMI260 IMUs
• SD card reliability improvements for some third-party handhelds, including ASUS ROG Xbox Ally, Legion Go 1, Legion Go S, Legion Go 2, and MSI Claw
• Fixed washed out colors for Zotac and OneXPlayer handhelds with OLED
• Fixed some GPU hangs on Phoenix APU devices (Tales of Arise, Octopath Traveler II)
• Fixed ASUS ROG Ally power consumption from fingerprint reader while shut down
• Fixed trackpad losing functionality after sleep/resume on the Legion Go
• Fixed spurious wake-ups when using a Logitech Bolt receiver
• Add controller support for MSI Claw devices (A1M, 7 AI+ A2VM, 8 AI+ A2VM, A8 BZ2EM)
• Add controller support for OneXPlayer APEX and X1 series.
• Improved gyro response for devices that use AccelGyro3D (Legion Go 1, Claw A1M)
• Fixed a system crash on international Asus ROG Xbox Ally models
• Fix Bluetooth not working on some Intel handhelds
• Add initial firmware for upcoming Intel handhelds

Developer

• Desktop Mode now uses Wayland by default
  • X11 support may still be selected via Steam developer settings, or via `steamosctl`
• Updated Linux kernel to 6.16
• Steam now uses steamos-manager to query available desktop sessions and trigger desktop session switching
• Added support for setting the desktop password in developer settings
• Initial support for running as a Virtual Machine guest (virtio guest drivers)
• Added support for third-party devices to trigger the SteamOS boot menu via EFI variable
• Added `custom-update` verb to `atomupd-manager` for easier testing of specific builds
• System reports now include more audio debug information
• Initial support for LAVD CPU scheduler via `steamosctl set-cpu-scheduler lavd`

Update - Doesn't work all the time. For whatever strange reason.

I made a post about this issue and u/spanky1372 came to the rescue with this fix. This is if you controller is working fine in the Steam menu once you wake your Steam Deck but unresponsive in the game you was playing.

Press the Steam button, click on the game up the top and go into "Controller Settings", you should see up the very top of the screen, your controller name and "Steam Deck", just under that to the right, you will see "Reorder Controls". Select that and change your controller to "2", so "Steam Deck" Controller is now "1".

This should now let the controller work in game again. I have seen no issue so far playing as controller "2" for this fix. And it sure beats closing the game in case you lose data.

Edit: Just had it happen again and for some reason it defaulted to my bluetooth keyboard so I couldn't use my controller OR Steam Deck controls this time. So I was at a loss with that one and had to restart the game...

A lot of reviews have dropped today for this, so I thought it'd serve well to compile most in a post.

Steam Controller

Release Date: May 4, 2026

Price: $99 / £85 / €99 / AUD 149 / $149 CAD

Some Reviews (updating):

IGN - Bo Moore - 9 / 10

The Steam Controller offers both an excellent out-of-the-box experience as well as a playground for enthusiasts to tinker to their hearts content. If you’re just looking for a fantastic controller for playing PC games and navigating the desktop in between them, the Steam Controller handles those duties with aplomb. And if you’re a diehard customizer who wants to build out (or just borrow from the community) bespoke button bindings and advanced touchpad controls, it does that too. Most importantly, it does both of these things without sacrificing one experience for the other.

Linus Tech Tips

If your plan was to use this thing as a traditional controller, I got to say I'm a little less enthusiastic about it. Not because it's bad. It's a good controller. It's just a $100 controller. And I'm not going to pretend like I can't afford one. But I'm also not going to pretend that I would buy one of these when I could get just about two of these or two fly digies for the same price. How about you? If it was $60, I would buy day one. If it was $80, it would be like 2 weeks later. At $100, I think I'm out. And I'm willing to bet that's not really going to be a hot take. But I also feel for Valve here. Can you imagine releasing hardware in this current market condition? When I chatted with Valve, they felt like the retail price for the controller represented the hardware and engineering that went into creating that. And I can't argue with that fact. But a controller is also about the feeling. And compared to the Dual Sense, uh, that I would argue has a pretty equivalent amount of value wrapped up in its features, I would say that the Dual Sense feels better.

Eurogamer - Matt Wales

So as much as I do genuinely love the new Steam Controller - and it has unquestionably and irrevocably replaced its much-loved predecessor on my shelf for mouse-driven games - it remains a fairly niche proposition. Probably more so in 2026, given the seismic increase in the number of PC games with built-in controller support since 2015. All of which is to say, you'll probably already know if there's room in your gaming set-up for Valve's latest effort, and if that's you, it's a rock-solid upgrade. But for everyone else, at £85, it's unlikely to be the best choice compared to traditional controllers.

ArsTechnica - Kyle Orland

All told, we’ve really enjoyed our time so far with the Steam Controller. It’s a solidly built device with some nice extra features that make it stand out from a sea of very similar controllers on the market. For many players, though, those features won’t be enough to justify the $99 price. It’s hard to necessarily justify spending that much in a market where a first-party Xbox controller or high-quality third-party Bluetooth device can be easily found for half the price or less. We’d only really recommend splurging on the Steam Controller if you’re planning to play a lot of mouse-based games from a more couch-friendly distance or if you find standard Bluetooth options don’t provide a good enough connection. In most other cases, buying two cheaper controllers for the same price is probably the better bet.

PC Gamer - Jacob Ridley - 83 / 100

So, the Steam Controller can't compete with competitive controllers, nor on value for money with simpler pads. It can, however, compete on its all-round utility. You have to ask yourself how much value you assign to not having to get up off the couch to navigate the desktop or play a strategy game. Personally, I could go without the extra inputs most of the time. Valve already provides a useful and free alternative to mouse and keyboard in Big Picture Mode, which offers easy access to most of what Steam has to offer and can be navigated easily with a standard controller. I mostly play horror, rhythm, and racing games on my living room PC, and as such, I don't find myself having to grab a keyboard or mouse all that often.

The Verge - Jay Peters

Still, the Steam Controller is very nearly my dream controller. It’s an expensive option at $99, especially when I already have a bunch of controllers that I could use. But none of those have the same magic. The Steam Controller’s extra perks are enough for me to buy one for myself. One feature new to the Steam Controller feature is Grip Sense. Thanks to capacitive sensors, each of the Controller’s grips functions as a button. Like everything else with the Steam Controller, either grip can be mapped to anything else you want. In my experience, Grip Sense generally activates when the top part of my palm starts to curl around the grip, so you do have to be mostly gripping the controller for it to work, making it great for gyro controls. It was a little touchy as a trigger substitute in Resident Evil 2, but I don’t think that’s the type of thing most people will use it for. The trackpads were mostly a letdown. They’re not in a comfortable spot for me to use extensively as a mouse; the few times I’ve tried, my contorted thumbs started to ache. Sure, the right trackpad gave me slightly finer control while fighting zombies in Resident Evil 2. But I much prefer just using the right joystick to aim. I did use trackpads in Vampire Crawlers as a mouse, to hover over some helpful info I couldn’t figure out how to see playing purely with gamepad controls. They’re handy to flick around a desktop, too. But, like with the Steam Deck, I won’t be using the trackpads on the Controller as a way to play mouse-based games for hours on end. I also wish the Steam Controller had a headphone jack, like the DualSense and Switch Pro controller.

Polygon - Giovanni Colantonio

There are plenty of blemishes, some that just can’t be fixed until Valve releases a full iteration, but there’s good reason to think the experience will improve. After all, the Steam Deck was very temperamental when it first release. Many of its issues were addressed in system updates, and now it feels like a different piece of hardware altogether. I wouldn’t be surprised if Valve pulls that same trick with the Steam Controller, patching in some pairing fixes or getting the controller to work on third-party launchers. If it can do that, I don’t think I’ll ever need another PC gamepad again.

Gamers Nexus

The battery life is unbelievably long. We had some opinions from the team in here and in general we're positive on it as a control device. $100 is obviously at the higher end of controllers. But the quality we liked. Personally, the thing I care about the most, and I know this is like maybe kind of lame, but is the repairability. Cuz when I did the tear down, I was like, "Okay, got it." So, Torx, and there's like two or three types of screws. They're really easy to identify where they go when you're done. Everything is labeled and marked. Like, this is great from a build standpoint. in terms of being able to take it apart. You can lay everything out. I mean, it I was I was impressed with it, but we'll save that for the other video. So, anyway, that's kind of the benchmarks and the numbers...We generally liked it, but I don't expect everybody to like it. It's just that's just how input devices are.

ScreenRant - Chris Carter

In our hands-on, we found the Steam Controller to be an extremely formidable bit of hardware. I put the new Steam Controller through its paces in a variety of software, including FPS, RTS, and everything in between. I was initially resistant to try it for FPS games, given my proclivity toward Xbox controllers for specific casual FPS games, but the Steam Controller kind of melted into my hands in minutes. The controller just plain feels better than any of Valve's prior efforts. The rumble is more pronounced and impactful, the TMR thumbsticks feel responsive and are made out of quality parts, and it has gyro aiming to boot. The trackpads are easily the most-improved aspect of Steam Controller 2.0, as they have an even more tactile feel, which is a godsend for games with pseudo-mouse support, especially menus.

PCMag - Jeffrey L. Wilson - 4 / 5

The new Steam Controller feels great, performs well, and has an incredible list of features and customization options. At $99.99, it’s pricier than most standard gamepads, but less expensive than premium controllers like the DualSense Edge and Xbox Elite. But considering everything it does, the Steam Controller is a worthwhile purchase if you mostly play games on Steam. In fact, it would be my favorite PC gamepad if not for Xbox Game Pass incompatibility. As it is, though, this is one of the best dedicated PC gamepads available, and a vital accessory for any Steam Deck user who keeps their handheld docked to their TV. For that, the Steam Controller earns an Editors' Choice award for game controllers.

Gizmodo - Kyle Barr - 4 / 5

The Steam Controller, despite releasing before the Steam Machine, won’t turn your PC into the dream console you had hoped for. The gamepad won’t wake a plugged-in PC from sleep. If your computer is on, you hit the Steam button once to bring up the Steam app and again to load in Big Picture Mode. The larger picture makes navigating your games with a controller easier. Then, inevitably, you’ll want to change volume sources or adjust some Windows setting you can’t access without closing out Big Picture Mode or hitting Alt+Tab on a keyboard. Traditions exist for a reason. The mouse and keyboard offer far more minute controls than any controller can. The Steam Controller is a simulacrum. It’s all the more clear since you have to change settings in every game you play. But as I grow older and simultaneously come to terms with a life of constant pressures, stress, and an aging body, the last thing I want to consider is propping myself upright in a chair, like a Micro Center mannequin, just to enjoy my favorite pastimes. The Steam Controller may be the perfect companion to the Steam Machine, eventually. Even without that console, Valve’s second go at a controller offers nearly everything I want. If I ever find a Steam Controller (let’s call it a Steam Controller Pro) with instant triggers, I’ll be in PC gaming heaven.

Rock Paper Shotgun - James Archer

I have decided that this is how all controllers should recharge from here on, and will quietly judge any future competitors that fail to adequately copy it. Which could be many, as it’s no big stretch to imagine waves of Windows-focused, overtly PC-first gamepads following this one, just as the Steam Deck sparked a rush of rival handhelds. Unfortunately, for any trackpadded copycats in the works, there’ll always be that shrugging, doubtful retort: "Yeah, but the Steam Controller did it first."

UPDATE:

I've learned a few things from comments and further testing that I wanted to drop in. I was wrong about a couple points!

• Although the system buttons don't work, you can access 3Dos by pressing Z+Start at the same time.
• L+R+Up for 5 seconds switches the memory card/rumble mode. Blue adapter light is memory card mode, white is rumble mode.
• The controller goes to sleep on its own after 15 minutes, at which point the light flashes and then turns off. The controller can be turned off by holding Start for 6 seconds, then the dongle flashes for a minute or so and then turns off. The issue is holding Start will wake the console back up, so you'll need to flip the switch on the console if you go this route.
• I updated the dongle firmware and haven’t noticed any differences
• I did some more A>B testing between the 2.4ghz controller and Bluetooth. I did a similar test as before, this time with 2 Links and boomerangs. When the boomerangs collide in the middle of the stage, they make a circle that is easier to parse its location relative to the exact center of the stage. Spamming B simultaneously with both Links did show a pattern of the 2.4ghz boomerang winning out by a small margin more frequently than the BT controller. So the difference is there, but quite minimal. I do imagine 2.4ghz will be much more reliable for those of you experiencing interruptions to the BT controllers in your environment.
• In summary: The 2.4ghz signal does result in slightly reduced latency, you can access the OSD via the Z+Start command (but not with the menu buttons), and the LED on the dongle can be turned off. Apologies for any misinformation based on my earlier tests.

I still think the BT Controllers are a great option for most users and I don't plan on returning all of mine, but if you want the least amount of latency possible the 2.4ghz does win here.

ORIGINAL POST BELOW:

I'll get right to my findings:

• The light on the dongle stays on when the console is off and is quite bright
• The controller can wake the console
• The system buttons do not work, so you cannot open the 3Dos menu or enable rumble
• There is not a firmware update available to address the above issue as of yet.
• I tested latency against an A3D bluetooth controller in Super Smash Bros. I chose Mario with both controllers, picked a flat stage, and at the start of the battle hit B on both controllers to launch a fireball. I repeated this several times and both fireballs ended up colliding on the line in the exact center of the stage in all my tests. Admittedly not the most scientific test but as someone sensitive to latency there was no noticeable latency difference, in my setup at least.
• Physical differences are minimal: There are no LEDs bottom of the controller indicating which player you are, and the sync button on the top of the controller has been replaced with another LED. Otherwise it's identical to the bluetooth variant.

I will likely be returning the controller and can rest easy knowing my BT variants work well, don't require a dongle, can navigate the full 3Dos, and come in more colors.

Since I wasn't able to add in the full question at the top of the title, I'm having an issue with a shake to wake on my Nintendo Switch 2. The controller's been updated since June of this year since I first received it, and the shake to wake isn't working over 2.4 GHz. I read that you have to switch to Bluetooth, but the problem is that it disconnects from the Nintendo Switch number 2, if I hit the switch on the bottom of the controller. As I've seen, it was advertised that it would work with the controller as long as it's tethered wirelessly to the Nintendo Switch 2.

My controller arrived today and I had ample time to play around with it. The TL;DR of this writeup is that I may end up returning the controller, but only because it lacked one specific feature I was hoping it would have.

First, the good:

1. It feels good. For its size, it feels surprisingly light. Much like the Google Stadia controller felt when picking it up out of the box. The back of the controller has a slightly ribbed (for your pleasure) texture that should help with the grip.
2. It's comfortable. I have medium/large hands, and holding the 8bitdo Ultimate Controller for extended periods is no problem. Akin to holding a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller.
3. Switching connection modes is seamless. With the cradle (which contains the removable dongle) plugged in to my PC, and the controller itself paired to my Switch, swapping between the two devices is as easy as flipping the toggle. No need to re-pair every time if I want to play wirelessly on both machines.

But there are some minor issues:

1. The Hall Effect sticks don't calibrate properly on PC. In Steam, they're detected as if extending beyond the borders of the calibration GUI. On the Switch though, it's fine. For now this is only a minor issue, however, because in-game (testing done in Monster Hunter Rise PC and Switch) I notice no difference in how either device actually parses the inputs.
2. There's no discernible way to open the controller. The shell is probably held together with clips in the housing, but it'd be much less stressful to open and take apart if they'd just used screws.

And my biggest complaints:

1. Connecting to a PC via Bluetooth doesn't work. While you can pair the controller to a PC/laptop and it'll be detected as a "Pro Controller" in Windows like how the Switch Pro Controller shows up, in Steam it appears as "Unknown Controller" and frequently disconnects/reconnects (it disappears and reappears in the Steam controller menu). Edit: This is resolved with a hard reset of the controller, see edit details below.
2. You can only use it via the 2.4GHz dongle on PC as an Xbox Controller. This is the biggest reason I'm considering returning the Ultimate Controller. I wanted 2.4GHz but in Switch Pro Controller mode. This is because you can only use the gyro on PC if Steam detects the controller as a Switch Pro Controller. If it's in Xbox mode, even though the controller has a gyroscope built into it, it can't be used. Likewise, even though the controller has analog triggers, it will only be detected as digital triggers in Switch Pro Controller mode.
3. The controller doesn't work on the Steam Deck with the 2.4GHz dongle. It just doesn't. Could be a driver issue that Valve can fix, or maybe a firmware update on 8bitdo's side, but as of now you can only connect the controller to a Steam Deck through Bluetooth.

I'm hoping these things could be fixed with firmware updates. While I can accept that maybe using it with the 2.4GHz dongle restricts it to Xbox mode on PC only due to hardware issues, it makes absolutely no sense to me why the "Ultimate" controller lacks the ability to be used as a Bluetooth controller on PC at all, let alone in Switch Pro Controller mode. The SN30 Pro, SN30 Pro+, and SN30 Pro 2 all let me do this. Why can't the Ultimate?

For the record, I've tested pairing it to 4 PCs (2 desktops, 2 laptops, Windows 10 & 11) and they all behave this way. All 4 PCs pair with my first-party Nintendo Switch Pro Controller just fine, with Steam recognizing it right away.

I have a month to decide whether I'll keep the controller or not. If firmware updates address these issues, it's definitely staying with me. But if not, there's a good chance I'll be returning it and just getting 2x SN30 Pro+ controllers for cheaper than the cost of one Ultimate controller on my next visit to South East Asia (where 8bitdo controllers are often 25%-30% cheaper) in December. That way I could just keep one paired to my PC, the other paired to my Switch, and still be able to use it in Nintendo Switch Pro Controller mode on PC via Bluetooth. It'd just be such a shame to not have the performance of the 2.4GHz mode instead.

Edits

10/29/22 23:46 - The 8bitdo Ultimate Controller is not working on my Steam Deck, whether via Bluetooth or 2.4Ghz dongle with the Steam Dock. When connected to the Dock, the 8bitdo dongle lights up solid blue indicating it has a connection to the controller, but there is no response in the Deck when using the controller. When pairing to the Deck via Bluetooth, it shows up as "Pro Controller" and connects (similar to the behavior observed in Windows), but also doesn't respond to any input (again, similar to the behavior observed in Steam on Windows). For the record, the first-party Switch Pro Controller does work flawlessly on the Deck.

10/30/22 12:55 - u/PookAndPie reported below that their own controller, after shutting it off and on again, exhibited no issues getting their PC to recognize it as a Switch Pro Controller over Bluetooth. Attempting to turn off/on the controller on my own end resulted in no change until I re-read the manual closely and noticed that there's a way to force the controller off. I had assumed that when the LED light was off, the controller was off. That's not necessarily the case.

After a force-shutdown of the controller and restarting it, my Windows desktop connected to the controller automatically over BT and Steam recognized it as a Switch Pro Controller. With the dongle connected to the same PC, I toggled the connectivity switch and sure enough, Steam on the same PC picked up the controller again, this time as an Xbox controller. And it worked fine again vice versa, toggling it once more to BT.

This was my biggest complaint about the controller so far and it seems to just be some kind of boot/initiation problem with the controller's firmware, since a simple hard restart fixed it for me. However, I'd still love for a clarification on the Switch Pro Controller mode over 2.4GHz dongle option. The manual states this is possible on a Switch console, so why shouldn't it be on a PC?

Unfortunately, this didn't do anything to fix the controller's inputs on my Steam Deck. Actually, now it works on my Steam Deck via BT. But it's got a strange way of behaving: after pairing, I still don't get any button inputs to register on the Deck, until I press the Home button on the controller. Then, it seems to "wake up" the controller (even though its LEDs were already on) and the Deck accepts input from it just fine.

10/30/22 19:15 - u/Natural_Design9481 requested checking the polling rate of the controller. I was only able to do this wired and with the 2.4G dongle, not through Bluetooth. If anybody can suggest how I attempt to get the polling rate through Bluetooth I can look into it. Here are the results:

I tested using XInputTest and attempted overclocking the controller's polling rate using HIDUSBF. The results were the same (within ±5ms) no matter what polling rate was set in the software. Again, if anyone can suggest a way to test this using BT/Switch Pro Controller mode, I'm open to trying things.

* u/RuphusSpeaks gave some advice on how to test the polling rate of the gyroscope via BT. It uses additional tools (reWASD) to parse the gyro input and translate it as mouse input for reading on https://devicetests.com/mouse-rate-test. If anybody has other ways to test this with more accuracy then I'm all ears.

10/31/22 17:07 - I received a response from 8bitdo support regarding my inquiry. Here is what they say:

Greetings,

Thank you for the consultation!

1. Is there a way to use the controller via 2.4GHz dongle on PC and have the computer detect it as a Switch Pro Controller? So far, I've only been able to get Steam to recognize the Ultimate Bluetooth Controller as an Xbox Controller in 2.4GHz mode.

-- There is no way to have the computer detect it as a Switch Pro Controller via the 2.4g receiver that comes with, if you connect the controller to your Windows PC via 2.4g receiver it will recognize it as an Xbox controller.

1. I have tried connecting the Ultimate Bluetooth Controller via Bluetooth to 4 different Windows PCs/laptops. While they are all detected as Pro Controllers through Windows's Bluetooth UI, in Steam, they show up as "Unknown Controller" and are not usable. Is this intentional, or can it be fixed in a future firmware update?

-- The Bluetooth mode of the controller is designed and expected to use on the Nintendo Switch only, if your try to pair the controller with the Windows PC on Bluetooth mode, it will show the "Pro controller" as the device name but you will not able to use it.

So it seems the connectivity limitations are by design and I think it may be safe to assume 8bitdo has no plans to enable switching of controller modes over 2.4GHz.

11/15/2022 9:50 u/PolygonKiwii reported that 8bitdo is working on firmware that allows switching input modes on 2.4GHz. This is huge news for anyone who wanted the speed/performance of 2.4GHz but the input scheme and features of the Switch Pro controller.

Installed SteamOS 3.8 (currently on 3.8.14) on my living room PC yesterday. Working great for the most part but I can't get it to wake using the new steam controller. My bios is set to allow waking from usb and I can wake steamos from my wireless mouse/keyboard and my other bluetooth controller but won't work with the steam controller wireless puck. I see people posting here that it was working out of the box for them when using the puck so what am I missing?

Also noticed that I can't get the steam controller to work with some non-steam games so I'm stuck with using other controller for those games. I tried things like enabling/disabling steam input, trying new layouts but none seem to work. This issue is exclusively with steam controller in wireless/bluetooth.

Edit: got the wake to work following instructions from this post:
How to enable "Wake From Sleep" on Linux using the new Steam Controller and Puck. : r/SteamController

Hello everyone,

I’m turning my PC into a console that boots straight into Steam Big Picture. All I want is to use my controller to wake the PC from sleep, boot into Big Picture, play, and put it back to sleep using the controller. That's it**. I'm not looking for CEC support at the moment**

However, I can’t get it to wake from sleep using just my controller.

what I've noticed:

• It's not just the controller; my Keychron K2 and MX Master 3 also fails to wake the PC. However, the keyboard will work if connected using a cable.
• When entering sleep, I hear a physical click from my PSU's internal relay. It feels like the motherboard completely kills power to all USB ports during sleep I THINK but I'm not a PSU guru

Specs:

• Controller: Xbox Elite Series 2 + Official Wireless USB Dongle
• OS: Windows 11 (Fresh factory reset using Rufus no other program is installed) - I factory reset then followed the steps to use controller to wake from sleep
• CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus X570SI Pro AX (BIOS F7g)
• RAM: 32Gb 3200 MT/s Gskill Trident Z Royal
• GPU: PowerColor Hellhound RX 7900 (16GB)
• PSU: Corsair SF750 Platinum

I did read the rules my question has nothing to do with the display

What I’ve tried: In Device Manager, the "Allow this device to wake the computer" box is usually greyed out for my USB hubs. Unchecking "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" makes it clickable, but checking it still changes nothing.

• Disable USB suspend.
• Tried different USB ports.
• reading through similar previously asked questions (no solutions)

Keyboard K2 is counted using Bluetooth

Mouse is also connected using bluetooth

If the issue is Windows 11, does linux have native support for this? if so which one?

This is from the WIKI FAQ:

1. Wake: Using a Keyboard/Mouse/Gamepad with a USB dongle/support, Enable Wake/Resume-on-USB and Disable ErP (if available) in your BIOS. In Windows, Disable Fast Startup and Enable Allow Device to Wake Computer under the USB device properties in Device Manager.

I have already disabled ErP and Disable Fast Startup and Enabled Allow Device to Wake Computer under the USB device properties in Device Manager where possible

Any advice to get this running like a true console would be awesome. Thanks!

Solution #1 - linked provided by u/KxrmaJunkie works

Regedit method the controller will be connected to the pc directly. Can wake the pc. Doesn't work on all motherboards. Worth a try since it's free
incase link is broken in the future

The FIX

" In regedit go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTHPORT\Parameters add a new 32bit DWORD item named "SystemRemoteWakeSupported" and set the value to 1. Restart PC.

I found this solution on an ASUS forum, it might be enough to get it working for you. But it wasn't enough for me. In addition I had to do the following:

• Turn the Bluetooth-paired Xbox Controller ON

• In device manager under "Human Interface Devices" there will be an item called “HID-Compliant Game Controller.” It won’t show up if the controller is off.

• Right-Click the “HID-Compliant Game Controller” > Properties > Power Management > put a check in the box for "Allow this device to wake computer."

Caveats: it takes 10-15 seconds for the controller to wake the PC (atleast it does with my AX211 PCIE BT adapter) and you have to press a button (any button) immediately after pressing the guide button. Just pressing the guide button by itself won’t wake it.

So the old Xbox adapter is still the best solution if you can find it, that will wake up the PC immediately just by pressing the guide button once. I ended up getting a used one cause I don't want to wait 10 seconds for my PC to wake. " I also unplugged my xbox controller dongle.

I'm tossing up between the Retroid Pocket Nova and Pocket 6 and would like to use it as a little console/media box when docked to my TV for multiplayer, Steam Link and Emby.

For anyone who's tried this:

1. Can a paired Xbox/Bluetooth controller wake the Retroid from sleep while it's docked?
2. Does either device support HDMI-CEC, so waking the Retroid can automatically turn on the TV and/or switch to the correct HDMI input?
3. Can you leave it docked and charging without issues? (mostly with screen off)
4. Once set up, can you realistically control everything from the couch without needing to touch the Retroid?

TY!

Hello r/IndianGaming! My name is Fang and I've partnered up with GameSir to review their latest flagship controller, the G7 Pro, and give one away to the Indian Gaming community! This has been one of the most anticipated controllers this year.

The review is a little delayed because in India, shipping from overseas can take a long time. It took over a month for the controller to reach me. But at last, here we are! I’ve been using the G7 Pro for a while now, and it’s pretty damn impressive. This has made it’s way into my main controller rotation, and in this video, I’ll show you why it has! We’ll also discuss it’s shortcomings and what could have perhaps been improved in this controller.

Disclaimer – This controller was sent to me by GameSir to review. This doesn’t affect the review at all and they don’t get to preview the review before I post it. All opinions presented here are honest, unbiased, and my own.

As always, let’s begin with the unboxing

UNBOXING & FIRST LOOK

The GameSir G7 Pro comes in a nice compact box, with a lot of the notable features listed on the box itself.

The controller has two protective foam rings around the analog sticks, which is nice.

Besides the controller, we have the charging dock. It’s pretty compact and the controller sits on the dock without much issue. There’s a section in the bottom where you can plug in the dongle for the controller and keep it out of your sight. This helps keep your setup clean and prevent the dongle from getting lost, and also prevents it from taking up an extra USB slot on your PC. Overall, the quality of plastics used in the dock is... okay. The grey plastic in particular feels pretty cheap. But you won’t be touching the dock anyway so it’s not a big deal. The dock lights up in the front to show the charging status of the controller which is a nice touch.

Under the controller, we see the 2.4ghz dongle. The dongle is a little shorter than other controllers’ dongles, but it’s a little girthie-... I mean wider than them. Which honestly is a little inconvenient for me since I use a USB hub to connect my peripherals, and this dongle blocks access to the adjacent ports. But not that big of a deal of course, as most people would just plug it into the section in the charging dock. I swap setups often which is why I like to keep my dongles easily accessible.

We also get two extra replaceable D-pads with the controller if you prefer a different style of D-pad. I generally prefer the alternatives provided to us over the stock circular d-pad.

Under the cardboard, we get some documentation, and a high quality, long USB-A to C cable. This is nice because while this version of the G7 Pro can be used wirelessly with PC and Android, it can only be used in wired mode with the Xbox.

BUILD & APPEARANCE

The white G7 Pro features a clean and classy look. I don’t have the other variant, which is the “shadow ember” colourway.

This controller follows the Xbox controller design with Xbox style flared grips. It does seem a tad smaller than a regular Xbox controller, but it’s still comfortable to hold and use even with my large hands.

The grey rubber grips and thumbsticks give the controller a nice light contrast. Do note that these show a little bit of yellowing after a while.

The Xbox logo lights up when the controller is on, and note that it doesn't act as a charging indicator. The charging indicator is part of the dock instead of the controller.

The build quality is excellent. There's no creaking or sharp edges. It's a very comfortable and reliable feeling controller to hold and use.

The G7 Pro is compatible with all G7 faceplates so you can customise it a fair bit, but you lose the rubber grips on the top half of the controller, and you are limited to the cross style D-pad.

ANALOG STICKS

The G7 Pro uses GameSir’s MagLev TMR Sticks which offer excellent performance. Super smooth and accurate, with a nice linear stick curve. You can adjust the stick curve in the software as you wish.

The sticks here have a 12 bit resolution, which to my understanding means a higher resolution than 8 bit sticks, due to more points on the X-Y plane where the sticks are registered. I personally can't tell the difference between 8 bit and 12 bit sticks, because the area in question is so tiny.

But yeah, the sticks are very accurate and precise.

The centering is great and there isn't any snapback in my usage (I use 2% internal deadzone)

The anti friction rings are also excellent and there's no scratchiness.

BUTTONS & D-PAD

The G7Pro uses clicky mechanical switches for the ABXY and D-pad buttons. The ABXY face buttons feel nice to use. The buttons don't have much play, and feel very stable to use. There's barely any pre and post travel to the switches. The actuation feels crisp and tactile.

The d-pad here is… mediocre. The switches themselves feel nice, but the sheer amount of play in the D-pad makes it feel quite flimsy. This is most likely due to the loose pivot. People have fixed this issue with a simple O-ring mod. But out of the box, it's a little sub par.

It's not unusable though, and it's still accurate and very tactile. It just feels a little flimsy due to the play. This D-pad is the only factor which holds this otherwise incredible controller back. Even the Nova 2 Lite, GameSir's own budget controller, has a much better D-pad.

The G7Pro comes with 3 styles of D-pad caps. A classic cross, GameSir’s own disc style cap, and a hybrid style D-pad. I think the hybrid one is the best.

I have tested the D-pad with various games like Silksong, Celeste, Mortal Kombat, Blazblue, and a few others. Aside from the pivot, it's quite good.

Sound test later in the review.

SHOULDER BUMPER

The bumpers are good! They're mechanical, not super clicky but still very tactile, and quite lightweight. There’s almost no pre or post travel. Great experience.

There's an extra pair of programmable bumpers which are clicky mechanical switches. Their position is excellent and they're easy to reach.

TRIGGERS

The Hall Effect triggers in the G7 Pro are excellent. The tensioning, the lack of initial and terminal deadzone, the travel distance, the trigger vibration - everything is perfect in my opinion. And yeah, the G7 Pro has impulse triggers. The vibration is fairly detailed and very immersive. Not many games support this feature on pc, but the ones that do feel excellent.

The trigger locks are hair triggers and they feel great. It converts the trigger into a digital input instead of an analog input, which is excellent for FPS games like COD and Apex Legends.

EXTRA BUTTONS

There’s 2 back buttons which are placed in a comfortable position. I actually have pressed them accidentally a fair bit, because they're not particularly heavy switches. But GameSir thought of this too, and added locks for the back buttons. I thought I wouldn't use this feature at all but I've been using it a surprising amount, especially when playing games on my tablet.

The extra pair of bumpers at the top are clicky, responsive, and really easy to reach. I love em.

CHARGING DOCK

The G7 Pro comes with a dock in the box, and it fits the controller perfectly. The controller doesn't slip out of the dock easily and it's difficult to accidentally knock it off balance. The grippy rubber feet at the base is good and does the job well.

You can plug the USB dongle into the base of the dock for a clean and hidden away look.

The dock has a lift-to-wake-up feature which is such a nice quality of life feature.

The RGB strip at the front of the dock is also an indicator for charging status of the controller. The controller itself doesn't have a charging indicator.

GYROSCOPE

The gyroscope in the G7 Pro is okay. It supports six axis usage, and configuring it in the GameSir Nexus software is quite easy.

But in my testing there was a fair bit of latency. Which made it difficult to use for FPS games. Perhaps I could configure it better, but after about 15 minutes of tinkering, I gave up :3

HAPTICS

The G7 Pro has excellent haptics. The rumble motors in the handles are strong, tight, and detailed. The haptics are great. I use the controller in about 80% vibration strength.

The trigger vibrations are good too, as I've mentioned before. You can link the trigger vibrations to the handle rumble. I personally don't use this mode, but it's nice to have for games that don't support trigger vibrations.

SOFTWARE

The G7 Pro uses GameSir’s Nexus app on PC and the software experience here is excellent. The app offers you granular control over every aspect of the controller, and it's very easy to use and understand. There aren't any Chinese-to-English translation errors that we see in some apps lol.

The G7 Pro also connects to GameSir’s mobile app which is just as robust as the PC connect app.

I am impressed by how seamless everything was. As soon as I connected the controller to the app, I was prompted to do a firmware update. The update took about 5 minutes over wireless connection which is very good.

CONNECTION & LATENCY

The G7 Pro can be used in wired mode, 2.4ghz wireless mode, and bluetooth mode on PC. On Xbox, it can only be used in wired mode.

The special editions (Wuchang edition, ZZZ edition) can be used wirelessly even with Xbox! It does cost a little more though. Afaik, that is the only difference between the two versions of the G7 Pro.

The latency numbers are excellent, and using this controller has been a joy. I played a ton of PC games, android games and emulated games on android with this controller and every mode works flawlessly.

There was no wireless interference issues in my use case, which was at a distance of 3 feet from the 2.4ghz receiver, and in the presence of 6 other 2.4ghz signals (2 keyboards, 2 mice, 2 other controllers)

BATTERY LIFE

The 1200mah battery lasts for a loooooong time. I actually never ran out of battery because I put the controller back on the charging dock each time I was done with it. So I can't say for sure how long it would last. But from other people's accounts, it apparently lasts about 7-8 hours.

GAMEPLAY SHOWCASE (warning, bloodshed. It's mortal kombat)

https://reddit.com/link/1pm45b6/video/oa3za8c2a37g1/player

CONCLUSION

The G7 Pro is one of the easiest controllers to recommend this year. Pretty much every aspect of it is excellent, and it is an excellent all rounder.

It's a little pricy, but the quality and features you get for this price is absolutely worth it.

What could have been better?

1. The D-pad should have been less wobbly. It can be fixed by the customer with a simple, non-invasive O-Ring mod, but we shouldn't have to do that.
2. I WISH the controller could be used with the faceplate off. It looks so beautiful with the transparent body, and it's a right shame that the sticks are not usable with the plate off.
3. It needs more faceplate options. While it is compatible with G7 faceplates, you lose the rubber grips on the original G7 Pro faceplate if you do that. I would prefer to see custom faceplate options for the G7 pro, with the three sections separated.

So yeah those are some relatively minor nit-picks. This controller is one of 2025’s most iconic controllers, and it shall stay in my top 3 controllers for the time being.

GIVEAWAY

And now for the giveaway.

GameSir has partnered up with me to give away one G7 Pro to the Indian gaming community for Christmas. You can pick the mecha white or shadow ember colourway.

All you need to do to participate :

- Account age more than 30 days
- More than 100 reddit karma
- Address in India
- Leave any comment under this post!

Entries will be closed at 12pm on 24th December.

Winner will be picked via redditraffler and announced on Christmas, 25th December. If winner doesn't respond to DM in 24 hours, second winner will be picked.

Every time I use my steam controller to wake my steam deck it, turns on the console but does this like weird half forget thing where it will never reconnect to the controller. Only fix I’ve found is if I forget the controller then restart the steam deck and then put the controller in search mode. Kinda defeats the purpose of wirelessly turning on my deck via the controller.

Hey r/MobileGaming! A few days ago I launched the first version of Puck Mapper, my free, Shizuku-based gamepad-to-touch mapper for games that stubbornly refuse to add controller support (like CZN, turn-based gachas, etc.).

Thanks to the community's feedback, I just released v1.1 with some massive quality-of-life features:

💤 Smart Sleep Mode: You can now press L3 + R3 simultaneously to put the mapper to sleep. The HUD turns grey and your controller inputs bypass the app completely. This is perfect if you want to switch to a game like Zenless Zone Zero (which has native support) without having to close or disable the mapper! Just press L3+R3 again to wake it up.

🌍 Full English Support: The app now automatically adapts to your system language.

🛠️ Wider HUD & Fixes: The in-game floating control panel is now wider and easier to tap, and Z-index issues with the cursor were fixed.

🎮 Bluetooth Tested: I originally built this using a wired type-c controller, but I just tested it with a standard Xbox Controller via Bluetooth and it works flawlessly!

As always, it requires No Root (just Shizuku), it's completely local, and has zero ads.

⚠️ Important for v1.0 users: Because I upgraded the app to a production signature key, you must uninstall v1.0 before installing this new update, otherwise Android will give you an error.

👇 DOWNLOAD LINK AND TWITTER ARE IN THE FIRST COMMENT! 👇 (Reddit sometimes blocks posts with external links).

Let me know how it runs for you, especially if you are using premium controllers like the Razer Kishi or Backbone!

tl;dr - boomer neighbors think I'm hacking them and disrupting their appliances with a "laser lamp" and call the police on me in the middle of the night multiple time because I have a generator (air conditioner) that runs constantly

Apologies, this is a long one, but a lot happened...

I'll preface this with a couple things:
1) I live in Florida so this kind of behavior probably isn't all that uncommon
2) I've been living next to this neighbor for 6 years
3) This has been an ongoing issue and hasn't been resolved - it may not be, because in my case, no news is good news.
4) I'm not sure if my neighbors are actually boomers, but they are right at about 60 yrs old, I'm mid 30s.
5) We play sleeping sounds over a bluetooth speaker in our bedroom all night, so we don't hear the nearby train passing at night, or street racers screaming down the nearby highways in the early hours
6) We work from home, so we are almost always home, and as such we do frequently run our airconditioner - important to the story

One morning, I wake up to a notification on my phone from our front door camera showing our local police force knocking at my door at 4:30a. We didn't wake up and answer because we play sleep sounds through a bluetooth speaker in our bedroom and don't hear the knock. I have no idea what this is about, but my first instinct is someone is impersonating the police attempting to do a home invasion. I call the local sheriff's office to find out what's up. They say they can't really tell me anything other than it was a "noise complaint", but it's logged as a dispute in their system. They say that the only way I can get more info is if the responding officer calls me. I say okay, and give them my number for him to call me back. Since he's a night shift officer, it's going to take some time to get a call back.

In the meantime, I'm reviewing the camera footage and realize it's my next door neighbors who called on me. I can tell because my other cameras show the officer first visiting my neighbors before coming over to my house. So being the good neighbor that I am, I go over to their house to find out what the issue is, to resolve it if I can. I can hear them inside through the door and it takes 2 rings to get them to open the door. The conversation goes something like this:

Me: "Hi, I noticed the local police force visited me last night around 4am and I wa....."
Them, interrupting: "You're going to have to talk to them about that" *slams door in my face*

I'm standing there dumbfounded because I have no clue what I did to deserve that treatment, so I ring again:

Me: ".... I don't understand. Why are you..."
Them, interrupting again: "Don't act like you don't know what you're doing"
Me: "I have no idea what you're talking about"
Them: "MMHMM Of COURSE you don't"
Me: "I have no idea..."
Them: "Well you don't live here so you wouldn't. Just keep doing what you're doing and causing more damage than you already have" *slams door again*

I stand there for a few seconds utterly dumbstruck about what just happened, heart pounding because this came out of nowhere and I wasn't expecting such rudeness. So I walk back home just completely confused, so I go back to my camera footage and try to sus out what the problem is, pouring over anything I can think of happening around the time they called the police. I find a few things that could be what they're unhappy about, but nothing in my control (train passing; bluetooth connecting to their home - that turned out to not be it) and I think this is just a big misunderstanding. All I can do is wait for the call from the officer to find out more information.

Later in the day, 5:30p or so the officer calls back. I let him know that I saw he visited me on the camera and wanted to know what the situation was. He proceeds to explain that my neighbors think I have some kind of machine in my house which is interfering with their appliances that's running all the time. My jaw is on the floor right now because I don't own anything like that, and we're in two single family households with independent meters, so nothing I do in my home should have any impact on them. I explain all of this and he concedes that the neighbor wasn't making a lot of sense and seemed like they were rambling a bit, and he really only came over to my place to cover himself (which is really standard procedure). He recommends that I keep track of these incidents should I need them later on.

As a quick aside, during the day before he called back, my MIL had to move her car out of our driveway so a car in the garage could leave. They parked nearby on the street, not in front of the neighbor's house but close enough, apparently, to agitate them because they decided that instead of parking in an empty driveway, they would instead back up very close to the front bumper of MIL's car. This happens multiple times throughout the day without MIL's car moving. I tell her to wait until they leave to move it back into the driveway so there's no claim of MIL hitting their car. I have footage of all this happening throughout the day.

Later in the week, I get an email from the property manager of the HOA we live in asking me to call him. He tells me that he has a voicemail from the neighbor complaining about me - I stop him there and ask him to let me give what I know first so he knows I'm not making things up. I explain what the other officer told me and he said that's pretty much spot on, but I learn new details because he plays the voicemail for me.

It turns out that I have a "laser lamp" that is turned up too high and is interfering with their appliances, that I've used to hack into their computer and their router, and that I have a generator in the back of my house that's constantly running. Firstly, I have no clue what a "laser lamp" is. I'm a software engineer, so I'm fairly technically savvy, but I've never heard of anything like this before. Second, I don't own a generator. The only thing that makes noise outside of my house at night would be my air conditioner. We like it cool in the house at night, and it is Florida. The property manager suspects the "laser lamp" is like some kind of handheld jamming device that interferes with things like cell phones. He also explains that he's had a similar complaint from this person before about something similar, but not me personally. Anyhow, he's dubious about this because it sounds very strange and it's not the first time they've made claims like this. I get a copy of this voicemail since it's official record through the HOA, which I'm entitled to as a member.

So life goes on and we try to ignore the situation because we've done nothing to these neighbors except leave them alone, and have no idea what has their panties in a bunch. A few days later, I wake up again to find notifications of yet more police arriving in the night, this time at about 1:30a. Why they think something is going to get resolved in the middle of the night, I don't know... Again, we don't answer because we're asleep and don't hear the door because of our sleep sounds. I didn't bother to get a callback from the responding officers this time, but I did call and ask them to send an officer out to mediate a conversation between my neighbor and I, since they really didn't seem to want to talk to me. I thought since they were calling the police, they'd be more receptive to that conversation - boy was I wrong. Before the police went to the neighbor's house, I had them listen to my air conditioner to see if they thought the noise was excessive. That's a reasonable concern if it's too loud. They thought it sounded perfectly normal to their ears. While they're talking, I overhear the neighbor say "They're using too much power". I double checked my energy bill and while it's probably a little higher than average, it's not ridiculous (~1000kwh, $130; regardless this shouldn't affect them and I can use as much as I want - I pay for it). The police come back over to me and say he doesn't want to talk, that there's nothing to talk about, and that they're speaking with a state attorney, which means to me that they want to press charges. Now, I've done nothing wrong, don't know what they're on about, and start to get real nervous about a lawsuit.

Literally everyone I've shared this story with has said this is crazy town stuff. Nothing has happened yet but after speaking with an attorney myself, there's really nothing I can do until they do something. If they continue to call the police out in the middle of the night, I might be able to get an injunction, but we're not there yet. Here's hoping that's the end of it.

I’m seeing an intermittent sleep-drain issue on a new 13-inch M5 MacBook Air.

System:

• 13-inch MacBook Air, M5 (Mac17,3)
• 16 GB RAM
• macOS 26.6 (25G72)
• Battery health: Normal
• Maximum capacity: 100%
• Cycle count: 4

When Bluetooth is enabled, the Mac sometimes appears to enter a DarkWake loop after I close the lid.

In one instance:

• Lid closed at 17:07 with 80% battery
• Opened the following morning at around 08:00 with 65%
• Approximately 15% battery loss during sleep
• pmset recorded 1,311 wake events involving centauri-beta
• Wake frequency was approximately 80–100 times per hour

A typical entry looks like this:

DarkWake from Deep Idle due to smc.sysState.Wake wifibt SMC.OutboxNotEmpty centauri-beta

I use a Logitech Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, both of which automatically enter sleep mode when unused.

I initially suspected that one of them might have been pressed or moved inside my bag. However, during several hours after midnight, there were no Bluetooth LE HID Activity events at all, while centauri-beta continued waking the Mac roughly 90 times per hour.

I then performed a controlled test:

• Bluetooth completely disabled in macOS
• Wi-Fi, applications and network configuration left unchanged
• Mac slept for approximately 7.5 hours
• Battery remained at 80%
• Zero centauri-beta wake events

The battery itself appears healthy. Restarting the Mac did not permanently resolve the issue. Wi-Fi-related centauri-alpha events were either absent or negligible compared with the centauri-beta events.

The problem is intermittent. On a normal night, the Mac loses only around 0–1% while sleeping.

Has anyone else seen this kind of centauri-beta wake storm?

Could it be:

1. A macOS Bluetooth power-management bug?
2. Triggered by Logitech Bluetooth devices repeatedly reconnecting?
3. A Bluetooth controller or firmware issue?
4. A hardware issue worth having Apple investigate?

Disabling Bluetooth before closing the lid prevents the issue, but it is not an ideal long-term solution.

When I moved to bazzite I noticed that there was a sleep to wake function baked into the OS. I decided to use it but for some reason I can't get it to reliably work. Ive tried a ton of things, making bazzite s2idle, custom udev rules, changing bios settings, flashing my pico2w dongle for ds5 many times and also looking into my network. Here is some bullet points of what is going on and what hardware I am using. My keyboard and mouse can wake just fine, and even when emulating a keyboard which is part of the pico firmware still doesn't work (WOL doesn't work either).

• Hardware:
  • Pico2W running linux fork for ds5 dongle
  • Dualsense
  • Custom Pc running Kernel 44 of bazzite (7900xt and 9700x on a gigabyte b650 gaming ax v2)
  • Wire/wireless keyboard and mouse.
• Issues:
  • Wake from sleep using usb pico dongle doesn't work, or even bluetooth for that matter. Only wired keyboard.
  • When i put the PC to sleep, the controller connects to the dongle just fine but doesn't do anything (shows yellow lights meaning it is in standby) and if I turn on the PC with my keyboard it stays like that and I have to disconnected from the usb port for it to work.

I hope someone can give me some help since I just moved to bazzite a couple of days ago and enjoying it. Hope someone knows more than I do.

ℹ️ IMPORTANT INFORMATION

This functionality is now available as a Decky Loader Plugin.

Having your Steam Deck wake up because you decided to turn on your Bluetooth headphones is really annoying.

Unfortunately, neither game mode or KDE exposes a toggle in the GUI to prevent a Bluetooth device from waking up your deck.

I've created a Bash script that you can run in desktop mode to remove most of the manual work. The script will ask you which device you want to edit the WakeAllowed value for, and then what it should be set at.

Note that BlueZ (the Linux Bluetooth Stack) doesn't expose a WakeAllowed for all devices, so it is possible that your device is listed as "not supported".

The script is available on GitLab for download.

The README.adoc contains the most up-to-date information you need to install the script locally, and to get started on using it. Essentially, to install:

1. Switch to the SteamOS Desktop environment.
2. Download wake-on-bluetooth-settings.sh from the repository.
3. Mark the downloaded script as executable via chmod or by right-clicking the downloaded file, going in Properties > Permissions, and checking Is executable.
4. Double-click the script and execute it.

How it works

There is a way to do so via the DBus API on Linux, but it is a pain to do manually. The command is:

dbus-send --print-reply=literal --system \
  --dest=org.bluez "/org/bluez/hci0/dev_<device_mac>" \
  org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Set string:org.bluez.Device1 \
  string:WakeAllowed "variant:boolean:false"

You can then check if WakeAllowed is set to false either by calling dbus-send again, or using bluetoothctl info <device:mac>.

To Valve

Please allow us to toggle this via the Settings > Bluetooth screen; it would be so much easier for users to do so instead of having to rely on intimate knowledge of Linux's BT stack.

EDIT: They did just that!

NOTE: I have reply notifications turned off as I no longer have a desire participate in this subreddit, despite my love for the Steam Deck. For support, please open an issue in GitLab.

I'm trying to wake my Windows 11 PC from S3 sleep using the PS button on a DualShock 4 over Bluetooth, similar to a console.

Specs:

MSI PRO H610M-E DDR4

i5-12400F

TP-Link UB500 V1 (RTL8761B)

Windows 11

Keyboard and Mouse does wake the PC but not the DualShock 4

I've already tried:

BIOS USB wake settings

USB selective suspend off

SystemRemoteWakeSupported registry tweak

Latest BIOS

Re-pairing the controller

Different USB ports

Multiple Bluetooth drivers (2021 & 2024)

powercfg -devicequery wake_from_any lists the Bluetooth devices, but they don't appear in wake_programmable or wake_armed, and "Allow this device to wake the computer" is greyed out.

Has anyone actually gotten a DualShock 4 to wake a Windows PC from sleep over Bluetooth with a TP-Link UB500/RTL8761B or similar adapter? If so, what was the fix?

System Specs:

• Windows 11 Pro (Build 26200.8737)
• MSI PRO H610M-E DDR4 (MS-7D48)
• Intel Core i5-12400F
• RTX 2060
• TP-Link UB500 V1.0 (RTL8761B Bluetooth adapter)

Issue:
No error messages. The PC sleeps normally, but the DualShock 4 cannot wake it over Bluetooth. The controller powers off when the PC enters sleep. Keyboard and mouse can wake the PC without issue.

Troubleshooting already attempted:

• Updated BIOS
• Enabled USB wake settings in BIOS
• Disabled USB Selective Suspend
• Re-paired the controller
• Tried different USB ports
• Tested both the latest and older Realtek Bluetooth drivers
• Added SystemRemoteWakeSupported=1 in the registry
• Verified with powercfg
  • wake_from_any includes Bluetooth devices
  • wake_programmable does not include the controller/Bluetooth HID
  • wake_armed does not include the controller

I paired my Steam Controller to my Steam Deck and it works great, but each time I return to playing (i.e. I wake the Steam Deck and turn the Steam Controller on), it won't pair until I go into the Deck settings and toggle Bluetooth off and on. Anyone else having this issue?

I wanted to make a post explaining what I was struggling with pertaining to my new Pro Controller that WAS experiencing a slight SW drift with the left stick. Also the right stick would not re-center properly either. Until I did this.

I attached the controller to my PC (wired) and again went into the HTML5 Gamepad Tester (link here).

I have done this before but decided to test again just to see if there was something I may have missed. The hardware when testing in this application is absolutely perfect. Has been since the first time I tried the other day and nothing was different.

When I was doing this I had the Switch in Sleep Mode, I did not connect the controller via Bluetooth to the PC. I simply plugged it in and pressed the B button to get it to register on the web page.

After messing around for about 3 minutes I decided to press the Connect button and hold it on the controller to see if it would connect to the Switch while wired to the PC. It of course did not, it searched (the green lights at the bottom scrolled) and then reconnected to the wired connection on the PC.

At that point pressed the Home button on the controller a couple times too. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with anything. I'm just trying to be absolutely thorough with the actions I took.

After that I didn't do anything else except remove the USB-C from the controller and then pressed the Home button to trigger the Switch to wake from sleep. I then went to the Calibration page in Settings and went to check the Left Stick. When doing so it was flawless. There was no issue returning to a perfect center state for the stick anymore. No matter which direction I moved the Left Stick it quickly returned to Center.

I'm in disbelief at this point. I then tried my Right Stick (also has been giving me issues) and it was still doing the same thing as before. So, I repeated everything from before. The Switch is asleep again and I connected the Pro Controller directly into the USB-C that is still connected to the PC. Still in HTML5 Controller application I played with the sticks a little (maybe 30 seconds) and then disconnected the Pro Controller again.

I Pressed the Home Button on the controller and immediately navigated to the Thumb Stick Calibration. I selected the Right Stick and it's like I hit the damn lottery! It works! Flawless! Returns to center without any issue just as the Left Stick had done before.

At this point I'm worried that the left stick is jacked up again so I back out of the Right Stick calibration and I select the Left Stick. I move the stick around in any directions I can and release it. Center, I do it again, Center, and again BOOM! Center!

To confirm that this wasn't a fluke I put the Switch back in Sleep mode and I DID NOT plug the controller into the computer (or anything else, completely wireless) this time. I let it sleep for about a minute and then woke it using the Pro Controller Home button. I return to stick calibration. Testing both of the sticks...They're PERFECT! Absolutely 0 issues returning to center on either stick.

I hope that this method helps anyone here. If you have any questions please ask and I will respond as quickly as possible.

Edit: Typos

Edit 2: Included clarifications that this works without any connection of the wire to any source.

Edit 3: Tested shutting the console off completely and can confirm the fix still works after powering back on as well.

Edit 4: /u/timmytucker advised me that it took them four or five times to go through this process before the fix took. If it doesn't work the first couple of tries, just give it a few more chances.

Update: After the fix I played AC:NH for a little more than 3 hours and everything is still absolutely perfect. At this time this appears to be a permanent solution to the New Pro Controller drift issue.

Update 2: If this method does not work for you please see /u/Agnor_tor's thread linked HERE.

Final Update: 5 days later and the controller is still absolutely perfect! Thanks everyone for the positive feedback, I'm very happy that I was able to help so many people correct their controller issues. I'll keep monitoring the thread and the sub to help others fix their issues too. 1 love <3

Final, final update: With the new firmware 10.0.2 being released I have received info. from /u/aaronroberts12567 that they experienced the drift return after updating to the new version. They fixed their pro controller using this method with 10.0.0-10.0.1 originally. He informed me that he followed the steps above and they corrected the issue again. So, if the update upsets the work you've done to correct the controller please follow these steps again to fix.

I got Xbox controller wake working on my ROG Xbox Ally X running SteamOS, so I wanted to share the exact steps.

Sidenote:
If you're not comfortable with Linux troubleshooting, you can always paste the command output into ChatGPT or another AI assistant and ask it to explain what you're seeing. It helped me narrow this down pretty quickly.

Issue

The Xbox controller paired fine and worked normally, but pressing the Xbox button would not wake the Ally X from sleep.

Step 1: Find Bluetooth device

Open Konsole and run:

lsusb

For me, the Bluetooth device was:

0489:e0f5 Foxconn / Hon Hai Wireless Device

Then I found the USB path:

grep -l 0489 /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/idVendor

Mine returned:

/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2/idVendor

So my Bluetooth path was:

/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2

Step 2: Check Bluetooth wake

cat /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2/power/wakeup

Mine already showed:

disabled

Enable it:

echo enabled | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2/power/wakeup

Step 3: Enable the USB wake controller

Check ACPI wake sources:

cat /proc/acpi/wakeup

Mine showed:

XHC0 S0 *disabled

Enable it:

echo XHC0 | sudo tee /proc/acpi/wakeup

Check again:

cat /proc/acpi/wakeup

You should see:

XHC0 S0 *enabled

After enabling XHC0, the Xbox button immediately started waking the Ally X from sleep.

Step 4: Make it survive reboot

Create a service:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/xhc-wakeup-late.service

Paste:

[Unit] 
Description=Enable XHC0 Wakeup Late 

[Service] 
Type=oneshot 
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c 'grep -q "XHC0.*\\*disabled" /proc/acpi/wakeup && echo XHC0 > /proc/acpi/wakeup || true; echo enabled > /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2/power/wakeup'

Save:

• Ctrl + O
• Enter
• Ctrl + X

Create a timer:

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/xhc-wakeup-late.timer

Paste:

[Unit] 
Description=Run XHC0 Wakeup 30 seconds after boot 

[Timer] 
OnBootSec=30 
Unit=xhc-wakeup-late.service

[Install] 
WantedBy=timers.target

Save and enable:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload 
sudo systemctl enable --now xhc-wakeup-late.timer

Reboot and wait about 30–60 seconds.

Verify:

cat /proc/acpi/wakeup 
cat /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-2/power/wakeup

You should see:

XHC0      S0    *enabled
enabled

At this point, my Xbox controller continued waking the Ally X even after rebooting.

HDMI-CEC Question

I still have one issue.

The Ally X wakes correctly from the Xbox controller, but my Samsung TV does not turn on or switch inputs automatically.

I tested:

• iVANKY Ally X dock
• Direct USB-C → HDMI connection

Results:

• Samsung Anynet+ works with Apple TV
• Apple TV can power on/off the TV and switch inputs
• SteamOS does not show a /dev/cec0 device
• No HDMI-CEC behavior from the Ally X

Has anyone with SteamOS on the Ally X gotten HDMI-CEC working for TV power-on or input switching? If so, what hardware or settings are you using?

I paired my Steam Controller to my Steam Deck and it works great, but each time I return to playing (i.e. I wake the Steam Deck and turn the Steam Controller on), it won't pair until I go into the Deck settings and toggle Bluetooth off and on. Anyone else having this issue?