OnLive Universal Wireless Controller review

Overall, the OnLive controller looks like a single block of plastic into which controls have been set, rather than a group of controls that have had plastic molded around them. It’s not particularly bigger than other controllers, but it feels decidedly chunkier, largely because of a decision to square off the top rather than create a valley between the shoulder buttons. The underside, too, tends towards larger, squarer shapes. Where other controllers might have had more open space between the triggers and the central battery, for example, OnLive preferred to create only a small dip between them. Despite the look, there’s nothing here that would make it more difficult to pack or store than your standard controller.

The controller comes with two battery types: a holder for a pair of AAs or a nickel-metal hydride one that’s supposed to charge in 4 to 5 hours and last up to 36. I still haven't worn down the rechargable battery, so I can't speak to its longevity, but OnLive has covered its bases pretty solidly by shipping multiple battery types. Since there’s no battery charger, you’ll need to plug the controller directly into the provided Micro USB cable. Although the provided cable is fairly short, you should still be able to play while charging if you have a longer one on hand.

The controller is solid, although it doesn’t surpass Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 gamepads. The sides and back are smooth matte plastic, with a glossy front panel holding the sticks and buttons. Compared to most third-party devices, the build quality is excellent, but the textures and seams feel less polished than those of Microsoft or Sony controllers. The two analog sticks are set at the bottom of the device, with inset plastic d-pad controls at the upper left. Two flat, triangular rubber buttons serve the "select" and "start" functions, with a concave center button bearing the OnLive logo. These aren’t going to get the heavy use of the other controls, but it’s worth noting that on my unit, the start button (but not the identical select button, for whatever reason) tended to stick a bit, getting caught under the surrounding plastic for a half-second or so at a time.

Besides the aforementioned rubber buttons, the controls are all smooth, opaque black plastic, including the face buttons, which are labeled in the same orange as the OnLive center button. Below the controller, you’ll see a thin row of orange lights that blink in sequence to indicate power and successful pairing, as well as which controller is which in multiplayer games. Visually, the solid black of the front could easily have looked bland, but setting the matte controls against a glossy background and sticking to the orange-on-black OnLive color scheme gives the device a distinctive visual consistency. The only real downside here is that the gloss is a bit of a fingerprint magnet — although ideally, your fingers won’t be spending too much time on the panel.

The biggest perk of the OnLive Universal Controller, as opposed to its MicroConsole counterpart, is the USB dongle and Bluetooth pairing that lets it connect to PCs, tablets, and phones. The pairing and indicator lights both work well, although given that the process isn't obvious, we wish that OnLive had included documentation. Both direct Bluetooth pairing and the dongle work the same — turn on the controller with the center button, make sure that either Bluetooth is enabled or the dongle’s power button has been pressed, and the hold the OnLive and pairing buttons simultaneously.

When using a dongle, the controller will pair after the right buttons are pressed. For Bluetooth, you’ll initially need to go to your control panel and connect the controller, although later pairings with the same machine should happen automatically. I did note a few hiccups when switching between Bluetooth and the dongle — if I paired the controller with a tablet on Bluetooth, then turned off the controller and put the tablet to sleep, the controller wouldn’t see the dongle until I had pulled and replaced its battery. Overall, though, the indicators and two-button pairing system made it clear what was happening, and even the worst-case scenario of replacing the battery doesn’t take more than a second or two.

OnLive’s service is essentially streaming video, and a bad connection will both slow down the framerate and blur the picture. On a traditional PC, the service will prompt you to switch to a wired connection if possible, and on any device, OnLive will simply shut down if the connectivity is deemed subpar. On my roughly 40Mbps home wireless connection, alone and near the router, the service worked phenomenally — it was virtually indistinguishable from a somewhat low-resolution locally-played game. Move a couple of rooms over in my railroad apartment, however, and service would cut off altogether. I guess those concrete walls are thicker than I’d thought.

In a semi-public environment, service was erratic. My wireless office connection wasn’t particularly overburdened, but probably had around ten to fifteen other people on it, and the games I played would range from very clear to almost unplayable, regardless of device. However, unlike at home, I was never cut off completely.

Despite these performance issues, the controller was never anything less than responsive. Any problems with the games felt clearly like problems with the video rather than the controller, regardless of platform. Since the controller uses Bluetooth, which works over the 2.4GHz frequency, I was also warned about potential interference between the Bluetooth connection and the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi that’s used to deliver content. Any issues I found, however, seemed to occur whether or not the controller was connected, and there were no separate issues with control responsivity. If 5GHz Wi-Fi is available, it’s probably worth switching your PC or tablet to use it, but the service is certainly workable either way.

According to OnLive’s site, the controller has been tested with five different tablets: the Acer Iconia Tab A500, ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, Motorola Xoom, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and Toshiba Thrive. In our tests, I used the Eee Pad Transformer running Android 3.2.1 and was not disappointed: after turning on Bluetooth and pairing the gamepad, the controller worked as well as it did on PC. And unlike PC, where OnLive’s offering is stacked against a developed ecosystem of competitors, less attention has been paid to tablet-based gamepads.

The OnLive controller really shines on tablets. The screens of most tablets are large enough to accommodate games made for a TV or monitor, and although it was sometimes awkward to prop up the tablet while holding the controller, tablet stands (or, in the case of the Transformer, keyboards) are relatively common. As on the PC, I wish I could have used the controller for non-OnLive games, but that’s less of an issue on a mostly touch-based platform. Since OnLive works particularly well on tablets, there's a lot of potential here; even so, it would be an even better device if it could be used outside OnLive.

Once again, non-OnLive games recognized the controller but didn’t perform well. Shadowgun let me map the controls without issue, but once I started the game my character spun uncontrollably unless I kept him wedged against cover — an issue I didn’t have with the wired Xbox controller. Weirdly, Angry Birds actually saw the OnLive controller too, allowing me to pause the game with it.

Of all the platforms that support the OnLive controller, the one I was most excited about — and ultimately disappointed by — was the phone. As with the tablet, I had trouble getting the phone propped at a viewable angle, but without a stand or keyboard dock, the issue was much more pronounced. I ended up tilting it against my laptop, which worked well but made the whole experience seem like an exercise in redundancy. And while tablet stands are common, relatively few people carry equipment to prop up their smartphones.

Actually playing on the phone was more of an amusing novelty than anything else. The bright colors and forgiving controls make Lego Batman playable, but the graphically intensive games OnLive is most useful for are almost impossible to play on a phone’s tiny display. Even on a relatively large, high-quality screen like that of the Galaxy Nexus, there's simply no way to pick up fine detail while being far enough from the phone to prop it up. Sure, it's nice to have played the world's tiniest Human Revolution, but you won't get very far if you can barely see the hostiles against a bunch of thumbnail-sized crates. Theoretically, you could plug the phone into a larger display, but what are the odds of having a TV or monitor on hand but no other tablet, computer, or smart TV?

There's also the issue that only Android 4.0 has default support for Bluetooth controllers, meaning that without special apps or hacks, the device really only works on the Galaxy Nexus. This should become less limiting as Ice Cream Sandwich upgrades roll out, but the problems mentioned above still make phones a poor platform for the device. Given that OnLive has developed touchscreen controls for a selection of its games, you may be better off playing those instead.