Gamesir T4 Kaleid Review

Manufacturer: Gamesir
Where to Buy: Gamesir
RRP: £41.00 or regional equivalent

The Gamesir T4 Kaleid is Gamesir’s latest foray into the world of controllers, with this one focusing on PC, AndroidTV 8.0 and up, and Nintendo Switch play. Yes, it unfortunately won’t work on the Xbox (even though it uses the Xbox button layout), but we’re happy to have something else to check out the PC Game Pass – or indeed Cloud Gaming – library with.

That one caveat out of the way, the T4 Kaleid is a surprisingly decent pad. It’s a little on the lighter side than we’re used to, but it’s far from uncomfortable to hold and use. Set up is easy too; just plug and play. When used on PC, there is a T4 Kaleid app that allows us to customise the buttons, lights, vibration, and sticks across three profiles. We didn’t have a great deal of success with this early on as nothing seemed to save properly, but we got there in the end.

Comfort is one thing, but if the feel while playing is off then that’s another matter. Thankfully, the T4 Kaleid is a pretty solid contender. It’s not going to challenge the best out there, but for what is a relatively cheap price (around £35 at time of writing) this punches above its weight in some areas.

For one thing, the now-almost-mandatory back buttons are present and correct. We only get two, but they are of course customisable and nicely placed to rest under our middle finger. They – as well as the rest of the face buttons – have a click to them, though a slight softness to so as to not sound like we’re sending a wartime SOS. The Hall Effect triggers are decent, offering full range of motion. We did find them to be a tad too light to the touch, but this could also be where we’re used to more intensive variants on Xbox with haptic feedback. The sticks work as expected and are thankfully concave rather than convex (most seem to taking this more sensible approach now).

Despite not working on an Xbox, these have clearly been looking at that design for inspiration and it pays off well. Even as far as the grips are concerned, there’s a nice matt-texture finish to the underside, letting us grip this that much easier. The transparent case feels incredibly sturdy too despite the cheap price tag. It’s survived a few drops and bumps in the few weeks we’ve had it with no sign of wear or tear at all.

In terms of playing our PC/Xbox Cloud gaming options, this has proven to be a decent stand in to our Elite or regular Series pad. It lacks some of the punch of the Xbox controllers in terms of feedback but on the whole we’ve enjoyed using it. When paired with a Switch or certain PC games things get even better as the T4 Kaleid even includes motion control. Playing our go to test game Fortnite saw us get the benefit of both worlds – we’ve a proper decent control layout to play with, but also that motion aiming for fine tuning shots. Even better, we can get a slight edge on Xbox players even when playing on Cloud Gaming as the motion controls are supported there too. Xbox and motion controls…poor Kinect was before it’s time!

Our main gripes with the come in the forms of the D-Pad feeling a little squishy, and the short 2m USB-C cable included. Even in our relatively snug set up we need a 3m at least, so the Switch got yanked off the stand more than once during play. It is detachable, though be sure the check the housing on any replacement cable as we’ve found most of ours that we have lying around wouldn’t fit the opening on the controller.

 We’re also not entirely clear on the Android side of things. Plugging it into our Samsung phone for some cloud gaming yielded no luck, though there is inconsistent messaging about it being for AndroidTV rather than phones, which is not clear until we got into the manual (and even then it’s still not fully obvious). There are other 100% functioning pads out there if you’re looking for something for your phone, so just bear that in mind.

Conclusion

All in all though, the Gamesir T4 Kaleid is a decently priced entry into controller market, with the downsides easily outweighed by the ups. It has a good feel to it, the snazzy transparent body looks cool and feels sturdy, and outside of the D-pad the actual use of the T4 Kaleid feels pretty damn close to its more expensive counterparts (and we even get some sneaky motion control thrown in on PC and Xbox games).

Hardware provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.