CES, or the Consumer Electronics Show, is upon us once again. At the expo this year, tech-maker Asus unveiled a shiny new peripheral – an officially licensed Xbox controller with a 1.3in OLED display called the ROG Raikiri Pro.
If you’ve ever had an Xbox controller in your hand and thought, “This is cool, but if only it could…”, this controller probably can. Its customisation options are numerous.
This looks like Player One material
To start with, there are three connectivity options: via Bluetooth, 2.4GHz RF with a dongle, or a USB-C cable.
The next glaringly obvious new addition is the aforementioned 1.3in 128×40 OLED display. Asus spent 2022 slapping OLED displays into almost everything it makes. It even made one that folds. Perhaps the company had some leftover OLED cuttings from its laptops.
On the new controller, you’ll be able to program the mini display to show useful information like battery charge, mic status, and current controller profile. Or, if you’d prefer, a custom image, animation, or text.
This isn’t just any old controller you throw at your visiting friend. It has ‘pro’ in the name which automatically makes you a better gamer. To help with that, there are four programmable rear buttons. You’re also able to select between short or full trigger modes.
Asus-piciously good at this
On the front, you’ll find a 3.5mm headphone jack. Behind that is an internal digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) from ESS so we’d expect the audio performance to be at least somewhat better than a stock controller.
Everything else on the front is fairly standard. There’s a D-pad and the familiar coloured ABXY buttons, ready for mashing.
You’ll need to use Asus’ Armoury Crate app to do any adjusting of joystick dead zones or button programming so it’ll be a good idea to have your PC or laptop ready. At least for the initial setup.
The only downside we can see so far is that although Asus is marketing this as an ‘officially licensed’ Xbox controller, and that it supports three connectivity modes, you’ll only be able to connect to your Xbox via a cable. That seems like a massive waste.
Pricing wasn’t even hinted at and we don’t know when exactly it’ll launch or if it’ll even make its way to South Africa. It’s set to turn up in Q2 (April – June) this year.
