Pelican Edge Wireless Controller

Added January 11th, 2005 by

Wireless controllers rock. More people and companies seem to be learning this too, but not Microsoft, as there is still no first party wireless controller. However, in place of first party controllers are some great third party products, which is where this new Pelican controller comes in. Enter the Pelican Edge Wireless Controller, which is the next step up from the Pelican Eclipse. After leaving me incredibly pleased with their previous offering, I instantly picked this up, especially since it carries a meager $30 MSRP.

While the Eclipse was a bit smaller than the S controller, the Edge is a bit larger, though not a very noticeable size difference. It’s still modeled after the S controller and feels very similar. The joysticks are slightly looser and taller than one might be used to, but I found becoming accustomed to them was pretty simple. The letter face buttons have also been improved. Some people complained about the Eclipse’s buttons being hard to push, which has been fixed, along with the buttons themselves. The Edge sports smooth buttons (like the Microsoft made controllers), while the old Eclipse had grooved letters on the buttons, which would sometimes hurt your fingers after extended amounts of play. Also, the best part of the Eclipse is the extra black and white buttons, which have been improved. The d-pad is average with a slight change for the better, but not by much. I found it to be satisfactory overall. The buttons are not labeled with little white letters indicating what buttons they are, they are actually colored white and black, making it much easier to check which is which.

One of the biggest changes is that this controller is now 2.4GHz instead of the 900MHz frequency that the previous controller sported. I found the “upgrade” did not deliver performance as well as the 900MHz previous model had. At 2.4GHz, the Edge worked well up to a distance of 40 feet, while the 900MHz Eclipse worked double that at 80 feet. At reasonable ranges the controller worked pretty well, although I did have some minor connection issues in the beginning. The controller still doesn’t have a memory port on it for wireless Xbox Live and the connector only has one this time. The connector itself is much more simplistic and will automatically find any signals aided by the one button on it that manually scans for frequencies.

This controller, as a whole, is much easier and more efficient to use. As with the connector, there is only one non-game related button on it. The older Eclipse had two switches on each, one for finding frequencies on the connector and one for doing the same on the controller, while the other one on the controller switched between power off, power on with vibration and power on with no vibration. The Edge simplifies things with a single power button, which only requires a gentle press to turn on the controller and to select a stronger or weaker vibration. The power LED is a bright green and flashes when the Xbox is turned off to let you know the controller has been left on, which is a great battery saving improvement as the Eclipse’s LED turned off when the Xbox did. To turn off, the power button needs to be held for a brief period. This is great to prevent accidental disconnects. I wish powering on was the same just to save as much battery life as possible. To make things even better for the forgetful people in the world, the controller has a power save function. When not in use, such as during long cutscenes, it will shut off by itself after fifteen minutes of nonuse, which means this controller won’t waste your batteries when you’re watching, instead of watching games like Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. One minor complaint is that the plastic covering for the batteries is not connected to the controller likethe previous model, which means that it can and probably will be lost. Still only two batteries are needed and I’m sure they last longer than the forty hours Pelican claims.

As a whole, this is a fantastic controller. Pelican’s Edge controller improves upon the Eclipse in many ways. The comfortable S-type feel is still there, and the essential extra black and white buttons have been properly colored. Logically, the drop to 40 feet in range shouldn’t ever be a problem, but the connector’s cord length from port to connector has been cut from 24” to 7”, which may be problematic to some. With my main complaints being the battery cover and the slight button press required to turn the controller on, which is pretty much negated by the power saving, you know that this controller is good. The buttons are easier and more comfortable to press, the grips feel better, the LED is brighter and more efficient, the controller is simpler, vibration is stronger and most importantly there is power saving and auto-off. While it would’ve been nice to be able to talk on Xbox Live with this controller, there are just too many good things about this controller not to pick it up. This controller is low priced at only $30, built sturdy and especially if you don’t care about Xbox Live communication, then you have no reason not to own this. With the positives so vastly outweighing the negatives, this is my current favorite Xbox controller and a must own. If you pick up one wireless controller, make it this one.