That controller is the lynchpin for making a mini PC my future home theater center. I care for it more than the steam machine
this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2026
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Steam Hardware
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Same. Its a perfect device for running an HTPC / living room gaming device. Im planning navigate through streaming options, kodi, steam remote play, moonlight, and a bunch of emulators all with the same controller.
I hear yeah, I want that Controller, its everything I asked for after using the Deck plus more. My Steam Account is preloaded with Money cause I remember when the Steam Deck went pre order the payment processing couldnt keep up. Frame is interesting. But probably way to expensive for the little interest I have.
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Look up the Logitech k400. All my home theaters have computers and they all have that keyboard hahaha
Same! It's perfection.
I was reading that comment and thinking, how will you type!?
I hope it's not the same horrendous on screen keyboard as with the previous controller.
It’s okay, if it’s the steam deck type. Each thumb is half a keyboard. It’s okay… but it’s not anything like having a nice full size TLK keyboard with a touchpad! I would LOVE a wireless mech touchpad keyboard that can switch between devices. I have a RK 98 keyboard that can do wireless2.4, wired, and three BT devices—my dream is that keyboard but with a touchpad built in! Alas, the k400 is the best we can get right now, and that’s okay. My only issue was figuring out how we kept enabling and disabling tap-to-click… it took us YEARS to realize we were accidentally hitting FN+clic! x3
I know you didn't ask but i recommend looking into a rii mini keyboard with trackpad as well.
Got the Rii 4 recently to use with my Steam Deck since I got tired of my Roku I bought 6 years ago sending telemetry/statistics outbound (and getting blocked by my PiHole/router combo) that I unplugged it and threw it into a drawer. Excellent little piece of kit!
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Will pay a frankly humiliating amount of money to get one of these ASAP. My OG Steam Controller (my second, in fact) is on death's door.
Fortunately it doesn't contain RAM or flash storage or a GPU, so you may not need to go to humiliation levels of money.
I hear you. I preloaded my Steam with 150cad. During the steam deck pre order the hold up when the website worked was payment processors.
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I guess worth noting for Steam newbies:
The trackpads can be configured to act as basically any possible kind of input.
You can break them down into 4 way buttons, 8 way buttons, 2 buttons, one button... make them work as a joystick, or as a mouse... they click in a bit at multiple points...
So, if you prefer a different kind of thumbstick orientation, you can basically emulate it.
Literally all of the buttons on one of these things can be reconfigured to do a whole bunch of crazy shit, you can make macros, you can make it so that a little hud popup with scrollable selectable options pop up, you can make combos of key presses do different specific inputs, you can make a turbo function.... etc.
Hell, you can make the gyros act as a mouse/joystick input, in several different modes, maybe only when you hold the aim button down, if you want that.
Anything you run through Steam can be made to work this way with the Steam Input system they invented for with the Steam Deck, the Steam Controller 2.0 is basically a shrunk down Steam Deck without the PC and screen.
If they're the same track pads as on the Steam Deck they don't actually physically click in anywhere, but they have really good pressure sensitivity and can be configured to deliver a haptic feedback "click" back to your thumb when you press hard enough. It feels just like clicking a physical button, but it's all a clever electronic illusion.
To test this on a Deck, try clicking with the unit switched off and keep trying as you hit the power button and it starts up.
To test this on a Deck, try clicking with the unit switched off and keep trying as you hit the power button and it starts up.
I genuinely thought my Deck had a defect when the trackpads didn't click when it was asleep. Like I had somehow ruined the trackpads.
The haptic feedback is so god damn good, it fooled me.
Ah, you're correct!
It quite literally fooled me, but you are right.
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And the haptics feel fantastic, you can't really judge it correctly without feeling it
I think they actually use a setup of basically .... something like minature subwoofers, but I'm not 100% sure of that.
It's voice coils all the way down, baby!
I really like how rotating the camera works on the track pad - the right track pad works as a right joystick, but crucially has momentum. So I could do a quick swipe on the pad and the camera would continue moving for a moment after. It also allows fine speed control by changing how quickly I swipe. Once I got used to it, I could make very quick and accurate orientation changes. Much better than joystick imo where you have to hold it down, using up your thumb for a second or two while you turn. As a bonus, the track pad also could be used as buttons so your thumb is already in position to get mashing again.
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I have a setup with my Dualsense Edge (and Steam Deck) for FPS games where I use flick stick and gyro to aim, and swipe on the touchpad to switch weapons. It works disgustingly well. I play FPS games on controller now.
I'm too twitchy for gyro aim to be better than just using the sticks. My crosshair would just be jiggling all over 😔
Gross!
This is the only new valve hardware I am interested in. I love the steam deck track pads, so having them on a controller will be awesome.
Gimme gimme gimme
After getting the Steam Deck 2 months ago and playing quite some time with it I used my Xbox One controller this weekend for this first time since it couple of months.
It felt weird. Just because the ergonomics of the Steam Deck are actually pretty good.
I thought about getting the Steam Controller (once it's released). But I am still no fan of both sticks being in such a low position. The thing I really like about the Steam Deck is the fact, that all primary inputs (sticks, face buttons and d-pad) are positioned at the same height.
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I have a bunch of nice controllers that all work on my gaming PC and Macs, etc.
But I’ll probally buy one of these too. I feel like it’s compulsory in a weird nagging way.
Maybe get some Decks back in, first...
I want this controller, but I am so annoyed that no controller on the planet comes with separated directional buttons for the D-Pad. Accidental diagonal input is the bane of my existence. The Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons have separate buttons and I freaking love it! But the ONLY reason they did that is to allow them to serve as ABXY when held sideways. No "real" controller does this.
The only option I've found to achieve this is to get a PlayStation controller (PS4 or PS5), and mod it with a kit that separates the buttons under the faceplate. But the extra features of the Steam Controller sound too good to sacrifice just for that.
The only D-Pad I've ever actually liked is the 3DS (XL), because it's so clicky and never caused accidental diagonal input. Seriously, how do people accept this crap?
So yeah, I really hope the D-Pad on this is clicky. I'll probably be buying it either way.
luckily the steam controller is very configurable. All the buttons can be remapped, with layers, for basically anything you could imagine. I have an OG steam controller that I use to play helldivers 2. The OG steam controller does not have a D pad at all, and D pad input is very important in that game. Normally you hold LB and then use the D pad to input stuff. So for the steam controller, I added a layer where when holding LB (and only when holding LB) the ABXY buttons become a D pad. So it's ABXY or a D pad depending on the context and proper layers mean I don't even have to think about it. I'm sure if the D pad on this one isn't clicky enough, you could do something like that.
It's an interesting thought, but no amount of software is going to conjure up new physical buttons. You pretty much always need to use the ABXY buttons at the same time as the D-pad, so this remapping trick wouldn't be possible.
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I have a first gen but I'm not really a fan. My one non-gamer kid likes it though.
The issue with the first one is that it loses basic controller functionality for the touchpads. Many games that come with controller support don't work well on it without adjusting the controls.
The new steam controller should be fully functional as a standard controller, while having a lot more capabilities when the user can use them.
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Hell yes.
Inject it straight to my htpc!
Oh snap it's got the Playstation joystick config.... I kinda want this to replace my dying DS4 I've repaired a few times now. I wonder how easy it'll be to reach over those pads and touch the sticks
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Yay. My Playstation controller is at the point where it needs to be replaced. It's got both battery capacity issues and charging issues. I'm hoping that the Steam controller lasts longer than the PS4 Pro controller b/c for the price that Sony charges, I'd expect those to last longer than mine has, especially given how little time I spend playing / using it.
I've been looking forward to the Steam controller. I was starting to think I should give up and just go get another PS controller. Granted, I'm sure I won't get a first release Steam controller. They'll have a limited quantity and wouldn't surprise me if they're gone by the time that the steam store has recovered from the outage and bugs that crop up every time a new product goes on sale.
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I'm waiting years for this, even longer than the Steam Deck exists! I think that I buy it twice, one to use it and the second one unpacked as a collectors item (plus as a backup). :-)
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