ASTRO Gaming C40 TR Controller - PlayStation 4

Product Information

While the software is a bit temperamental on PC and its price tag is eye wateringly high, those after a best-in-class pad to help take your competitive gaming to the next level will struggle to do better than the Astro C40.

The only workaround I found was to go into the PC’s system settings and manually force the machine to view the C40 as an Xbox 360 remote. This meant it would work for gaming, but the configuration software still wouldn’t recognise it, removing one of the key reasons you’d want it. Astro claims that the C40 boasts up to 12 hours of battery life, but we didn't get a chance to sit down for an all-day gaming session to put that claim to the test. We can attest that we didn't really have to worry about having to stop playing games to put it on a charger. It's good that we didn't have to worry about the controller running out of battery, because when you're on PS4, you can't actually see the battery status. The software features a great UI that makes remapping a trivial matter and is the best experience I’ve had since the Steam Controller – though that comes with its own performance issues I won’t discuss here. It lets you remap and adjust critical things like sensitivity on pretty much every one of the controller’s inputs. As an added perk the controller can store two configurations locally, so you won’t have to start from scratch if you connect it to a second PC.

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You can create as many of these profiles as you want, and then sync two to your C40 at a time. Switching between the onboard profiles is simple: you just flip a switch at the top of the device. That means unless you’re often switching between three games with vastly different profiles mapped, once you've got a few customizations you prefer, you really won’t have to rely on the software—especially given the C40’s UL and UR remapping.

The Astro C40 is designed to work with PC and PS4. As a result, its button layout is tailored to Sony’s console, not Microsoft’s out of the box. But that doesn’t stop it having a completely unique look and feel to competing controllers with the same layout, like the Razer Raiju Ultimate Edition. I had to switch left and right analogs because it was not functioning properly, but overall it's a magnificent controller. I despise consoles and controller type games, but I am glad I didn't buy the steam controller and bought the Astro. Astro Gaming - C40 TR Controller is the ultimate controller, in my opinion. It has many options to customize your experience to suit your play style. Personally, I don't trust wireless connection, so I always connect it via USB.PS: if anything gets worn out, yo u can replace analogs and arrows and quite frankly, it is not expensive to do so. Read full review Then, at the top of the controller, between the aforementioned triggers, there are two more red switches. One will switch the controller betweenUSB mode and wireless mode, while the other will let you switch between two profiles. Over the last few years, gaming peripherals have been growing sleeker, thinner, lighter and more attractive. The Astro C40 ignores all of that. The same could be said for every game I played: healing in Apex Legends, sprinting and melee'ing in Call of Duty, cycling through items in Sekiro. The new triggers vastly improved all of these actions. And while that branding does exist, both the words written on the sides and the faceplate don’t look quite as dorky as expected. Regardless, I’m not a fan of all the red accents on the controller. Astro has all but confirmed plans to sell additional faceplates, and the red lettering and trigger stops are going to make many—if not most—color combos look kind of weird. Pop a green faceplate on this thing, and it’ll look like a Christmas miracle at the local GameStop.

Thankfully that was pretty much the only issue I had with the C40. The controller features the same wired and wireless connectivity as the Razer Raiju and Xbox Elite 2. But the inclusion of a 2.4GHz dongle for PC makes connection stability noticeably better than Razer’s Bluetooth connectivity. To date, I’m yet to experience any latency using the controller, even when gaming wirelessly. I paid a pretty penny for mine like new, almost "two dollars", but I would say it is worth it, and that the design and quality for sure meet my expectations. I am ultimately not disappointed at all. There is hope though and as I mentioned at the beginning of the article I will answer the question How To Use Astro C40 Tournament Controller on PS5 since it is possible. You can use the Astro C40 controller on the PS5 while you play PS4 games, but for those PS5 titles you are going to have to use a third party device called the Cronus Zen. The C40 comes with a wireless dongle that plugs directly into your PS4’s USB slots. (That also means if you’re trying to ball out with four of these puppies, you’ll need a USB hub.) Astro claims this proprietary dongle helps the C40 sustain a fast, reliable connection, but anyone worried about wireless latency can use the controller in wired mode. One thing we can't get out of our minds is that Astro could havetrimmed this controller down in size shrinking that PS4 TouchPad. You could shave off half an inch, and not only would it be more comfortable to hold, but it might stop us from hitting the pad on accident when we're going for the options button.title=More%20Expert%20Tech%20Roundups&type=articles%2Cvideos&tags=tech-roundup&count=6&columnCount=6&theme=article The only downside is that the software doesn’t work with the PS4 and at times can be incredibly buggy. For reasons I still can’t explain, the software wouldn’t recognise the C40 on some of the PCs I tested it on. Turning the C40 over shows several of the hallmarks of pricey enthusiast and custom controllers. Two additional triggers, UL and UR, sit against the grip where your middle fingers rest naturally. A small remapping button between them lets you manually assign them inputs, if you don't want to use the Astro software to customize everything. Two small rest switches above the triggers activate or disable mechanical stops that shorten the L2 and R2 trigger pull distances. On the top edge of the gamepad, two more red switches toggle between wired and wireless modes, and one of two control profiles you can set. A deeply recessed micro USB port between the upper switches lets you plug in the C40 with the included six-foot cable for charging, using the gamepad as a wired controller, or customizing it with Astro's software.

There is software customization as well. I can reassign any input from one button to another in just a few seconds using Astro’s software on a computer. Settings are all saved locally on the controller itself, meaning the changes will carry over no matter what machine I’m playing on. The only disappointing limitation: Astro doesn’t allow reprogramming of the touchpad button. On the PS4 the touchpad will default to its normal function, but on the PC it is essentially worthless. It’s not a dealbreaker, but given just how customizable the rest of the controller is, this is a letdown.On the rear you’ll find trigger stops, enabling either full-analog trigger pulls (for racing games, etc.) or shorter on/off activations (for shooters). Above that are two additional sliders: One swaps between wired and wireless modes, the other between two profile configurations. All of your changes get written directly to the controller, so you can use them with your PS4, or any other PC you want to play on that doesn't have the software. The C40 can store two profiles at once, and switch between them on the fly using the mode switch on the top edge of the gamepad. You can also store unlimited profiles in the Astro software itself, so if you want to tweak your controls for every game you play, you can have them ready to sync and use whenever you want. Playing With the C40