Nacon’s MG-X Pro Review

Manufacturer: Nacon
Where to Buy: Nacon
RRP: £74.99

I was very high on the MG-X from Nacon a few months back (you can see my review of that unit here), with it offering a solid Game Pass Cloud solution, albeit with one or two niggles such as stiff triggers. Well, Nacon are back with the MG-X Pro and, quite simply, it’s a massive improvement on what was already an excellent device. Across the board, this hits the mark in basically every respect, and is a must buy for those looking for a way to enjoy Game Pass games on their phones.

Unlike the MG-X, the Pro version looks and feels far more like a traditional Xbox controller, down to the grips protruding down instead of echoing a Switch-like aesthetic. Button placement, triggers, bumpers, and, importantly, the analogue sticks all feel identical in placement to the official pads too. The main difference in feel is the weight distribution thanks to having a phone stuck in the middle, but it’s not all that dissimilar in use. Those analogue sticks are nice and responsive – and concave this time too – feeling much better than the MG-X in my hands. The triggers are far better here too; gone are the overly stiff, tiring ones of the MG-X, replaced with genuinely great ones that rival a standard pad. Bumper placement and feel are great too, and again a step up from the MG-X.

So far then, a solid improvement on the last outing. But if you’re new to the Cloud Gaming era, will this go pound for pound against a standard Xbox controller? As long as your internet connection is decent enough to handle Cloud Gaming, then the MG-X Pro is going to let you play as if you were on console. In my time with it I’ve played a slow, single player experience in A Plague Tale: Innocence and a faster online title in Halo Infinite multiplayer and it held up incredibly well. When I played Halo: MCC with the MG-X I found my hands getting slightly tired after a while thanks to those stiff triggers but here, I played for several rounds in a row without issue. In fact, I was constantly surprised at just how well both the device and the stream held up, with me able to top the team’s leaderboard almost every round. Not a usual feat at the best of times, so the fact the MG-X Pro was good enough in conjunction with Cloud Gaming to let me achieve this is quite something indeed.

The grip on the phone is solid, with the left hand side once again sliding out to accommodate up to a 6.7” screen. I did find that my case needed to be removed in order to fit the phone in properly but I also have a fairly bulky case so your mileage on that aspect will vary. A little ridge on the bottom of the device helps rest the phone in the ideal spot, with a slightly rubbery textured back helping grip it in place. Weight balance is good too, avoiding any top or bottom heavy feel that some other solutions can suffer from.

The MG-X Pro connects via Bluetooth, coming with its own battery life that’s stated to be around 20 hours. Handily we can still connect a pair of bluetooth headphones to our phone too as the orientation of the device meant that the headphone jack is covered up while in use. This is also true of the charging port on my (and no doubt most others) phone. Being Bluetooth of course we can leave the phone out if we want to charge and play, but I’d like to see some way of integrating phone charging/headphone jacks in a future model if possible. Otherwise response times and general gameplay feel are incredibly similar to that of native console play.

I’m now sat here trying to rack my brain for any sort of major negatives and, other than the aforementioned headphone jack/charging port quibble, I can’t think of any at all. At £75 it could be seen as a pricey alternative considering we can use the Series pad via Bluetooth to our phone, but in my eyes the ease of use and form factor – as well as not having to carry our consoles pad around with us – more than make up for the extra cost over the standard controller.

Conclusion

So, in terms of look, feel, use, and value for money I don’t think I could recommend the MG-X Pro higher. Those looking for a cloud gaming dedicated controller to take on the go (or, let’s be honest, the toilet) would do very well indeed to check this out. As long as your network connection holds up, this is the best device I’ve used, feeling just like playing on a native device thanks to the similarities to the Series controller. A big improvement on the already great MG-X, and utterly excellent stuff from Nacon.

Hardware provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.