I’ve been very frustrated with the Android docking experience, for the most part. But sometimes, duty calls – and that duty might just look like your mate asking you to hook him up with a retro gaming setup for his 21st birthday party.
And so, I delved into the world of ultra-budget Android controllers. First-party controllers are simply far too expensive to risk around a bunch of drunk 20-somethings playing Mario Kart Wii, so I wanted to keep things cheap and cheerful. So I was rather intrigued when I came across the GameSir Nova Lite, a fully functional PC, Switch, and Android controller — with Hall-effect sticks! — for under $25 USD.
Is it too good to be true? I thought so, but after a month of testing and using it as my main controller, I can say it’s undeniably great value – and it helped me discover a little trick that completely changed my Android docking experience.
Unboxing the GameSir Nova Lite
The unboxing experience is pretty plain. Underneath the usual suspicious-looking AliExpress package wrapper you’ll find a plain cardboard box with monochrome black printing. Straight-laced, to the point, no fancy stuff here.
Inside this plain box, you’ll find the Nova Lite in its included case, along with a QC sticker, and… nothing else. No USB A-to-C cable, no manual, just the controller and a 2.4GHz dongle.
The QR code on the box links to a page titled ‘Nova Lite-Manual’, but it’s completely blank. Luckily, it’s not too difficult to find a copy of the actual manual online.
Fit and Finish
Upon first picking up the Nova Lite, it feels notably, well, light. When you’re not used to it, the controller feels almost toy-like. Coming from the beefier Xbox Series controller (287g) or even the DualShock 4 (216g), the Nova Lite’s 209g feels almost floaty.
The inputs, in my opinion, mostly make up for the weight. The membrane face buttons are thunky and responsive, and the analog triggers are my new favorite; they feel like a near-clone of the DualShock 4 triggers, just longer and better. The real stars of the show here, however, are the hall-effect thumbsticks. Marketing about no stick drift aside, these are the absolute smoothest thumbsticks I have felt in any controller. They beat the DS4 in terms of smoothness, and they make the Xbox controller’s sticks feel like grinding against rough stone in comparison.
The Nova Lite’s controls aren’t perfect, however. The shoulder buttons tend to rock a little from side to side when you press them, though it’s not bad enough that it makes them unusable. They’re just not as tight as the first-party controllers I’m used to. The D-Pad is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it has a pivot which I am a huge fan of. On the other hand, it tends towards accidental diagonals, which makes fighting games difficult. For the genres I usually play on D-Pad, diagonals aren’t a huge deal – but if they matter to you, then this D-Pad is going to need some sticky tape modding to be truly great.
Another issue I noticed is the inconsistency of the feel between controllers. I’m not sure if this is a matter of differing batches or different plastics or something like that, but my black/purple Nova Lite’s buttons feel far looser than all the other controllers, while my transparent black Nova Lite has the tightest buttons of the bunch. I did get my black controller through a third-party seller, so that might have something to do with it – but in any case, the ultra-low MSRP has clearly forced some cost-cutting in the QC department.
Also, while the GameSir wordmark is engraved and the face buttons are double-injection molded, the ‘chicken’ logo on the home button is just printed on. On some controllers, it’s pretty obviously off-center, and it’s not very resilient – accidentally scratching my thumbnail against the logo caused an ugly gash in the print. Luckily, it was pretty easy to just scratch the rest off to leave a blank button.
Colors
The Nova Lite comes in a wide variety of color options. For my four controllers, I went with the basic black/purple and white, along with the transparent black and the ‘Ash Grey’ models.
These basic colorways all sport a little flair with their orange sticks, an obvious homage to the ill-fated Stadia’s controller. Other color options include pink, blue, yellow, and green, along with a couple of special-edition Marvel-themed controllers.
Functionality
Cheap printing aside, the Nova Lite offers a lot of functionality for the price. It has Bluetooth connectivity, and 2.4GHz connectivity with the included dongle (hold Home + X), and of course, it supports a wired connection. It has three separate Bluetooth modes -PC (Home + B), Switch (Home + Y), and Android (Home + A). You can use those same hotkeys to change the controller’s connection mode while in 2.4GHz or wired mode, too.
The battery life and general performance of the controller seem to be about the same between 2.4GHz and Bluetooth, at least in my experience. The 600mAh battery sounds small, especially compared to some handhelds out there, but I haven’t run out of battery yet on any of my controllers. Topping the battery up once, maybe twice a week should keep your controller kicking for as long as you need.
Holding the ‘M’ button at the bottom of the controller allows you to do a couple of interesting things. Holding M and tapping any of the face or shoulder buttons will turn it into a turbo button; M + D-Pad up and down adjusts the intensity of the built-in rumble, from full speed all the way down to fully off; and if you hold M + A for a couple of seconds, you can switch the face button layout from the default PC/Xbox style to Nintendo style. You can also turn the thumbsticks’ dead zones off by pressing the corresponding thumbstick along with the M button.
So there’s a lot of tweaking you can do, and it’s all on-device – no app needed. Fans of more elaborate controllers with extra back paddles, gyro, customizable stick tension, and so on will have to look elsewhere – but for $25, is it really worth asking for more than the basics?
The Android Experience
Features are all well and good, basic or not, but none of that matters if the device doesn’t work well with your platform of choice. Luckily, the Nova Lite plays very well with Android once you get everything set up.
I followed this excellent guide written by RobZombie9043 to get my controllers all set up with my Odin 2. After a couple of hours of setup and troubleshooting, the experience going from handheld to docked is about as seamless as you could hope for. The one exception to this is Yuzu, but they’ve always had a knack for standing out in a bad way, and after yet more troubleshooting it’s nothing a little extra setup can’t fix.
The real game changer, though, is the magic that happens when you plug multiple of these controllers into your device.
Ready for lift-off!
I’ve got all four of my 2.4GHz dongles connected to my Skull & Co. dock via a 4-in-1 USB-A hub, which has given me no issues so far. Going through the motions of setting all these controllers up in my various emulators, though, I noticed an interesting behavior: since these are all basically the same controller, Android gives up on trying to make them fully unique. Instead, it relies on the order in which the controllers are connected to the console.
In other words: if you use more than one of the same controller, Android will treat them like any PC or console would treat controllers. The result is a seamless, plug-and-play multiplayer experience that I thought we’d never get on Android. This weird little trick is why I bought four of these controllers, instead of just two. Of course, you could do this with any controller – but the sheer value and low cost of these controllers make them a uniquely compelling option if you’re looking to build a living-room dock setup for your Android device.
GameSir Nova Lite: Conclusion
I love this controller. I use them everywhere – on the couch, at my PC, at my mate’s place, or at the local retro game meetup. The low price and surprisingly high quality make for a controller that I’m happy to daily drive, but that I won’t be upset about losing or breaking. The fact that it comes bundled with a hard travel case just makes it that much more appealing.
Is it the most feature-rich controller? Definitely not. It’s missing a few things that I’d really rather have, like back paddles and an in-built gyroscope. But the Nova Lite was never meant to compete with more full-featured offerings. GameSir set out to give gamers a basic, no-frills controller with the best bang-for-the-buck you can get in 2024, and personally I think they have absolutely delivered. If you want a cheap, high-quality controller for the Player 2 in your life, or to complement a full lounge room emulation setup, the Nova Lite is a solid offering that is well worth your consideration.
Are you in the market for something like this, or have you already found your perfect living room match? Is there a controller you think should take the spotlight for Value King instead? Let us know in the comments below, or join the discussion on our Discord server!
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