SCUF Nomad Mobile Gaming Controller Review

Corsair has been making a big push into seemingly every aspect of gaming, with them already having an amazing range of PC focused products, and then after they purchased SCUF, they dominated the high-end peripheral market, and now they're pushing into mobile gaming with the release of the SCUF Nomad Mobile Gaming Controller. It's pretty well equipped too, with hall effect anti-drift analogue sticks, customisable rear paddle controls like you'd typically find on other SCUF controllers, an ergonomic shape for added comfort, and a pull-out design that allows it to adjust to the size of your mobile phone. There's long battery life, with Type-C charging, and their software is subscription free, something they're quite proud of as some controllers come with paid apps, which seems a bit of a joke, but they do. Anti-drift Thumbsticks: Our Hall effect thumbsticks are more durable. These full-size thumbsticks have interchangeable tops (tall, domed, and concave) to adapt to your play style. Fine-tune the sensitivity of the thumbsticks in the SCUF App to fit your style of gameplay. Customizable Rear Paddles: The two paddles are ergonomically placed on the back of the controller for a natural feeling. Assign in-game actions to the paddles by remapping them to the ABXY or D-Pad functions to keep your thumbs on the sticks for faster reactions. Ergonomic Shape: Designed to fit naturally in your hands, NOMAD's larger size is more comfortable, giving you an enhanced grip to play longer, and better. 16 Hours of Battery Life: Play your favorite controller supported games for up to 16 hours without worrying about draining your phone's battery. A USB-C cable is included for charging to get you back in the game. Subscription Free App: The subscription free SCUF App allows you to adjust your trigger and thumb stick response curves, save your favourite profiles, and access your favourite games. (Required for initial setup.) Packaging & Accessories The SCUF Nomad's packaging is straightforward. The controller is prominently displayed on the box, and the overall design is sleek and modern. The black and orange colour scheme is eye-catching and it clearly indicates compatibility with iPhone and Apple Arcade, and Bluetooth connectivity; this does not work on Android, keep that in mind. Around the back, it's a bit more technical, showing you a breakdown of the features. You can even see the grip shape on the side of the box. On the interior, the controller is well packaged, with protective coverings and all the accessories tucked into the middle. There's a set of extra caps for the thumbsticks. And even very funky colour matches USB Type-C cable. A Closer Look The SCUF Nomad controller itself has a sleek, matte black finish with subtle SCUF branding on the left side. The textured grips and ergonomic design looks great for long gaming sessions, and it certainly looks more ergonomic than some of the cheaper controllers on the market that can often be quite blocky. The layout of the buttons, triggers, and thumb sticks appears standard, with the exception of the face buttons, which do look a little smaller than standard. There's a firm grip design on the back, so it won't slip and send your phone tumbling to the floor. There's also a pair of paddle controllers, which are fully programmable. There are programmable triggers on the back, and you can set the curve and actuation point for both the analogue triggers to suit your taste. There's a little wedge here that can be used to adapt smaller iPhones for a snug fit. It just clips on to ensure the camera bump is in the right place, simple enough. Finally there are some indicator lights on the bottom right, showing power, pairing, mode, etc. Performance Obviously, gaming performance is going to be based on which iPhone you have, so that's really not what we're going to dive into here, as this is merely a controller unit, rather than an actual gaming system. We used the iPhone 15 Pro Max, and while I didn't need that wedge, I left it in, as I liked the slightly raised phone for viewing angle. Setup is easy enough, install the app, turn it on, agree to the things, and you're good to go. With the app, you can dive into full customisation of the controller, it's likely you won't need to do this often, and once you've got it setup the way you like it, you can get back to your gaming. The back paddles are great, having them as melee and jump in FPS titles means you don't have to take your thumb off of the right stick. Even the back triggers are fully programmable, so you can really dive into tweaking it to suit your play style. The app also features a tutorial showing you some of the extra features and how to launch the companion app from the controller. Here you can add games from the library too, making it more like a gaming hub, rather than just a controller settings app. There's a bunch of recommended games too. As well as launchers for the Apple Arcade, as well as PS Remote Play. It even has built-in capture, allowing you to record your gameplay to upload to social media, YouTube, stream, or whatever you want really. Playing a bit of Call of Duty Mobile, which obviously runs great on the iPhone 15 Pro Max. The ergonomics are really nice, and while the controller is light, obviously the overall weight is largely dictated by the phone you use too. The sticks are Hall Effect, so there's no chance of stick drift. They are extremely smooth and responsive, and maybe have a little too much throw to them for my taste, and I would say I prefer a little more resistance like I get on the Xbox Series X or Dual Sense controllers, but honestly, the light action on the sticks is easy to adjust to and very responsive. The face buttons look a little small, but it's well suited to the ergonomics, they have a nice and responsive clicky feel to them too, so for gaming, they're pretty fantastic. The ergonomics are good that you can still get in for a tap on the screen too, which in mobile gaming, can make menus a lot easier to deal with. How Much Does it Cost? The SCUF Nomad Mobile Gaming Controller is available from Amazon in black or white to suit your taste for just £99.99, which is about on par with other big name rivals, such as the Backbone, Razer, Turtle Beach and a few others, albeit there are a bunch of budget solutions for less than half that, but from my own experience, they're largely hot garbage. Overview Corsair buying up SCUF has obviously been a great move for them, as it's filled in a gap in their massive peripheral market to cover PC, console and now mobile gaming under one banner. SCUF are a solid brand with a great reputation, and I've been playing with their peripherals on and off for over a decade and nothing but good things to say about them. The Nomad doesn't really offer any innovation, which isn't all that surprising, as they're more trying to meet an existing demand, rather than create a solution to a problem that doesn't exist yet. It's a controller for your mobile, so it simply needs to be a good quality game controller. With the prestige of SCUF and the backing of Corsair, it's got the premium quality look and feel you would expect, and to a standard that justifies the premium price tag too. The hall effect sticks are pretty light and have a long throw, which felt a bit strange at first, but being able to tune their response curves and dead zones is a nice addition. I managed to actually win a game on Call of Duty on my first try, so really, they're obviously pretty decent. The fact that they'll never suffer from stick drift is a welcome bonus too, giving you confidence in the controllers life span. I like how easy it is to dock your phone and pair the controller. A tricky setup can be a real drag when you just want to sneak in a few games, but honestly, it's pretty swift to get going. There are multiple profiles too, so you can toggle between customisation options for different types of games, or even just for multiple users who play differently. Should I Buy One? The NOMAD is stylish, durable, well made, lightweight, easy to setup and has long battery life, making it very easy to live with. The mobile app is decent, and hopefully will get better with future updates to add things like external games, but really is still better than all the other similar apps I've used in the past. With 16 hours of battery life, it's unlikely to run out on longer journeys, making it a great accessory for those who want to use it for long journeys.