Over the last few years, gaming peripherals have been growing sleeker, thinner, lighter and more attractive. The Astro C40 ignores all of that. 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. 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.

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 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. On the underside of the controller, you'll find paddles, like those typically found on the Xbox One Elite Controller, and other similar gamepads. On PC, you can bind these keys however you want, though we leave them alone. Our hands are already having trouble dealing with how large this controller is without introducing foreign buttons. Which is why I prefer the C40’s, Elite-like, screw system. Here you have to manually remove a plate from the front of the controller. This can be done with most correctly sized screwdrivers, though the controller includes an “upgrade” tool out of the box. From there, you have to remove and replace the parts you want to tweak and re-attach the plate. The system is more fiddly, but it leads to improved build quality and makes the controller feel significantly more sturdy and slightly more accurate than its magnetic competition.title=More%20Expert%20Tech%20Roundups&type=articles%2Cvideos&tags=tech-roundup&count=6&columnCount=6&theme=article Even if you don’t know an Allen wrench from an Alan Cumming, you can figure this thing out. Astro’s made it as foolproof as something like this can get. Astro C40 TR - Software

It aims to take on top dog competition such as the Razer Raiju and Xbox Elite Controller by offering gamers unprecedented levels of hardware and software customisability. 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 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. 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. The software will not detect any other ASTRO Gaming products prior to the generations of products mentioned above, and is not compatible with the C40 TR Controller Or A20 Wireless Headsets.

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.

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 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. 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. 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. 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

Taking your controller game to the next level

Astro has always excelled at making premium hardware that looks decent, albeit a bit on the “gamer-y” side. The C40’s follows that trend. There’s something off-putting about Astro’s press photos that make the C40 TR look like a hollow plastic shell, with a striped faceplate and hyper-pronounced branding. 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.