The ‘Gun God’ Controller Turns One Plus’ New Smartphone Into a Sleek Handheld Gaming Console

If you want to turn your smartphone in a gaming handheld, there are plenty of accessories out there to try. Most, however, add full-size controllers to either side of your phone—that’s great for gaming, but not so great for portability. OnePlus appears poised to try something a bit different (at least from most of the competition), by offering a gaming case you can fit in your pocket.

The “Gun God” adds triggers and a cooling fan to the Ace 6 Ultra

In a post on its Weibo page, OnePlus announced a new gaming accessory for its upcoming Ace 6 Ultra smartphone. The “OnePlus Gun God Game Controller” might have an awkward name, but the accessory itself looks pretty sleek. The controller is a flat slab with rounded edges on either side, which serve as “grips.” Here, you’ll find the traditional L1 and R1 triggers, as well as inner triggers accessible via your ring finger. OnePlus says the triggers have a 1,000Hz polling rate (the rate that the trigger reports its position to your device) as well as a 1.8ms “ultra-fast” response, and that you can remap the buttons to your liking.

Perhaps most interesting of all here is the magnetic detachable “suction” fan. From the promo images, you can see that the fan can stay flat in the controller, but pull it apart, and you can open up the fan for added airflow. It’s not clear whether the Ace 6 Ultra is particularly designed to take advantage of this active cooling system, or if the fan is simply taking the heat generated by the device and pushing it away, but either way, it’s an intriguing design. I’m curious to see testers put it through its paces and identify what effect it has on performance—if any. The controller also comes with USB-C pass through, so you can charge your phone when it’s inside the case.

Of course, the major omissions here are the buttons and sticks. While there are four triggers, you’re still entirely dependent on the phone’s touchscreen for the rest of your controls. Having dedicated triggers frees some screen real estate up and likely makes it easier to play shooters and other trigger-intensive games, but it probably won’t appeal to players who rely on physical buttons, directional pads, and joysticks for their games. The advantage here is that this controller is much more compact than some of the controller accessories on the market. Compare the Gun God to something like the Backbone, and you’ll see the difference. The former you can slide in your pocket, while you’d have trouble fitting the latter anywhere other than a bag.

Then again, there are compact solutions on the market that include these extra buttons and sticks. Take the MCON, which is designed to collapse into a sleek pocketable form factor, like a PSP Go. It’s almost as convenient to carry around as the Gun God, but also comes with all the buttons and sticks you could want in a mobile gaming handheld. Plus, it isn’t phone dependent.

Still, what OnePlus is doing here is very interesting. The Gun God launches on April 28, though it’s not clear when (or if) it’ll make its U.S. debut.