Forget gaming mice optimized to within an inch of their life to be as light and high-performance as possible. Set aside PC controllers sculpted for comfort and equipped with thumbsticks tuned for precision. What you actually want is an awkward-looking gaming mouse that can split into two cramped controllers, and that uses a touch pad instead of a scroll wheel. Right?
As utterly proposturous as that premise sounds, that’s exactly what a startup called Pixelpaw Labs is looking to build to compete with the best gaming mouse and best PC controllers in the world. It sounds so utterly barmy that I think I might need to get one. Maybe, just maybe, it’s the best innovation in gaming mice since, well, the Logitech Superstrike that launched a few weeks ago.
The symmetrically shaped mouse is certainly innovative in how it goes about being able to split into two controllers. Magnets hold the two parts together, and the triggers for the controllers have been tucked away at the back of the mouse, where they naturally reflect some of the wide rear ends of some classic mouse designs. I suspect it’s not the lightest mouse design ever, but it looks decently comfortable.
To accommodate the ability to split in half, Pixelpaw Labs has done away with a conventional scroll wheel and added a touch-sensitive pad to the left click button. This lets you simply tap and swipe to scroll up and down, in a similar fashion to Apple’s Magic Mouse or the various foldable travel mice you can get from the likes of Dell or Microsoft. It’s a neat solution, but sounds like it would be very awkward, and potentially ruinous, to try to use in even slightly competitive or fast-paced games.
Meanwhile, to generally boost the click options for the mouse, the company has added two extra little buttons to the outer edges of the two main left and right buttons. These remind me of the Logitech Gx02 series of mice, such as the G502 X Plus, or the Roccat (now Turtle Beach) Kone XP Air, and I’ve generally found them to be a really useful extra on those mice.
As for being used in controller mode, the two teeny controllers are held in separate hands, like a set of Joycons, and use the same thumbstick layout as the Switch’s controllers.
Along with disrupting the mouse and controller space, the Phase can also be used as a Bluetooth controller for gaming on phones and tablets. You can even pre-order one with an accessory called the Phasegrip, which is a two-part case designed to attach the two controllers to your phone to make for a single Steam Deck-like gaming handheld.
Specs for the device are a little thin on the ground. The company describes it as having a 16K optical sensor and 1kHz polling rate – adequate but hardly cutting-edge figures for a gaming mouse – but there’s no word on battery life, the type of thumbsticks (whether Hall Effect or not), or much else.
All japery aside, I’m all for companies and individuals innovating, and there is some interesting merit to this idea. Pixelpaw Labs is also plenty aware that this isn’t going to replace all your other gear. While in its promotional video for the launch, the company says the Phase is “one device that lets you play your games anywhere on any device,” it also concedes that “Phase isn’t meant to replace every product you own. There will still be moments where a traditional mouse or a dedicated controller makes more sense, but nothing else brings it all together the way Phase does.”
Pre-orders for the Pixelpaw Labs Phase are open now via this link, with the mouse alone priced at $115 and the Phase + Phasegrip bundle priced at $140. Both options require a $20 deposit, and both are currently subject to promotional prices, with prices rising to $159 and $188, respectively, after launch.