The buttons on the controller feel pretty great, too:just the right amount of give, without feeling too squishy – until you got to the triggers, at least.Now, we get that this controller is for people who play shooters competitively – a scene that needs reactive triggers – but they feel a little too easy to press. However, that could just be down to the fact that we're using this controller while playing an intensely stressful, precision-requiring game like Sekiro. Another hiccup: The C40 TR has wireless and wired modes, but the wired port on the controller is limiting. The micro USB cable included with the controller fit fine, but a number of other micro USB cables I had lying around the house were not narrow enough. The passage required to reach the USB port is supposed to be there for protection of the hardware, but Astro may have gone a bit overboard. Once the “Get” becomes “Launch” hit the “Launch button to launch the ASTRO Command Center software.

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. This gamepad has angular lines all over it, and the face of the controller looks like it's an extra in a Metal Gear Solid game. Because this is a PS4 controller, it has the square, circle, triangle and cross buttons on the face of the game pad. This absolutely makes sense, but you can't switch them out if you bought the controller for PC, so if you're accustomed to Xbox buttons, it may take some adjustment, especially if you don't have the muscle memory.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. 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. I also found Astro’s quoted 12-hour battery life is, for the most part, accurate, which means even the most avid of gamers should be able to get a full day’s use out of it before having to recharge. Then, at the top of the controller, between the aforementioned triggers, there are two more red switches. One will switch the controller betweenUSB mode and wireless mode, while the other will let you switch between two profiles.

The same could be said for every game I played: healing in Apex Legends, sprinting and melee'ing in Call of Duty, cycling through items in Sekiro. The new triggers vastly improved all of these actions. 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. 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. 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.

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. The Windows 10 version ASTRO Command Center software, from the Microsoft Store, enables full configuration of the adjustable settings for these ASTRO devices: