Speedlink Xeox Pro Analog Gamepad – Wireless review

The Xeox gamepad is a clone of the official Microsoft Xbox 360 controller, and is designed to be used with a PC. It’s a wireless controller and so comes with a wireless dongle, and its button layout is exactly the same as you’d find on the Xbox gamepad.

The Xeox has one significant advantage over the Xbox 360 controller; it is fully DirectInput as well as Xinput compatible. This means that you can use both triggers as buttons in older DirectInput games; by contrast, DirectInput titles treat both of the official Xbox 360 controller’s triggers as the same button. You change between the input modes with a switch on the back.

In modern games that are designed to work with an Xbox 360 controller, such as Skyrim or Orcs Must Die!, the Xeox works perfectly. The games recognise it as an Xbox 360 controller, and give you all the appropriate button mappings and controller-related on-screen help text.

In terms of quality, the Xeox is similar to the excellent Xbox 360 controller; the buttons and analogue sticks all have a chunky positive action, and the only part that is worse than the standard controller are the triggers, which don’t have such a progressive feeling of feedback.

The Xeox is only £5 cheaper than the official wireless Microsoft Xbox 360 controller for Windows (which comes with the appropriate wireless USB adaptor), so unless you need the full DirectInput support we’d recommend buying Microsoft’s gamepad instead. However, if you’re after a gamepad to use with both modern and retro games, it’s a good buy.