ASTRO Gaming C40 TR Controller - PlayStation 4

Product Information

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. On the rear you’ll find trigger stops, enabling either full-analog trigger pulls (for racing games, etc.) or shorter on/off activations (for shooters). Above that are two additional sliders: One swaps between wired and wireless modes, the other between two profile configurations. The Astro C40 is designed to work with PC and PS4. As a result, its button layout is tailored to Sony’s console, not Microsoft’s out of the box. But that doesn’t stop it having a completely unique look and feel to competing controllers with the same layout, like the Razer Raiju Ultimate Edition. The only downside is that the software doesn’t work with the PS4 and at times can be incredibly buggy. For reasons I still can’t explain, the software wouldn’t recognise the C40 on some of the PCs I tested it on.

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. title=More%20Expert%20Tech%20Roundups&type=articles%2Cvideos&tags=tech-roundup&count=6&columnCount=6&theme=article 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. 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 On more than a few occasions, it would simply start and say no controller was connected, even when the C40 was connected to a USB 2.0 port, using the included micro-USB cable. The issue is particularly annoying as it means the PC won’t recognise the controller at all when gaming.

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

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. 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. 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. The Windows 10 version ASTRO Command Center software, from the Microsoft Store, enables full configuration of the adjustable settings for these ASTRO devices: Turning the C40 over shows several of the hallmarks of pricey enthusiast and custom controllers. Two additional triggers, UL and UR, sit against the grip where your middle fingers rest naturally. A small remapping button between them lets you manually assign them inputs, if you don't want to use the Astro software to customize everything. Two small rest switches above the triggers activate or disable mechanical stops that shorten the L2 and R2 trigger pull distances. On the top edge of the gamepad, two more red switches toggle between wired and wireless modes, and one of two control profiles you can set. A deeply recessed micro USB port between the upper switches lets you plug in the C40 with the included six-foot cable for charging, using the gamepad as a wired controller, or customizing it with Astro's software.

In This Article

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

The C40 comes with a wireless dongle that plugs directly into your PS4’s USB slots. (That also means if you’re trying to ball out with four of these puppies, you’ll need a USB hub.) Astro claims this proprietary dongle helps the C40 sustain a fast, reliable connection, but anyone worried about wireless latency can use the controller in wired mode. 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. 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. 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. Once the “Get” becomes “Launch” hit the “Launch button to launch the ASTRO Command Center software.

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. 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.

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.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. 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 I had to switch left and right analogs because it was not functioning properly, but overall it's a magnificent controller. I despise consoles and controller type games, but I am glad I didn't buy the steam controller and bought the Astro. Astro Gaming - C40 TR Controller is the ultimate controller, in my opinion. It has many options to customize your experience to suit your play style. Personally, I don't trust wireless connection, so I always connect it via USB.