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If you’re looking for portable controllers with long battery life, CRKD’s ATOM Collectible Keychain Controllers may be exactly that.
Christmas is just around the corner and there is little that stands in the way of gaming together on the console or computer. If you’re still looking for controllers, you should take a look at the ATOM.
The ATOM is compatible with the Nintendo Switch, PCs/Macs, Android and iOS devices and smart TVs and measures a tiny 68x12x35mm (width/height/depth) and weighs just 20g. These micro controllers have been around for some time, with the popular 8BitDo Micro at 72x14x41mm and 25g and the Zero 2 at 73×14.7×36.5mm and 20.7g being slightly larger and heavier. While the two competing devices cost around €20, the ATOM also regularly costs $19.99, but is currently discounted to $14.99 on the official website.
The ATOM is available in eight different colors: Pal Grey, CRKD Grey, Glacier Blue, Atomic Purple, Yuzu Yellow, Sky Blue, Leaf Green and Hot Pink. While the Grey variants resemble the European and North American Super Nintendo controllers with red/blue/yellow/green (Pal) or purple/orange (CRKD) buttons, Glacier Blue and Atomic Purple are transparent and resemble the transparent purple version of the GameBoy Color. The box includes a short USB-C-to-USB-A cable, a small wrist strap and a quick guide. We grabbed the ATOM in Pal Grey and tested it extensively.
The controllers resembles the Nintendo Switch button layout with Y/B/A/X buttons (clockwise from left), a blue Bluetooth button and plus and minus buttons are embedded between the 4-way digipad and the face buttons. The controller also includes four L/ZL/ZR/R shoulder buttons on the top. The face button colors do not resemble those of either Nintendo or Xbox controllers. You pair the ATOM like any other Bluetooth controller and can switch between Switch, PC and mobile modes at the touch of a button combo. The button layout can be conveniently switched between Nintendo and Xbox with another combo.
With other key combos (minus + left or right), which are incomprehensibly not specified in the manual, we can emulate the left or right analog stick on the control pad. Due to the lack of an analog stick, this is absolutely necessary for some games to function at all. The Bluetooth button also functions as a home button on the Switch and you can take screenshots by pressing two buttons, so all the functions of a regular Switch controller are included.
Switch gamers with a small controller inventory may already be used to playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with individual Joy-Cons and may already use the small shoulder buttons to masterfully drift through corners. Transferring to ATOM will be smoothly then. The control pad is precise and has good pressure points, but is a bit stiffer and does not come close to the quality of the D-pad of a larger Nintendo Switch Pro Controller or the equally larger Super Nintendo offshoot 8BitDo SF30 Pro. Gamers with larger hands in particular might get some cramps during very long sessions of intense gaming, but that’s more of a fundamental problem with the nature of these controllers. We hardly had any problems with it in the test.
While the L and R buttons are relatively easy to reach, ZL and ZR are very small and less intuitive to use. The face buttons are about half the size of those on the Switch Pro Controller, which can lead to incorrect inputs, but this should hardly happen after you get used to it. Emulating the sticks on the D-pad works without a hitch and so we can also play games on the Switch like SpeedRunners, which already require an analog stick to navigate menus, or The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which works surprisingly well by emulating the left stick. Other games that require constant rotation of the D-pad and analog stick won’t work that well with this type of controllers. When it comes to latency, we can’t tell any difference to other controllers.
The ATOM has a battery life of around ten hours and it can be charged up in just two hours. So there’s nothing stopping you from having longer sessions while traveling over the holidays.
Final thoughts
The CRKD Atom Collectible Keychain Controller is a high-quality micro-controller with high compatibility, long battery life and good ergonomics with small drawbacks such as the too small ZL/ZR buttons and the good, but somewhat too stiff D-pad. If you are looking for small, easily stowable portable controllers for traveling or larger multiplayer sessions and are able to play with micro-controllers, the ATOM is a good choice.
CRKD provided us with the ATOM Collectible Keychain Controller and pictures.
