Is The LinYuvo KS54 Controller Worth It?
I bought LinYuvo KS54 with my own money to try it out. Since I already liked the 8Bitdo Micro controller, and since this one is much cheaper, I thought about giving it a go. The name LinYuvo shouldn’t be confused with Lenovo.
To a degree, LinYuvo can be a nice alternative to 8Bitdo Micro. The lack of the additional trigger buttons is the main things preventing that. Otherwise, it works very well overall. The face buttons are nice to press. The D-Pad, however, is a bit too clicky.
It supports multiple modes, which makes it versatile, although you can only use one mode at a time, so the ability to pair it with a different device for each mode is not possible. The keyboard mode is kinda useless as far as I can tell.
For simple gaming, if you want something super affordable, then it’s a good choice. I honestly prefer the 8Bitdo Micro over it by a mile, but I am enjoyed using LinYuvo KS54 as a secondary option.
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Quickly go to:-
Pros Of LinYuvo KS54
- Really cheap
- The face buttons are comfortable to press.
- Supports multiple modes.
Cons Of LinYuvo KS54
- Clicky d-pad
- You can only use one mode at a time.
- Some buttons are too small.
Overview & The Buttons Layout
LinYuvo KS54 has a button layout very similar to the 8Bitdo Zero controller. I guess it was made to imitate it in the first place.
I found the face buttons nice to press. Although the Start/select (+/-) buttons are a bit small for my liking. I didn’t have issue pressing the L / R buttons at all, but you can easily see they are a bit too thin.
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The controller has no L2 / R2 triggers, but it can be configured so that the L / R buttons can work as L2 / R2 buttons if needed. The controller has vibration support, as well.
LinYuvo KS54 comes in multiple colors. I have the white one, but I also had the black one. These two are some of the best colors in my opinion. It has RGB lighting that looks quite beautiful on the opaque version. Although I found it too bright in the translucent versions. You can circle between the different RGB settings using the “o” button at the middle. You can pick between rainbow and one of the many available solid colors.
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Pairing LinYuvo KS54 To Your Different Devices
Pairing LinYuvo KS54 was quite easy. While it’s turned off, simply press the home button, along with the corresponding button for the mode you want (A,B,X or Y), and then pair it just like any Bluetooth device. The led at the bottom of the YinLuvo will blink to indicate it’s in pairing mode. You may not notice the blinking if the RBB lighting is on, and it is on by default.
4 Connectivity Modes
LinYuvo KS54 supports 4 connectivity modes. You switch the mode by pressing the home button along with the corresponding button when the controller is turned off. No need to press and hold the buttons to enter pairing mode:-
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- Switch Mode:- press Home + Y.
- Android Mode:- press Home + X.
- Bluetooth Mode:- press Home + B.
- Keyboard Mode:- press Home + A.
For the most part, the modes are straightforward. The Bluetooth mode is the least obvious one. After some testing, it turned out to be an X-Input mode, where the controller is recognized as Xbox c-controller, which was a pleasant surprise.
Unlike the 8Bitdo Micro, you can only use one mode at the time. You can’t pair it to different devices where each mode is paired to a different mode like you can with the 8Bitdo (unless you are willing to re-pair it over & over, of course).
The Key Linker App
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You can configure LinYuvo KS54 using the Key Linker app. The app provides a wide variety of options, like:-
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- Buttons remapping
- Adjust the vibration strength
- Adjusting RGB brightness & color
- Adjusting auto shutdown timer
Sadly, the app provides no way to program the keyboard mode. That makes it a useless if you want to use it for entering shortcuts. The silver lining is that keyboard mode makes it easier to use a keymapper in Android, as the D-Pad buttons can be detected as keystrokes (In the other modes, d-pad buttons are not at all). Though most people may not want to go through all that trouble.
Playing Games With LinYuvo KS54
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Smaller controller like LinYuvo KS54 may not be suitable for playing all games, but there’s surprisingly a lot you can play with it. Playing retro games like NES, Genesis or SNES on my Android phone works just fine. You never needed analog sticks with these devices, and these games don’t even require many buttons in the first place (although I tend to prefer having extra buttons for save states & the like). I played the whole Doom 1 on my Android phone using the controller, and it was perfectly fine.
You can play certain Switch games with it. The lack of trigger buttons can limit that in a way. For the games that require ZL/ZR buttons, you can turn the shoulder buttons into shoulder buttons. For the games that require both shoulder & trigger buttons, you are out of luck. The d-pad can be turned into a joystick for the games that requires it. It won’t be a smooth experience, but it is something you can do if you want. I think I would only use that for simple games, or when I want to emulate PSX games that require that.
And Finally
LinYuvo KS54 is a very decent small controller for the price. There are already better options if you’re willing to pay more, but this one is nice for simple use. Just remember the 3 caveats I listed about the controller:-
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- Clicky D-Pad
- No trigger buttons
- Only one mode at a time.
Anyway, that concludes this review. I hope you liked my LinYuvo KS54 review. See you in another article. Check out the mobile apps I developed here, which I hope you find interesting.
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