Mobile gaming has a big problem: touch screens. Dedicated gaming devices like the Nintendo 3DSSee it at Amazon UK and the Sony PlayStation Vita£149.99 at Amazon UK offer up physical controls for playing games. With smartphones and tablets need you to rub your thumbs all over their screens. The Android-focused Moga Pocket Controller impressed us by offering both a solid selection of compatible games through its own store, and a third-party driver that lets you use the controller with any game that can map buttons.

The Moga Pro Controller ($49.99 direct) is even better than the Pocket Controller, with a larger, more comfortable design that adds a digital direction pad in addition to the two analog sticks, bigger buttons, and a dedicated mode that lets you cut out the third-party-driver middleman and configure games to work with the controller without any additional fiddling. Add a smartphone-holding arm built into the controller, a USB-rechargeable battery, and an included tablet stand, and you get an Editors' Choice among smartphone and tablet gaming accessories. The only real flaw is that iOS devices can't come along for the ride.

Design

The Pro Controller is the approximate size and shape of an Xbox 360 controller, complete with "wing" grips, two analog sticks, four face buttons, three additional buttons for Start, Select, and the company's logo as a catch-all menu control, four shoulder buttons, and a digital direction pad. The layout is nearly identical to the Xbox controller, with the direction pad aligned with the right analog stick, and the left analog stick aligned with the four face buttons. The PlayStation 3 controller, on the other hand, aligns the two analog sticks with each other and the direction pad lines up with the face buttons. The shoulder controls include a trigger button and a bumper button on each side, also like the Xbox 360 controller. The most striking difference is the weight; the Moga Pro controller is slightly slimmer, but weighs about two-thirds as much as the Xbox 360 controller (6.6 ounces vs. 9.3 ounces).

There's a flip-up arm in the middle of the gamepad with a telescoping, rubberized grip that can hold your smartphone, just like on the Moga Pocket. It still can't hold a 7-inch tablet like the Google Nexus 7SEE IT, but it can hold a 5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note II easily. For larger tablets, you get an easel-like folding plastic stand in the box. A switch under the arm turns the controller on and sets it into the default Moga controller mode or into Human Interface Device (HID) mode, described below. The top of the gamepad holds a microUSB port for charging the built-in battery. On the underside of the controller, there's a small, recessed button that toggles the orange backlighting for the face buttons.