Logitech Chillstream review

The sweaty palmed gamer is something of a cliche – so much so, that Logitech has come up with this controller aimed at reducing sweat by the simple medium of a built-in fan.

But before you can scream ‘gimmick’ it should be pointed out that, despite having the most ridiculous selling point since someone tried to market a beat ’em up joypad that electrocuted you back in the nineties, it’s actually not a bad joypad. In fact, the way it copies the Xbox 360 controller so slavishly means that it’s one of the best PC pads out there.

Object of ridicule

Of course, the ‘but’ part is that you’ve just parted with £30 for a joypad with a built-in fan, making you easy prey for jokes, pointing and YouTube videos, especially once your mates hear the thing whining away in your palm.

Now, we don’t know if we’re particularly sweaty, but it’s extraordinary that a gadget could make so much noise doing something, but be so bad at it. There’s two settings – on the lowest one, the breeze is so faint it’ll barely see you through the excitement of the options menu.

Moist palms

The high one is more satisfying, but it’s still not exactly a ‘chill stream’ – more a faint feeling of cool down there. After about five minutes on Halo 2 multiplayer, our palms were as moist as ever, the Chillblast was still whirring away, and we detected a faint smell of snake oil.

Still, this is a proper 10-button joypad, for a halfway decent price, and if for some reason you enjoy picking up console games a year later on PC, it’s a pretty decent choice. You may have to stick to handkerchiefs to deal with your sweaty palms, mind.