Initial Thoughts: Needless to say, the concept behind a gamepad for ‘gaming’ mobile phones is indeed intriguing. In fact, if you search through Kyocera’s product catalog, you’ll notice that they market their mobile phones as ‘gaming mobile phones’, so the company is apparently focused on the mobile gaming industry. We like the fact that the gamepad is an independent accessory and doesn’t intervene with the phone’s battery life, but 18 hours aren’t exactly a breakthrough in battery life if you are planning on having extensive gaming sessions on your mobile phone, which has to be a Kyocera phone for K500 compatibility. However, that issue can be fixed with rechargeable batteries. The rest of the features and specifications are all well and good, at least initially, but the fact of the matter is: how many of us would actually game on a mobile phone for us to need a gamepad to fulfill our needs? Besides, the primary purpose of a mobile phone is to actually make phone calls while on the move, but it appears that if you are going to invest in a gamepad for a mobile phone, you have the phone for a completely different purpose than the majority of us.

Don’t get us wrong, we appreciate the fact that mobile phones are evolving from 2D gaming platforms to 3D, but if gaming takes priority over actual phone calls, then you are in need of a portable gaming console such as Sony’s PSP. While quick gaming sessions aren’t enough to kill the battery life entirely, they are enough to put a dent in it generally. So you can just imagine the amount of battery life the full-blown gaming sessions will consume, and you’ll quickly realize that your phone will be rendered useless if it’s out of battery all the time.

Hoping the price is right and the gamepad performs well, you are still limited to using Kyocera’s gaming mobile phones, which is a limitation in itself. Either way, we don’t think this should be the accessory to get, as the value in it is far too limited.