The original Razer Kishi rode high on the rising wave of mobile gamepads that made the (quite fair) assessment that simply slapping a phone into a separate grip attached to a console-size controller perhaps wasn’t the most elegant alternative to touchscreen-only play. While it wasn’t Razer’s first rodeo with the form factor, its portable, split-pad approach was one of the best.

Since then, however, the “phone sandwich” style has evolved, leading to clamp-based telescopic controllers — a category with a number of strong rivals all gunning for the top of the scoreboard. Can Razer’s pivot towards this new — yet increasingly familiar — design and a much-vaunted accompanying software suite shoot the Razer Kishi’s second iteration into the lead? Find out in Android Authority’s Razer Kishi V2 review.