Product Review - Death Grips

A few weeks ago I received an invitation from a new company called Death Grips to try and review their new product for XBOX gamers. I checked out the Death Grips website and decided the product looked interesting, so I accepted their offer.

A few days later I received a box in the mail from Death Grips. Their concept seemed simple, make the XBOX 360 controller easier to grip, thus better to use, I liked this idea a lot. One of my favorite things about the original XBOX was the "Duke" controller that shipped with the unit. I never cared for the S controller that was much smaller, and was disappointed with the 360 controller when I got my first 360.

So, I was pretty interested in this product.




Out of the box, the product is fairly simple, you get two grips, with pre-stuck adhesive strips, extra strips, and some fairly straight forward instructions.




Here you can see the grips with their pre-installed adhesive strips, installation was pretty simple, but the backing can be tough to remove. I found a set if tweezers made it easier to pull up once you got a corner started. I cleaned the back of my controller with the included cleaning pad, and in less than 5 minutes I was up and running. My wife and kids were out of town for the weekend, so I was ready for some serious testing. 12 hours of straight gaming with these things. Playing Blur and Bioshock plus some arcade games. How were they?

At first the grips were a little uncomfortable, they push your hands to a slightly different grip. But after about an hour they got very comfortable. But the best part was when I quit playing after 12 hours, MY HANDS DID NOT HURT! Ever since I got my 360 I've had issues after long gaming sessions over 4 hours where my hands just ache when I am done playing. But using the Death Grips, I didn't have this problem.

I did the same thing the following day, with the same results. No pain, and I was more comfortable than I've ever been playing my XBOX 360. These things are great.




This pair of photos shows my black controller with Death Grips, and my white controller without. You can see the slight difference in how my hands sit on the controller, even though it is slight, it makes a really huge difference in how things feel.




After about 2 weeks, the left side adhesive gave out on me. Considering I play 2-3 hours per day during the week, and 4-8 hours on the weekend, these things saw some heavy use the first two weeks. Close to 80 hours I believe. So I looked at how the adhesive was originally applied and noted that the grips came off at the top and bottom first. I then used the extra strips supplied by Death Grips and created my own pattern you can see in the photo below. I've now been playing for about two more weeks, and the grip is holding steady, so this seems to be a better layout for the grip adhesive.



In conclusion - this is a great product, it makes holding the controller much more comfortable, improving your overall gaming experience. These retail for just $9.99, a very reasonable price to make your gaming experience better. If you are a frequent gamer, give these a try.