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Of all the things I was surprised about with Stadia in the first days, I suppose playing on my Pixel 4XL was the most surprising. I’m not sure why, but I just felt like cramming a big game like Destiny on my phone would be a bad experience. As it turned out, in the early stages of my testing, that was the setup that felt most natural, smooth and polished. But there was one part of that experience that was most definitely half-baked.
When playing on my phone, the only way I could get the whole setup working was to place the device in a stand of some sort or rest it against something on a table. For now, playing on a phone still requires a USB Type C cable to be plugged into your phone and the controller, so your options on where to place the phone while gaming are pretty limited.
Google teased and is now listing an answer to this problem in the form of The Claw in the Google Store: a clip-on, adjustable phone mount built just for the Stadia controller. The mount clips over the center of the controller and leaves room for the headphone jack, USB-C port, and all the menu buttons on the face of the controller. Additionally, the design is made to position the weight of the phone more over the center of the controller as to avoid the feeling of top-heaviness.
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The clamp costs only $14.99, but is still showing as ‘coming soon’ in the Google Store and, though others found the listing on the Power Support website (they make the clip), it sold out in 24 hours. The fact that Google now has this listed officially on the Google Store should point to the fact that it will be in stock in greater numbers in the coming days and weeks.
Additionally, the fact that it was only unveiled as available in the past 24 hours and is already sold out tells me that there were plenty of eager players looking for this solution. I know that I’ll be ordering one as soon as I can to really give Stadia on my phone a real try. Once they launch WiFi support for the controller while gaming on a phone, it’ll make a pretty simple mobile gaming setup provided I’m somewhere with a strong connection.
