Hardware Review: ZenGrip Ronin & Slim Case from Satisfye

Today, we’re covering another product from Satisfye. The people over there send us a product every year to cover, and spoiler alert, I actually love this one (ZenGrip Ronin) the best. But if you want to know everything to see if you love it too, I’d suggest you read the whole article. There’s an unboxing video too for those who want to know what they’ll get in the box.

Description:

“Immerse yourself in an evolved ergonomic gaming experience with our innovative Free Float Technology, ensuring your Switch stays cool and scuff-free. Our ‘Perfect Fit’ design is meticulously optimized for both the OLED and the original Switch, providing a secure hold without any modifications.

The asymmetrical design compensates for the low position of the right stick for a comfortable, fatigue-reducing gameplay. It distributes the weight in your hands like a traditional console controller, enhancing your gaming endurance. Play longer, play harder, with unparalleled comfort.

Embrace the future of gaming with ZenGrip Ronin – tailored for perfect hand positioning and the ultimate gaming experience.”

Features:

• “Asymmetric, Ergonomic Correct Hand Placement
• Dockable Design, No Need to Remove ZenGrip Ronin
• Securely Store Up To Two Game Cards
• Scratch-Resistant with Perfect Secure Fit for OLED and Original Switch
• Built-in Vertical Stand with Room to Charge
• Comfortable Non-slip Rubberized Grip”

Unboxing Video:

 

Pros:

• Build Quality. If you watched my unboxing video, you’ll know that I mentioned the screws along where the Switch’s back sits. Those are there to hold elements of the grip together. We will be coming back to those because I have…opinions on them. Besides the screws, there isn’t much to the grip itself, and that’s great. They have made the grip feel as sturdy as they can while also reducing certain elements to make it dockable. I particularly love the feel of the rubber grip on the back of the handles. This is not only great for people with sweaty hands, it’s for everyone. It helps the rest of us maintain a better grip without fearing it will slip out of our hands whilst playing white-knuckle games. Other grips that exist are just plastic handles, that doesn’t help anyone, sweaty or not!
  Speaking about handles, you’ll notice from the video and the pictures, that it’s an asymmetrical design. For those who don’t know, that just means it is “uneven”. And in the instance of the ZenGrip, this is a great thing. This is for your right hand to be the proper distance from the controls, and thus puts it a little further away. Nintendo wants your hands to cramp, apparently, but not Satisfye!
  When you’re putting the Switch into the grip, you’ll see the little rubber nubs. These have a lot of purposes, the main purpose being to hold your Switch in place. But they also keep your Switch a few millimeters away from the grip. You can’t see it work its magic, but be aware that they’re also helping airflow and ventilation. Other grips will just sit as close as possible to the Switch, stifling airflow and increasing heat. Finally, if you look on the back of the grip, you’ll see a couple of game storage slots.

 

• Storage. What a great segue into the next section! So, for a lot of you, you still have a love for physical media. The Switch, of course, is no exception. If you’re looking to get the Slim Case for the Ronin, you’re really going to be happy with the media storage. First off, you have the two slots in the back of the Ronin. Then you also have the ten slots in the Slim Case. And finally, you have the literal game slot built into your Switch. If you have enough games to max out the storage, you’ll be at thirteen games with you. I’m not saying to throw away your game cases but make sure you store them somewhere safe. Because you’ll likely be keeping the games that you love the most in your Slim Case at all times. It’s just too convenient not to, otherwise it’s a lot of swapping games between your case and the clamshell sitting on your shelf. Have fun taking a baker’s dozen with you on trips!

 

• Kickstand. For those wondering, the Ronin does indeed let you use your kickstand. In fact, the kickstand works for both standard and OLED Switch. However, the downside to this review is that I can’t tell you how well the kickstand works on the OLED model since that’s one that I don’t yet own. But those of us with original Switch models, likely aren’t using the kickstands anyway (almost pointless). So if you don’t rely too heavily on kickstands in the first place, then don’t worry. If you do, I can only tell you what their marketing says, which is that you can use the kickstand.  Now, it’s worth noting that this, like their other grips, can already stand up. The ZenGrip line of grips always has square feet at the bottom center. They also have perfect bottoms to the grip handles to keep it balanced. So that’s the way that I’m used to doing tabletop mode. I wouldn’t even fiddle with your kickstand honestly. I had long since forgotten about the kickstand until I saw it on their product description page even mentioning it!

• Case Build Quality. I love reviewing handheld cases, and I have no idea why. But I think its because of the fact that I get to put it through its paces to see how well it can survive. But I do have to stress that I’m aware that this case is called the Slim Case for a reason. So I’m not going to run it over with a car or drop it off of my roof or something. I am, however, going to make sure that it can survive what can and does happen in the real world. First of all, I want to talk about the zipper being fluid resistant. It looks like a standard zipper, but from what I can tell, it’s very resistant to fluid. Meaning, if your Switch is in your case on a table and a cup spills and splashes, the zipper fights back. I turned it on its side and literally spat water onto it and I then opened the case, it was dry inside!
  Next of all, I decided to give it a strength test. I sat it on my futon and then I pretended to “accidentally” sit on it. It was not the most comfortable experiment and my girlfriend called me an idiot, but I proved my hypothesis. If you sit on a Slim Case (with a Switch and Ronin inside) and then stand as quickly as you can after feeling it, your Switch will turn out fine. Again, this is not something that will happen often, but it can absolutely happen. The case also got dropped down a flight of stairs (with Switch and Ronin inside) and while that sounds scary, it came out just fine. Most homes have carpeted stairs, but even if you don’t, as long as you’re not always dropping it down stairs, you’ll be fine.

 

• Dockable. The ZenGrip Ronin is advertised as being dockable, and it is definitely true, but we need to talk about it. I will have another point about this in the “Cons” section, but let’s talk about gaming setups first. You see, this grip is indeed dockable depending on where you have your dock. For the first year or so of the Switch, I thought I’d be docking it and then taking it with me all of the time. So I kept a dock up top by the TV and I kept one by each major TV in the house. However, as the years went by I didn’t do it as much and eventually I stopped altogether. It came to pass that I eventually bought a Switch Lite for on-the-go gaming and then left the standard Switch in the dock. At which point, I removed all extra docks from the TVs and left just one dock on my best TV. But I didn’t leave it accessible anymore since I was no longer taking out my full-sized Switch. But every time I review a grip, I take it out for the week to put the grip through its paces. This time, putting it into the dock with the grip came up and I was entirely intrigued. But the problem is now that my dock is hidden down inside a cabinet of the entertainment center it’s hard to get to. If you’re like me, I assure you that you need the horizontal space to not only fit your Switch in with Joycons, but also now you have an even wider space of clearance to account for.
  I’m not actually complaining, I think that this is a great problem to have. I think that if you’re like me, you’ll go back to favoring your larger Switch. Furthermore, you’ll very likely pull the dock out and it lets you show off your Switch with the Ronin attached. You’ll want the convenience of being able to dock and undock it as needed. But if you’re not like me and you never hid your dock away, then you’re already good to go!

• Colors. The great thing about manufacturers is when they make multiple colors or styles of their new product. Sure, they originally started with an all-black grip. But as the years have passed, they’ve given us all kinds of color options. Of course, the ZenGrip Ronin is simply no different. This will give you the opportunity to show off your individuality by choosing a style that reflects you the best. Or maybe you just want to match your Nintendo Switch color. There is the Midnight Black option, Polar White option, and a Mythic Edition option. With regards to the all black, they are matching with the classic Switch, but some of you also just like to live in the dark! The all white option is to best blend with the original OLED option, but also some of you like white to match everything you own. And finally, Mythic Edition closely matches the Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Switch. If you happened to score one of those Switch models, I would highly recommend that you get the matching Ronin Grip and Mythic Edition case!

Cons:

• Screwing Around. Alright, I said we would come back to the screws. Unfortunately, I just find that the screws being visible are ugly. Yes, I know that the Switch will hide and cover it, but I don’t rightly care, I dislike seeing metal near my plastic Switch even though I know that they will not touch the Switch. Maybe Satisfye could do something like what the GBA SP has, the little rubber nubs that fit into the screw holes to cover the screws. It not only hides the screws, but it also adds cushion. This would be a brilliant idea for the Ronin so it adds more cushion for the pushin.

 

• Flapping About. Did you watch my unboxing video? If so, you already heard me mention the misaligned Switch cartridge storage flap. It’s another ugly element because it doesn’t cover the entire screen of the Switch and it’s something that is surely a simple fix. Protecting most of the screen isn’t good enough. In my video, I pointed out that you can use a microfiber cloth to cover the rest of the screen in order to protect the rest. Do I think it’s a serious issue? No. Am I bothered by it and want to find a way to beg them to fix it? Yes, absolutely.

 

• Slim Pickins. We already discussed how the case for the Ronin is so named the Slim Case because it is indeed a slim case. This is less of a “con” and more of a warning to our audience. Since the case is an exact form-fitting shape of the grip, there is no pocket for cords or extra joycons. That exists for their other model of the grip, you can buy a pro case with extra pockets and such. I would love to see a pro case specifically for the Ronin. I’d buy that for sure!

 

• Plug it in, plug it in. Or rather, don’t plug it in, is what I should say. Because while you can technically dock the Switch with this case on, you can’t have anything plugged into the USB ports on the side of the console. So you have to decide what matters more to you. This isn’t necessarily a con, but I can see how you’d be mad if you thought you could have your cake and eat it too. However, you could run a hub from the USB port on the inside of the dock (near the power supply) and then plug things into that. But be aware, either you settle for nothing plugged or you settle for a USB hub if you proceed with buying the Ronin.

Final Thoughts:

The Ronin makes the Switch feel the closest to a Steam Deck that we’ve reviewed on this site! We’ve reviewed plenty of other grips, including ones from Satisfye themselves. But for the first time this controller not only feels good, but it has a lot of fantastic features to boot. The cost (as of the time of this going live) is even better and it was already a great price. I’d suggest you get to clicking the purchase link below if you’re interested!

Purchase Link:

ZenGrip Ronin (Black or White) & Slim Case Bundle

ZenGrip Ronin (Black or White) Only

ZenGrip Ronin (Mythic Edition) & Case Bundle