Minisforum’s $99 Game Controller Is a Rebadged AOLION N35

Minisforum makes mini PCs. So when a $99 game controller showed up on its US store this week, it looked like the odd one out on the shelf. The model number on its label is AL-N35, and when I looked up the AOLION N35, there it was in AOLION’s own product shot. Same shell, same lights, same charging dock. From the front, the only difference I can spot is the name on the dock. It’s not really a new release. It’s a rebadge.

Is the Minisforum game controller really an AOLION N35?

From the front, yes. Put the two photos side by side and you’re looking at the same controller. The angled pill buttons in the middle, the D-pad sitting in its own round housing with an M button under it, the see-through face buttons, the glowing rings around both sticks and the light bars by the grips. Even the hexagonal dock matches. One dock reads AOLION. The other reads MINISFORUM.

Then there’s the model number. The label on the back of Minisforum’s controller reads Model AL-N35. AOLION has a companion app on Google Play called AOLION GO, and its list of supported controllers includes the AL-N35, right next to the AL-N10 and the AL-N30. Every model on that list starts with AL. And the lion on the home button? The same lion sits under the AOLION name on the carry case in AOLION’s photo.

If AOLION is a new name to you, it’s a controller brand out of Shenzhen, China. The company behind its app is listed as Shenzhen Jindinglong Technology.

What a photo can’t show you is what’s inside. Same sticks, same firmware, same factory? Minisforum hasn’t said who builds it, and a product shot only shows the shell. AOLION’s photo doesn’t even show the back, so the triggers and the backs of the grips are only on Minisforum’s side of the comparison.

Why is a mini PC company selling a controller?

Minisforum hasn’t said. But this isn’t its first one. In March 2025 it launched the MGP01, a wireless controller, and the store has been branching out past PCs for a while. I covered its PCIe card that adds four NVMe drives last month.

So a controller on Minisforum’s store isn’t that strange. What’s different this time is whose controller it is.

How is it different from the Minisforum MGP01?

It costs twice the MGP01’s list price and tells you a lot less. When the MGP01 launched, Minisforum spelled it out: Hall effect sticks and triggers, gyro aiming, back buttons and a battery rated for up to 22 hours. It listed at $49 and went on sale at $39. For the AL-N35, you get two adjectives and a dock.

What do capacitive sticks and dual-mode triggers mean?

Capacitive means the stick can feel your thumb. The Steam Deck works that way: Valve lists its sticks as analog sticks with capacitive touch, so a game can tell when your thumb is resting on one. That’s about touch, though. It says nothing about how the stick reads where you push it, whether that’s Hall effect, TMR or the old-style sensors that wear out and drift. Minisforum doesn’t say which one it uses, and AOLION’s own store wouldn’t load when this was written.

Dual-mode triggers are easier. On 8BitDo’s Ultimate 3C+, for example, the triggers flip between a full analog pull for driving and a short click for shooting. Minisforum doesn’t spell out what its two modes are.

What does it work with?

PC, Steam and Switch, going by Minisforum’s listing. Flip it over, though, and the label on the back adds Android, which the store page never mentions. So if you were hoping to pair it with an Android phone or handheld, the controller itself says it can, over Bluetooth. A light shows which mode you’re in, and there’s a wireless receiver in the box as well.

What don’t we know yet?

Most of the spec sheet. Battery life, weight, polling rate, whether there’s gyro or rumble, and when it ships are all missing. There’s also a question for anyone who buys one: AOLION GO lists the AL-N35 by name, but nobody has said whether the app works with Minisforum’s version.

And there’s the price. AOLION’s own price for the N35 wasn’t available when this was written, so there’s no telling yet whether $99 is more, less or the same as buying it under AOLION’s name.