PC Remote

Editors' ReviewDownload.com staffNovember 13, 2018Monect Portable turns your Android smartphone into a multi-use device: game controller, joystick, touchpad, keyboard, number pad, and more. It can send text to your PC with a single tap, control media players, browse files, and do anything a mouse or similar device can do. We used it to control a laptop with a bum touchpad, but that's nothing next to Monect's gaming tools, which use your phone's g-sensor to let you drive ridiculously fast or aim crosshairs with deadly accuracy. To use Monect Portable, you'll also need the free host app on the target PC. The site and host interface are in Chinese, but Google Translate handles that. Just click the button at the lower right and reboot your PC to install the host. Most of the time, Monect Portable will find the host PC, or you can search for connections.Since our laptop's touchpad didn't work, we started with Monect Portable's Touchpad mode, which has three buttons and a scrollbar. All worked perfectly. Buttons along the top edge let us switch between the 12 modes quickly. Function Keys mode let us restart or shut down the host PC and set other shortcuts. The typewriter layout is one of the better Android virtual keyboards we've seen. The Race, Joystick, and Shooter modes are totally cool (and effective). You will notice a significant battery drain, though, so you will need to recharge more often, but that's a small price to pay for such flexibility.Monect's Web site and Windows host need better English translations, but as we noted, that's fairly easy to overcome. Monect Portable isn't too difficult to install and set up and it works (and plays) very well, indeed.