The Unlikely Story Behind abxylute M5

INTRODUCING M5

The Story Behind M5

Earlier this year, we came across Jinjiang, a Chinese creator living in Guiyang, hundreds of miles away from Shenzhen. He grew up around machines, with both of his parents working at a military aviation factory. He never studied electronics or mechanical engineering, but old phones, handhelds, mechanical structures and gaming controllers had fascinated him since he was young.

Later, life pulled him in another direction. His family needed him in Guiyang, so he closed his own business and chose to stay close to them. 

But he never really stopped making things. The fascination was still there, especially with gaming controllers, so he started again from his own desk.

Over the years, he taught himself electronics, circuits and 3D modelling, built things by hand, and shared the process through his online channel. 

M5 came out of that journey. 

He built the first units himself, one by one, and after a full month of work, he had made about 20. That was enough to prove the idea was real, but also enough to show the limits of what one pair of hands could do.

We saw his work and decided to go to Guiyang to meet him. A few hours into the conversation, there was a familiar feeling. We came from very different backgrounds, but both sides had the same tendency to spend far too much time thinking about things most people would barely notice, like joystick angles, sliding structures, button feel and a few millimeters of thickness.

He had already taken M5 a long way on his own. We felt we could help take it further, without losing what made the original idea special. That is how we started building M5 together.

The Moment Jinjiang Almost Broke Down (Video in Chinese)

ONE THING WE SHOULD CORRECT

The Earlier Thickness Drawing Was Not Clear Enough.

We previously showed the thickness of the grip with a wrong set of dimensions. That was confusing, and the updated drawing below shows the dimensions properly. 

We also never wanted M5 to be ultra thin just because the number looked better. Once you go too far, comfort drops, cost goes up, and the joystick itself becomes a physical limit.

M5 is still at least 6 mm slimmer than its closest counterpart. We simply chose not to trade away comfort for another millimeter.

The same thinking led us to USB C. From S8 and S9, we learned that plenty of people actually prefer a direct connection. No pairing, no charging, just connect and play. Together with its sliding form and more retro inspired feel, it makes M5 feel simple, immediate, and a little nostalgic in the right way.

That is basically the M5 story so far.

It started as 20 handmade controllers in Guiyang. Now we are trying to make the same idea properly at scale, without sanding away the things that made it interesting in the first place.