What exactly does the controller do and possible to replace with a different controller?

[fuzzybabybunny]

The controller is an absolute brick when taking along for travel and the phone holder mechanism is just asking for the phone to be accidentally smashed down into both joysticks during flight.

I noticed that the Anafi appears to be flyable entirely through the FreeFlight app and a smartphone, so what does the controller do?

Does it have a separate GPS unit of its own?
Does it extend the control range?
Does it extend the FPV range?

Is it possible to just replace the controller with something lighter like a PlayStation dual shock controller?

 

[Chasbro]

If you are reasonably careful, the skycontroller 3 works reasonably well. There are some alternatives. You can set up a wifi extender for your device and do away with the controller. This will get good range (about same as stock) however you have to use the on screen joypads. With the old bebop 2 you use a blue tooth flypad to get sticks but not with freeflight 6. I mostly sit in my van and use flight plan.

 

[Liger 1956]

I you search the forum you will finds posts about removing the weights from inside the controller, which makes it a lot lighter, and for modifications to make the phone clamp work better. I have 3D printed a clip for mine that works well.