ps5 dualsense or xbox wireless controller for pc? dualsense has better features and build quality but idk if compatibility will be an issue?

DISCLAIMER: F1 was sent for review by Machenike. All the thought and opinions are mine only. No one told me what to say or what not to say.

So i have 100 dollars and now im using a dualsense and there is a little drift its been 3 years so i think its normal. Im gonna switch to a another controller but i dont know which one to.Should i go tmr or hall effect like cyclone 2 flydigi or should i stick with dualsense? I play competitively ea fc rocket league and the other games i play for fun fh6.I mostly play competitively so i get used to dualsense layout is not that much of a problem for me the problem is quality check what should i go with?? Can you guys give any recommendations for me which one is better for ea fc rocket league or is there anyone tried hall effect tmr and dualsense on the same games and felt any difference? Does it worth the change? Dualsense feels good on the quality side so i want something feels like that i dont want any cheap feeling controller.

Budget: $35 - $50

Country: USA

Platform: PC (Steam and Xbox)

Desired Features:

1. Immersive Rumble

2. Durability (Good Quality, less/no creaking or QC issues)

3. HE/TMR sticks, and Analog triggers

4. Confortable enough for 2-3 hours of gameplay.

5. 3.5mm audio out (least priority, I have HD560s connected to dac)

Games I'll be playing: Metro Exodus, DOOM TDA, GTA 6, FH6, COD MW4. I've recently gotten into (and only playing) Forza Horizon 6, and I'm really enjoying it - I will be exploring more of the racing genre. I don't play 2D and fighter games much.

Past controller experience: I've used the DS4 and the DualSense. I went through two DualSense controllers, and both developed stick drift within a year. My biggest issue with PlayStation controllers on PC is the inconsistent support - rumble is often missing or significantly weaker, so I usually have to rely on DS4Windows. I understand most recommendations will be Xbox-layout controllers, and I'm perfectly willing to adapt to that layout as long as the controller offers the features I'm looking for. I am not picky with the layout.

Thanks fellow gamers and enthusiasts!

Metal Crush MAFIA

DISCLAIMERS:

• I received my unit for free from PB Tails as part of a brand collaboration in return for a review.
• I am not officially associated with any controller company and all opinions are based on my personal experience. I try not to have bias towards any company.
• I have owned the product for a few weeks when typing this.

So the Mafia showed up in a box that honestly felt heavier than I expected before I even opened it. I knew going in this was the all black version of the Metal Crush line, the one people online keep comparing to the Steam Deck OLED colorway, and yeah once you see it in person that comparison makes sense. I've had a soft spot for weird boutique controllers for a while now so this one was fun to get my hands on, but I wanted to actually live with it before writing anything instead of doing a first impressions post.

Quick context on how I tested it, I ran it on PC through the 2.4ghz dongle most of the time, wired for a chunk of testing, and Bluetooth just to see how bad it actually gets. Mixed in some Switch time too since that's part of what this thing is built for.

MAIN FEATURES:

• K-Silver JS16 TMR joysticks
• Hall Effect linear analog triggers
• Cold forged zinc alloy MagCase, held on by 7 magnets, fully screwless
• 256 color RGB, controlled entirely through hardware shortcuts, no software needed
• Tri mode connectivity, USB-C wired, 2.4ghz dongle, Bluetooth 5.0
• 6 axis gyro
• Dual asymmetrical rumble motors
• 800mAh battery
• Works on PC, Switch, Steam Deck, mac, mobile, even Raspberry Pi apparently

Everything in the box

What's in the box:

• PB Tails Metal Crush Mafia controller
• Hard shell carrying case
• Randomized MagCase faceplate
• 2.4ghz USB dongle
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• User manual

Gotham design underneath

Build and Design: this is the whole pitch honestly

Let's just get this out of the way, this is the reason anyone buys this controller. The front shell is zinc alloy and it's held on with magnets instead of screws, seven of them apparently, and you can genuinely feel the difference the second you pick it up. It's cold to the touch at first which sounds like a small thing but it isn't, it just feels expensive in a way plastic controllers don't.

The Mafia colorway specifically went with a matte black finish across both the metal and the plastic parts, and PB Tails clearly put effort into matching the two materials so it doesn't look like a metal front bolted onto a random plastic body. It mostly works, under normal light I couldn't really tell where metal ends and plastic begins unless I was looking for it.

Weight is where this gets split for people. It's sitting around 348g which is noticeably heavier than a standard Xbox controller. First hour or two it feels great, like you're holding something premium. Few hours into a longer session my wrists were definitely more tired than usual. Not a dealbreaker for me but if you have any wrist issues already I'd think twice.

Also, the front MagCase itself, the black metal one that gives the Mafia its whole look, is actual zinc alloy, not just a metal coated plastic like some cheaper controllers pull off. You can tell the second you pick it up, it's got that cold dense feel real metal has and it's noticeably heavier in hand than the plastic MagCases PB Tails sells for the other colorways.

Little detail I didn't expect and honestly loved, once you pop the MagCase off there's a design etched into the midframe underneath, styled after the Gotham colorway from the same lineup. It's not something you'll ever see during normal use since the faceplate covers it, it's just sitting there for whoever actually opens the thing up. Small thing but it's the kind of detail that tells you someone actually cared about this product instead of just slapping a shell together.

On top of the metal MagCase, you also get a second random colored MagCase in the box that's plastic, not metal. At first I figured this was just a bonus cosmetic option, but it actually serves a purpose. It's a genuinely premium feeling plastic, doesn't feel cheap at all, and swapping to it drops a noticeable chunk of weight off the front of the controller since you're no longer carrying that zinc alloy plate. If your wrists are the type to get tired from the metal version, this is basically a built in fix.

Setup: genuinely no effort required

There's no app to download here, which is actually a whole design choice PB Tails made on purpose and I'll get into that later. Plug in the dongle and it just connects, wired is obviously instant too. Bluetooth pairing needs a button combo (hold the pairing button plus a face button depending on which mode you want) but the manual walks you through it and it took me like two minutes.

No firmware setup needed out of the box either, though PB Tails does push updates occasionally through a small flashing tool on their site if you ever want the latest features.

Sticks: the actual highlight

This is where the controller earns its price tag in my opinion. The K-Silver JS16 sticks use TMR sensing instead of Hall Effect, which if you haven't looked into it basically means better resolution and way lower power draw compared to Hall Effect sticks, without the drift issues potentiometer sticks eventually get. In practice these sticks feel incredibly clean, tracking felt precise in shooters and I didn't notice any dead zone weirdness at all.

Now the annoying part. The stock sticks that come installed on the Mafia are one piece metal joysticks, meaning the top cap and the shaft below it aren't separate parts, it's a single solid piece of zinc alloy top to bottom. Looks incredible, feels incredible in terms of build quality, but it's also just objectively slippery once your hands get even a little warm. PB Tails clearly knows this because they include a full set of plastic joysticks in the box as well, and I ended up swapping to those for actual gameplay, only throwing the metal ones back on for looks when the controller's just sitting on my desk.

Circularity out of the box uses a squared off pattern rather than a perfect circle, there's apparently a hidden shortcut to switch it to raw round input if that matters to you, I tried it and honestly didn't feel a night and day difference for how I play.

Triggers and buttons: good but with some real gaps

Triggers are Hall Effect, linear, and smooth through the whole pull, no complaints about the actual feel. The bigger issue is there's no trigger lock and no hair trigger mode at all, so if you're someone who wants a super short pull for rapid fire in shooters this isn't built for that. I also noticed a faint squeak on trigger release after a bit of use, seems to be a known thing with this line where the metal pivot rubs against the plastic housing.

Face buttons are membrane style, decent tactile bump, no complaints from my unit though I've seen some people mention the A button getting sticky over time on theirs. The d-pad is also membrane based rather than mechanical, soft actuation, and honestly it worked better than I expected for fighting game inputs since it doesn't fight you on diagonal rolls.

The one thing that's going to bother a chunk of people, there are zero rear paddles or extra remappable buttons anywhere on this thing. None. If you're coming from something with back paddles this is going to feel limiting fast.

No software, on purpose

PB Tails made a deliberate call here, there's no companion app at all for this controller. Every bit of customization happens through hardware shortcuts on the controller itself. Hold the T button and rotate a stick to cycle RGB colors, hold T and a face button to set turbo, that kind of thing. It's kind of neat once you learn the combos and I get the appeal for people tired of bloated peripheral software running in the background.

The tradeoff is real though, there's no way to remap buttons, no macro recording, no fine tuning trigger curves. If you're a power user who lives in software settings this is going to feel bare bones.

Connectivity and battery

Wired and 2.4ghz both felt rock solid the entire time I tested, zero drops. Bluetooth was noticeably worse, had a bit of stutter a couple times on PC specifically, wired or dongle is the way to go if you can.

Battery sits at 800mAh and I was getting somewhere close to what PB Tails claims, around 8 to 10 hours with the RGB running. Turning the lights off stretches it a bit further. It's fine but not amazing, some competitors in this price range do noticeably better on battery life.

I didn't have the equipment to properly test latency numbers myself, so for that part I'm leaning on third party testing rather than guessing. From what I saw wired sits in the mid single digit ms range which lines up with how responsive it felt in my own hands.

Should you get it?

Depends entirely on what you want out of a controller honestly. If you want something that looks and feels genuinely premium, has best in class stick tech, and you don't care about rear paddles or deep software customization, this thing delivers on that specific promise really well. If you're chasing competitive features like trigger locks, remappable back buttons, or a companion app to fine tune everything, this isn't built for you and PB Tails doesn't really pretend otherwise.

I'd call this a Sunday driver kind of controller. Great for single player stuff, retro emulation, casual sessions on the couch. Less great if you're grinding ranked shooters every night.

RATING:

BUILD & MATERIALS: 9/10 The zinc alloy MagCase is genuinely the best feeling part of any controller I've reviewed. Loses a bit for the slippery stock stick caps.

STICKS & PERFORMANCE: 9/10 TMR sticks are excellent, precise, no drift, low latency wired and on the dongle. Bluetooth is the weak link.

ERGONOMICS: 7/10 Comfortable at first, weight becomes noticeable on longer sessions. Bigger hands will probably fare better here.

FEATURES & VALUE: 6.5/10 No rear buttons, no software, no trigger locks. You're paying for material quality and stick tech specifically, not a full feature set.

OVERALL: 8/10 Not for everyone, but does what it sets out to do really well. If the metal and TMR sticks are what drew you in, you won't be disappointed. If you wanted a competitive daily driver, look elsewhere.

Thanks for reading, happy to answer questions about setup or anything I might have missed.

In this guide you’ll learn how to:

• Install Hallpi TMR thumbsticks + Calibrating TMR sticks on the Switch 2 console
• Perform a complete Joy-Con 2 shell swap
• Replace all buttons
• Install new magnetic side rails (Mag Rails)
• Safely remove and replace the Joy-Con 2 accent rings without damaging the sticks using a 3D printed tool

This is my first time using a controller with my PC. I need to play Undisputed on Steam. People are telling me to get an Xbox Controller because of the Microsoft software. But I've always had a Playstation.

My question, is there a controller out there that is for Xbox/PC that has the same ergonomics as a PS5 controller?

really frustrating since i had near 0 issues with the 4 other than the latency. i have this controller with the dock for 5 months now and let me tell its the most frustrating controller ever. i have to use it with steam input just for it to work more reliably. and i said more reliably cus its still not reliable with that.

50% chance when i take it off the dock it wont connect. and if it does connect the extra buttons wont work. then i gotta redock it 2-3 times for it to work right. then there was the duplicate controllers showing up on steam i had to manual disable them in device manager. then there's the paddles getting lose so i had to stick paper inside the paddle insert so it wont wobble. btw i know someone with the v2 model who got this issue still so like wtf did they not fix it?

also the fact they release a broken controller then release a v2 model right after is stupid. i got it from amazon then a month later theres a v2 verison so i cant do nothing about it. anyways im super disappointed and wish i got the gamesir 8k instead. i dont wanna sound like a karen but like come on and their support team does nothing. the discord channel is just people helping eachother since they dont exist

Hi, so i've been looking for a controller from gamesir, my options are: g7 pro Zenless zone zero edition, the 8k aimlabs one and cyclone 2, budget doesn't matter, but what i especially need from controller is reliability, i don't want it to break in first month of use. So which one from these is better for racing and simracing on PC (i also drift a lot but i don't think it matters), or there are some other good controllers?

TL:DR info:

• Budget: around 100 euro, but I could stretch it up to 150 or even 200 if it really ticks all the boxes
• Country: Belgium. Can buy online but prefer to order from webshops within the EU
• Compatible with PC (Steam input supported)
• Controller Features: TMR sticks, extra (back)buttons, wireless preferred but not required, face/shoulder buttons that aren't (too) clicky/loud
• Games: Elden Ring is probably the best representative of the kind of game I use the controller for.
• Other controllers by comparison: love the general feel of the DualSense, but it doesn't have the TMR sticks or back buttons. Don't really need/like haptic feedback. Have tried X-box one and Elite 2, disliked clicky buttons.

I'm looking to replace the DualSense controller I've been using for PC gaming for years, for something with TMR sticks and some extra back buttons, with a budget of around 150 euro at most (might stretch to 200). However, I really dislike many of the clicky, harsh buttons I've tried in the past, especially for face and shoulder buttons. That's why I've always ended up back with Playstation controllers. The DualSense is my reference point for what I like buttons to feel like.

For reference, I also have an x-box one controller. The face buttons are too loud and a bit "harsh" to press, as opposed to how soft/smooth/quiet they feel with a DualSense. I'm fine with the d-pad, it's more clicky than the DualSense, but not too loud and it isn't used as much as the face buttons. The bumpers are also too clicky. I have tried an X-Box Elite 2, but had the same dislike for buttons. Was around 180 euro, which I might be willing to spend, but not on something that annoys me.

I've been looking at stores near me, but none of them have showroom controllers that you can try out. If push comes to shove, I can always order some controllers online and send back the ones I don't like. At the right webshops, that's free. But it seemed right to ask here for suggestions first.

So, any suggestions for decent quality controllers, with TMR sticks, back buttons, but without too much clickyness? I mostly play single player games (think Elden Ring) and don't really have a need for things like exceptional precision for FPS. Just good overall quality, and sticks that don't start drifting.

A few I've had my eye on:

• 8bitdo pro 3: I read it used to have loud face buttons which have been improved. But I'm assuming they still are quite clicky. Otherwise, it has all my requirements for the same price as a new DualSense.
• 8BitDo Ultimate 2: Same as above, but I'm wondering if the buttons have a different feel
• GameSir G7 pro: saw it advertised as clicky, so I'm not hopeful
• GameSir Supernova: I'm sure I read somewhere that the face buttons are quite soft, is that true? What about the shoulder buttons? Also, back buttons don't look like they are in a nice spot.
• Gamesir G7 SE: Same as above, though not wireless
• Something called eSports Controller from a Dutch company, which appears to be modified DualSense controllers. Not the worst idea, considering I like the feel of Dualsense. But it is getting pretty expensive, and I'm not a fan of the bulky looking back paddle module, so I want to look to other brands as well
• I've heard of Scuf controllers, are they any good? I'm being vague, the large Dutch webshop I was using for reference just stopped working.

Hi, I'm looking for a new controller after 5 years of using a Wolverine v2 Chroma. There are so many good controllers out there but I'm worried about QC and reliability..

Budget : up to **200-250€**

Region : **France**

Platform : **Xbox**

Specs : **TMR or HE joysticks, microswitch buttons (I don't like membrane), wired or wireless, but ideally the latter, and I'd like something with extra shoulder buttons and/or paddles but that's not really a dealbreaker for me.**

I won't use any PC controllers with adapters.

So far I've been looking into things like the **Wolverine V3,** (but I'm worried about QC, especially with the cables), the **G7 Pro** (tho the trigger issues are also worrying), the **Vader 5s,** and the **Asus Rog Raikiri 2**. I'm also curious about **8Bitdo** but I'm confused by the sheer amount of options available.

I've already had a bad experience with a G7 Pro that I had to refund because the right trigger was acting up straight out of the box, but maybe that was finally fixed? Also I've stopped using my V2 Chroma because of disconnections due to the USB port, so I'd like to avoid anything that has similar issues. Maybe a custom cable guard could make the Wolverine V3 Pro more reliable?

I'm playing all sorts of games, FPS, single player, action RPGs.

Again, my main concern is **reliability**..

Thanks!