Of all of the lower-cost, pick-up-and-play controllers I examined for the Nintendo Swap 2, 8BitDo’s $60 Final 2 simply felt one of the best in hand. At a steep low cost from Nintendo’s now-$90 Swap 2 Professional Controller, it’s a simple suggestion. What else do you want? Once we take a step up and take a look at the $70 Professional 3 wi-fi controller, we should always contemplate simply what we achieve and what we’re nonetheless lacking. No, sadly you may’t wake the Swap 2 from sleep with the Professional 3. What you get as an alternative is likely one of the best-feeling gamepads with the newest stick, set off, and button know-how that neither Nintendo nor another main console maker nonetheless dares to the touch.
8BitDo Professional 3 Controller
The 8BitDo Professional 3 controller is nice for Swap or PC, and it is one of many few you may change the button format to your most popular system.
Professionals
- Swappable buttons
- TMR joysticks really feel nice
- Wonderful ergonomics and responsiveness
Cons
- 8BitDo Final Software program wants work
- Cannot get up Swap 2
As a lot as I’ll benefit from the fashionable PS5 DualSense controller, I’m wondering what may have been if Sony had saved iterating on its older DualShock design. 8BitDo’s Professional 3 tells us there was a lot extra to provide. The peripheral maker’s Professional sequence controllers bear a glance that by some means combines the DualShock’s thumbstick format with an old-school, flat-bodied SNES gamepad. If its squishy begin and choose buttons don’t spark nostalgia, I don’t know what would. The 8BitDo Professional 3 has twin arms that match adult-sized palms higher than any previous PlayStation controller. And identical to the 8BitDo Professional 2 from 2021, you may get the gamepad in a Famicon-style off-white, a calming GameCube purple, or a PlayStation grey, however now it comes with an Final 2-style dock, which doubles as a charging mount and straightforward 2.4GHz connection port for enjoying on PC, Mac, or Steam Deck.
Any controller that desires to name itself “professional” wants a 2.4GHz connection for decrease latency. Again buttons and a toggle swap to clicky “haptic” triggers are actually so customary it’s onerous to return to a fundamental Xbox controller. However you’re not reaching for an organization like 8BitDo first if you wish to outperform opponents in Name of Responsibility. As a substitute, the 8BitDo Professional 3 operates as a swap hitter between Nintendo’s Swap and Swap 2, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. Actually vital to notice: the Professional 3 doesn’t join with PlayStation or Xbox consoles. The Professional 3’s A, B, X, and Y face buttons are all magnetic. The controller comes with a small rubber doohickey device with a magnet you utilize to swap your buttons round nevertheless you select. This implies you need to use the 8BitDo Professional 3 in each Nintendo Swap or Xbox layouts with out having to rely purely on muscle reminiscence. The Professional 3 isn’t practically as modular because the $200 Turtle Seaside Victrix Professional BFG, which helps you to utterly reconfigure the controller format with magnetic modules, however for $70 there are few controllers which might be practically as customizable.
The elimination device and further buttons are discovered within the backside hatch of the charging mount. Eradicating the buttons merely requires you to press the suction cup to every swap, then tug them out one by one. With the brand new buttons reseated, I wasn’t in a position to pry them out with my fingernails irrespective of how onerous I dug. What’s extra, you can even take away the thumbstick caps. 8BitDo included two ball caps such as you may discover on a Japanese-style arcade stick. You want a good bit of finger power to launch and connect the thumbstick caps, however as soon as they have been on, I didn’t really feel any quantity of free rocking on both the common or arcade attachments. I might truthfully be amazed if anyone used these for something, not to mention preventing video games, however they appear additional cute jutting out of the controller, as if combining three eras of gaming into one enter gadget.
In comparison with the Corridor impact joysticks on the last-gen Professional 2 controller, the Professional 3 makes use of TMR, or tunnelling magnetoresistance sticks. Corridor impact makes use of a magnetic area to detect the stick’s orientation. These sticks are way more immune to the inevitable drift brought on by older designs with extra contact factors. TMR is extra of an evolution of Corridor impact, although so few controllers are making use of the know-how, and guarantees to be extra correct than Corridor impact whereas consuming a lot much less energy. What all this implies in observe is the Professional 3 ought to last more, each when it comes to battery life and long-term use. The controller homes a 1,000mAh battery, which is technically lower than what you’ll discover on controllers just like the PlayStation DualSense. Sony’s PS5 controller usually lasts little greater than three to 4 hours, at finest. The 8BitDo Professional 3 powered by a three-hour session of Swap 2 gaming plus a number of extra hours of assessments on PC earlier than the battery indicator turned pink. The addition of the charging dock means you shouldn’t have to fret a lot about working out of juice, as long as you retain it plugged in and shut by.
What issues greater than the joystick know-how is how the sticks truly really feel in your thumbs. They’re extra stiff than some early, twig-like Corridor impact joysticks. Every snaps again to heart with no twinge of unintentional enter you get on cheaper controllers, which are likely to “rubber band” when launched. In video games on Swap 2 like Donkey Kong Bananza, working round feels easy and snappy. Should you plan to take this controller into Name of Responsibility multiplayer, simply know there are different high-end controllers that will supply extra for actually aggressive gaming.
The D-pad and Corridor-effect triggers are equally exemplary. Each course on the D-pad feels snappy, and I didn’t have any situation with missed inputs relying on the place I hit the buttons. The L2 and R2 buttons embody a swap to alter from clicky triggers to analog triggers. For the sake of Swap video games, they really feel even higher than the Swap 2 Professional controller. Its six-axis gyro controls are simply as exact as Nintendo’s $90 Professional gadget and the 8BitDo Final 2 gamepad. The dock makes use of USB-C and contains the USB-C 2.4GHz dongle inside. You don’t even have to take away the dongle from the dock for quicker connection speeds, making enjoying on PC seamless. Should you plan to make use of a 2.4GHz connection on Swap, you may allow the choice when you maintain the choose and LB buttons for a number of seconds, however it makes the expertise worse since doing so disables movement controls and rumble. Should you’re utilizing it for Swap, you’ll inevitably go for Bluetooth, and also you’ll nonetheless be capable to use the controller from distant. The acknowledged distance is 10 meters, and I may nonetheless connect with a Swap 2 on the opposite facet of my condo by a number of partitions and doorways.
The remainder of the buttons have an oomph and a clickiness that will flip off some individuals who don’t need to annoy their companion studying beside them on the sofa, however I’m a gamer who prefers to really feel each button press. The 8BitDo Professional 3 is each bit the high-end controller it claims to be, apart from its software program. The “8BitDo Final Software program” is rudimentary however helpful for setting lifeless zones on the sticks or mapping your buttons on as much as three profiles accessible from a button between the 2 thumbsticks. Nonetheless, putting in the software program and getting it linked to the controller on PC or cellular is usually a ache.
Identical to with the Professional 2, it’s once more disappointing there’s no model of the controller suitable with both Xbox or PlayStation. The Uncommon fortieth Anniversary Final 3 is 8BitDo’s first Xbox wi-fi controller, so there could also be hope for future console-specific variations. If I had any extra choices, this controller may simply be my go-to for each Swap 2 and PC. However till 8BitDo finds a manner to assist it wake the Swap 2, it could’t actually be my one and solely.
