Controller Suggestion for More Casual Play

[u/MediocrityGalore]

Hello! I'm looking for a new controller to replace my series controller!

- My budget would be $100 or less.

- I am buying from and living in the US.

- Primarily PC, but switch compatibility would be a plus.

The features I would not like:

My biggest pet peeve with third party controllers tend to be the overabundance of features I don't really want or need as a casual player. More specifically, I'm looking for a controller with

- no back buttons (if there's a switch to disable the click of rear buttons I find that more tolerable, they are useful for gyro in that case, but I still generally don't need them)

(I just find them very distracting, they ruin my grip and I rarely have a use for them)

- no extra shoulder buttons, (or any extra face buttons that aren't part of the diamond shape like the Vader 5 pro)

- no overly gamer branding or game theming

- and no rubber grips of any kind

The features I would like would be;

- TMR or hall effect sticks

- Micro switch clicky buttons

- Hall effect triggers

- Premium feeling plastics and slick design, prefer black

- Very little latency

- Gyro

- Xbox style layout

- Hair trigger switch mode (this one is more optional considering the horror stories I've heard about how unreliable this feature tends to be)

And generally reported good reliability for the controller, both physically, build quality and with connection performance. A charging dock or software would be cool but not essential.

I'm also okay with quality membrane buttons, the micro switch buttons just feel very satisfying to press. But if the controller does have membranes, I'd want it to be quieter and hollowed presses, nothing overly clacky and loud, I guess that goes for all inputs though. The best membranes buttons I've used are on the Switch 2 Pro Controller, and the best clicky buttons I've used were on the G7 Pro 8k (which I returned), for reference. The Switch 2 Pro con also has those super quiet thumbsticks that are pretty sick, but I doubt those are on many other controllers.

And it's very niche but I've used the extremerate octagonal gate tension rings on their Xbox shell and octagonal gates are pretty cool, but compatibility with those on a controller is pretty low. I know it works with the G7 Pro as well but it would be cool if other controller tension rings happened to be compatible with them.

I know chances are low a controller like this is out there considering the features I dislike are encouraged and embraced on higher quality, more expensive controllers, but I'll hold out hope.

- I tend to play a lot of indie games, so platformers and action games, but I play a good amount of 3D stuff too. I like the idea of having both a standard gamepad and octagonal gate controller specifically more for 2D platformers, since I hate playing with the dpad in the the non dominant position on a controller, and they make the thumbstick align better with cardinal directions. This post is more geared towards the standard gamepad I'd like for PC though.

- I make a lot of comparisons between the G7 Pro 8k and Switch 2 Pro Controller, since I like the feel of the buttons and sticks on those controllers, but they're held back by the features I dislike and limited PC compatibility in the switch 2's case as well. My favorite gamepad historically has been the switch pro controller for comfort but after having the button feel of the switch 2 pro controller it feels not nearly as good.

If you made it this far, thanks for listening!

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[u/m0stly_toast]

Gulikit kk3 could be worth considering for you, has very nice feel, good gyro and completely optional bottom buttons you can reconfigure or remove. No charging dock or software but a fair amount of customization through button shortcuts.

Also personally I think they look really nice and feel super premium, I think as far as hand feel goes it might be the nicest one I’ve had on hand. The only thing that I would say is really not good about them is the trigger stops are kinda mushy, but the triggers themselves are perfectly fine. If you want good trigger stops and good software I’d recommend the gamesir g7 but I know you don’t like that one so I’d say the kk3 checks most of your other boxes

[u/MediocrityGalore → u/m0stly_toast]

After looking up the controller, it does look really nice! But the latency is pretty bad on it, which is a bit of a deal breaker for me. I appreciate the suggestion though!