The Steam controller just came out and
our biggest hang-up was the price. So,
we're looking at a controller that
sneaks in quite a bit under. And if
you're only looking for that gamepad
functionality, none of that trackpad
nonsense, the Vader 5 Pro from Fry Digi
might be a very interesting option for
you. And for me, I'm uh at the point
with my Cyclone 2 where I'm maybe
considering a replacement. And this is
at the top of my list for a number of
reasons. The top of them being these
adjustable tension joysticks. As we
explored with the 4 era of Fly Digi's
product in our 16-way controller
roundup, these adjustable joystick
tension thingies are faking sweet.
Whether you like really light 40 g force
or 100 g of force, you can kind of lock
in the tension you want. And with the
latest version of the Vader 5S Pro,
these are actually ratcheting, so it's
less likely for them to slip as you play
and the tension to switch. Good sticks
are important, but what about the rest
of the controller? On the top, we have
our Fly Digi button. That is actually a
button this time, not just a logo. We
have our start select. They're not
called that anymore. Menu options. call
it overlapping squares and three dots.
>> On the top, we have our joysticks. We
have our floating D-pad that is clicky
and will do a fine job getting you
through your menus. If you're planning
on using this D-pad for precision
controls, stop planning that
immediately. This is not what that is
designed for. Over here, we have four
clicky mechanical buttons, which I have
grown to really like clicky buttons on
my controllers, as well as two extra
buttons. So, if you're playing them Sega
games or Xbox original games, you got
actual face buttons. The click on these
is actually quite different. It's
substantially less satisfying. You can
even hear it. Oh, yeah.
But that's fine. These are things you
can assign to extra controls. I don't
think they're going to be primary
inputs. So, just having the extra
options is nice. Especially when you go
to the top, there's extra little option
bumpers here. Like the 8bit do 2C. We
have three shoulder buttons on each
side. We have our regular uh big boy
bumpers with a textured plastic. And
then we have our triggers that have a
ton of features hidden inside. We'll get
to shortly. And then we got these little
clicky bumpers. I think just like the
2C, they're a little bit far of a reach
that I probably wouldn't use too too
often, but in games where I'm like, I
really wish I could assign one extra
control. That is nice. And they feel
pretty good. As do the bumpers. They
don't feel even across the button over
here. It's a much more satisfying click.
Over here, I can feel the plastic doing
sort of a lever thing before the
mechanism actually activates. Still
pretty good though. Would have no
problems, especially the way I hold it.
Like most my finger is on it anyway.
Just like the triggers. And similar to
other Fly Digi products, we actually
have mechanical stops to make them the
competitive style little hair triggers.
And these are really satisfying. Do you
hear that sound? Also on the top of note
is our type-C charging port. You can
also use this controller via wire. In
terms of connectivity, there is a 2.4
GHz dongle included. You can use
Bluetooth. On the back, we got the uh
trigger stops back here. We have
pre-installed paddle buttons that are
built into the controller. We have our
two slots to add extra paddle buttons
with attachments that are in the box.
We'll actually do the real unboxing
later. And then the two little buttons
actually for the extra back paddles as
well. And then we have our mode toggle.
So we have dongle, Bluetooth, Nintendo
Switch mode. It's important to note this
won't work out of the box with a
PlayStation or Xbox console. You can get
adapters that do work with that, but by
the time you buy those adapters, uh the
value proposition of this controller is
severely weakened. It's time to go out
to our field reporter to find out if
this controller connected to a Switch 2
can turn it on just using the button.
Switching this into Nintendo Switch
mode.
Holding the button.
I need to be hitting the bumpers. Oh,
nope. There we go. It's connected.
Takes you back home, but it will not
wake the console.
Wow. Incredible. On the bottom, we have
our function and turbo buttons. That's
not stuff I'm in the habit of using, but
I know some people are very passionate
about those, so power to you. We also
have our LED strip that will light up in
desperate search of a dongle that is not
plugged in right now. Of note, just like
the Steam Controller, there is no
headphone jack, which may or may not be
a dealbreaker for you, but features are
what features are, baby. Let's see how
this feels in the hand. It feels like
I'm holding a really much improved Xbox
controller. It's got a similar uh grip
style. You can kind of see in terms of
the angle, but it has a more rubberized
plastic, sort of like the Elite. I think
people are going to be a little bit
mixed on this. I don't like rubber on my
controllers because that puts a counter
down for when this controller will be
absolutely disgusting and oily. That
being said, today it feels really nice
and really premium. We got the textured
back, the textured bumpers and triggers.
There's a different type of plastic here
that has little speckles in it. So, I
think that's a neat touch. Although, I
don't think they go quite far enough to
make it super two-toned. When I catch
the light, it feels more different than
it looks. In person, it kind of just
looks like dark gray and dark gray with
flex in it. I wish this had more
contrast. I think that would make it pop
more. That being said, that's as
nitpicky as nitpicky gets, baby. I
actually got too excited about this
controller. We need to see what else is
in the box. So, you get a nice little
thick manual in many languages. You also
get ads for other Vlad Digi controllers
from the Doomf Fox all the way to the
Apex 5. I want to cover both of those.
Let us know in the comments which one
you're more interested in me covering.
We also have other products like a phone
cooler and a laptop cooling pad. Also in
the box is a 150 cm cable. Um that's
just under 5 ft. It's not the cheapest
cable I've ever felt. Uh it's rated for
USB 3, which is nice. Pretty good
housing. Will do the job. We also have
our dongle. Regular ass dongle. is
definitely not as cool as the Steam
Controller one and it doesn't have the
functionality of plugging into your
cable or charging your controller, but
that's fine. Last thing inside of this
plastic is our extra rear paddles. They
slide into the back here with a little
satisfying click. And if you've been
paying close attention to Fly Digi's
latest controllers, you'll know that uh
some of the early ones had really bad
back paddles where they would break
really bad. And you'll be glad to know
that this is actually the V2 of the
Vader 5 Pro and they fixed the part
inside the controller that was just a
little plastic loop uh that was
breaking. So, it should be more
reliable. Although, I do have comments
about the fact that there's a V2 that
it's hard to know about. We'll get to
that later. Wow, that's actually
surprisingly seamless. I was expecting
it to feel like the difference in back
paddle would be quite drastic, but they
feel very connected to each other. Like
there's a little bit of flex on the
levered ones, but I'm getting a
satisfying click. And if I needed four
back paddles, this would be certainly
adequate. Although, I would like that
plastic a little stiffer. One thing that
is slightly painfully missing when you
compare it to something like the Cyclone
2 is there's no included dock. Not the
end of the world, uh, if it keeps the
pricing more accessible. And the fact
that there is an optional dock, uh, for
$25 is pretty nice. Let's see how this
thing is.
White. White. The dock is very premium
feeling compared to the packin one on
this the Cyclone 2. I start to
understand why they're charging more for
it. It's got good weight, which is
actually nice because the controller is
going to sit nice and it's not really
going to be in danger of falling over or
disconnecting. There is no magnetic
click, but the pins go in quite nicely.
On the front, we have RGB array for cool
RGB stuff. We have our charging pins and
the controller mount. On the bottom, we
have rubber feet so it doesn't slide as
much. And then we get to the good stuff.
We have our dongle USB slot. Uh, it's
the right size for this so that you can
actually use these ones. Uh, just like a
USB dock. This type-C goes to your
computer. So, you actually get two extra
USB ports if you use the dock. I
actually am more considering the stock
than I thought I was going to at the
beginning of this video, just like I'm
really considering the upgrade to this
Goku edition Vader 5 Pro. Uh, yes, you
heard that right. This Vader 5 has
freaking Dragon Ball Z branding all over
it. Over here, we have the sort of silk
screen outline of Super Saiyan Goku and
then Super Saiyan in Japanese as well as
more flames. These uh orange transparent
triggers are really nice and they can
let you see a little bit of the
mechanism of the rumble triggers of the
Vader 5 Pro. Very similar feel outside
of the front plate. This feels really
nice, premium. This feels sticky and
cheap. It's actually cheap enough
feeling that even though I really like
some of the aesthetic choices on this, I
think I'm going to stick with my base
model. Let's plug it in and find out how
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>> We have our controllers plugged in via
the dock. There's a lot of RGB going on.
I don't know how I feel about that.
Let's open up the Fly Digi software and
see how it goes. Oh boy, we got some
Chinese characters. That's not going to
work for me. Okay, I can infer that this
is profile 1 2 3 4. That's fine. We can
set up more configurations if we want. I
really only need the one. First off, we
can reassign all our mappings. That's
pretty cool. Um, especially for the back
buttons where games might not have the
ability to map that directly. You can
kind of assign a specific input or a
macro or something special. Next, we
have our common settings which include
the light, dynamic glow, breathing,
gradient. We're not going to go through
all these. We're going to turn it off
for battery life. That is quite bright.
It might not seem like it in a well-lit
room, but that actually would uh need to
go off for me because I don't want to be
made aware of all of this when I'm
playing games. You know, I want to be
sucked into the screen. I play video
games like it's the never- ending story.
I also want to extend my battery life.
This comes with a,000 milliamp hour
battery, uh, which Flagy says is good
for about 15 hours of game, but of
course, if you're using tons of haptics
or lights and stuff, that will go down
slightly. 15 hours is okay, not great.
My Steam controller did like 37. So, and
that was at like full tilt haptics going
all the time. It's okay. Next, we have
our vibration. We can turn on or off
vibration as well as the intensity. I
want my fingers to tingle. That is a
rumble motor. That is not haptics.
That's not advanced stuff. That's fine.
I think most people
prefer the haptics, but this would be
sufficient. Next, we have our buttons,
which is just another way to remap.
Then, we have our joystick. We can
change our sensitivity curve. We can
change our circularity algorithm. Um, if
we want to have it be a rectangle where
it's basically more forgiving about
slightly being offaxis where you're
trying to go forward or perfect circle.
Uh, if you're using Hall effect or TMR
sticks, usually you want the precision
of the circle. But that being said, we
haven't even talked about what
technology is actually in these sticks.
These are Hall effect sticks as well as
Hall effect triggers. Now, Hall effect
technology is better than
potentiometerbased sticks like you have
in all three of the first party
controllers. However, we have entered
the golden age of the tunnel
magnettoresistance sticks which
basically has the precision and long
life of Hall effect with lower power
draw. So, that might actually be part of
why this has a pretty okay battery life
is these Hall effect sticks while
precise and should have a long life
other than the centering spring maybe
dying out or giving out on you.
It's a shame that they haven't upgraded
to TMR sticks uh in an era where they
are getting cheaper and cheaper. Go back
to our software. We can basically have
our dead zone or offset. We are going to
leave things at default. Then we have
our gyro sensors. I also haven't talked
about the freaking gyro in this. It's
got six axis, baby. Yeah, more features
than you can freaking handle. Uh I know
not everyone's super into gyro aiming,
but I am definitely coming around to it
in the right games. Uh, basically what
that means is you can still aim with the
right stick, do your big macro
movements, and then little micro
adjustments with the gyro. Gives you
extra precision. Pretty freaking sweet.
Next, we have our trigger settings. And
we can uh change these independently of
the trigger, which is nice because
sometimes you want one to be really,
really quick, and so you want to
optimize for around quickness and speed,
and the other you want to be a little
more immersive. Uh, or you can have them
be the same. We can turn on and off the
vibration of the triggers. Next, we can
change the stroke setting, which
basically means that like it'll get a
positive press faster uh the more
sensitive you set it. Then you can
change your vibration intensity. I don't
think there's a vibration test, which is
fine, but I'm going to put my vibration
intensity to 100. Next, we have our
trigger amplitude, which seems to set
the minimum maximum range for the
trigger vibration intensity, as well as
our vibration shielding value, which
basically is like a dead zone for
activating the trigger depending on the
game. We're going to leave these at
default and see how our games do.
Starting with Forza Horizon 5. Let's
actually switch back to wireless mode.
Uh so we can comment on that wireless
latency. Oh, I also need to turn off the
lights on the dock. What are our dock
settings? Light mode. Diagonal flow.
It's kind of nice. You get a little
preview on the screen. Okay. I'm a
little more into this custom. Okay.
Yeah, you can put like videos in. It
doesn't look like you can upload videos.
Let's see how this works. Apply to the
device. The uh amount of RGBs is great
for a controller dock, but it's not
quite enough to have like a fullon uh
story told through this thing. Right
now, it's just like a beige to green.
You can kind of tell Mike, but you can't
really tell Linus. That's okay. We're
just going to go with something uh I
like to call off. In the software, we
have four other options. One is
intelligent start, which basically knows
that the controller is plugged in and
will turn off the animation and show
charging. Uh we have lighting sync,
which will keep the RGB of the dock and
the controller connected. You can have
it close when shut down, which basically
turns off the RGB when the computer is
off. Uh as well as you can change it to
be a power display, so it'll show you uh
how much the controller is charging with
this cool little animation. And I got to
say, for 25 bucks, this dock is a pretty
decent value if you're getting this
controller. I'm turning my RGB off and
I'm turning my gamer fingers on. Let's
freaking play, boys. These rumble
triggers really do rumble. And the way
that the trigger meets the plastic
housing here, I find actually vibrates
kind of uncomfortably. Like, it does
kind of give me that tingly feeling cuz
I'm half my finger is on the stationary
plastic and the other piece is on the
rumbly piece. I actually wish that the
trigger didn't go as far down into the
body because then I wouldn't have that
problem. It's not a big deal. Um, and I
think I would just adjust my grip
slightly, but it's enough that I want to
continue turning down my trigger
vibration. I've turned it down to 25%
and this feels much more comfortable for
me. It's still quite immersive uh on
both triggers. The resistance also feels
very very good in this kind of game. I'm
not going to use the competitive
triggers, but the the action feels good,
the resistance is good, and then the
triggers just that extra little bit of
immersion. Okay, we're going to play
some Castlevania to test out this D-pad.
The verdict is in. D-pad not so great
for retro games. I think this kind of
game is the best use of this kind of
controller because then you can set the
competitive trigger so you can get the
faster response. I still prefer uh doing
the competitive trigger for aim down the
sights and then full trigger for the
guns. Yeah, these sticks feel really
good, really responsive. They're
whipping around pretty fast. I like my
tension set to maximum. I like the
weight of the sticks. The back paddles
feel really good. And I was wrong. I
actually think that these top bumper
buttons are not as inaccessible as I
first thought. I really like the Vader 5
Pro. I think it's uh even better than I
expected. I think they've done a lot of
improvements since their last generation
of product. And the MSRP is $80 and you
can often find it for around like $65,
$63.
That is a really good deal. Here comes
the asterisk.
This is the V2 of the 5 Pro. The V1
doesn't have the ratcheting tension so
that it can slip in the middle of a
game. You don't have the metal inards on
the back paddle, so those have been
known to break. And the centering spring
on the joysticks is not quite as good.
And it's not really easy to identify
online which version you're buying. If
you look at the box, the model number
here is GPC F50301.
If you have 50101, that's a version one.
301 is the second version. That's the
one you want. And I know that there's a
lot of the original ones out there. It's
still going to be a good controller, but
it makes me really hesitant to buy one
online, especially if I'm buying it from
a marketplace that's a little bit harder
to return.
That being said, it's hard to beat the
value of $60ish,
even with this $25 add-on. That's a
pretty freaking sweet ecosystem. And
this is a really nice controller. I
think if you are really interested in
just the Joyad functionality, this is an
excellent option for the price. I think
it has the features that you need for
competitive gaming for more immersive
stuff. And I don't think that it's
necessarily worth the price up to the
Apex. It's nearly double the sale price
of this. And then you get the more
adaptive triggers. You get bigger
battery. You get a screen on your
controller. Like, do you guys even want
that? So, I think that the Vader 5 Pro
sits at the sweet spot of exactly the
controller I want. If you can get the
exact one that you want, just like I'm
telling you exactly the next video, you
should watch. You should watch our
unboxing of the Steam Controller video.
Floop did a really good job. He He had a
lot of the same thoughts that I did, but
better.