Recently, we took a look at the best-selling controllers on Amazon, but the thing is, being popular doesn't necessarily mean something is good.
And in the comments, you guys bombarded us with all of your favorite controllers that we missed.
But guys, there are like 20 controllers here. How can we possibly decide which one is the best?
By doing something we have never done before.
A concept we're calling, the ultimate single elimination knockout bracket tier list, showdown!
We've got options ranging from $25 all the way to $200.
And guys, if you think that more money means more better, you are in for some big surprises.
So let's get into it and see who's gonna be the undisputed intercontinental champion of controllers.
Just like I am the undisputed intercontinental champion of Segway, to our sponsor.
To keep our bracket at a sweet 16, we're gonna kick things off with a quick high-end controller showdown for these last two spots.
But don't worry guys, even though we're starting on the pricier side, half of the really great controllers that we're looking at are $50 or less.
Not these ones, though. Our first cage match is between two heavyweights.
And in the case of the Fly Digi Apex 4, I mean that very, very literally.
At 329 grams, this is the heaviest controller in our showdown, and that's in part because it's the most feature rich.
It has a removable faceplate that covers tension control for the analog sticks, a large battery to power the onboard OLED screen,
a gyroscope for gyroscopic aiming, and adaptive triggers that through software can control their stopping point.
This is the top offering from Fly Digi, a name that you're gonna be hearing a lot today.
Up against it is the Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra, which has many of the same features as the Apex 4,
trading hall-effect adaptive triggers for real trigger stops, and even adding a headphone jack as well as an included dock.
However, it's today's lowest-rated gamepad, with the common complaint being regular disconnections.
Hmm, it's kind of a key feature of Turtle Beach.
Oh dude, this is gorgeous. Oh, it's smooth. It's like I can actually control what the crap I'm doing.
Oh, did you adjust the tension on the sticks? They are at maximum. It's... I like it.
Feels good, I agree. Yeah, I'm gonna try the other one.
It's the one that has the most alternative shape. Yeah, it's not a plus in my humble opinion.
Oh my god, these sticks feel so cheap now by comparison.
What's the price difference between these two? 160 and 200.
What, this is the more expensive one? That's the more expensive one. Oh, I mean, okay, well, this is easy. I'm sorry, but you're out.
Next up, the Wolverine V3 Pro is the no-nonsense, top-of-the-line eSports offering from Razer.
It's one of the most premium feeling controllers that we're looking at, but you need to like back paddles.
These are right under where your fingers rest and you will want to disable them in software
if you're not used to them to avoid pressing them accidentally, constantly.
Now, I'm not much of a paddle guy, but I will say that these are contoured really nicely for your fingers
and feel really good because they used actual mouse micro-switches.
I could see this competitor going pretty far, as long as it doesn't suddenly die.
Boom, Razer, burst, roasted. Wow, what the fuck?
One of today's boldest designs with lots of textures and pieces of plastic in strange places
is the PDP Victrix Pro BFG.
It comes with a ton of extras, like this module to replace the right analog stick and face buttons
with six buttons, perfect for fighting games.
You can also buy optional hall effect modules, which we did and rolled into our cost.
One awkward thing though, when we tested the circularity of the hall effect modules
compared to the ones that came with it, they were actually worse than the original potentiometer-based sticks.
It also has trigger stops, although the toggle for them is needlessly kind of finicky.
With that said, I like having the granularity, not to mention the super grippy spot for my palms as a bit of a sweaty boy.
I'm going to give it to the Victrix Pro. Now for the main bracket. When you pick up the game Sir Nova Lite,
it's not going to surprise you to find out that it is the cheapest controller in our showdown.
That doesn't mean it feels bad. In fact, I'd say it feels better than the more expensive Logitech controllers that we looked at last time.
And it even has some more premium features, including hall effect sticks.
But while the triggers are a similar shape to the dual sensors, they feel kind of flimsy and light by comparison.
Thought about this kind of price. Hmm. It's pretty easy to justify.
Moving on, our pick from the last video doesn't need much introduction.
It offers up hall effect sticks and triggers and has an included 2.4 gigahertz dongle in a very solid $30 package.
But the last time it only had to stand out against the popular kids.
How will our reigning champion hold up against these much stronger audience favorites?
I think both of them are very similar when it comes to the quality of the face buttons and the weight of the joysticks.
And I am not a fan of the way the 8-bit dough brings my elbows in tighter compared to the game, sir, which gives me a bit of a wider stance.
What if I told you the input latency was four times better on the 8-bit dough?
On a wire is the game, sir. Any good? Quite good. It is six milliseconds on overwire, which is well within the sweet spot.
All things considered, the game, sir puts up a really good fight.
And if this is what a little brother controller felt like when I was a kid, I would have been thrilled.
But for just $5 more, the Ultimate 2C has much better latency over wireless, which makes it kind of a no-brainer in the year 2025.
Next up is the most affordable offering from EasySNX, a company that is well known in the controller community and seemingly nowhere else.
This one definitely feels its price. It's a little kind of bulbous, almost like a Fisher Price controller, and the buttons are kind of mushy with what might be the worst D-pad in our roundup.
Up against it is the rematch glow from PDP, who makes some of the most popular cheap controllers on the market and has been doing so for quite some time.
This may be the least featured controller of the day, which makes its higher price a little puzzling.
That is, until you turn out the light. Wait, that is a pretty neat gimmick, but not enough to stand out against even a weak competitor.
I think for most folks who want a glowing controller, they'd be better off just picking up a glow-circuit skin from D-brand and putting it on an Xbox controller.
This one's a puzzler. It's a GameStop model, so you would just assume it's awful, but it can be customized with these cute little accessories.
It comes in at a reasonable mid-range price and is rated almost 4.7 stars, but oh wait, only three gamers.
Also, the fact that the base kit doesn't come with everything you need is definitely confusing and good heavens.
Is this ever the cheapest feeling plastic that I have ever felt on the faceplate of a controller?
Like, what were they thinking? Cheap feeling.
Up against it is our other wired controller on the list.
This is a solid all-rounder at a fair price.
The GameSir G7 SE and HE have swappable faceplates, lockable rear buttons, and kind of configurable hair trickers,
although it's done by moving the actuation point in software rather than having a physical stopper, so not sure if that fully counts.
There are a couple of differences between the two, and for me, I think I'll take the Rumble motor, the extra grippiness,
and in general, it feels so much nicer in the hand compared to the CandyCon that I just... there's no question.
Sports betting apps apparently give the Flydigy DireWolf one of the strongest odds to walk away the victor today
with excellent performance for the price and a lot of love for the triggers.
Ooh, they do feel nice. Not to mention the build quality and reliability.
I have very high hopes for this one. There's no fruity extras, just the basics that matter, and even a somewhat functional D-pad.
It's still on a circular pad, which I don't personally prefer, but it's got a reasonably good tactile feel.
I don't love the Rumble motor. Really?
But if I had game sound on, it wouldn't be bothering me.
Oh yeah, the sound. It's the sound. And I have no such issue with what could be a potential dark horse in our race here.
The Nixie Master P1 has a premium feel with solid comfort, tactile buttons, toggleable hair triggers, and RGB lighting.
Now, its unimpressive 200 Hertz polling rate may hurt it, especially in games where latency is everything,
but I don't know. Maybe I'm not that discerning.
The Rumble feels a lot better, David. I don't know.
It seems like you were leaning toward the Fly Digi, but it's a nice Rumble.
Definitely prefer the shoulder on the Master P1.
Oh no, I think I prefer the shoulder on the dial. The triggers are way better on the Master P1, though.
Those are nice, juicy feeling triggers. It's going to be the Master P1 for me.
Oh, it's an upset, and the fans are upset. Does everyone love the Fly Digi?
It's a very popular controller, but this is a new controller, so hey, maybe we're offering a good alternative.
I like it. This is a nice competitor.
Next up is our first, first party controller.
An Xbox Elite... No, wait. We look a little closer.
You can see, huh, not to mention feel the difference.
For one thing, the Easy SMX X10 has a magnetic faceplate and handle plates.
Ooh, that's kind of cool. It also has clicky, mechanical-style face buttons that I have to say,
it's kind of surprising how many controllers are switching over to mechanical buttons now.
It's not what I'm used to, but I can also see why people like it.
Overall, it feels almost premium and extremely natural in the hand
if you're used to a first-party Xbox controller. Going up against it is the Power A Ops V1.
Power A is one of the few brands that we're looking at that has serious penetration into big retail chains
and has a long history of making serviceable third-party controllers.
Surprisingly, the lab's team was quite impressed with the performance of this fortnight-themed banana with buttons.
It managed the lowest input latency over both a wire and with its wireless dongle,
as well as good circularity on the sticks. I gotta say, I was not expecting a Power A device to come in this strong.
It's got lockable triggers, two-stage lockable triggers.
Yes! And four rear paddles compared to just the two.
It does not feel as premium in the hand, but I still think I have to give it the edge for the extra functionality.
Next up, we've got the G5 Pro, a very popular controller with pretty positive reviews.
Sticks feel pretty normal.
The triggers are a little bit on the light side, maybe for some people.
And, oh, those are so bad.
These bumpers may be the worst that we've seen so far.
Face buttons feel okay, they're a microswitch-style face button,
and it has a removable faceplate, which is cool,
but might not make up for some of the concerns that people have raised over build quality.
Going up against it is a somewhat familiar face.
We have favorably covered the predecessor to the King Kong 3
because of its inclusion of Hall Effect hardware before it was all the rage,
and also its easy repairability. It's a solid controller at a reasonable price.
But some software bugs and uneven trigger travel have turned some people off.
And also, shockingly, we found that its 2.4GHz dongle
had the highest latency out of anything that the Labs tested.
Even higher than this same controller over Bluetooth.
That's embarrassing. There also just isn't really anything to make it stand out.
They've got their modular stuff where you can put the paddles on or take them off,
which is really nice. Yeah, I think I've got to put the King Kong 3 Pro through to the next round.
Not yet! No, you don't. There's a bonus round.
The easy SMX20 arrived after we had seated our tournament,
so you need to compare the King Kong to the SMX20.
Oh, this actually feels pretty good. This is two steps up from the X10.
Adding trigger locks, which actually feel really nice,
not to mention are really quick to toggle the modes on.
I actually really like the ergonomics of the shoulder.
The shoulders are nice too. It's got the paddles already,
so I don't have to put modular paddles on it, but they're totally out of the way, which is nice.
This is cheaper than the King Kong Pro. Yeah, 10 bucks in the Pro, yeah.
Ooh. Likey.
See you later, buddy. We might have a new front runner by the sounds of it.
This is the Flydigy Vader 4. It's a step up from their DireWolf 3,
and it feels like an Xbox controller, but with even more extras.
Oh, adjustable stick tension. Yeah.
Ooh. This is not a cheap controller,
but adjustable stick tension. I am liking that a lot
on the controllers I've seen it on so far, and this one has a way better interface for it.
It's just this dial around the stick. What's it going up against though?
Oh, here's a familiar name to Xbox gamers.
Turtle Beach with the stealth pivot, and this has got kind of a neat gimmick.
There's these locks on the back. I've unlocked them now,
and when they're unlocked, you take the sticks,
pop them in, and da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
Whoa. You can switch them to a dedicated fight mode.
Okay. That's pretty cool,
but to fit all that pivoting in them, there are some compromises on the ergonomics,
and I have real doubts about the reliability of the sticks long-term,
when you're kind of tucking them in over and over again.
Otherwise, it actually feels like a pretty nice controller,
even if it's a bit Duke-like in its profile.
Of course, another major drawback for this strange little fella is the price.
It costs about as much as buying a regular controller
and a fight controller.
I don't think I can give it the win, but not because it's a bad idea
or because it's not well executed. It actually seems like a sick controller.
If you are the right customer for this, who plays a lot of fighting games,
and I'm not. Okay.
This D-pad is literally ass, so that's something.
Using all the value controllers and then coming back to these really expensive ones,
they're having a hard time justifying their price. All right, what about the Apex 4?
Oh, there's no question. Okay, Apex.
Wow, that quick, eh? It just feels so much better.
It's frickin' heavy, which I don't love, but the adjustable tension on the sticks,
man, that feels so good. That means we have a fly didgy face-off in the next round
and I'm very excited about that. No! No fly didgy!
Okay, we're into round two! Man, I'm not gonna lie.
It seems like the X05 got a bit of a free ride
to the second round. I don't think this is as good as pretty much
anything else in the second round here. We've switched up games,
so now it's gonna come a lot more down to stick quality and precision.
Not that I'm necessarily the best person to judge stick precision,
but hey, take it for what it is. It's worth noting that we switched to a wire on this one
because we broke the dongle. That is giving a bit of a latency advantage
compared to running wirelessly, but it shouldn't be enough to give it the edge,
especially because I don't think it's gonna win. Ape Ado Ultimate 2C.
Here we go. I still don't like the stance of this one. I feel like I could get used to it,
but definitely not my favorite. It feels way more quality when you consider
that it's the same price, 30 bucks. That is the special edition one,
10 bucks more, but it's the same performance-wise. It just looks cool.
I like the D-pad a lot better on this one. Oh, man, I really, really do not prefer the shape of this.
Every time I pick it up, I'm like, oh, that, I'm taking the EZ SMX XO5.
Ooh, big upset. I didn't think I was gonna pick this either.
It feels so cheap, but I just, the control is better.
I think if I was getting an overall controller, I would pick this,
but if I'm playing shooters, I actually would pick that one over this one.
The Game Sir G7HE is gonna have to do something
pretty special to come away with the win here. It's tough to be a wired controller
in a wireless controller's world. Paddles aren't getting in my way,
not pressing them by accident, but they're there in case I need to bind them.
Nixie Master P1, our dark horse indeed.
This rumble is truly not very good. No, I can't bring a wired controller forward, David.
You can. Oh gosh.
I'd rather game on the Game Sir. This is one of the most popular ones out there,
so some people out there are very happy. That's the thing about a knockout style playoff.
Only one person can be happy, and 15 people are gonna be upset.
Power A Ops V1 versus Easy SMX X20.
Oh, actually feels really good so far. How was the circularity of this one again?
It was good. It was like in the good zone. It wasn't the best, but it was good.
So the circularity of the joysticks that we've been talking about
is how well the input matches the circle
that you draw with it. If it's oval, that's bad. It means that depending on whether you're going
up and down or left and right, it can have a different amount of input,
which is, yeah, obviously undesirable. Okay, Easy SMX.
Oh, this is stiff competition, though. I really like this one.
It had to beat two contenders to get here.
Oh, I really like the position of the paddles on this one, in that I can reach them really easily,
but I can also completely ignore them if I don't want to use them.
I wish we were doing a tier list now instead of a bracketed playoff, actually.
We're going to, at the end. Oh, okay. That's good, because there's a lot
of really, really great controllers that just weren't the best controller.
You know? Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. I got to take the Easy SMX.
More like easy cruising into the semis.
Woo! This one's going to be a heartbreaker for Fly Digi fans,
no matter which way it goes. Remember that one is $80 and one is $160.
Ooh. But they both have the adjustable tension
on the analog sticks. Apex 4. It's like, yeah, I play on Xbox,
but not because I couldn't afford a top-of-the-line PC,
because, like, I'm holding this controller. Like, it feels so good.
It's kind of inconvenient that they're more premium controller, though,
as the one that has the less convenient mechanism for adjusting the sticks.
Just to be clear, am I supposed to pick the better controller
or the one that I think makes more sense for you to buy?
I think it's what you would spend your money on. If I got them all for free,
I take this one, no question. I think that's the winner, then.
Yeah, okay. I think it's the winner. Okay, semis.
How the hell is this thing still in the running?
It doesn't seem right. I'm hyped. If there's another budget king, that's sick.
How much is it? $30. This is $30.
$30. It's $30, David. What's the hate?
You know? I mean, people find ways to hate things,
but, like, oh, it's a great controller. For the price, face button responsiveness
is definitely the downside to the easy SMX.
I'm playing only shooter games, and I don't really need my face buttons that much.
Great. They're not as good as the game, sir, though I got to give it to the game, sir.
Woo! Let's give the easy SMX X20 a chance here.
Good face buttons. This thing is so good.
Yeah, it's really nice.
Oh, this D-pad is just such a sorry excuse for a D-pad
on an otherwise, like, outstanding controller.
Oh, what a shame.
Okay, let's try D-pad here. Oh, I like this one.
This is a very usable D-pad. Another factor, $160 versus $60.
Literal $100 price difference. Oh, this one's better.
It's better. It's better. It wins.
Fly Digi has been eliminated from this competition.
I really, really like this controller. Like, I like it a lot.
If you love the Apex 4 and you've spent a bunch of money on it,
you've got a great controller, and you should love it. Just don't use the D-pad.
We go into Forza now. We decide third place. Oh, Fly Digi Apex 4.
I like this thing. I still really like it.
It is great. Meanwhile, up against a $30 controller that also made it this deep.
It's funny how there can be a difference between a light trigger
and a cheap feeling trigger. Both of these controllers have excellent granularity on the throttle.
Like, I can make a small adjustment without making a mistake,
but one just feels better.
A killer controller for $30. But it's not as good as the Apex 4,
and the challenge is which one's the best at each tier.
I still think this is going to be in, like, S tier value.
Like, honorable mention, value king, easy SMX, gamer's choice indeed.
Okay, now it's time to find the king.
Good vibration. I actually forgot about that.
The X20 has a nice rumble motor, really nice feeling trigger,
good analog sticks, rubberized tops.
I remember why I like this one so much. Got the paddles, they're not in the way.
Got the locks. Game, sir.
What the hell are you even doing here? You're a company that we mocked in our early budget peripheral roundups,
being like, haha, game, sir.
But, sir, you game. I do not like the triggers as much.
I do not prefer the rumble motor. Triggers pretty good, the sticks are just perfect.
Maybe they're not perfect. I'm sure the lab's results are going to show that they're not perfect.
Nothing's perfect, but they're good enough.
And it's not just the circularity of them, the curve is right.
They feel good, but I got to give it to the easy SMX.
It's almost the same price and you don't need a wire. I wish I had a confetti cannon.
We have it, the winner!
The easy SMX X20. You've got to tell me now, what was your king?
The Vader 4. I think it feels almost as good as the Apex.
It's not quite as premium, but I didn't care for that stuff.
And the fact that the stick control was under the faceplate pissed me off.
I thought that was such a stupid design choice. So overall, value at $80, Vader 4, easy winner.
Labs picked the ultimate 2C. Really?
For a mix of value, good sticks, good input latency,
and it's just a great all-round controller. I didn't like the ergonomics.
That's something that I can't argue with. I can't believe that not a single controller on or near the podium
was from a brand that I really think of as a gaming brand.
No. No Razor. No Turtle Beach.
What? You haven't tiered anything yet. I was going to let you do the tier list.
I'll do the tiering. David's going to do the tier list. You know it's going to be the best.
This will be it. He's going to factor in Labs, me, and his own thoughts,
and we're going to have our tier list for all these controllers because it's very clear looking at the results
that just because you didn't make it to the podium
doesn't mean you're a bad controller. Like, look at the Direwolf 3.
It went up against a really tough competitor in the first round,
but if it had happened to be seated against the Candycon
and then gone up against the ultimate 2C,
it could have easily made semis. Oh, for sure.
Consult the tier list before actually making a purchase,
but also, I think we can probably agree that the X20 is just...
Fantastic controller. Freaking outstanding.
Yeah. Both in terms of value and in terms of overall performance
and features. Yep. Yeah, this compared to an Xbox.
First, which perfectly... Please.
Please, let me tell you about our sponsor. If you guys enjoyed this video,
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