I’ve used Xbox 360 controllers for a very long time. I’ve been having issues with interference with aftermarket controllers, and fighting stick drift. I felt like was ready to try something new. I har learned about hall effect controllers researching stick drift on my controllers so I knew my new controller had to have them. Wireles was also a requirement, I don’t need 10ft of cable laying across the room. I also wanted to stick with the Xbox general kind of design, the PS style just feelts too small in my hands. Research and review lead me to the Gamesir T4 Cyclone Pro.

I purchased one of these and was impressed out of the box on the build quality. I however, was a little unimpressed with the overall accuracy. Gamepad testor showed both sticks had ~1.8% error ratio. Now, that is actually pretty good.. but for a Pro top of the line controller as advertised I wanted better. I also had a bit of an issue with connectivity with that controller for some reason. I ordered a replacement, and it is improved. It has ~0.9% error ratio. That’s pretty dang good. I tested the latency with the 2.4ghz reciever and was getting ~6ms lag input on average. That’s a bit high, but I’m not a pro gamer. Unfortunately you cannot overclock this either. I don’t notice in my gameplay, but I know it’s there.

After ~200hrs on the sticks now my k/d ratio is improved pretty much across the board. I love the feel of the textured triggers and grips. It’s light weight, and just a great controller. The 2 complaints about the actual controller I have, and honestly it’s not trivial is how bright the LED is on the remote. It’s blinding when playing in a darker room. I will probably end up taping some paper over it. The second issue is the rumble motor has a high pitched squeel when it’s on. This was noticed on both controllers I recieved. I don’t really like rumble so it wasn’t a deal breaking for me since I intended to disable it anyway, but if you do use it, that noise is distracting to me. The battery lasted ~15hrs before dying. It charges fairly quickly though.

The other complaint not directly related to the controlelr itself is the app you’re required to download if you want to tweak anything, is terrible. It’s written by a Chinese company and requires your location and other data that I feel it really shouldn’t require to connect to a bluetooth device. There is also a lot of bloatware included in it. I downloaded it to disable the rumble, and for some reason, even though these are hall effect sticks, the deadzone was set to 5. I set it to zero since they will never have a deadzone. After that I uninstalled the app. Removing the deadzone definatly improved response on the sticks.

So after all that, this remote is probably the best hall effect controller on the market, and at ~$50 it’s hard to go wrong. Q&A could be improved, the LED could be toned down a lot, or at least dimmable, and the app needs to be pared down and not require location data. With all that said I’d buy it again.

 

This is a good controller feels god in the hands grips are good not much this isn’t going to connect to the only thing is that there’s no 3.5 headphone jack but not a deal breake

 

Ich bin wirklich beeindruckt, welche Qualitt zu dem Preis mglich ist. Die Verarbeitung ist wirklich ausgezeichnet, nichts knarzt oder wackelt.
– Die Hall-Sticks sind allererster Gte und Ultra-Przise.
– Die Trigger sind ca. vergleichbar mit jenen des Xbox One Controllers.
– Die Buttons sind etwas gewhnungsbedrftig. Neutral gesehen prziser und knackiger als beim MS-Controller, allerdings fhlen sie sich irgendwie gleichzeitig schwammig und knackig an. Das knnte manche Leute eventuell stren, ich hatte mich nach 5min daran gewhnt.
– Das Gewicht ist sehr leicht. Wirkt im ersten Moment fast etwas billig, ist auf Dauer aber natrlich angenehm

Etwas schade ist, dass der Akku fest verbaut ist – aber einen Tod muss man wohl sterben.

Dass der Controller sowohl per Bluetooth als auch mit dem Dongle problemlos mit Linux funktioniert und keine extra-Software bentigt ist natrlich auch ein groes Plus 😉

 

I take my gamepad seriously and went through quite many iterations of original and third-party controllers.

Originally I thought this looked like one of these third-party imitation gamepads, but I was pleasantly surprised.

First on mechanical construction. Its extremely close clone of XBox one shape, with difference that shell is simplified and screw holes on the bottom are not covered (they often attract dirt so were hidden on Xbox one genuine controller design). Plastic is very high quality, with micro-textured grips. I personally prefer plastic grips since “high-end” rubber grips get stinky fast and more fuss to clean.

Buttons and d-pad use “clicky” mechanical switches and not rubber domes like competitors. I can’t say if it really gives reliability advantage, in terms of feel its quite distinctly more “crisp” and audible (think like clicky mouse), but personally I can’t say it makes huge difference for me.

Sticks use hall effect switches. Which theoretically should be more precise and wear-free unlike potentiometers. Personally I never experienced a much reported “joycon drift”, but I think its a good feature to have. However I can’t say I like distinct mechanical “direction feel” (noticeable if you try to move stick in circles), also centering spring is too strong for my liking (and center play is still here and pretty much same as in usual XBox one stick).

One thing I personally don’t like how they repositioned menu buttons. They very uncomfortable to press for me, esp. one on the left where you have to reach with your thumb *over* the stick. I think this was entirely unnecessary (maybe it was to avoid lawsuits by not being 100% clone? not sure).

Controller has two paddles on the back which is extremely pleasant to see in this price segment. They are easily programmable without need for any external software. My only complaint about them they are a bit too big and easy to accidently press.

About programmability – the built-in firmware is super advanced and allows tons on programming done in controller itself, without need to use any external software. Personally I don’t use any of these advanced features except assigning buttons to paddles, but this may have appear to lot of people.

Controller feels really light, even while plastic is very robust, most likely due to lighter insides (e.g. battery – more on that later).

Now on connectivity. Often third-party gamepads have compatibility problems. This is absolutely not the case with this gamepad, just with some limits. As far as I understand It fully implements Xbox 360 Wired (USB) gamepad protocol. So since XInput and other drivers see it as Xbox 360 gamepad, everything works flawlessly.

Important to note however, that even when using the wireless dongle, controller visible as Xbox 360 *wired* gamepad (since dongle also seem to implement just the wired protocol). For example you won’t get battery reports (any battery report tool sees dongle as another wired controller). Wireless is their own proprietary 2.4Ghz – only way to connect it to XBox via wireless is to connect their dongle to Xbox (so console will see it as wired controller). Note that native XBox one wireless is 5Ghz so gets less range but less susceptible to potential interference – but I haven’t seen any interference issues with this 2.4ghz dongle, it was completely flawless experience.

Also it has profiles to connect to Switch and Android, but I didn’t test these.

If connected to PC via bluetooth, it implements XInput-over-bluetooth so works out of the box. However it still seems to be wired protocol subset, so even on bluetooth I wasn’t able to see battery capacity reported.

So how do you know the battery low you might ask? Actually it wasn’t even in manual for some reason and I found that when battery gets low, the “home” button starts flashing incessantly. At least it almost impossible to miss. When charging, the home button starts slowly blinking in “breathe” pattern, gradually going from red to green as charge goes up until it switches off at full battery – *but* it only the case when controller connected via standalone charger. If it connected via USB to PC as a *controller* it still will charge, but button goes solid green to indicate “PC connection” so its not possible to see if it charged or not.

You might wonder why so much attention on charging – well its actually a big deal with this controller since you have to do it fairly often. Its using built-in non-replaceable battery and I assume its fairly small (supported by very light weight of controller). It normally lasted me 2-3 days. In comparison usual XB1 pads (with 2xAA or charge pack) go for much more on battery (even stretching into weeks of battery life).

So in conclusion, the fairly small battery life is the main point why I would say you might still to want to use original XBox gamepad instead (for the similar price range). Besides battery life this controller is flat out the best in “mid range” segment for XBox or PC gaming. Just do not expect it to compete in high end (e.g. Elite or Scuf Instinct) as these are lot more polished (whether it worth extra 100 its up to you).

 

I’m impressed with the quality of this controller, it’s a perfect alternative to the usual controllers.

The hall effect triggers are a great addition as they don’t have physical internal contacts, so are accurate and will not wear with use.

The underside buttons are genius and they are perfectly positioned for your fingers.

Size is perfect too, slightly smaller than I’m used to but I prefer it.