Jackson Sneed—November 22, 2024✓ Verified purchase
As most reviews have stated, this is a pretty solid replica with subpar battery life. For the price, it's pretty good, but if you know how to upgrade the battery, do it! It comes with an 800 mAh battery, I'm going from that to a 1200mAh took the battery life from 4 hours max to an easy 6+ hours. WARNING: WATCH THE POLARITY! I used a 1200mAh 3.7V Li-Po sourced from Adafruit (PKCELL 503562) which has a built in PCM in addition to the reg circuit. Since the controller uses a standard JST connector, the battery is ALMOST perfect; the polarity needs to be reversed (JST connectors use plastic catches to secure the terminals, but remove carefully, And be sure to push the catches back down after removing the pins, and before reinserting them, AND DON'T SHORT THE TERMINALS!) You'll also need to remove the barriers on the battery tray (which seems like the battery tray from a dualshock 4 controller) and sand it flat, because this battery overhangs a slight bit, and I used two iPhone battery pull tabs so that the battery wouldn't sit too high up. Also be careful when you are removing the barriers, on the left hand side especially, because if you are not careful you can easily snap off the retention bracket, then you'll have to use double-sided Tesa tape to secure the tray, which is what happened to me. But that was my fault. Connect the flex that's goes to the microUSB port, and test everything before closing. In the pictures the wires are running underneath the tray, that is not how I did it in the end, they just go over the battery, there's plenty of room inside of the controller so that nothing gets pinched, running them under the battery was a little too tight of a fit. The specific battery that I used does have pretty long leads, so you could always shorten the leads if you want. Do not attempt this if you don't know what you're doing, lithium batteries can be angry things, and they will get extremely mad when not shown proper respect, but if you do know what you're doing, or even have a small amount of experience with electronics, this is an extremely simple upgrade that can take this controller from 3 or 4 stars, to an easy 5. The price is what seals the deal for me, and the specific battery that I used costs around $10, so you're still paying a lot less than you would with other controllers. I have been absolutely hammering this thing, and so far so good. She's been through about 5 or so charge cycles, and the first two I removed the back panel and measured voltage just to be sure that the integrated charging chip wasn't overcharging the battery, which if it was that would tell me the PCM wasn't working, but everything was perfect, with the controller's on-board charging circuit (probably a TP4056) cutting the charging at 4.2V. As far as a controller itself, performance is absolutely fine, completely acceptable, buttons have plenty of travel and don't feel squishy like some cheap controllers, and the shoulder triggers are responsive and springy. Pairing was a breeze, no issues there, and I've paired it with several devices, consoles, my PC, an Android device, and an iPad, no issues with any of them. It's not as rigid as more expensive controllers, but that's to be expected at this price point, and as long as you're not beating it against the wall, or having a violent rage quitting moment, you should be fine. Latency is fine, I couldn't notice anything that threw up any red flags, no lag at least on my unit, and the controller remains responsive and definitely feels pretty close to an OEM controller, or as close as you're going to get at this price point. So far I have no complaints. I will post an update after a few months, and I will definitely update this review and let y'all know if the button travel turns squishy, and I will also update this review regarding my battery upgrade mod and how she's holding up after a few months. UPDATE: NINE MONTHS LATER I HAVE NO COMPLAINTS. Battery life is fine, still getting 6+ hours of battery life with my 1,200mAh battery mod, and the controller is cutting charging at 4.2V, suggesting good charging logic on the controller, and thus minimal if any battery degradation at this point. Remember, LITHIUM BATTERIES ARE CONSUMABLES, so they will lose capacity with time and charging cycles, but the controller has done a great job of burst -> trickle charging. The buttons have not turned squishy, with travel remaining acceptable, and the shoulder triggers are just as they were when new, which is tight and responsive. I'll echo my original review, for the price, nothing comes close. Read more