Vexonia—September 22, 2024
These haute 42 controllers are amazing for the price that you pay for them. I mostly got mine to try out leverless and to mess around with. It's tricky to get movement down with this controller, but I can definetly seeing it being extremely acurate with movement inputs given enough time. The gp2040ce software was super easy to configure and extremly in depth. The keyswitches felt nice, and are fairly easy to swap with other low profile offerings. Not having ps5 support out of the box does suck, but you can buy a cheap dongle to fix that issue. I also wish that it came with non slip padding on the bottom, but for the price I can't complain too much, and again you can buy some elsewhere if you need it. If you're on the fence about trying a leverless pad, any of the haute 42 boards are the way to go. Special props go to these boards forcing competitors to lower their prices to compete. Read more
Michael Beauchamp—November 8, 2024
After years of playing on an arcade stick—specifically with Sanwa parts—I decided to give the Haute T16 Level Less Controller a try, and the transition has been both challenging and incredibly rewarding. If you're coming from a traditional arcade stick background like I am, be prepared for a learning curve. However, the payoff is well worth it, especially for high-execution games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Street Fighter 6. The T16 design encourages precise inputs, and over time, it’s significantly improved my execution and timing. I found myself hitting combos more reliably, with less fatigue on my hands, thanks to the controller's ergonomic layout. Its unique button design took a few days to adjust to, but once I did, I noticed better control over my movements and faster reactions. For competitive players looking to refine their skills, the Haute T16 is a fantastic investment. It may take time to adapt, but once you do, it’s hard to go back. The benefits to execution and timing make it a standout choice for fighting game enthusiasts who are serious about performance. Read more
Prkie—July 31, 2024
The T16 comes in a fairly basic package - just a cardboard box and a padded envelope, along with a few accessories: a USB C to A cable, rubber feet, color replacement caps for the secondary switches, a switch puller, and a spare switch. The assembly itself is also relatively simple, with a PCB sandwiched using acrylic sheets and machine screws. There are 5 secondary small buttons for actions such as Start and Select, a small OLED screen, and the 16 main buttons, which use Kailh MX stemmed low profile linear switches. The board was detected out of the box with no issues on Windows as an xbox compatible controller, with all the buttons working as expected in the games that I tried. All the main buttons are RGB, set to a slow rainbow pattern initially. Switches feel great (though different from traditional arcade ones), and the short travel is well suited to fighting games. The first neat thing that you can do with this type of assembly is that you can disassemble it and insert your own printed art under the first acrylic sheet. There are templates available on the manufacturer's social media, and the process significantly improves the look of the board to your own tastes. The second is of course the customizability and programmability of the firmware. This runs GP2040-CE, an open source firmware designed for such boards. There's plenty of guides and instructions out there, so I won't go too much into it, but essentially it lets you do nearly anything you could ever need as far as programming the firmware and customizing the buttons. For example, you could make it work like a Windows macro pad for functions completely unrelated to fighting games by sending regular keyboard signals. And of course all that is at minimal, sub 1 ms latency. So despite the relatively basic initial impression, this is an excellent highly customizable input device well worth the asking price. The only suggestion that I would have is for the manufacturer to also offer different profiles (flat or concave) of keycaps. Highly recommended. Read more
