I’m often close enough to my PC while playing games that wireless seems a little unneeded, but more than that, I just want fewer batteries to manage.
Adjusted title to mention preference for no batteries.
The 8bitdo ultimate or 2C wired look like good options. I haven’t used any of their controllers but I’ve heard good things about them, and they have hall effect joysticks!
I’ve got the 8bitdo Ultimate Bluetooth and it’s great. I finally upgraded to it from my old Xbox 360 wired controller. I would say it’s a worthy successor. I assume the wired versions are solid too.
Yeah, I have the 8bitdo 2C (wireless). Highly recommend it. I’d imagine the wired version is just as good.
I use the wired one on PC and it works and feels great. Also it’s so cheap for such a good product.
Honestly, a Dualsense wired up. The special haptics and triggers only work when plugged in, so I plug mine in all the time. Some games, like Pacific Drive, Metro, and Returnal are COMPLETELY transformed by the triggers and haptics. Even the lil speaker makes a difference. My partner and I both use Dualsense controllers but we will never have a PS5 hahaha
If you do the Duaksense Edge you get the nice locking USB connection too, which would reduce wear on the USB port compared to other controllers. It’s easily my most used controller.
Alright I’ll preach from high places about the dualsense but
250+USD for a controller
money isn’t really a problem but nahhhhh this insane hahaha
Quick edit: not even Hall effect laaaaawl
It’s $199 I think, but yeah I understand entirely. I used an Astro C40 before so this was actually the cheaper option of the two.
Ahhh I think it’s cuz I was looking at Canadian prices. That’s quite a lot still! I love my regular Dualsense.
I got a wired wired XBox360 controller at GameStop 10 years ago for a really good price and it works wonders! I’m on Windows 8.1 and for most games it doesn’t require any sort of configuration either, I just plug it in and it works right away
I have a 360 controller and Microsoft offers a USB wireless dongle that lets me hook up any standard 360 controller. It pretty much works like it of the box with any game.
Most wireless controllers today have an integrated battery and can be used in either wired or wireless mode.
So it’s really just that the battery adds a bit of weight, and someday the thing will fail and maybe cause electrical failure of the gamepad. If that doesn’t bother you, could get a dual one and just use it in wireless mode.
That being said, I agree with the general principle that one should use wired unless there’s a compelling reason otherwise. Avoids security problems, interference issues, and a mess of compatibility issues. I had a Logitech F710 that used a proprietary wireless 2.4 GHz protocol. It didn’t support wired mode. At some point, something in my environment started blasting enough 2.4 GHz radio emissions that every now and then, the connection would briefly drop, which was absolutely infuriating, since it could cause one to lose in fast-paced action games.
If you very specifically want a gamepad that is only wired…hmm. There are a bunch of low-end, generic wired-only controllers that leave out wireless support to help get the price down. I can’t specifically recommend one of those; I’ve used a few, but all the ones I’ve used have had some things that annoy me, and probably a lot of the brands are throwaway ones that have gone under. If you want high-end…most of those are dual wired/wireless. IIRC, Thrustmaster has a high-end gamepad with swappable elements, and IIRC it’s wired-only, remember seeing that and thinking “wow, weird, most high-end gamepads are dual”. I haven’t used it myself.
goes to look
Yeah, the Thrustmaster S eSwap Pro, and it’s wired-only.
https://eshop.thrustmaster.com/en_us/eswap-s-pro-controller.html
Thrustmaster has a long history of making pricey-but-nice high-end game peripherals — I think the first joystick I ever saw for sale was a nice metal thing from them at a computer expo in the early 1990s — so I’d generally be willing to try them, if you can live with the price. I don’t know if they have Hall effect analog sticks, which some people — including myself — like, as they’re immune to drift.
kagis
It sounds like the gamepad ships with standard potentiometer-based analog sticks, but that if one is willing to throw even more money at the gamepad, they do sell optional Hall effect sticks that can be swapped in.
https://www.thrustmaster.com/en-us/products/eswap-sh5-hall-stick-module/
However, the price is also pretty much in line with their history of being expensive. The basic gamepad is $140, and then each Hall effect analog stick module is another $40, which is very expensive for a gamepad; you can get inexpensive wired-only gamepads for something like $15, though they might not have amenities like rumble motors.
I’ve never actually owned a Thrustmaster product myself. I mostly went with CH stuff (another long-running American game input device manufacturer; they tend to make less-expensive, less-nice stuff). But I’ve definitely heard no shortage of positive stuff about Thrustmaster products over the decades. Might be worth considering if you don’t care about the price, specifically want wired, and are looking for high-end stuff.
So it’s really just that the battery adds a bit of weight, and someday the thing will fail and maybe cause electrical failure of the gamepad.
Emphasis added, yeah this is among the reasons I’m asking. The other reasons I’ve noted, but this underlies a lot of it. I don’t know how long the dual-use ones’ batteries may last if I’m primarily using them wired, so instead of having that in the back of mind, I’d like to get a wired controller for when gaming on devices I’m already close to (which is mostly PC, hence asking for it specifically).
someday the thing will fail and maybe cause electrical failure of the gamepad.
Emphasis added, yeah this is among the reasons I’m asking.
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, that’s a real thing. If a lithium battery sits around discharged for too long — and they’ll constantly self-discharge, so anything on a shelf will get there — it’ll never work again. I do kind of think that there are too many devices with non-removable batteries that are going to wind up dead at some point. Might be possible to open the thing up and replace the internal battery in a wireless gamepad, if it’s standardized. I don’t know what wireless gamepads typically use.
That being said, if whatever one gets is an inexpensive gamepad, I mean, one option is to just throw it out and replace the thing at some point down the line when it stops working. Also solves other wear and tear problems…
Well, I can kinda answer that: I’ve got a launch PS4 controller that I mostly use wired on my PC and it’s fine.
If I use it wirelessly, it’ll still get about 5-6 hours, which basically means after 13 years it’s still right on spec for what it should be able to do.
Not really something that’s probably worth worrying about unless you’ve got some absolutely shitty batteries.
(Hell, I’ve still got some PS3 controllers that’ll do 3-4 hours, and they’re freaking ancient at this point.)
Their https://eshop.thrustmaster.com/en_us/eswap-x2-pro-controller.html model looks good because you can swap out the dpad as well to give it the Playstation layout, but I wish I knew if their dpad was actually good. That is where nearly all third party controllers fail.
I’ve had an old Xbox 360 style controller for PC for like 15 years probably and never had any problems with it. Just plug and play. I personally have always preferred Xbox style controllers, though having tried the bells and whistles like adaptive triggers on the PS5 controller does make me consider upgrading at some point.
Yeah in hindsight I’m kicking myself for not having gotten one like that, but I had trouble finding wired ones at the time (and didn’t think I’d get tired of the battery maintenance), which surprised me.
I prefer wired controllers but only if they use usb-c. I’ve had too many micro USB ports wear out on me on the controller side. I think the ps5 controller works well, though my preferred is GameSir. GameSir is a Chinese company but the build quality is excellent, and they use Hall effect sticks. Shipping takes a bit but for the price I don’t think you can go wrong.
Micro USB sucks.
That said, USB C ports do wear out if you bump them a lot, which is a lot more likely in a controller than something like a phone. My laptop USB-C charging port is wearing out because my kids are rough with it while charging. I’d much rather have a cheaper barrel jack than I can solder at home than something complex like USB-C for something that could very likely need a repair in a few years.
I use BT controllers: DualShock 4 and Steam Controller. They work well enough, and I’m a lot less likely to bust the port if it’s only used for charging. I’ll probably upgrade to the DS5 though, since the micro USB charge port is pretty busted now.
Oh yeah, kids add a whole extra layer of fun. I’m not one to solder my own gear, especially circuitry that small, so I prefer the longevity of USB - c, comparatively anyway. Great points!
Same, but I like the option to fix it at some point.
USB-C is really complex electrically due to it being able to flip, which means you have two rows you have to solder instead of the typical one (so basically you have to have a heat gun and know how to use it). But it’s way better than micro USB, so chances are you won’t need to fix it.
That makes a lot of sense. Thanks for your insight!
I use a ps4 dual shock. While it’s great, i dont like how many games refuse to show PS buttons on screen even though they recognize that’s the controller im using.
I’ll get an xbox controller next time i need one just because of that annoyance
Switch Hori controller, $20, great quality especially for the price
Steam Controller
All hail the mighty steam controller
I use DS4 pads plugged in, but I’d love a newer model that didn’t have a battery, but had the same layout. So many of the cheaper gamepads come with terrible dpads.
I think the top tier controllers unfortunately have a rechargable battery in them, some can be hooked up wired and act as so but eventually some day in the future the battery will die from the constant charging and might bloat. If anyone still makes a top tier wired controller it prob wouldnt work with the switch so theyd be losing out on sales for a major console and price the controller higher to make up for it. Essentially wired controllers have become a nieche product. If you find anything wired as good as guilikits controllers though let me know as well since thatd be pretty sick.
Hori literally makes a great wired controller for Switch and it works on PC
Any XBOX style controller that uses TMR sensors for the sticks, so you don’t ever have to worry about atick drift.
I wouldn’t. I can’t imagine wanting to go back to a wired controller, especially when they have built in rechargeable batteries now.
I absolutely love the 8BitDo Pro 2. Supports both wired/wireless, I just never unplug it.
1,5 years back I ordered a Gamesir T4 Kaleid. It’s a Xbox style controller without batteries but with hall effect joysticks, mechanical buttons, gyro, hair trigger (without lock), 2 mappable back buttons and a pretty nice design IMO. Haven’t played a ton but easily 300hours + over the time without any issues.
