17.11.2019

I will be doing a two-part review of this product. No, this is not a fake review. No, I did not receive this for free from Amazon Vine. Yes, I researched extensively and bought this myself.*For the Moms:This controller is great. The quality is good. It feels solid and weighty, the lights are bright, buttons are crisp, sticks are smooth. All good signs. You're getting what you pay for, and then some, because this is objectively better than stock XBOX controllers. Ever got something you wanted for Christmas, but it ended up being an inferior version of what you actually wanted, and you hated it but couldn't say anything without being rude? This is how your son will feel if you buy any other third party controller available nowadays.If you want to ensure nobody is suffering in silence, buy this. Besides, those lights are really cool.*For the Gamers:Alright, lets get down to business.Build Quality:XYAB feels the same as XBOX. LB RB and D-Pad has the same tactile feel as an Apple TV remote or any similar thin clicky remotes. USB cord and connection is solid. Once you plug it in, that sucker is NOT coming out. Holding firmly with both hands and twisting like trying to wring out a towel results in zero squeaking. I'm really trying to break this thing. It's not making any noise. LT and RT have a good resistance, not too little not too much.Lights:Very strong but diffused so it's easy on the eyes and doesn't have any "strong" spots. Swiveling the analog sticks around will reveal dim spots, but just barely.Rumble:Not much to say here. Similar to XBOX. A little less refined maybe, but that's a good thing because it makes it feel a bit more intense.Sensitivity and Deadzones, the Most Important Thing That Nobody Talks About:Let's face it, you buy controllers nowadays for games that require fine control. The ranges of motion on LT, RT, and the analog sticks are extremely important. I can't for the life of me find the proper term for what I'm about to describe, so I'll just be referring to them as "Physical Range", and "Virtual Range".Physical Range is the literal range of motion available to you on the input. On RT, unpressed is 0% and pressed all the way down is 100%. Virtual Range is what the software reads. The key to good controllers and the thing that plagues bad controllers is the relationship between the Virtual Ranges and the Physical Ranges on your inputs (more specifically, where the virtual range lies on the physical). On an XBOX controller, pushing the physical down to 5% will do nothing, the software still thinks you're at 0%. It is only when you get to around 6% physical input that the software will register 1% input. This is the "dead-zone". Also for XBOX, reaching about 95% physical input will result in 100% virtual input on the software, and pushing it any further will make no difference. This is the "bottom-out". What this means is from 0-5% and 95-100%, nothing is happening. It is only at 5-95% that you have any real influence on the inputs. XBOX is good, but 10% of the motion you paid 60 bucks for is not available to you, and that sucks.Herein lies the problem with third party controllers. Other than a really good controller I had 10 years ago (also by PowerA but now discontinued), all the physical vs. virtual ranges have been absolutely atrocious. Most controllers have ranges on 30-100% (huge dead-zone), or ranges on 0-70% (huge bottom-out). My latest purchase from RegeModual had its range on 0-40%. I couldn't believe it. I returned it and got this controller instead. Boy, was I surprised. The ranges are 0-100%, a perfect 1-to-1 ratio. Yeah, that's right, its better than XBOX. To my knowledge, NO other controllers are this good. Not even PowerA's 20 dollar controller on amazon (sorry PowerA). Everything else sucks. XBOX controllers suck. This is how it should be.If you care at all about really having a good controller, this is all that matters. Aiming properly in FPS, feathering your throttle in racing sims, edge-lord slow-walking in Dark Souls, all of this can only be done with good input ranges, and this is the gold standard. Forget the flashy lights, the build quality, the price, the ease-of-use, etc. The biggest indicator of quality is this, and for some reason, nobody talks about it. If you don't believe me, buy this and you'll realize how much better gaming feels.I've included a video of this. As you can see, the input ranges are matched up perfectly.Longevity:Just bought this and I've only logged a few hours on it. Right out of the box, it feels incredible. I would have easily paid double the price of an XBOX controller. However, only time will tell if this controller holds up. So far, I expect this controller to last at least 1000 hours of use before any significant signs of wear. It'll probably last much longer. Obviously, your mileage may vary, but as long as you don't throw this thing across the room every time you get headshotted, I fully expect this to stand the test of time.Take a look at how old my review is. If anything breaks or any inputs get wonky, I'll be adding an edit to my review to let you guys know. If there are no edits down below, it means it's still going strong.Seriously, just get this controller. I'm not receiving anything from the company or amazon to give it a favorable review, it's just that good. I'm doing this because I know the pain of dealing with crappy controllers, and I want to help people out. I hope this has been helpful. Have an awesome day. :)

9.10.2019

I admit to buying this with a bit of trepidation. £30 for a controller with rear programmable buttons, trigger locks and rgb. to be honest, I was expecting to receive something cheaply made.When it arrived and I opened up the packaging, my first impressions was that it felt extremely solid and with a good weight to it, only slightly lighter than a normal Xbox pad - admittedly I was surprised. The feel of the surface is of the non-slip feel that the actual elite controller has. The analogue sticks were nice and stiff, possibly more so that official branded Xbox pads, but this is by no means a bad thing and the face buttons felt tactile and responsive.The two programmable buttons at the back actually sit in the same position as the longer paddles located on the Xbox elite controller,so essentially they are perfectly placed with your left and right index fingers and extremely comfortable to use. Programming them was simple too, simply pressing the 'Program' button on the back, along with the button to be programmed then finally pressing the button you want to assign to it - literally takes seconds to do. There is no feedback from the controller to signify the assignment has been made, sadly, but simply pressing the button on the back and testing to see if it should do as expected is good enough. Thinking about it, if the pad vibrated or a single flash of the rgb to signify the assignment has been made, would be a great way to feedback to the user - but I digress. As far as I'm aware, you can only program face, shoulder and bumper buttons to the programmable buttons - but I'm happy to be proven wrong here if that's the case.We also have 3 levels of trigger locks, which reduces the travel distance the triggers have to cover before the button is 'pressed' - essentially turning them into 'hair triggers' allowing you to fire faster, apparently. Your mileage with this will really depend on the game. Racing games, for example, rely working out how much pressure you apply to the trigger over the distance the button travels and placing locks in the way can actually prevent your car from travelling at top speeds, while some guns in first person shooters have locked fire rates, so doesn';t matter how fast you hammer the trigger, you aren't firing any faster - this also applies to the Elite controller too, so while this isn't a limitation on the Spectra, but more the trigger lock feature as a whole. Still, it's nice to have in games where the trigger locks have definite impact.The pad isn't wireless, but from my point of view this wasn't an issue - this was going to be connected permanently to my PC anyway. the RGB would just be a constant drain on any battery it would have had anyway. But it comes with a generously long 9ft braided cable which also has a trip connector on the end of it too that will come away if someone does trip over it.The RGB is decent, with 7 colours to cycle through. You can even turn them off if you want. But there is obvious bright and dull zones around LED areas which is a bit disappointing - however, these seem to be located in areas where the pad would be in your palms so there may be some sense to these dull areas. Don't get me wrong, in low light areas or playing at night, the colours really stand out, but just know that brightness of the LEDs aren't consistent all the way round.Overall, I'm genuinely surprised at the quality of this pad. While expecting to get something cheap, what I got was a pad that feels robust, well made and with 'premium' features you would expect to get from more well known brands and higher prices. This feels like a good, cheaper alternative to having an Xbox Elite pad. While you might not have 4 programmable buttons, have removable paddles or the ability to reprogram EVERY button on the pad, but for £30 you can easily live with the limited feature set this pad has and is an excellent pad for entry level 'Pro' gaming

3.12.2019

I can't vouch for its reliability as I've owned it just a few weeks. However, this controller - believe it or not - is and elite controller rival.... For £30.I play Fifa and Forza mainly. I used to have an elite series 1 controller but after 2 years the B button was sticking (not good for fifa). So I looked for a replacement specifically one with paddles on the back as I used to use the metal ones on the elite to change gear in forza.I had no idea you could get 3 way hair lock triggers AND paddles (of sorts) on a sub £30 controller!They work like a dream too. Much better than the elite having to put them on and take them off all the time when changing from manual to automatic. (which I do a lot,

3.12.2020

I bought this from another retailer as needed it right away but leaving a review on here for any potential buyers....Great controller, feels nice in the hand, not heavy and easy to use for hours on end, how long it will last I don't know...The issue I had and it was a big negative for me was that although it has 3 trigger stop settings I found that they were useless as setup as you need to be on the middle setting to play FPS and the longest trigger to drive vehicles... not ideal.I'm using it for my Xbox 1X and if you use it for xbox you need to downlaod and update the firmware or the audio may not be hearable through an attached headset,

21.10.2020

I've never been a big fan or had good experiences with third party controllers, but after my last xbox controller breaking and Microsoft charging so much more (60-70 pounds), with such bad wireless connectivity anyway (probably about 90 pounds with a wireless receiver on PC) I decided I would try this one since one of my friends had bought another type from the same brand.Well this controller is objectively better in every way to the official Xbox one controller, it has two extra buttons on the back you can program to whatever you want easily, it has an awesome option of backlight colours of which the Microsoft controllers doesn't have it all, I also thought that it gripped and stayed in the hand better,

3.12.2019

When both my normal and backUp Xbox controllers broke and a bit short on cash, I thought I best get myself something so I can still play. From what I’ve experienced from this controller is that for what you pay it is actually a good purchase, I reckon I would get one again in future. The controller does feel a little weird when compared to a Microsoft one, but the buttons on the back do make a great addition. However, I’ve had this nearly 2 months now and it has served me well, it’s still functions as it should although the B button is getting stuck, it doesn’t affect gameplay for me at least but it does get a little annoying from time to time. I would say the official Xbox controllers are better than this for reliability,

13.1.2021

Good controller only bad things are the vibration is loud and button clicks are loud as well I can also hear myself on the mic it's not my mic tho cos I cant hear myself on the other mic but it's a good think to know ppl can hear you but the back buttons are perfect for shooter, battle royale games and the trigger locks have 3 settings on them and the d-pad's shape is the best one you can get and I like the grippy texture on the d-pad and I like the smooth shell and the option to change light colour and the buttons are so comfortable to press and the triggers and bumpers are way better than the normal xbox ones and its wired so no input lag or batterys and the xbox button is a nice shiny rubber

5.3.2020

Bought this as a gift, but was reliably informed that it is generally a great controller with a few minor issues. Said giftee has been using it for a few months now, and detailed some pros and cons as follows:PROS- Comfy to hold- Great response time- No button sticking- Attractive look- More than the basic RBG palette- Simple setup. "Plug 'n play"- Great value for moneyCONS- Button placement on back sometimes results in accidental presses. Doesn't affect gameplay much but affects quality of lifeOverall impressions are that it's a great replacement for their old controller, easily on par with mainstream branded equivalents, if not better due to customisation options.

5.2.2020

PC GamerJust so it obvious, I'm not a heavy user, I don't constantly use the controller. Overall the controller feels comfortable in my hands, the "pro" (extra buttons) are in a good position when you're holding the controller so you don't need to take your fingers off the triggers. The locking mechanism for the triggers is handy if you don't like the long travel of the triggers in FPS games.There is a quick release for the USB cable which is incredibly handy, this will stop you from pulling your Xbox half way across the room or damaging your USB ports on your PC.Only downside is the LEDs will randomly turn off when you reboot your PC.

2.3.2021

Bought this as a replacement for a 10 year old 360 controller to play games on PC with.First thoughts are that the sticks and triggers feel properly tight and responsive, the connector port is very well designed to prevent accidental disconnects and the face buttons are much better than the original 360 pad.You can use one of the buttons on the back to map the back-of-controller buttons to other inputs, so far I've used it to change gears on Forza without moving my hand and spur the horse in RDR2 without taking my thumb off the right stick, so I've already found uses for the function.The lighting is cheap but not really bad, and you can always turn it off if RGB stuff annoys you.

7.1.2020

After breaking my 50 million official xbox controller it was time to go 3rd party official. Regretting I didn’t move over sooner. Feels exactly the same as a normal Xbox controller. Come with a few RGB settings prejnsralled which are fairly vibrant in the dark and not as noticeable in the light (as to be expected). The controller shines however with the re programmable buttonS on the back, they work a treat for a lot of games on the Xbox and this is a feature on Microsoft’s elite controller which is OVER x5 the price . Overall great built controller with great bonuses Includes. Highly recommend for the price especially

6.8.2020

As someone who uses a custom elite controller, I was thoroughly impressed with this controller I bought for my p2, who loves the LED customisationThe programmable buttons on this controller, just like paddles on an elite controller, are a game changer if you've been using a standard controller like some kind of primative ape.The left and right sticks feel a little rough/resistant, though I don't mind that feeling, and I managed to get the deadzones very low with no problems. I have and would recommend this to anyone.

26.2.2020

FINALLY PowerA have made a controler that is not only very good with features, but also has longevity. Past controllers would lose activity with buttons, especially the A button indenting in to the controller and becomming un-usable. Been using this one actively for a while and it's still working well. Re-map buttons do the job, LED's make the controller very pretty and has good weight. Save nearly £100 from the easily breakable xbox one elite controllers with the same purposses, very good buy!

8.1.2020

Since my old genuine X box licensed broke I looked to replace it for another one. Then I saw how expensive they are, so I looked for an alternative. The build quality is excellent: the controller feels premium, weighty, tactile, clicky and very responsive with adjustable trigger height presses for FPS games. The LED lights are bright and can be turned off. I had to deal with broken cords and exposed wires genuine x box controllers, no more since this one comes with a durable braid wire. 10/10

31.10.2019

This controller is a gem, if u have kids like I was and was forever wearing out controllers. This is a very good reasonably priced controller. Its programmable buttons are a bonus feature to make more comfortable and usability of controller for the user to define as they feel. The instructions I recomend reading them a few times before attempting to program the buttons but may just be me. I would recomend certainly for casual players like myself a pro gamer would appreciate this product too.

PowerA Xbox One Spectra Enhanced Wired Controller - Reviews

Info

Analysis

Detail