It’s a commonly held belief that you get what you pay for; But is that always the case?
With the official Switch Pro controller costing £50-£60, it’s a sizeable investment for a pad, which, depending on whether you prefer playing in docked or handheld mode, you might not be using all that often.
Enter stage left, the Gioteck WX4 Premium Wireless Controller, a budget Pro controller for essentially half the price of Nintendo’s official offering.
But does half the price equate to a pad that’s half as good? Well, yes and no. In no way is the WX4 as good as an Offical Nintendo Pro controller. But that does not mean it is not a decent and significantly cheaper alternative.
The first thing you’ll notice about the WX4 is how light it is, coming in at a svelte 250g, compared to the hefty 450gs of Nintendo’s official offering.
There are some caveats to have a pad that’s almost half the weight. There’s no NFC reader for amiibo users or HD rumble. (Though, to be fair, this is absent from every other third party switch pad on the market.)
What you do get is a pad with a similar shape to the pro pad that still feels robust and durable.
The face buttons have a satisfying click and are very responsive. They also sit slightly closer together than they do on an official pro controller. In an interesting twist, though they have the letter placement as the Switch, each is coloured the same way they would be on an Xbox pad, while the triggers are labelled L/R 1 and 2 rather than L, R, and ZL/R.
The back buttons all feel a little spongy. Also, the L2 and R2 buttons are similar to the ones you would find on a PS3 controller. This is because the pad also works with the PS3, as well as PC. Not a bad additional feature at all; Especially, if, like me, you have recently found your old PS3 but can’t find the chuffing controllers.
The one downside is that the WX4 was a bit of a bugger to connect to the Switch. Since it’s not an official product, you need to plug the pad into a PC to upgrade the firmware on the controller. Likewise, future firmware updates on your Switch may also stop the controller from working. You can fix this by downloading new firmware for the controller from the Gioteck website.
Also, the syncing progress is not as straightforward as you think. The button on the back of the controller is not the sync button. Instead, you need to either plug the pad into the dock and hit home or go to the change grip screen in the controller menu and hold Y and the Home button until it syncs.
It’s not a deal-breaker in any sense, but it’s just something to be aware of, especially if you don’t have a laptop or PC to update the firmware.
On the whole, though, the WX4 is a durable, fully-featured pad that punches way above its weight at a very reasonable price.
If you are looking for a second pro pad but don’t want to splash out another £60 for a Nintendo one or need a pro pad for occasional docked play, I recommend giving the Gioteck WX4 Premium Wireless Controller a whirl.