Review on 🎮 PowerA Enhanced Wired Controller for Xbox - Red: The Ultimate Gamepad for Xbox Series X/S & Xbox One Gaming Experience by Luis Tuazon

This product review consists of two parts. No, this is not a fake review. No, I didn't get it for free from Revain Vine. Yes, I carefully studied everything and bought it myself. * For Moms: This controller is great. Good quality. It feels solid and heavy, the backlight is bright, the buttons are crisp, the joysticks are smooth. All good signs. You get what you pay for and more because it's objectively better than standard XBOX controllers. Have you ever gotten something you wanted for Christmas but it turned out to be the worst version of what you really 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 currently available. If you want to make sure no one suffers in silence buy this. Also, these lights are really cool. * For gamers: Okay, let's get down to business. Build Quality: XYAB looks the same as XBOX. The LB RB and D-Pad have the same tactile feel as the Apple TV remote or similar slim clicky remotes. The USB cable and connection are reliable. Once you plug it in, that suction cup will NOT come out. If you hold it with both hands and twist it like you're trying to wring out a towel, there's no creaking. I'm really trying to break this thing. It doesn't make any noise. LT and RT have good resistance, not too little but not too much either. Light: very strong, but diffuse, so pleasing to the eye and without "strong" spots. Rotating the analog sticks reveals dark spots, but hardly any. Rumble: Not much to say here. It looks like XBOX. Maybe a little less subtle, but that's good because it makes it feel a bit more intense. Sensitivity and dead zones, the most important thing nobody talks about: let's face it, you buy controllers these days for games that require precise control. Ranges of motion on LT, RT, and analog sticks are extremely important. I can't find the right term for what I'm about to describe, so I'll just call them "Physical Range" and "Virtual Range". The physical area is the literal area of movement available to you at the entrance. At RT, the unpressed state is 0% and the fully pressed state is 100%. The virtual reach is what the program reads. The key to good controllers and what stands in the way of bad controllers is the relationship between virtual space and physical space of your inputs (more specifically, where the virtual space sits on top of the physical). On an XBOX controller, lowering the physical level to 5% won't do anything, the software still thinks you have 0%. Only when you reach 6% of the physical input does the software register 1% of the input. This is the "dead zone". Also for XBOX, reaching about 95% physical input translates to 100% virtual software input, and increasing it further makes no difference. This is the floor. This means that from 0-5% and 95-100% nothing happens. Only 5-95% of the time you have any real impact on the input. XBOX is good but 10% of the traffic you paid $60 for isn't available to you and that sucks. This is the problem with third party controllers. Except for a really good controller that I had 10 years ago (also from PowerA, but now discontinued), all physical and virtual ranges were absolutely miserable. Most controllers have ranges from 30 to 100% (huge deadzone) or 0 to 70% (huge bottom). My last purchase from RegeModual had a range of 0 to 40%. I couldn't believe it. I sent it back and got this controller in return. Boy was I surprised. Ranges 0-100%, ideal ratio 1:1. Yes that's right, it's better than XBOX. As far as I know there is no other controller that is as good. There's not even a $20 PowerA controller on Amazon (sorry PowerA). Everything else sucks. XBOX controllers suck. It should be so. If you really care about a good controller, that's all that matters. Proper aiming in FPS, throttle control in racing sims, walking slowly along the edge in Dark Souls comes only with good input ranges, and that's the gold standard. Forget flashy lights, build quality, price, ease of use, etc. This is the biggest indicator of quality and for some reason nobody talks about it. If you don't believe me, buy it and you'll see how much more fun it is to play. I've added a video about it. As you can see, the entrance areas match perfectly. Shelf Life: Just bought and only signed up for a few hours. Straight out of the box it seems incredible. I would easily pay double what I would pay for an XBOX controller. However, only time will tell if this controller will hold up. So far, I'm expecting this controller to last at least 1000 hours with no significant signs of wear. It will probably take a lot longer. Obviously your mileage can vary, but as long as you don't toss this thing across the room every time you get a headshot, I expect it will stand the test of time. Look how old my review is. If something breaks or one of the inputs wiggles, I'll add an edit to my review to let you know. If there are no edits below, it means it still works. Seriously, just get that controller. I don't get anything from the company or Amazon to give a positive review, it's ok. I'm doing this because I know how hard it is to deal with crappy controllers and because I want to help people. I hope that was helpful. Have a successful day. :)