8Bitdo Ultimate Bluetooth Controller with Charging Dock, Wireless Pro Controller with Hall Effect Sensing Joystick, Compatible with Switch, Windows and Steam Deck (White)

I have a lot of controllers... and I'm on a mission of reviewing every controller I own. Today, we'll review my first 8BitDo Ultimate - The Bluetooth version.The main reason I bought this controller was as an option to replace a Switch Pro Controller. I bought it a little bit after the GuliKit KingKong 2 Pro and it was between those for which I would use for Switch... ultimately the KingKong 2 ended up being used for Switch (at least until it lost my trust... I probably won't review that controller since it's no longer available, but long story short it went haywire on me while playing, twice) and I adopted this as my new main PC controller after the right bumper went bad on my Elite 2. I even bought the buttons from 8BitDo in order to convert it to Xbox layout ABXY.Features:Face buttons are standard membrane.dpad is old school feeling membrane with center pivot.Profile switch and home buttons are tactile.Triggers are hall effect and have good resistance to me (subjective).Special Features:The standout features that attracted me to this controller were....- Hall Effect Joysticks- Multiple Game Profiles- Mappable Back Buttons- Wakes switch (was the first 8BitDo to do so!)In general, all of these features work as advertised, though compared to some other options, I would say the mappable back buttons are not as capable as other controller options today. 8BitDo software kind of has a macro builder where you build your macro, rather than other options that let you just record the inputs. This makes it such that there's no way to create macros which rely on buttons being held while others are being pressed, one button must end before the next begins. This unfortunately limited it's functionality for me in games like FFXIV, in which the trigger buttons must be held down to execute skills.By the time I switched to this controller though I was no longer raiding, so that limitation didn't end up being a deal breaker for me and it was still better than needing to buy a third party application to make macros at all, so I'll give it a pass.Shake to wake with Switch is a bit hilarious, but it works.QC / Durability Concerns:I haven't had any issues with this controller at all. There is wear from the plastic to plastic rub of the joystick with the controller face, but otherwise it generally looks fine. Maybe get black if you are concerned with grime and don't clean your controllers often.Functionality:In general, I have nothing to complain about as far as functionality. Everything works solidly, though the resolution of the hall effect sticks is certainly lower than the resolution of the Xbox Elite 2. You can tell this when you do operations such as changing the time of day in Genshin Impact - you can easily get it to register minute by minute with the Elite 2, but usually the 8BitDo Ultimate skips a few minutes when you rotate it. My my case, this does not affect game play, but perhaps if you need the ultimate level of precision this controller may not be suitable for you.A staple of my controller reviews... the Tetris dpad test. I play games on Tetris at as fast of a pace as I can (I'm roughly a 1 minute sprinter in modern Tetris games) and see how many false hard drops I get. Generally, 8BitDo controllers do well in this test for me, but I seem to be more prone to make accidental hard drops on this controller than I do on the Pro 2. In general though, this controller would fall somewhere below Xbox Elite 2 with cross dpad installed, other options with tactile / clicky dpads, and the 8BitDo Pro 2 (my current go to)... probably a little worse than the IINE Candy Pop controller I recently reviewed, but certainly not embarrassing like the Switch Pro controller.In Conclusion:For the price of this controller I think you get a lot from it, but if you are looking for a PC controller today I'd probably go with another option. If you are looking for a Switch Pro alternative though, I think this is still a pretty good option. It's very responsive on Switch and I still use a limited edition variant of this controller on Switch today. For PC though, I think there are better options for not a lot more of your hard earned money.Still though if this is your only option, I can recommend it as a solid reliable option. If PC is your intent though and you won't play on Switch ever, you can save $10 by getting the 2.4G version of the controller and you'll have the Xbox layout by default. Back when I bought this one, that variant didn't have hall effect joysticks, but now it does so you don't really lose any functionality except Switch connectivity.

If you are like me and are looking for a controller for your Nintendo Switch then you probably are deciding between the 8bitdo ultimate Bluetooth and Kingkong pro 2. After some research, I decided to go with the 8bitdo. Here’s everything I liked and disliked about the controller.PROS-Comes with a charging dock.Having a charging dock is a very nice inclusion as you can just leave the controller on the dock to charge your controller without having to connect a USB cable to the controller. The dock has a white led at the bottom that turns on while charging and turns off when the controller is fully charged. The Kingkong pro 2 on the other hand does not come with a charging dock.-Has Hall effect joysticks.The real selling point of this controller is the Hall effect sticks. If you don’t know what that means then all you need to know is that this controller will not develop stick drift at all. So you can have peace of mind without having to worry about replacing this controller because of stick drift. The kingkong pro 2 also uses the same hall effect sticks, so they are virtually the same when comparing their hall effect sticks.- Can connect with Bluetooth + 2.4ghzBeing able to connect this controller with 2.4ghz and Bluetooth means that you are easily able to connect to your pc and Nintendo Switch and also switch between them seamlessly. There is a switch in the back of the controller that switches between the 2.4ghz and Bluetooth and is really useful if you use this controller between your pc and Nintendo Switch. The connection process was also very easy and I had no disconnects while using Bluetooth or 2.4ghz.-Build qualityThe build quality is very nice and doesn’t feel cheap at all and feels sturdy. Triggers, d-pad, buttons, and joystick feels nice. If you take care of this controller then this controller will last for a very long time.- Back paddlesThe 8-bitdo controller has back paddles that you can remap with any button that is on the controller or it can be used to make a macro if you want through the 8bitdo software either through the app on your pc or phone. To be honest I don’t use the back paddles too much but it is nice to have and might be useful in some games where you need to do repetitive string button presses. Something to keep in mind is that if you play any competitive games in a tournament like Smash Bros, this controller may be banned because of the use of macros. But this applies to a small portion of people, so don’t worry about it too much.- SoftwareThe 8bitdo software is pretty well designed and you can adjust the dead zones for the sticks and triggers, remap the buttons, add up to three different profiles for different games, adjust vibrations, calibrate the controller, and as mentioned previously make macros. Keep in mind that it’s important to update your controller to the latest software as this fixes a lot of bugs and allows you to calibrate the controller.CONS-Controller gripThe way the controller is shipped makes it a little uncomfortable to hold but I was able to adjust to it fine. But this could be a deal breaker for some people as having an uncomfortable grip can make playing with the controller unbearable after long sessions. But this varies from person to person, for me, it’s no longer an issue.-No NFC supportIf you have a bunch of amiibos and scan them then sorry to say but this controller does not support that. I don’t use amiibos at all so this is hardly an issue plus you can just use a joycon to scan an amiibo but this is something that would’ve been nice to have.-No hd rumbleThe controller does not have hd rumble, so if you play a game that uses it like Splatoon 3 then the Rumble won’t be as good as a controller that has hd rumble.-No gyro supportSimilarly, this controller does not support gyro, so if you use gyro a lot then that's something else to keep in mind.- No easily customizable buttonsWhat I mean by no easily customizable buttons is that this controller does not allow you to easily switch the bayx layout to a traditional abxy layout. But it isn’t impossible to do either. In order to do it you need to partially disassemble the controller and reassemble the buttons in the order you want it. It would’ve been nice to have an easier way to remove the buttons.Despite the cons of the controller none of them were a real deal breaker to me as it's mostly features that I don’t care about or would hardly use. Although. the kingkong pro 2 does fix a few of these issues like the controller grip, NFC support, gyro support, and easily customizable buttons. But it’s important to do your own research on that and see if the Pro 2 is the controller for you. I don’t have experience with the Pro 2 so I can only tell you some of the features that it has by looking at the product page and other reviewers. The best advice I can give is that if you like what you see about the Kingkong pro 2 and you're looking for a controller to use only for the Nintendo Switch then go for the Kingkong pro 2 but if you plan on using the controller on pc as well on the Nintendo Switch then definitely go for the 8bitdo.

This is a review of the original Ultimate Bluetooth, but most of it should apply to the Ultimate 2I'm a woman with average sized hands, long fingernails, and most importantly, I suffer from Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. All of these made it a huge pain to find a controller that worked for me, but I finally found it with this one! I can game for 8 hours straight and my hands barely notice a thing, something that I can't do with any other controller except for the similarly shaped Switch Pro Controller. The price was fantastic, especially for something that comes with a charging dock. Gyro controls work flawlessly on the Switch, and the lack of extra buttons compared to other models is more of a preference thing than a strict downside, since back buttons and extra bumpers can get in the way.