Nacon has announced the Revolution 5 Pro, and it’s the first officially licensed PS5 controller to house hall-effect analog sticks, fixing our biggest problem with the DualSense Edge.
Game controllers have been stuck in a bit of a rut. Some companies offer incredibly high-end controllers, with all of the bells and whistles that you could ever want baked in. But, they also have a crucial problem. Potentiometer-based analog sticks.
This is a traditional analog stick that you’ll find in almost every game controller. But, there’s one big problem, they are prone to degradation over time. iFixit estimates that these analog sticks will begin to drift after around 7 months of use. This is down to a small film that gets worn down on potentiometer-based sticks, which means that you will eventually get inaccurate readings, leading to the dreaded stick drift issues.
But, some companies have started to fight back. 8BitDo and GameSir have both started to implement magnetic hall-effect sticks in their controllers, which manage to avoid the issue entirely, since the controller is reading an electromagnetic signal, instead of a resistive film. However, many of these controllers have either been limited to use on the Switch and Xbox, until now.
Nacon’s Revolution 5 Pro is the PS5 controller we’ve been waiting for
Today, Nacon has announced that their new PS5 controller, the Nacon Revolution 5 Pro, will be using Hall-effect analog sticks. This is huge for those wanting a PS5 controller that won’t be prone to drift after just months of use.
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In our review of the DualSense Edge, we bemoaned the lack of a hall-effect stick, which could have made space for a larger battery pack due to a large stick replacement mechanism. While the Razer Wolverine V2 Pro remains incredibly comfortable, there’s no way at all to switch out the sticks, should they fail.
Nacon’s Revolution 5 Pro not only boasts hall-effect sticks, which is a first for the PS5 controller market, but it also offers up to 10 hours of battery life. Considering the number of extra buttons, as well as all the bells and whistles like an adjustable weight, and D-Pad developed in collaboration with Street Fighter 6 pro Mr. Crimson, we’re super excited to get our hands on it and test it for ourselves.
Hall-effect analog sticks are nothing new, in fact, their first appearance was on the Dreamcast’s own controller 20 years ago. The move to potentiometer sticks can be viewed as a purely cost-cutting measure for many companies. This is why it’s so puzzling that many “pro” controllers, including Sony’s own, do not make use of the much more reliable technology.
