Nacon Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller Review
Perfect for pros - great for noobs
Being honest, I was a little bias before starting this review.
I always thought two things were true about life with a PS4 - pro esports controllers are an overpriced swizz of a market that look to take advantage of anyone who has ever heard of Twitch, and Sony’s Dualshock 4 controller absolutely sucks.
It was a bad decision to make, to either stick with the current controller you have, or spend an unhealthily large chunk of your monthly wages on a pro controller.
After this review however, one of the above truths were proved thoroughly wrong by the Nacon Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller - a pad that mixes the comfy analogue stick positioning of the Xbox One controller with great design.
It feels great in the hand and doesn’t create any moments of cramp like the standard Dualshock 4 does. No button combination feels like a stretch and the matte shell of the pad has a lovely presence in your palms. Quite simply, it is a breath of fresh air to pick up this controller.
Tuck further into the box and you’ll find a great carry case, a bunch of interchangeable analogue stick elements, weights for your controller and a generously long USB-C cable for wired play.
I never knew I could possibly want to alter the weight of the controller, or the thickness of the analogue stick stems for that matter. But then again, while I do watch eSports, I’ve never been privy to the inner workings of the industry’s hardware. So, after researching this wacky little corner of customisation, I can come at this with two different points of view.
From a pro-gaming point of view, this added level of modification (paired with the software that you can use to create up to four custom play profiles) leads to a great experience of optimising to various genres - from the sensitivity of the triggers for millimetre precision of acceleration in racing games, to adjusting the curve response of each analogue stick along with the convex stick tops for better FPS performance.
My personal preference at the moment has been the 16g weights, the medium thickness analogue sticks, a concave top on the left stick and convex on the right.
But from a filthy casual’s point of view, this customisation is also a real nice-to-have as well. While not necessarily essential (so factor that into your purchasing decision), it was fun to have a play around and find what’s good to me. It gives you a real appreciation for the finer details of the controller’s design.
And so, Nacon have worked to eliminate many of the gripes of the Dualshock 4 (and match up to the eSports controller scene for a decent price), but one question remains… What about the battery life? Anybody who has ever breathed in the general direction of Sony’s official controller will know how god awful the power supply is.
Well, first off, with a 3m cable, you don’t need to worry about any millisecond wireless lag if you’re sitting quite a distance away from the big screen on a sofa. But if you’re clumsy (like me) and need to eliminate the cable, then you’ll get a good seven hours life out the battery. If you’ve ever so much as pushed a button on the standard Dualshock 4 and watched the power drain away, you know how amazing this is.
So, all in all, you’re left with a great pro controller for the more talented gamers out there and a great option for noobs (such as me) alike.
Although… I have stayed deliberately quiet on one issue until this point though - probably one of the bigger hurdles for this pad to anyone outside of pro-gaming. And that is three numbers. £137, as a price for a controller, is quite an ask. There are other cheaper options within Nacon’s range, and if you can put up with the standard PS4 controller over paying this amount, you absolutely should.
But if you want to seriously upgrade your gaming experience, there’s really no better choice than Nacon’s Revolution Unlimited Pro Controller.
