Evaluation: Nintendo Swap 2 Professional Controller – A New Benchmark In Consolation And Design

Shifting from the Swap 1 Professional Controller to the Swap 2 Professional Controller, Nintendo has largely taken the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t repair it’ route. Protecting the identical primary structure intact, it as a substitute utilized a number of small, however vital enhancements to make this newest iteration the perfect Nintendo controller I’ve ever had the pleasure of utilizing.

So, trying on the design of the brand new pad, all of it appears fairly acquainted, however there are a couple of adjustments that must be famous.

For starters, the grips are ever-so-slightly slimmer than the earlier mannequin, which in my case made it rather more snug within the hand. My index fingers relaxation completely on the ‘ZL’ and ‘ZR’ triggers, whereas the remainder of my fingers fall naturally on the grips under. As for the overall really feel, the matt black/gray end is fantastic, although it does invite loads of mud.

In the meantime, the face buttons have been barely enlarged; not a lot that it’s instantly noticeable by sight, however you may actually really feel the distinction within the hand. They’re shut sufficient collectively that your thumb basically rests on two buttons without delay diagonally, making it straightforward to rock backwards and forwards to hit whichever one you need.

Maybe the largest enchancment comes with these analogue sticks. Good lord, they really feel unimaginable. The usual Pleasure-Con controllers have been improved in the same approach, with the sticks feeling a lot smoother than on the Swap 1. With the Professional Controller, that is way more pronounced because of the additional journey afforded by the bigger sticks.

It’s so tough to explain precisely how clean the movement feels; it’s a type of issues the place if you recognize, you recognize. That mentioned, if you would like a little bit of a enjoyable try at a rundown, then take a look at Alex’s video, wherein he demonstrates with a bottle and an oily spoon. (Look, simply belief me). Relaxation assured, the slight grinding you’d really feel on the unique Professional Controller is now utterly gone.

Shifting onto the D-pad, sensitivity points some folks had with the Swap 1 Professional Controller seem to have been mounted right here, although we’ll want to essentially put it by means of its paces over the approaching months (and years) to see if it holds up.

Testing the D-pad inside the calibration settings reveals that rocking it up and down whereas holding down left or proper does nonetheless yield ‘up’ and ‘down’ inputs, however it’s not almost as delicate because the earlier controller. Actually, you need it to occur a bit so you may simply pull off diagonal inputs. Taking part in Road Fighter 6, I used to be simply in a position to knock out a couple of combos and Hadoukens with none fuss, and retro video games by way of Nintendo Swap On-line felt equally pure with the D-pad.

Over on the again, you’ve additionally obtained the brand new ‘GL’ and ‘GR’ buttons, which could be remapped to no matter you want on a game-by-game foundation. We’ve already famous that you simply map the seize button to the again, which is a little bit of a game-changer for extra fast-paced video games wherein you need to take a couple of snaps.

In any other case, you may map no matter enter you want, so it will probably actually turn out to be useful if you need to dash and leap on the similar time in Breath of the Wild, for instance.

The positioning of the again buttons feels fairly pure, too. I discussed that my fingers rested comfortably on the grips, and that is precisely the place ‘GL’ and ‘GR’ are positioned, however in case you’re frightened about by chance urgent them, worry not. You may comfortably transfer your center fingers up barely to relaxation on the again of the pad – just about proper the place the ‘Nintendo’ emblem is situated. However even this isn’t completely essential for my part; my fingers curve across the buttons sufficient that I don’t really feel they’re ever going to be pressed except I consciously need to.

The dinky face buttons — i.e. your property button, seize button, ‘+’, ‘–’, and GameChat button — are all tucked away fairly neatly in the midst of the machine. The seize button particularly might be in a barely easier-to-reach location, however it’s at the very least out of the best way sufficient that you simply’re in all probability by no means going to hit it by chance.

With the ‘C’ button, it is the identical deal. You already know the place it’s, so it is simply reachable everytime you need to entry the Swap 2’s GameChat menu, however you might want to consciously attain your thumb over to get at it. What’s odd is that, because of the precise analogue stick subsequent to it, the GameChat button appears barely off-centre. It isn’t — you may inform by taking a look at its positioning in relation to the house and seize buttons above — however subsequent to the analogue stick, it appears a bit… bizarre.

Elsewhere, the opposite huge change with the Professional Controller 2 is the addition of a 3.5mm headphone jack – can I get a ‘hallelujah!’? Sure, this can be a pretty little addition that makes discreet audio an absolute breeze in case you occur to be gaming late at night time. One thing to bear in mind is that you’re going to want to verify your controller is totally up to date earlier than hooking up a headset – fortunately, the Swap itself lets you recognize that you simply’re due one in case you plug something into the headphone jack.

Positioning the audio jack on the backside is nearly the very best place for it, too. You’ve got obtained a typical USB-C slot on the high to your charging wants, so you may simply plug in each a headset and a charging cable with out a lot fuss.

Talking of the highest, you may discover now that your entire space housing the shoulder buttons, USB-C slot, and sync button is now white, as are the ‘shafts’ for the analogue sticks. This can be a good little design determination that simply units the brand new pad aside from its predecessor, however I also can perceive if it would not attraction to these searching for a extra uniform look.

As for the shoulder buttons themselves, these really feel good and clicky with out producing an excessive amount of noise. No analogue performance for the ‘ZL’ and ‘ZR’ buttons, sadly, however the digital inputs work completely properly sufficient. Reality be instructed, that is in all probability the one space of the pad that is required the least quantity of tinkering from Nintendo, and all of it feels simply nearly as good as ever.

One last item to the touch on is the HD Rumble 2, which undoubtedly feels much more strong than the unique Professional Controller (and quieter too), however nonetheless not fairly on par with the PS5’s haptic suggestions. It feels very nice, although; transferring between menu choices on Mario Kart World produces small, but welcome suggestions, whereas powersliding throughout races feels appropriately gnarly with out distracting you from the motion on-screen.

Actually, it is exhausting to seek out a lot fault with it. Time would be the true take a look at, in fact, and it actually is not low cost. I will be retaining a detailed eye on any potential drifting points or D-pad shenanigans, however after utilizing it as my major controller for 99% of the time with my Swap 2 to this point, it is confirmed to be a magical little accent; a brand new benchmark in Nintendo controller design. I’ve not but tried the PS5’s DualSense Edge, however I really feel assured in saying that this $85 pad feels higher than Xbox’s $200 Elite Controller.

Unfathomably clean analogue sticks
D-pad feels a lot improved
Good, chunky face buttons
Map completely something to the brand new again buttons
Extraordinarily comfortably to clutch
HD Rumble 2 is a pleasant step up
Headphone jack!

Analogue triggers would have been good
The black and white design may not attraction to everybody
The GameChat button appears weirdly off-centre?
Picks up mud fairly simply

Wonderful 9/10

The pattern used on this evaluate was equipped by Nintendo.