best Switch – A detailed hands-on roundup finds Nintendo’s $89 Switch 2 Pro Controller hard to beat—then shows cheaper third-party alternatives that still deliver drift-resistant Hall effect or TMR sticks, strong rumble, and even features like amiibo support and Nintendo OS
Putting the Switch 2 Pro Controller away felt less like a victory lap and more like a test of faith. After living with Nintendo’s $89 wireless pad—its 3.5mm headphone jack for private listening. its rumble. and a design that fits neatly in your hands—the question became simple: can cheaper controllers deliver the same kind of everyday confidence?.
The answer, in this hands-on guide, is yes—just not in the same way for every shopper.
The roundup is built around one key promise: every controller included is compatible with both Nintendo Switch 2 and the original Switch. and all of them can remotely wake the Switch 2. Compatibility also extends to PC. Beyond that baseline, the standout thread is controller internals. Nintendo’s Switch 2 Pro Controller uses potentiometer-based joysticks, which the guide says are prone to degradation over time. To avoid that long-term risk. the picks use either Hall effect or tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) joysticks—framed here as drift-resistant by design.
What changes from model to model are the features people actually feel while playing: rumble quality, button layout quirks, whether amiibo support shows up, and how much (or how little) a controller leans into Nintendo Switch 2’s native system support.
The most compelling “for most people” choice lands at $50: the EasySMX S10. The guide says it brings TMR joysticks, amiibo support, great rumble, and remotes-wake capability via Bluetooth. It also notes that the S10 can map rear buttons and supports HD and NFC—without requiring the Switch 2’s native OS to be present. as “Native Switch 2 OS support” is marked “No.”.
The S10 isn’t presented as a perfect clone of Nintendo’s controller, though. The guide points to a grippier design, including stick caps that feel different from other controllers. Button presses and trigger pulls are described as softer with shorter travel. which it calls the divisive part of the experience. Still. it calls out something that’s likely to matter immediately in games that demand diagonal precision: a swappable eight-way (circular) D-pad. making diagonal attacks in Hollow Knight: Silksong easier than with a four-way D-pad.
If the S10’s price and feature set are the lure, the S10 Lite is the budget rethink. At $39.99, the guide says it drops amiibo support and downgrades rumble compared to the S10’s HD rumble. But it includes something the guide calls unusual for a cheaper pad: native support for the Switch 2. In this case. it’s framed as a practical convenience—connecting to a Switch 2 doesn’t require a “strange sequence of button presses” or Joy-Con removal for the console to remember it. Once connected, the controller can wake the Switch 2 by pressing its Home button.
Even more importantly for how a controller behaves across games. the S10 Lite is described as the only third-party option in the guide that can use the Switch 2 OS to customize rear buttons on a per-game basis. It’s also described as comfortable, with grips and overall shape likened to the Switch 2 Pro Controller.
The guide’s other featured model aimed at feature-rich value is GuliKit’s TT Pro at $60. It’s built around TMR thumbsticks in a PlayStation-style stick layout, but with a twist: adjustable tension on both sticks. The guide says each stick’s tension can be altered with a Phillips head screw revealed after popping off the stick caps. and a tool is included to adjust how fast and “flighty” the sticks feel or how resistant they are to snapping back. It also calls the TT Pro’s floating, eight-way directional pad the best it’s used.
In terms of playstyle flexibility. the guide describes adjustable trigger stops (full Hall effect analog pull or tactile click) and the ability to install up to four rear paddles for mapped buttons. Another practical detail: the TT Pro comes with a hard case and includes a Hyperlink Gen 2 wireless controller adapter to make connecting to Switch 2 easier across controllers.
It also draws a specific line between the TT Pro and GuliKit’s TT Max. The TT Pro, it says, doesn’t include extra stick caps of varying heights, and its firmware can’t switch between emulating a four- or eight-way D-pad like the TT Max can—it supports eight-way only.
At $71, Mobapad’s Chitu2 HD takes a different path. The guide says its goal is to convince people they’re using Nintendo’s Switch 2 Pro Controller in a blind test. and it claims the curves and the soft clicks of its customizable GL and GR rear buttons feel identical. It also says the rumble is great, with TMR sticks described as nearly silent even when deliberately wiggled.
But it’s not a carbon copy of Nintendo everywhere. The floating directional pad is said to be a little louder and mushier than the one in GuliKit’s TT Pro. The L and R bumpers are described as louder to press than the analog sticks’ clicking. There’s also a tactile accessibility complaint: the home and screenshot buttons sit nearly flush with the plastic housing. making them tough to feel without looking.
For smaller hands and a box that looks ready for tinkering. 8BitDo’s Pro 3 is framed as a customizable alternative at $69.99. The guide says it includes TMR joysticks and two back paddles. plus a total of three shoulder buttons per side thanks to “new custom M buttons.” It also describes pop-off analog stick caps that can be swapped for glossy arcade stick-style nubs. and ABXY buttons that can be suctioned off with an included tool to swap the layout depending on whether you’re using it on PC. The guide notes trigger locks that let you set triggers to a short, clicky pull or the default travel distance.
There’s one disappointment it’s hard to miss: the guide says rumble on the Pro 3 is “pretty lousy. ” to the point that the reviewer preferred turning rumble off entirely in games. If shoppers are comparing it to 8BitDo’s similarly priced Ultimate 2 Bluetooth. the guide makes the same point about poor rumble there too—even while calling the Ultimate 2 Bluetooth “great” otherwise. with an Xbox-style stick layout.
A final note sits at the end of the piece: the guide’s “Update, May 20th” section says pricing and availability were adjusted, and related links were added for impressions of Dbrand’s Joy-Lock grips for Joy-Con 2, plus news about a Switch 2 price increase coming in September.
Across the list, the picture that emerges isn’t just which controller feels best in the moment. It’s how many ways a Switch 2 player can trade money. tactile feel. and feature depth against what Nintendo built its $89 Pro controller to deliver—especially when it comes to drift-resistant joysticks. rumble. and the increasingly important question of whether a controller can work with Nintendo’s system features.
Switch 2 controllers Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller EasySMX S10 S10 Lite GuliKit TT Pro Mobapad Chitu2 HD 8BitDo Pro 3 TMR joysticks Hall effect joysticks amiibo support HD rumble controller review