This is the newest 'Xbox Controller' that comes with the Series X|S console in 2024.

Build quality is fantastic for the price and the D-pad is unlike anything else I own. It has an actual pivot point, tacticle feel, and hybrid design. The face buttons are also very easy to press simultaneously.

You can use the analog stick for 720 motions as well.

But it's not perfect. It lacks hair trigger options or any extra buttons to rebind stuff like R3/L3.

This honestly surprised me as the general FGC concensus is this is just something for boomers and I only took mine out of the closet to test it as a baseline.

The only stick I have is a RAP 4 Hyabusa w/ square gate but I think any high quality stick will work just as well. But stick is simple and consistent across all inputs. I was able to be the most accurate with this so fast (a couple days) I am sure I'd be much better with a bit of practice.

I will be trying an octagonal gate eventually as my only input problems have to do with losing track of the cardinal directions.

This is a cheap controller that feels solid and has a good feeling hybrid D-pad with very pronounced cardinal direction markers. The face buttons feel great and are large and narrowly spaced making simultaneous presses easy. The top row is smaller but it didn't really bother me in practice.

The version I have only has two shoulder buttons, meaning it has 8 "game" buttons total. There are many different versions, I should have probably gotten the wired Xbox variant, which has both shoulder buttons and a headphone port.

It is very easy to get accidental diagonals though if you do not push straight down which can interfere with rapid motions. I have not found a way to reliably input a 720.

This is a very cheap controller that punches far above its price point. It has a very enjoyable D-pad and the face buttons are the perfect size and spacing.

This D-pad seems particularly good at 360 and 720 motions. It comes with two D-pad options a hybrid and cross. and I found the hybrid was more accurate as it was larger with more leverage to make pushing into the diagonals easier. I found I had to play with a very heavy hand with the cross pad which made it slower and less accurate.

This isn't as bad as many people say, but it seems made for people who want to play with the analog stick which is odd.

The D-pad uses pressure sensitive pads so you are able to tune the sensitivity. Unfortunately this doesn't work very well as you can only tune their sensitivity down. This means you have to press extra hard into a fully pressed D-pad to get them to trigger which is unnatural.

It is also fairly cheap feeling with no removable USB C cord. The face buttons do feel nice, using microswitches.

I generally prefer this controller for non fighting games, in fact it was the only pad I owned a year ago. But it has one of the worst D-pads for me for motion inputs. I find I want to hold it in an awkward position to press the D-pad accurately but the controller really doesn't want to be held that way.

Diagonals are very hard to pull off consistently and left side DP motions are the least accurate of any controller. I also have issues with half circles in both directions. I find the face buttons to be just a bit too spaced apart to make simultaneous presses accurate. Quarter circle motions are fast and accurate.

Pros are winning tournaments with it however so YMMV.

I was all in on leverless for many years but it was a hard lesson learned that I am not compatible with it.

The real Achilles heel is my accuracy with half circles or greater is terrible and requires me to slow down and think about my inputs, which I can't do in the heat of battle. I would rather have the input device naturally restrict my speed (like stick).

Before plugging this in I thought it was going to be amazing as the overall feel is fantastic.

Unfortunately I often miss cardinal directions during motion inputs. There seems to be some sort of design flaw since I have many half circles where down left is held for multiple frames and it immediately switches to down right for multiple frames.

The other issue is the face buttons are domed and hard to press together. They work but I'm always surprised when they do since it never feels like I'm pushing them successfully. Everything also feels very "stiff" where all actions require more force.

The D-pad is just too small and feels like it 'pops' inside the shell when you push it too hard. The face buttons are too large and I accidentally press them by fat fingering sometimes which doesn't happen with any other controller.

I could not actually complete my testing gauntlet because it is unusable to me so my ranking is extrapolated from the results I do have.