Nacon Revolution 5 Professional controller evaluation: Up your recreation

Professional controllers have gone from area of interest prospects to broadly desired equipment in the previous few years, with choices like Scufs and PlayStation’s personal DualSense Edge changing into extra generally utilized by the day.

That does not imply they’ve grow to be any much less premium an possibility, although, and Nacon’s Revolution 5 Professional is the newest contender to your money if you wish to improve your aggressive loadout. I have been utilizing it for a few weeks to see the way it stacks up.

Design

Kitted out

Nacon hasn’t lower any corners on the Revolution 5 Professional – this can be a actually totally featured professional controller, and you’ll inform that simply from it.

The controller is available in a white colourway to match the bottom PS5, however I received the black model for testing – quite a bit stealthier and truly fairly unremarkable at first look.

It is properly constructed out of strong high-quality matte plastic (there is not any flex right here), with pretty rubbery grips round the place your palms relaxation to assist in essentially the most disturbing moments of a recreation.

The entrance of the controller does not disguise a lot further performance, though you’ll be able to swap out the thumbsticks for a variety of choices that come included, and the D-pad additionally has two variants to choose from.

On the again, issues are extra developed, with a bunch of switches to customize your expertise, together with the choice to shorten the journey distance on both of your triggers.

There are buttons to toggle between your totally different structure profiles, connectivity for various gadgets and quantity controls for whenever you join a headset to the controller (which you are able to do through Bluetooth if desired).

Lastly, on both sides, the rubbery grip might be clicked off to disclose a cavity the place included weights might be secured to change how the controller feels in your hand – a really good contact.

The Revolution 5 Professional additionally comes with a pleasant hard-shell carrying case that has impressively been made smaller than earlier variations to make all of it the better to pack for journey or storage.

A braided charging or connection cable rounds out the package deal, and it is all completed to a very prime quality – as you’d hope, given it prices almost half as a lot as a PS5 by itself.

Customisation choices

Make it your personal

Customisation is the secret for a professional controller, and the Revolution 5 Professional presents loads of other ways to make it your personal.

These weights are available just a few variants and are simple to fit in and experiment with, letting you alter the controller’s general hand-feel actually simply, which is nice and never provided by many opponents.

That very same ease applies to swapping thumbsticks too, and also you additionally get entry to some metallic rings to cut back the journey distance in your sticks, one thing that requires somewhat extra consideration to note however may actually assist with controller tuning.

It is good with the ability to swap between journey distances for the triggers, too, though even the shorter possibility remains to be not fairly as clicky as a devoted modded controller just like the one I used from Mega Modz recently can provide.

Nonetheless, these are all bodily choices that you would be able to tweak as you want, making it fairly easy to make main adjustments to how the Revolution 5 Professional feels in response to your style.

There are additionally 4 further buttons on the again of the controller case, and these might be remapped at will – one thing that you are able to do utilizing software program in your PC or by simply holding down some buttons.

The latter is useless simple, and I used to be rapidly in a position to set them up as I like, with the face buttons mapped to the again in order that my thumbs keep on the stick whereas taking part in.

Button placement is a large a part of the success of a professional controller, and the primary two buttons added, S1 and S2, are ideally suited – central and simply the place my fingertips curl to.

The others are on the grips themselves and are somewhat extra awkward to activate – in observe, I discover that I actually use the primary two extra no matter which controller I am on, however Scuf nonetheless makes the most effective again buttons I’ve examined, on the Reflex.

Nonetheless, Nacon has performed a really strong job right here and a few individuals will probably discover the association fully good. In a really perfect world, you’d have the ability to strive one out in a store earlier than committing, although.

Efficiency

Gaming upgraded

After all, you’ll be able to’t assess a professional controller by simply it from all angles – you need to leap into video games with it, so I have been operating the Revolution 5 Professional as my fundamental controller for a few weeks.

I play loads of Warzone and Rocket League, two very totally different video games with totally different necessities, and one of many points I’ve had with different professional controllers is that I would like clicky responses for Warzone and throttle management for Rocket League.

Properly, the Revolution 5 Professional aces that check – its triggers work nice for each due to these variable journey distances, and the additional buttons are nice for making my very own management scheme.

I’ve additionally been sampling a bunch of The Finals‘ open beta (which is terrific), and the controller has held as much as each stress check I’ve give you.

There are, nevertheless, some drawbacks to handle, most of them out of Nacon’s arms due to how Sony offers with third-party controllers.

Firstly, not like a modified DualSense just like the Scuf Reflex, this is not recognised by your PS5 as a standard controller – it wants a dongle, and which means it might probably’t do some easy issues.

For one, its PS button will not flip the console on, so you will have to try this manually earlier than turning on the controller to maneuver on (a small element however doubtlessly an annoying one).

Subsequent, once more as a result of it is not a DualSense, you will not get the haptics that Sony’s personal controller presents. In truth, in PS5 video games you will not get any haptics or vibration in any respect.

Now, I view this as a controller for aggressive play, somewhat than a one-size-fits-all possibility just like the DualSense Edge, which works as nicely for informal play as the professional scene. I can not see this being a deal-breaker, since you’ll be able to all the time join your regular DualSense if you wish to play one thing immersive like Alan Wake 2.

Nonetheless, it does imply that you just’re not going to have the ability to consign your outdated controllers to reminiscence, if that issues to you, and it barely tarnishes the in any other case spectacular efficiency of the Revolution 5 Professional.

Verdict

The Revolution 5 Professional is a good new possibility for individuals who take their controllers significantly, and an incredible pairing with the PS5 or a high-class PC. It is received oodles of customisation choices and may actually simply be constructed to really feel impeccable within the hand.

There are just a few usability hiccups that make it doubtlessly rather less consumer pleasant in some methods, but when you will get over these minor hurdles it nonetheless has quite a bit to supply as a instrument for high-level play.