TL;DR: The Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller is hands-down the best-feeling gamepad the company has ever built. It’s sleek, responsive, and buttery-smooth, with a comfortable grip and extra buttons for competitive gaming tweaks. But at around AED 400+ ($85), without Hall effect sticks or analog triggers, it leaves just enough room for doubt. An excellent but overpriced piece of kit.
Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller
Let me just start here: I did not expect to feel this conflicted over a game controller. But then again, Nintendo has made a career out of forcing gamers to love things they didn’t ask for. The Wiimote. The DS’s second screen. The Virtual Boy (okay, not that one). With the Switch 2 Pro Controller, it feels like Nintendo has finally come to grips—pun very much intended—with what modern gamers want in their hands. It just took them two console generations and a slow, expensive evolution to get here.

I say this as someone who’s been through the whole Nintendo gamepad gauntlet. I’m talking original NES brick, SNES perfection, N64 trident, GameCube oddball, Wiimote magic wand, Wii U tablet disaster, and the original Switch’s plasticky Pro Controller. I’ve been cramping my thumbs for decades for this company, and at last, they’ve handed us something that feels… grown up.
But like a gorgeous coffee table from a boutique furniture store, the Switch 2 Pro Controller is expensive, a little pretentious, and just imperfect enough to frustrate you.
Ergonomics That Whisper Sweet Nothings to Your Palms
Right out of the box, the Switch 2 Pro Controller feels like it was built by people who actually game for more than 15 minutes at a time. It fits in your hands like a well-worn DualSense, or dare I say it, a GameCube controller reimagined by a Scandinavian industrial designer. There’s a subtle contour to the grips, a near-perfect weight balance, and just enough matte texture to feel secure but not sticky.
Gone is the slippery, hollow plastic feel of the original Pro Controller. This one feels denser, more intentional. When you rotate the analog sticks, there’s no loose give or scratchy friction—just a glide so smooth it could sell skincare products.
And it’s not just about feel. After a three-hour Mario Kart World session that would normally leave me with claw-hands and regret, I walked away fine. Hands intact. No lingering cramps. Just pride in my digital drifting skills.

Buttons That Speak Fluent Fighter
As someone raised on a steady diet of Street Fighter II and Soulcalibur, button feel matters. You don’t throw a perfect hadouken with mushy controls. Fortunately, the D-pad on this controller is not just good—it’s downright communicative. Clicky but not too loud. Precise, with clear cardinal directions but smooth rotation.
I spent hours running through combo drills in Soulcalibur 2 (bless the GameCube Classics), and every parry and sidestep felt natural. Even the face buttons have a nice actuation depth—not too shallow, not too spongy. Think DualShock 4, but with just a tad more resistance.
And then there’s the back buttons. Nintendo calls them GL and GR, and they sit naturally above the grips, right where your fingers want to rest. They’re remappable via the system UI, which means I could finally drift in Mario Kart without moving my thumb off the stick. Game-changer. Literally.

Why Are We Still Talking About Drift in 2025
Here’s where the rose tint fades. This controller, which retails for a not-insignificant $85, still doesn’t include Hall effect joysticks. For the uninitiated, Hall effect tech is essentially immune to the dreaded “drift” problem that plagued the original Switch. Third-party controllers like 8Bitdo’s Ultimate have had them for years, and for significantly less money.
Nintendo claims the internals are completely redesigned—and maybe they are—but it’s still using the same fundamental tech that can (and has) failed. One Redditor even reported Joy-Con 2 drift out of the box. That’s not confirmation of a widespread issue, but it’s enough to raise eyebrows.
When you’re paying $85 for a controller, “hope and pray it doesn’t break” should not be part of the product experience.
No Analog Triggers = No Sim Racing Love
Another curious omission: analog triggers. The kind you press gently to feather a throttle or squeeze a brake in a racing sim. The Switch 2 Pro Controller has digital triggers, which are binary: on or off, go or don’t. Nintendo says it’s because digital triggers have less latency. That’s fine for platformers or fighters. But for games that demand finesse, it’s a limitation.
Xbox controllers (even the Elite ones) let you switch between analog and digital. That’s versatility. Nintendo’s choice here is a philosophical one, and while it might make sense in Mario logic, it does cut off a genre or two from feeling their best.

Battery Life and the Joy of Long Hauls
This thing is an endurance monster. After ten hours of mixed gaming—fighting games, indies, a questionable hour with Farming Simulator—I had only dropped to 82 percent battery. Nintendo claims 40 hours, and I believe them. It’s one of the few places where they’ve actually over-delivered.
Charging is via USB-C, of course, and it’s nice to see the 3.5mm headphone jack finally make its way onto a Nintendo controller. It feels overdue, like discovering your 80-year-old grandma has a TikTok following.
A Luxury Controller for Nintendo Loyalists
Here’s the truth: if you only ever game on your Switch 2, this controller is an indulgence, not a necessity. It’s the equivalent of buying noise-canceling headphones just to listen to lo-fi beats. It’s nice. It enhances the experience. But you could survive without it.
But if you’re someone who plays competitively, or who craves a more premium tactile feel, or who just appreciates good design, the Switch 2 Pro Controller delivers in spades. It’s the best controller Nintendo has ever made. It just also happens to be the most frustratingly overpriced.
Especially when 8Bitdo is out here like the Aldi of controllers—cheap, feature-rich, and weirdly good-looking.

Final Verdict: The King with a Crooked Crown
There’s something a little tragic about the Switch 2 Pro Controller. It’s so close to being perfect that its flaws feel more pronounced. If this had launched at a lesser price and included Hall effect sticks, we’d be talking about an all-timer. Instead, it sits in that weird space between excellence and excess.
Still, when I pick it up and settle into a long session of Super Smash Bros. or Xenoblade Chronicles, I can feel the love that went into its design. I just wish Nintendo loved us back a little harder.