Nacon Revolution 5 Professional controller overview: Up your sport

Professional controllers have gone from area of interest prospects to broadly desired equipment in the previous couple of 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 turn into any much less premium an choice, 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 reduce any corners on the Revolution 5 Professional – it is a actually absolutely featured professional controller, and you may inform that simply from taking a look at 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 really fairly unremarkable at first look.

It is properly constructed out of strong high-quality matte plastic (there is no flex right here), with beautiful rubbery grips round the place your palms relaxation to assist in probably the most anxious moments of a sport.

The entrance of the controller does not disguise a lot additional performance, though you possibly can swap out the thumbsticks for a variety of choices that come included, and the D-pad additionally has two variants to select 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 format profiles, connectivity for various gadgets and quantity controls for if you join a headset to the controller (which you are able to do through Bluetooth if desired).

Lastly, on either side, the rubbery grip will be clicked off to disclose a cavity the place included weights will 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 bundle, and it is all completed to a extremely 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 provides loads of alternative ways to make it your personal.

These weights are available in a number of variants and are straightforward to fit in and experiment with, letting you modify the controller’s total hand-feel actually simply, which is nice and never supplied by many opponents.

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

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

Nonetheless, these are all bodily choices that you could tweak as you want, making it fairly easy to make main modifications to how the Revolution 5 Professional feels in keeping with your style.

There are additionally 4 additional buttons on the again of the controller case, and these will 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 straightforward, and I used to be rapidly capable of 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 ultimate – central and simply the place my fingertips curl to.

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

Nonetheless, Nacon has achieved a really strong job right here and a few individuals will likely discover the association fully excellent. In a perfect world, you’d be capable of strive one out in a store earlier than committing, although.

Efficiency

Gaming upgraded

In fact, you possibly can’t assess a professional controller by simply taking a look at it from all angles – you must bounce into video games with it, so I have been operating the Revolution 5 Professional as my principal controller for a few weeks.

I play quite a lot 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 need clicky responses for Warzone and throttle management for Rocket League.

Properly, the Revolution 5 Professional aces that take a look at – 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 take a look at I’ve provide you with.

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, in contrast to 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 could actually’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 probably an annoying one).

Subsequent, once more as a result of it isn’t a DualSense, you will not get the haptics that Sony’s personal controller provides. In actual fact, 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 choice just like the DualSense Edge, which works as properly for informal play as the professional scene. I am unable to see this being a deal-breaker, since you possibly can at all times join your regular DualSense if you wish to play one thing immersive like Alan Wake 2.

Nonetheless, it does imply that you simply’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 choice for many who take their controllers significantly, and an important 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 a number of usability hiccups that make it probably rather less consumer pleasant in some methods, but when you may get over these minor hurdles it nonetheless has quite a bit to supply as a device for high-level play.