With a slim, comfortable feel and a premium-only feature at a 25% discount, the EasySMX S10 has a leg up on most of the market when it comes to great third-party Switch 2 controllers. While it doesn’t pack the same punch as the first-party Switch 2 Pro Controller, the S10 makes for a solid second option for anyone willing to sacrifice ancillary stuff like Amiibo support. Plus, it comes with better triggers and a customizable d-pad.
EasySMX has made a big push into the third-party controller scene with one big claim: remote wakeup. It’s odd that Nintendo locked this basic, highly convenient feature behind the $80 Switch 2 Pro Controller or its even pricier counterpart, a pair of Joy-Con 2 controllers. This confusing change from the original Switch keeps just about every pro controller option from waking up the Switch 2 with the Home button. Even the official Switch 1 Pro Controller falls short here, effectively paywalling what should be a universal, standard feature. Enter EasySMX with a somewhat awkward solution to the issue, promising remote wakeup with a strange workaround.
Per the instructions provided by EasySMX, I synced my shiny new controller, detached both Joy-Cons, and then reattached them within 20 seconds after the initial sync. After putting my console back into sleep mode and trying to wake it up again… I got nothing. A few frustrated tries later though, it did work. I haven’t had any issues since it clicked, aside from when I connected the controller to my PC and then went back to the Switch 2, but I just repeated the process without issue.
In motion, the controller itself is really comfortable, especially for anything that relies heavily on its two buttery-smooth sticks, with comfortable, textured grips that kind of remind me of the DualSense’s stick grips. I played the entirety of Once Upon A Katamari, which is controlled almost exclusively using both sticks, using the S10.
My only real gripe with the sticks extends to the rest of the controller’s face; it’s all too low-profile. The grip part of the stick, where it mushrooms out from the rest of the stick, is too close to the rest of the controller, considering the distance between each controller element. This gives a kind of claustrophobic feel to swapping between sticks, buttons, and the d-pad. Granted, my thumbs are a bit bigger than average, but I found myself accidentally bumping the stick when pressing up on the d-pad.
That flaw aside, this d-pad is great. Despite literally inventing the d-pad decades ago, Nintendo has repeatedly dropped the ball in recent iterations, with a design that often accidentally triggers a secondary input in an additional, adjacent direction. I can’t tell you how many games of Tetris 99 I’ve had to salvage because of an accidental input from Nintendo’s first-party Pro Controllers. The Switch 2 Pro Controller is a step in the right direction, but it’s not where I need it to be.
The S10 offers customization between a classic d-pad and a circular design similar to the one found on the current Xbox models. I usually prefer the circular setup, but the traditional mode is a little more precise. Either way, it’s nice to have a choice.
The mechanical face buttons press with a satisfying little click like a mechanical keyboard would. They’re also pretty low-profile – which unfortunately isn’t my preference, because they give each press a kind of soft feeling that I can’t get behind. The triggers and bumpers, on the other hand, are much more comfortable and satisfying to press. They’re still low-profile like the first-party options, but this works much better for non-analog triggers than it does face buttons.
The grip buttons are the weakest link, though. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve accidentally pressed them just by gripping my controller tighter. This won’t be an issue for everyone, especially people with smaller hands and fingers, and it only became an issue when I had those buttons mapped to an input. Still, I wish there were a tighter gate to minimize accidental presses.
Charlie is a freelance contributor for IGN. You can reach them via Twitter or Instagram at the handle @chas_mke.
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