Accessory Review: NACON Pro Compact Controller

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Posted May 18, 2021 by Richard Lee Breslin in Accessory Review, Featured, Reviews, Xbox One Accessory Review, Xbox Series X|S Review

The Nacon Pro Compact Controller is the ideal second controller on a budget for both Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S console owners.

I first used the Pro Compact Controller on the Xbox One, and it worked great, and it was better when I got my grubby mitts on an Xbox Series S.  It did pretty much everything you’d expect any competent controller to do.  While a little lightweight and small for my hands, the controller still managed to maintain a decent level of quality you’d expect.

On some websites, available in either black or white, the Pro Compact Controller might cost you around £45 to £50, which would result in you paying more than you perhaps should.  If you shop about (at the time of writing), the Nacon Pro Compact Controller can be picked up at around a more modest £32, which is a more than reasonable price.

Other than being a decent third-party controller, the Nacon Pro Compact Controller has a few tricks up its sleeve that one might expect from a controller that would have a larger dent in your pocket.  For starters, the Pro Compact Controller has a handy app that you can download from the Microsoft Store for free that allows you to customise the controller to suit your gaming needs.

With the app, you can adjust the trigger, analogue stick, and vibration tension, swap the buttons about and save your own profiles that might better suit a variety of genres such as shooters, racers, and more.  There are a few more controllers available nowadays that come with an app so that you can have your own profiles, and from my experience, Nacon has one of the best apps of this kind.

As pretty much standard, the Nacon Pro Compact Controller has a ready built-in 3.5mm headphone jack for your headset.  However, this controller also comes with a Dolby Atmos App which increases your quality of gaming audio when using a headset, which is a nice little bonus.

The Nacon Pro Compact Controller also comes equipped with a few other handy quality of life features such as a new share button so that you can quickly take screenshots and capture gameplay in an instant.  This button is available on the controllers that come with the Xbox Series X|S and not with previous official Xbox controllers.  So it’s nice that this quick access button is ready to go on this third-party controller which also works equally as well on the Xbox One.

Another handy feature is the 3-metre braided USB cable which is a decent enough size to comfortably stretch out across most rooms and the braided texture also means that it’s less likely that the cable will get tangled.  Which we all know can get quite annoying.

 

All in all, while the Nacon Pro Compact Controller doesn’t do anything spectacular, nor will it likely replace an official Xbox controller, but for a reasonably priced third-party controller, it more than does a good job.  It may feel lightweight and small for some, but it’s not short of quality.  It also has a very handy app that allows it to cater to a wide variety of gaming styles, and it works equally as well on both the last-gen Xbox One and the new Xbox Series X|S.

If you paid anything close to £50 for this controller, I’d say you’d be spending too much.  However, if you shop about and pick up this controller closer to the lower end of £30, then you’ve got a decent bargain in your hands.  For its current asking price, the Nacon Pro Compact Controller is one of the better value third-party controllers in the market.

Featured Image Credit: Nacon