Hyperkin Duke Wired Controller for Xbox Series X|S/Xbox One/Windows 10 (Xbox 20th Anniversary Limited Edition) (White) - Officially Licensed by Xbox

The Duke's 20-year old design has been revived for a reason - it's very good. The original design is the result of Microsoft's engineers trying to turn an oversized circuit board into something as ergonomic as possible. The result? A controller with fantastic ergonomics for large hands, good ergonomics for average sized hands, and poor ergonomics for small hands. Sadly, this design was abandoned for many years in favor of a one-size-fits-all approach. Personally, I think there is enough room in the video game controller market to have different controllers for different hand sizes, and the continued success of the Hyperkin Duke is proof of that. So, if you have large hands, the Hyperkin Duke is simply the best controller you can get! I personally prefer the Duke over other controllers even with my average-sized hands. If you've been using a normal Xbox One or Xbox Series S/X controller, switching to the Duke will make you realize just how much your hands have been cramping with the One/Series controller!Joysticks. The Duke's thumbstick caps have a unique design not used in other controllers, and the left design is different from the right design. You may at first assume that the design is just for looks, but I believe there is a purpose to it. The left Duke stick has a large cavity (concave design), which provides grip, makes it easy to make broad motions, and makes it comfortable to keep your thumb there for long periods of time. This is perfect for what the left stick is usually used for: tilting the stick forward for long periods of time, and strafing left and right with large movements of the stick. The right stick is mostly convex, and it has a small cavity for grip. Convex sticks are best for making smaller movements and fine adjustments. This is perfect for what the right stick is often used for: aiming with precise, small movements, or handling a camera with quick swipes, rarely requiring the thumb to rest on the stick. A problem with convex sticks is a lack of grip; the small cavity on the Duke's convex right stick really helps by adding a spot for your thumb to grip when needed. These sticks have a very thoughtful design. Other controllers have identical left and right sticks. Those other controllers could learn from the Duke!The joystick modules are made by Favor Union and feature a mostly-metal construction. There are no issues with dead zones or accuracy. Favor Union sticks have a powerful, deep click sound when pressed, which is noticeably different than the weaker click sound found in the Alps modules in Microsoft's original Duke from 20 years ago and their newer One/Series controllers. Some might consider this a downside as it does not replicate the click sound of the original Duke. The joystick modules accept replacement thumbstick caps designed to fit One/Series controllers. It does not accept thumbstick caps from the original Duke, as those caps have a larger mounting hole than the new ones.The d-pad. With the original Duke's d-pad, it was a very tall plastic part; the surface your thumb presses was very far from the circuit board, resulting in inaccurate d-pad inputs. In other words, it was kind of like trying to press a button with a 1-foot stick instead of just pressing a button directly; this was a bad design. It was easy to press the four cardinal directions, but it was difficult to reliably activate the diagonal directions. The Hyperkin Duke fixes this issue by having an elevated daughterboard dedicated to the d-pad. The d-pad surface is close to the daughterboard, resulting in accurate inputs even with the diagonals! However, this type of d-pad design prioritizes thumb comfort over accurate diagonals, so while it has been greatly improved, it is still not as accurate as the d-pad designs that prioritize accurate diagonals over your comfort, such as that made by Sony or Nintendo. I appreciate the Duke's d-pad design, but if I'm playing a game that relies heavily on d-pad diagonals, I switch to a different controller.Buttons. The face buttons on the Hyperkin are much more clicky than the original Duke's face buttons. They are not pressure-sensitive like the originals, but that feature is not used in modern games, so it's not a problem. A clear improvement over the original. The LB/RB buttons are not easily reached if you grip the controller with your index finger on the trigger, so if you need those buttons you should switch to a grip where the middle fingers are on the triggers and the index fingers are on LB/RB (as shown in one of the pictures attached to this review). The alternative grip is perfectly viable and comfortable. I recommend switching between the two grip styles as the situation demands. LB/RB mirrors the function of the White/Black buttons. The original Duke did not have LB/RB, so this is a welcome improvement, allowing players to choose whether to press LB/RB or White/Black as desired. The shape and color of the A/B/X/Y/White/Black buttons are accurate to the original Duke's buttons, but the A/B/X/Y lettering are not an accurate recreation of the original. Specifically, it looks like they decided to mold the letters into the clear part of the button rather than the colored part, which creates a different look. The Duke's A/B/X/Y buttons have a unique shape and layout that may take some time to get used to!The screen of the Hyperkin Duke is actually a giant Xbox button! The Xbox button feels satisfying to press, and it replays the Original Xbox "flubber" animation when pressed. A white modern Xbox logo is displayed after the animation is done. The "20th anniversary" Hyperkin Dukes have a new button that the previous Hyperkin Duke did not have - the share button. This button is useful for taking screenshots and recording videos.Triggers. The Hyperkin Duke triggers have the same large, comfortable design as the original. The springs are perfectly responsive. The spring is weaker compared to the original Duke; the original Duke's trigger springs were excessively strong and could actually cause fatigue. This is a nice improvement.Accessories. The box has a very nice foam cutout, making it excellent for long term storage of the Duke. A controller stand is included for displaying the Duke on a shelf, which is a nice touch. A detachable, sturdy green cable is included. The cable does not have the breakaway safety feature that the original Duke's cable has. Breakaways are a really useful feature that I wish they would have kept. Microsoft does not allow third parties to use their wireless technology, so the Hyperkin Duke is wired just like the original Duke. I don't really mind wires as the cable is a cool green color and it means I will never have to worry about batteries. The wired aspect leaves room for improvement, as Hyperkin could possibly offer a wireless Duke in the future if Microsoft ever relaxes their restrictions. It would certainly be nice to choose whether I use the controller in wired or wireless mode, but I cannot consider this a flaw as the Hyperkin Duke is clearly advertised to be a wired controller.Look and feel. I love the color. White electronics in general tend to have the most comfortable coating with the best resistance to heat and sweat in my opinion. The white color highlights the features of the controller by making the black sticks and colorful buttons stand out. The surface texture is not a recreation of the original Duke texture; the Hyperkin Duke texture is smoother. The texture of both the Hyperkin and the original feels great in the hands. There is no creaking sound when applying pressure to different spots on the controller, which indicates that it is well-built. Even after disassembling and re-assembling my Hyperkin Duke, there was still no creaking to be found anywhere. The feel and weight are just perfect. My hands are average sized, and they feel cramped with non-Duke controllers, so the Duke is a must for me. The Duke feels so comfortable and powerful in my hands.If you found this review helpful, you can press the Helpful button so that others will see it.

I love it, great controller bringing back good old memories from the Original Xbox. The Xbox original video introduction on the small screen on this Duke version is a very sweet feature

Que control por favor espectacular, la rompieron una belleza total

It works well MOST of the time.Sometimes it chooses not to work, but when it does the little start up video is clear and nice, and works well with console and PC

this controller is not wireless, that is something important to keep in mind but to me not a problem because every xbox one ive seen has atleast a usb port. makes sense tho because there's a whole screen in the controller that lights up and animates every time you press the guide button. it's not the anniversary design, just a regular green, still cool tho.this controller is enormous, i mean thicc and straight voluptuous but that adds to the comfort and feel of just playing with the controller. it's so big it has room to be a 6 button pad too. not only do you have your regular ABXY buttons but an additional set of C and Z buttons. it has shoulder buttons too in case you don't want to use the C and Z buttons.it's a very "big back" controller, but it's very good to use.

I wanted to try a controller that was very different. While I never grew up with the original duke back when it first came out, I was surprised to find that it was very comfortable. I do have small hands and I managed to use it for many hours. I used it to play God of War and Dark Souls. It worked just fine at first.After about 3 weeks of using it, I was playing Dark Souls when all of the sudden my character kept parrying after I pressed the left trigger once. Usually it would do three parries every time I pressed the triggers quickly. I thought I was having a system issue. Turns out it was the controller. I tested it in a gamepad tester and found that the left trigger kept fluctuating randomly after one press. Pushing down on the triggers to ensure that the plastics weren't loose, the issue only eased off a bit so I no longer had the issue of random parries. Looking into the gamepad tester I pressed both triggers midway, I noticed the left trigger still kept fluctuating randomly while the right trigger stayed consistent in its mid press. It turns out some people online have the exact same issues even as far as the first releases of hyperkin's Duke controller. It seems that the manufacturer did nothing to improve on there line of product. What I also found in the tester was that the sticks weren't aligned, it was not enough misalignment that the games would react to it. I was more afraid of potential stick drift down the line. I really wanted to like this product, the controller was comfortable and fun to play with. To wrap things up, please pass up on this. It not only has issues with quality but the price is way too high being that it is a wired controller. I don't even recommend to those who want to relive their childhoods, it will just break on you at some point of your gaming session.

I did buy a used/like new condition controller, so maybe a new one works better, but I was a little excited when this one showed up. However the moment I tried to use it, any and all menus started glitching as if the stick was pushed in a direction and wouldn't stop, and the left trigger would press down at the slightest breeze and stayed down until I pressed it again