8BitDo Pro 3 Bluetooth Gamepad (Ships on Aug 30th 2025)

8BitDo Pro 3 Bluetooth Gamepad (Ships on Aug 30th 2025)

This is an amazing controller that sets the new standard for what I expect from a premium 3rd party controller, and is nearly perfect. The swappable face buttons resolve layout issues for those who care, the new TMR stick modules feel amazing, and the mechanical dpad is probably the best one I've ever used, topping the stadia one. Works with the PC ultimate software, trigger stops make it great for use with nintendo switch and anything that doesn'r require analog triggers. The paddles and extra top buttons feel amazing and are easy to reach, and are exposed as explicit separate buttons in dinput mode on PC.
The stand is a nice way to store the 2.4GHz dongle, the button tool and an extra set of buttons.
My biggest complaint is with the funny arcade stick style stick caps. They're a pointless novelty, and I'd rather have another set of stick caps, maybe longer ones to give me customization options instead of waste that just ends up sitting in a box after a quick laugh.

Great shape, size, and weight. It feels sturdy and high quality. The buttons have a satisfying click to them, and the ability to swap out the buttons and set the triggers to digital or analog is a great feature.

I haven't needed to test out the turbo functions or mappable buttons, but the instructions were clear on how to use them. The thumbsticks have a little too much resistance for my liking (making fine camera movements difficult), but not enough that in game settings or practice can't help.

I have had no problem connecting it to different devices - while the switch on the back isn't intuitive, it's not too much of a hassle to use the instructions to find out what setting it needs to be on for what device.

The only issue I have had is one time it did not wake up - removing it from the dock or pressing buttons gave no response. Setting it down to charge and immediately taking it off again seemed to wake it up. It happened multiple times in a row that sassion (after switching off my console and putting the controller on charge to see if it would happen again), but hasn't happened again in the days since. Because it doesn't have any indication of how charged it is, it had me worried there was an issue with the dock or the battery. It seems to be charging fine, and this issue has not happened since, though this is why I am not giving it a 5 star review.

this controller is deeply flawed, especially its d-pad. For example it doesn't have a pivot inside it so it's possible to press all 4 directions at the same time, which happens often when playing fast paced games. This issue was solved by nintendo and sega 40 years ago but is somehow still present in third party controllers in 2025.

The controller is great, everyone knows that. The only problem I have is probably just me cause I’m a bit of a fatass but when I’m tryna play games with the dpad I find myself fat fingering up when pressing left or right. Other than that, best controller I’ve ever used… maybe a swap able dpad for the next one…