The best Switch 2 controller just got better (and a little worse)

Crowning the EasySMX S10 the champion Switch 2 controller past autumn was easy. The $60 wireless gamepad, which is often good beneath $50, mimics aliases improves connected galore of the $90 Switch 2 Pro controller’s champion features. The S10 has great-feeling rumble successful games, TMR joysticks that will past longer than Nintendo’s, positive amiibo support, comfortable grips, and buttons and triggers that connection satisfying clicks. The caller S10 Lite trims distant immoderate of those, but builds connected EasySMX’s lead pinch 1 big, caller characteristic that I expect different companies to copy.

The EasySMX S10 Lite is the first third-party controller to connection autochthonal support for the Switch 2. It’s an betterment connected each non-Nintendo wireless controllers, which trust connected macros to execute system-level commands, for illustration GameChat, and require a strange, yet communal first-time setup process (EasySMX’s S10 included) to beryllium capable to aftermath the Switch 2. The S10 Lite is alternatively treated for illustration a first-party controller by the console (the strategy interface moreover thinks it’s a Switch 2 Pro). It tin quickly brace to your console and remotely aftermath it by tapping the Home button, conscionable for illustration Nintendo’s pricey controller. It’s besides compatible pinch the original Switch, despite EasySMX’s tract implying otherwise, though the S10 Lite’s autochthonal OS-level integration and GameChat fastener don’t activity connected that platform.

This autochthonal support besides lets you configure the S10 Lite’s GL and GR rear paddles done the Switch 2’s operating strategy by holding the controller’s Home fastener while in-game. It’s the only controller not made by Nintendo that tin do this. This lets the S10 Lite return advantage of the truth that the console tin retrieve civilization GL/GR mappings connected a per-game basis, which is easier than manually configuring fastener mapping each clip you alteration games connected different third-party controllers.

Native support is the astir evident perk of the S10 Lite versus the S10 and different controllers. However, it has a fewer omissions that make deciding betwixt it and the original S10 tougher than it needs to be. For instance, the S10 Lite lacks amiibo support, and its rumble doesn’t consciousness arsenic precocious value arsenic the S10 (although, the Lite’s rumble is still amended than what 8BitDo’s Switch 2-compatible controllers offer). Lastly, it features Hall effect sticks, not the much businesslike TMR sticks successful the S10, though either instrumentality tech is superior to the $90 Switch 2 Pro controller’s.

The $39.99 S10 Lite simplifies connectivity and customization — 2 beautiful large accomplishments — astatine the disbursal of immoderate minor, yet nice-to-have features. If easy setup and seamless integration intends much to you than amiibo support and superior rumble effects, the S10 Lite is the better, cheaper prime complete the S10. However, it’d beryllium perfect to person 1 EasySMX controller that was bully astatine everything — possibly that time will come.

Photography by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge