Goodness. That is a bit, um, pink. That was my first impression upon taking the Gioteck WX5+ Wireless RGB Switch 2 Pink Swirl Controller out of its well packaged box.
Not that that is a bad thing, as I like bold design choices, and this is bold! It kind of grew on me to have this rather than the normal black controllers I would normally go for. So much so, I now even prefer the look of it!
I have had the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller since day one, so that will be a good place to start with in comparison to the Gioteck WX5+.
The price of a Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller is £74.99, yet the Gioteck WX5+ from their own website is just £24.99 (WX5+ Wireless RGB Controller Switch 2 Pink Swirl – Gioteck).
For a product to be a third of the price of its counterpart, you would expect there to be a compromise on its features, but you would be wrong. The Gioteck WX5+ is packed with them! Not only that, but it has a few more things even the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro doesn’t.
The Gioteck WX5+ has the expected button features, including the new Switch 2 chat function button, as well as programmable back buttons. Hall effect sticks and triggers that Gioteck claim on their website to be drift free. Motion and vibration support. Turbo mode, 3.5mm audio jack but also RGB lighting! On top of an already stylish looking controller, these features take it above and beyond.
The Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller comes in at 237 grams, yet the Gioteck is lighter at 187 grams (this is on my kitchen scales at home, at least, and not official figures).
One of my personal preferences towards the Gioteck WX5+ is that I prefer how the Gioteck feels in my hands compared to the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro. The Gioteck WX5+ Controller has a lower half casing that has a slight texture to it, so it grips and feels better in my hands compared to the smooth Nintendo controller.
The Gioteck WX5+ also has a slightly larger cross D-pad button on the left, which makes hitting those presses easier. The control sticks have a thicker stem and also feel a tad gripper than the Nintendo controller. The layout of the middle four buttons (+, -, Home and Chat ) are laid out differently, and the shape of the back buttons are slightly more pronounced, so again, encourage a better grip and ease of use.
Not only that, and I know this is going to sound silly, but we all get it, the Gioteck back buttons have a much more satisfying “clickiness” to them! The build quality of the casing doesn’t look as flush as the Nintendo controller, but the ZL and ZR triggers are far better shaped and easier to use too.
All in all, I think it’s easy to see that, where it matters in how the controller feels when you’re playing games, the Gioteck feels far superior to the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro. It’s lighter, has easier to find buttons, is easier to grip, and looks and sounds better. It’s already become my controller of choice.
The best feature I love about the Gioteck is how fantastic it looks with the lights on. There is a button on the back you can press to change the lighting to suit, of which there are many options. The battery life of the Gioteck has, in my experience, only been slightly shorter than the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro’s. Of course, with a controller now dealing with lights as well as feedback and usage, it’s to be expected, but it’s still favorable compared to the Nintendo model.
The only problem I’ve had with the Gioteck is with the audio through the controller’s 3.5mm headphone jack. With the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro, all I’ve had to do is plug my headphones in, and the sound has worked through it wirelessly. That hasn’t happened here with the Gioteck.
At first, I couldn’t get any sound through the controller at all. There is nothing in the instruction manual to suggest you need to do anything other than plug the headphones in. After an evening of trying to figure it out, I eventually found a setting in the Switch 2 console settings of “Nintendo Switch Pro Controller Wired Communication= On or Off”. This setting, for me, was already on “Off”. When I changed this setting to “On”, I could finally get audio through the Gioteck controller as well, but only if the controller was wired to the Switch 2 dock. Once I unplugged it, the sound would disappear again.
I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, and we will reach out to Gioteck to see if there is a fix to this, or if this is how the controller is supposed to be. Either way, it’s literally the only issue I have with the controller: I have to be wired to the Switch 2 dock and change a setting not mentioned in the instruction manual, to get sound to my headphones through the controller.
That one issue aside, and let’s be honest, it’s not really that much of a big issue anyway, this controller is fantastic. It’s also mind blowing how great this controller is for the price you can get it for too.
Summary
Outstanding visual design. Superb ergonomic functionality design in the button shapes and placements. Better grip and feel at a lighter weight. Even though the controller is lighter, it doesn’t feel less solid or fragile. More features than its contemporaries at a fraction of the price for a controller that just looks so damn cool! Gioteck have other design options if Swirl Pink isn’t your thing, but this is a must-buy and an excellent controller!
