The Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons are great; they have fantastic rumble and their motion controls are great for games that support them, but they have one flaw - they aren't very ergonomic. Have you tried playing the Switch in your hands for extended periods of time? The buttons on the Joy-Con are so small and the grip is limited due to its size. It doesn't make for very good long-time gaming.
Thankfully, there have been a number of third-party Joy-Con substitutes. Today, we check out the NYXI Wireless Controller for the Nintendo Switch.
Full disclosure: NYXI Gaming sent me the pair to review and talk about, and I did sign up for their affiliate program, just so you know where I'm coming from.
Packaging
The NYXI Joy-Pads, the Omelet Gaming Switch controller, and the Binbok controllers all have the same contents in the box, pretty much. It's a standard cardboard box with a clamshell plastic that contains the controllers. The package comes with a USB-C cable, the bridge (to connect the two sides of the Joy-Pads), and some instructions.
Build Quality
For its price, it's pretty good. Because of the size, you do feel a bit of jiggle and a bit of hollowness, but that's to make the controllers fit better in your hands, I suppose. The buttons are raised a little higher than I'd like, but I fully recognize that's a subjective thing. It isn't a big deal, just a personal preference. On a side note, the right side slides into the bridge and the Switch with a little bit more force than the left side.
The texture in the back, while appreciated, doesn't seem to actually be helping the grip at all.
Buttons
The shoulder buttons are all bumpers - no analog triggers. That means if a game supports analog triggers for things like acceleration or something like that, the Joy-Pads will simply give you a binary input - either it's pressed or not.
Stick accuracy is good, for the most part. It's not as good as something like a DualSense or Xbox Series controller, but for the Switch ecosystem, it's pretty dang good.
Comfort
This is the main selling point to these types of controllers, so yeah, when you're playing for long periods of time, it's way better to use a Joy-Con replacement like the NYXI Joy-Pads. It feels more like a traditional controller, which is something you may be more comfortable with.
Extra Features
LED colors around the analog sticks can be changed to a number of colors by pressing the T button on the back and clicking on the stick (L3, R3).
Buttons can be set to turbo by pressing the T button on the back and pressing the button you wanna turn into turbo. As far as I know, there are a few levels of turbo - I think 3 frequencies, but I'm not 100% sure.
You can also turn the vibration intensity up or down by clicking the T button in the back and flicking the analog stick up or down. Be warned though, at the highest setting, the rumble is LOUD.
The NYXI Joy-Pads also have back paddles, which you can assign by pressing the M button on the back, and before the light on the bridge or the side of your Joy-Pad stops blinking, press the button you want to map to the back paddles. Unfortunately, the left paddle can only be set for buttons on the left Joy-Pad, and the same goes for the right.
There's also gyro aiming, and the NYXI Joy-Pads can also wake the Switch up from sleep, which is pretty neat.
Price and Value
If you get it from their store, the SRP is around ~₱2,600, but if you use my link, you can get 10% off.