Nacon Revolution 5 Unlimited controller review

At $229.99, the Nacon Revolution 5 Unlimited is one of the most expensive gamepads on the market. That's triple the price of a standard $74 DualSense, and $30 more than both Sony's DualSense Edge and Nacon's own $199.99 Revolution 5 Pro. While the build quality is undeniable, Sony's platform restrictions on the PlayStation 5 shrink its actual audience down to a narrow niche.

Compared to the Revolution 5 Pro, that extra money buys a few clear hardware upgrades. Nacon swapped the previous Hall Effect thumbsticks for magnetic TMR sticks, which still prevent drift with contactless magnets while offering finer aiming precision and better battery efficiency. TMR stands for Tunnel Magnetoresistance. You also get a magnetic charging dock, seven remappable shortcut buttons instead of four, dual-mode trigger locks, and a built-in LCD screen. Fancy!

In hand, the 327 gram controller feels sturdy, premium, and slightly heavier than a 280 gram DualSense, complete with textured grips. The face buttons and D-pad use mechanical micro-switches with a crisp, tactile, mouse-clicky feel I really like. The thumbsticks also use an asymmetrical layout like an Xbox or Switch controller rather than PlayStation's symmetrical design. I don't mind the diagonal placement, although PlayStation lovers might.

Physical switches on the back let you toggle L2 and R2 between a full analog pull for racing games and a mouse-like micro-switch click for fast trigger taps in shooters. For competitive FPS players, Nacon also built in six-axis gyro aiming and Shooter Pro Mode, which strips away dead zones so the slightest thumb movement registers right away. Both of them feel snappy when tracking targets.

Everything comes packed in a deluxe travel case with six swappable stick heads, four shaft rings, six grip weights, a three-meter braided cable, and two swappable D-pads for fighting games. Because of the LCD screen, wireless battery life lands around 10 hours per charge, which beats the DualSense Edge but falls short of a standard DualSense. Thankfully, the magnetic dock auto-charges the pad as soon as you set it down, so you never have to plug in a cable.

I just wanted to briefly talk about the aforementioned grip weights. If you’ve never bothered with grip weights, the logic is simple enough: more mass means the pad resists the little unintended movements your hands make, so micro-corrections while aiming feel steadier. 

Nacon Revo X Max controller review

Premium yet budget-friendly

GAMINGTRENDHenry Viola

Auto-charging on the dock helps because Nacon kept its annoying recessed USB-C port instead of making the port flush. If you play wired, most third-party USB-C cables won't even fit inside that narrow indent. When I reviewed Nacon's $70 wired Revo X Max for Xbox and PC, my favorite feature was its twist-ring adjustable joystick tension. Somehow, this $230 flagship drops that feature entirely. And the Revo X Max gave you one month of Game Pass Ultimate too. Why couldn’t the R5U do the same for PS Plus?

The onboard screen lets you tweak audio mixing and button mapping on the fly, though building custom profiles, changing the RGB ring lighting, or fine-tuning stick curves still requires Nacon's mobile-only R5U Navigator app. The display looks premium, but it feels unnecessary because it replaces the DualSense touchpad, breaking any game that relies on directional swipes. To register a basic touchpad click, Nacon put a small button below the screen between the right thumbstick and D-pad. Reaching down to press it feels awkward, so I recommend remapping that click to one of the seven shortcuts right on the display.

Wireless play also requires plugging in a 2.4 GHz USB dongle, and pressing the PlayStation button won't wake your PS5 from Rest Mode. Worse yet, Sony locks third-party accessories out of core PS5 features. Even though the grips house rumble motors, vibration is completely disabled in native PS5 games, and the controller lacks DualSense haptics, adaptive triggers, and an internal speaker or microphone, forcing you to plug in a headset just to voice chat. I can’t fault Nacon for that, but it’s still a bummer.

To play on a PS5, you have to use the included 2.4 GHz USB dongle (or a wired USB-C cable), because the controller cannot pair directly to the PS5 console over Bluetooth. Sony prevents third-party controllers from using the internal Bluetooth radio, which is also why pressing the PlayStation button won't wake the console from Rest Mode. The controller's built-in Bluetooth only works for connecting to PCs, mobile devices, wireless earbuds, or your phone for audio mixing and the companion app.

On a PS5, it plays like a plain, silent controller, and you only unlock full vibration and its 1000 Hz wired polling rate on PC. Because Sony disables so much on the console, this isn't for you if you only play games on a PS5, especially exclusives that make full use of the traditional DualSense. It makes the most sense for primary PC players who want PlayStation's button layout and full PC rumble, while keeping a backup PS5 controller around when a friend visits for local multiplayer. It’s also geared towards super competitive FPS players that benefit from all the shortcuts and customizations, and don’t care for haptics.