Hall effect, dead zone and more: What features you need to know when buying a controller

We have listed the most important terms and features that you will encounter when buying a controller.

Update December 5th, 2024: We have added “Xinput and Dinput”.

Controllers are more advanced today than ever before. Analog sticks use magnetic sensors, triggers have multiple activation levels, and some gamepads even have built-in screens. So that you can find the right one for you, we have summarized the most important terms and features for you.

Deadzone

The dead zone, also known as the dead zone, determines in which areas of the analog stick no movement should be registered. We differentiate between external and internal dead zones.

The outer one indicates from which position the maximum travel of the analog stick is registered. If you reduce the outer dead zone, you don't have to move the stick completely outwards before one hundred percent is registered.

The inner deadzone indicates how far the stick must be moved from the center before an input is registered.

  • Advantage:Small internal dead zones ensure more precision when aiming. Smaller external dead zones for faster responsiveness.
  • Disadvantage:Reducing the inner deadzone can cause stick drift.

What is stick drift?This is a problem in which your analog stick automatically registers input even though you don't move it. The causes for this can be mechanical wear or dead zones that are too small.

Hall effect sticks and hall effect triggers

Many controllers today use so-called Hall effect sensors. The position of the sticks and triggers is determined using magnets, which reduces mechanical wear to a minimum.

  • Advantage:This makes the controller more durable and analog sticks are less susceptible to stick drift. Because of this, you can also set a smaller dead zone for more precision.
  • Disadvantage:The magnets can be interfered with by other magnetic components nearby. That's why some manufacturers do not install Hall effect triggers and Hall effect sticks at the same time (such as Asus with the ROG Ally).

TMR-Sticks

Instead of Hall effect analog sticks, manufacturers can also install so-called TMR sticks. TMR stands for “Tunnel Magnetoresistance”. As with Hall effect analog sticks, the position is determined using magnets.

The difference to Hall effect:Hall effect sensors measure magnetic fields through the Hall effect, in which a voltage is created in a current-carrying conductor when it is exposed to a magnetic field. TMR sensors utilize tunneling magnetoresistance, where the electrical resistance of a material is changed by a magnetic field, allowing for more precise measurements.

  • Advantage:Higher precision and lower energy consumption compared to Hall effect analog sticks.
  • Disadvantage:Not very widespread so far, so no major disadvantages are known yet.

Hair triggers, trigger stops and instant triggers

All three terms describe the possibility of shortening the activation path, i.e. the distance the button has to travel before it is activated, for the trigger buttons on the controller. There are controllers that also provide you with several levels.

  • Advantage:Faster input, which is important in shooters or fighting games, for example.
  • Disadvantage:Some controllers only shorten the physical path and not the actual input. This means that games only register a partial press of the trigger, which, for example in racing games, means that you cannot go full throttle with shortened triggers.

Anti-friction rings or smoothing rings

These are rings that surround the controller sticks. They are usually made of smooth plastic. This means they can be operated much more smoothly and with less friction. If the necks of the analog sticks are made of plastic, smoothing rings also ensure less abrasion.

  • Advantage:Smoother and smoother operation of the analog sticks.
  • Disadvantage:No.

Polling rate and sampling rate

A controller's polling rate or sampling rate indicates how many times per second the controller communicates with the console or PC to send input commands. It is given in »Hz«.

  • Advantage:A higher polling rate results in faster transmission of commands, which can improve response time in the game.
  • Disadvantage:High polling rates can increase controller power consumption.

Turbo

On some controllers you can activate a turbo function for certain buttons. If you then hold this down, instead of a long key press, many quick individual entries are registered.

  • Advantage:Simple button mashing that can be useful in certain games or genres, such as shoot-em-ups.
  • Disadvantage:Not useful for games that require high input precision, such as rhythm games or fighting games.

Paddles und Back-Buttons

Controller manufacturers either rely on paddle-shaped buttons, like here on the Gulikit KK3 Max (l). Others rely on conventional buttons or even additional shoulder buttons, such as the PowerA OPS V3 Pro (r).

Paddles and back buttons were once features of expensive premium controllers and today most have them installed - even cheap models. These are the extra buttons on the back of the controller that you can assign freely.

  • Advantage:Additional control options. You can keep your thumb on the analog sticks and operate the action buttons with the paddles.
  • Disadvantage:On some controllers, the extra buttons are placed in such a way that they can easily be pressed unintentionally.

OLED screen

Some controllers have a built-in OLED screen that can show you useful information such as battery status, button assignment or connection type. These screens are usually simple and (so far) do not have touch controls.

  • Advantage:Make settings directly on the controller, without an additional app.
  • Disadvantage:Additional energy consumption and may increase the price of the controller.

Mechanical switches

More and more premium controllers are installing mechanical switches in their controllers, such as those found in gaming mice. These offer more precise and direct button feedback compared to conventional rubber membrane switches, which are found on the standard controllers of the three major console manufacturers.

  • Advantage:More precision when entering keys because you can feel and hear exactly when a key is triggered.
  • Disadvantage:Some switches increase the resistance of the keys, which is bad for button mashing, i.e. rapidly repeated input, among other things (the resistance on the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro, for example, is very high).

Gyroskop

Some controllers, especially models for the Nintendo Switch, have a built-in gyroscope. A gyroscope is a sensor that detects movements and tilts of the controller and converts them into appropriate control commands.

You can use this to control the camera in games in addition to or instead of the right analog stick. Nintendo uses the gyroscope in many games. For example, when aiming in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Splatton 3.

  • Advantage:More precision because you can aim with your wrists instead of your thumbs.
  • Disadvantage:Aiming with motion control can take a lot of getting used to. Many players also reject it completely.

Adaptive Trigger

Recommended editorial content

At this point you will find external content from YouTube that complements the article.
You can display it and hide it again with one click.

I agree to content from YouTube being shown to me.

Personal data may be transmitted to third-party platforms. More about this in our.

Link toYouTube content

Sony's Dualsense controllers feature trigger buttons that can change resistance to make games even more immersive. There aren't many third-party providers that offer a similar feature. There is the Flydigi Apex 4. However, the manufacturer calls the feature “Force Feedback Trigger”.

  • Advantage:More immersion in games.
  • Disadvantage:The feature is only supported by certain games.

Xinput and Dinput

Xinput and Dinput are two different controller input application programming interfaces (APIs) primarily used on Windows platforms. They determine how a controller is recognized and used by a system.

Xinput is primarily used for modern controllers such as the Xbox wireless controller. It offers native support in many current games and allows for easy setup with minimal configuration. Dinput, on the other hand, is an older API used by many older controllers and games and offers more flexibility in configuration.

These were the most important controller terms. Did you all know them? Are there any that you particularly value? Feel free to write it to us in the comments!