Dealmaster: Get a Nintendo Switch Pro Controller for $50

Enlarge (credit: Ars Technica)

Greetings, Arsians! The Dealmaster is back with another round of deals to share. Today’s list is headlined by a deal on Nintendo’s Switch Pro Controller, which is down to $50. That’s good for a $15-20 discount off its usual going rate and tied for the lowest we’ve seen the gamepad at reputable retailers.

Whether it’s worth jumping on this deal depends on how often you keep the Switch docked and hooked up to a TV. The Switch’s built-in “Joy-Con” controllers are still perfectly fine for most use cases, and if you’re on the road, the hassle of trying to keep the Switch propped up just to use the Switch Pro pad probably isn’t worth it. Much of the Switch’s appeal is in its portability, after all.

But if you don’t just treat your Switch like a big 3DS, the Switch Pro Controller brings substantial upgrades in comfort and responsiveness, particularly over the course of longer play sessions. The face buttons, triggers, and joysticks are bigger and have more give, there’s an actual d-pad, and the whole thing should be sized appropriately for all but the smallest hands. (Those joysticks are also laid out asymmetrically, a la an Xbox controller, which the Dealmaster has always found to feel more natural than the layout on Sony’s DualShock 4 pad.) Nintendo rates the controller’s rechargeable battery as lasting an excellent 40 hours on a charge, and that estimate isn’t far off in practice.