Testing the MOST POPULAR GAME CONTROLLER ON AMAZON – GameSir Nova Lite 2 Review

For just £30 you can get a wireless, 1000 hertz, hall effect game controller right now. That feels kind of insane – that’s £15 less than an official Xbox controller, and this one comes with the dongle – it even comes with a travel case – so surely this thing can’t be worthwhile, right? Well I bought one to find out, so let’s take a look at it, test it, and even see how it compares to the other controller I bought recently, the EasySMX X15, which cost HALF of what I paid for this thing, and see which of these two I’d rather buy. Sound good? Let’s get started!

First, a tour. The box lays out some of the important features – tri-mode connectivity, hall effect joysticks and triggers, and importantly a note that this is a PC/Switch/mobile controller, and doesn’t support PlayStation or Xbox consoles. Taking it out the box though, that was a surprise. I popped the top, and the controller practically fell out. Except it wasn’t the controller, it was a perfectly molded hard carry case which houses the controller and the USB dongle. For the £30 I spent on this thing, I cannot believe you get such a well made hard carry case. Amazing. Anyway, you do also get a decent length and branded USB C cable in the box too. As for the controller itself, it’s a typical Xbox style layout with offset sticks, ABXY buttons, a nice round (and clicky) D-Pad, a USB C port up top, clicky-ish bumpers and smooth triggers, trigger locks, two paddle buttons on the back and four gold pads that I have to assume means you can get an optional extra charging stand (which, yep, it’s a tenner). Again, for £30, this is looking mighty impressive!

Of course, the highlight reel is going to sound good, so let’s look a little deeper. First, those sticks. These tips are a noticeable upgrade over the X15. These feel actually pretty good – they aren’t replaceable which is a shame, but still – they feel like the right balance of soft, firm, textured, and shaped nicely. They’re a little stiff for my liking but that’s fine. You do get a nice soft slip ring around the outside so running at the edge feels nice. The ABXY buttons equally feel nice enough, perhaps a little more tactile than the X15, and the bumpers up top are definitely nicer. Clickier. Good stuff. The two paddle buttons on the back though, those are worryingly light and mushy. You’ll struggle to realise you’re pressing them. They are placed well, although surprisingly I didn’t find myself accidentally pressing them, which is kind of impressive considering their lack of feel. As for the trigger locks, those are the basic style of just limiting the travel – and not by all that much. There’s still a decent amount of travel on the trigger when locked, although for £30 this is more than I could realistically expect. 

I am happy to report that this thing is a 1000 hertz controller, both wired and wirelessly, which until recently was a pretty high end feature. As for latency, well at least compared to the X15, it’s about the same, if a little faster. When wired this thing drops half a millisecond on average to 13.9 milliseconds, keeping it in the ballpark of most decent controllers. Wireless is slower at 20.9 milliseconds putting it in the pretty slow wireless camp, but it’s still more than usable. For actually gaming, well for FPS games it’s obvious I’m the limiting factor. I’d say that the stiffer sticks are a little annoying to use, but that might be a me problem too. The trigger locks do make a difference, making the controller feel more responsive, even if they aren’t the tactile click that a lot of fancier controllers offer, so that’s definitely nice. For other genres of games I’d say it’s plenty fine. It isn’t barn-stormingly impressive or anything, but it handles anything you can throw at it just fine. I mean, the built in rumble is fine enough, the triggers are fairly light but have a nice arc, and in general feels pretty good. This isn’t the cheapest plastic on earth, it feels solid, and actually feels pretty well built. I know I sound kind of surprised by this, and that’s because I kind of am. For £30, to my door, I get a wireless 1000 hertz double hall effect game controller? That’s insane! The fact that it’s actually good, that it’s pretty responsive and smooth, built well, and a decent choice? Hot damn. Gimme one.

Comparing to the X15 – which I bought at the exact same time for almost exactly half the cost – I do like this one better. The trigger locks are an extra benefit, the nicer joystick tips are, well, nicer, and the overall fit and finish is just better here. Sure, you don’t get RGB lighting, but you do get a perfectly form-fitting hard carry case which even gives you a place to store the USB dongle if you travel with it, and considering these two cost the same when the X15 isn’t on sale, that’s a bit of a no-brainer for me. This thing punches well above its weight, and while I’d still rather have a nicer controller with a few extra features – including a charging stand in the box – I would absolutely recommend this thing for anyone who’s looking for a budget friendly wireless controller. Great job GameSir!