EasySMX Dune 8K Wireless Controller Review – True 8000Hz Game Controller

This is the first genuinely 8000 hertz controller I’ve seen, as despite its name, PXN’s P5 8K isn’t actually 8K. This is the brand new EasySMX Dune 8K, an incredibly feature-rich controller that still manages to cost less than the Steam Controller. Despite its really weird styling, this is an awfully impressive controller, so let’s take a look at this thing and see just how good it is, and if it’s worth your hard earned cash.

The most obvious thing I want to start with is the styling and comfort. Right out the box this thing is BOLD. The gold is gaudy, the grips are strange pads with LEDs behind them, a bar runs around the outer perimeter you’d assume made it uncomfortable, and the joysticks tips look alien. Hell, there’s a little screen in the middle! And yet, when you stick it in your hands, it’s actually pretty comfortable. It’s still cheap-ish plastics and doesn’t scream ‘premium’ in the same way that a Razer Wolverine often does, but it still feels more than nice enough. The unusual styling choices don’t impact the feel, and if you find the gold to be too distracting you can always swap to the fingerprint-magnet matte black face plate included in the box instead. You can also optionally have taller joystick stalks, and even a narrow D-Pad if the included flat pad style isn’t for you.

It’s worth continuing the tour a little as well. From the back you’ll find two well placed macro buttons, proper micro-switch trigger locks (as in the toggle slides a microswitch into the trigger housing to make it properly clicky while limiting the travel), and some contacts for the charging dock. From the top you have the USB C port, two more macro buttons for claw grip players, and the pretty clicky bumpers too. Then there’s the front, where you’ll find the TMR joysticks, and actual microswitch ABXY buttons – yes, there’s actually mouse buttons under here under the interesting button design, and the elephant in the room, the display. This isn’t the first controller with a little screen on it I’ve seen – NACON’s Revolution X Unlimited beat them to it, although this thing is less than half the price of that so it’s fun to see it coming down in the price brackets. The screen is mostly a quirky extra feature for basic customisations. The polling rate can be controlled from here, as can the buttons, what mode you’re in, the joystick centre and shape, vibration amount, and even the trigger amount. It is somewhat useful, but not exactly as feature rich as the X Unlimited. At least, once you work out how to swap it out of Chinese. It’s the third option by the way.

When it comes to the polling rate, I’m happy to report that the in both wired and wireless operation, the polling rate is by far the fastest I’ve seen, although it’s more like 7000 hertz from the joysticks, but that’s close enough for me. Interestingly if you do change the rate on the controller, it’ll just do it. Setting it to 1K (the lowest setting mind you) just works, it caps it at 1000 perfectly. Amazing. I of course tested their “Ultra-Low Latency Response” claims with my very own open source latency testing tool, which you can get at OSRTT.com by the way, and impressively this is the third fastest controller I’ve had in, only behind the NACON Revolution X Unlimited and Asus Raikiri II, and only by one millisecond! Both wired and wireless it’s fast, which is pretty awesome, especially for a sub £100 controller.

For actually using it, and of course gaming with it, I’m pretty impressed. The joysticks feel nice – not too light, not too stiff, nice and linear and all. In racing games where trigger control is important, these hall effect triggers feel pretty nice and are shaped well enough to give you a decent amount of control. Oh, I should add that this has two impressively strong vibration motors in the grips, and apparently a second pair for the triggers, so in short if you like vibration this feels great! You can tweak the force in the menu though so if no vibration is your bag, you can do that too. In Dirt Rally 2.0 I found the car to be a decent bit easier to control than some of the other controllers I’ve tested recently, so that’s a thumbs up from me so far. On shooters, it’s clear I’m the bottleneck. While the joystick mapping isn’t quite as sharp as the X15, it’s still fine enough for me. I really am not the right person to be testing controllers for FPS games though, so from a novice I’d say it’s decent. I can say that the microswitch trigger locks feel great, giving you much more responsive aim and fire control.

The exact pricing is £78, at least on the current pre-order pricing. For what you’re getting here, that’s pretty impressive! On-device customisation, TMR sticks, 8000 hertz polling (not that that really matters all that much in the grand scheme of things, especially since running at 1000 hertz isn’t much slower on average), microswitch everything, and even a nice weighty charging stand that even has a spot of the USB dongle at the bottom. Impressive! For that price it’s hard to argue this isn’t a good deal. Of course cheaper options do exist – EasySMX’s own X15 can be readily had for £15 (I would know, video in the cards above!) – but this is a clear cut step or two above that, and when comparing to the likes of the ZD Ultimate Legend which comes in at £80-100 generally, this definitely seems compelling. The NACON Revolution X Unlimited definitely has an edge in quality, customisation and hardware customisation too, but it is also like twice the price, so yeah this Dune controller is mighty impressive. Good job EasySMX!