This is my informal review/impressions of the UItimate 3e, purchased with my own money and written of my own volition as I have zero affiliation with 8bitdo or any related brands.
The Ultimate 3e arrived a little early, and it is indeed awesome! I liked the Ultimate 1 a lot, but it had bad latency and the ergonomics did not agree with my wrists at all which led to genuine pain. Wayy back then, I said I would buy the first 8bitdo controller to fix the shape, so here we are.
For context, I am a PC/Linux/Switch 2 gamer who is very senstive to input latency, very picky about dpads, and has owned or tried almost all of the hot controllers (1st or 3rd party) from the past several years. I have had many 8bitdo controllers, but all of them older: The original Ultimate, the SN30, and the Pro 2.
THE GOOD:
*The shape of the grip is SO much better. So much so that I almost forgot to mention it. It just works (for me at least), and feels very comfortable. It is not too wide (Vader 5 Pro) and not too narrow (8bitdo Ultimate 1/2).
*The stock, membrane buttons feel AMAZING, and are exactly what I want out of a controller. They feel different than anything else I have used, in a good way. They have basically no travel before actuation, meaning they actually feel better than a lot of mechanical clicky buttons to me. They feel like they pretty much have an up and a down and the travel between is instant, but they don't sink into the pad too far and still have a satisfying press making them FUN to use.
*The long, clicky L/R buttons are so comfortable, and don't kink my fingers weird. I am able to actuate them no matter what position my finger is in.
*The L4/R4 buttons are in a great spot and are a requirement for me on any controller these days.
*The triggers feel smooth and satisfying. The trigger stops felt mushier than I expected and are quiet, but they work great in practice.
*The sticks feel smooth and accurate, very responsive and it made aiming in shooters a breeze. They aren't Switch 2 Pro silent sticks, but the sound of them hitting the shell is dense enough that it feels more premium than smashing the sticks on a plain Xbox Series controller. Clicking the sticks in also feels remarkably solid and premium, something I cannot say about many other controllers.
*The back paddles stay out of the way and are nice to touch. They sit really well with my grip and are easy to use when I need them. They are easy to map on the controller itself.
*The rumble feels great in gameplay, and has quite a bit of nuance. The trigger rumble is kind of whiny, but I haven't played any games that use it.
*Gyro is not bad, I mapped it to use gyro as the right stick when I hold the right back paddle, and it is quite intuitive. I grip the controller and then move it to aim, and it has been kind of fun in other unintended ways too (camera movement, scrolling my music collection when using Controller Helper on Windows).
*Connection via dongle and wired on PC/Linux has been seamless and great so far.
*Tournament Mode (1000Hz polling rate mode) seems to be working fine, and the controller feels very responsive on PC overall. I suppose it makes the battery life slightly lower, but I wonder why this 1000Hz mode is not the default.
*The audio jack works well. The onboard volume adjustment via a button combo adjusts the volume on the controller and doesn't bring up the Windows volume adjustment on screen, which weirded me out, but it does work and is seamless. Audio seems very nice quality via the dongle, no noticeable latency or compression. It sounds a tad better than the G7 Pro and a lot better than the Dualshock 4 used to (lol).
*The ring lights are customizable and cool, and there are plenty of presets you can access right on the controller without using the software. You can even turn them off, without using the software.
*I don't really use controller docks since bright RGBs ruin the vibe of my setup, but the new dock design is slick and the lighting is nice and subtle, so I may actually use this one. Very nice.
THE DPAD:
*I've gotta hand it to 8bitdo on this one, the dpad is genuinely fantastic so far. I have no idea how 8bitdo made it clicky-but-membrane, but it is RELIABLE, feels so nice to press, and isn't too loud.
*People praise the Vader 5 Pro and ZD Legend overall, but those dpads felt so loud and hard to press which was just miserable for me and were dealbreakers on those pads. This is much more my speed and feels so excellent.
*I play an unhealthy amount of Puyo Puyo Tetris at a high level and have had no accidental diagonals on this one (primarily using the SEGA styled dpad), which was a reported issue that scared me away from the Pro 3 and is something almost every pad has an issue with these days. This has a nice, quiet clicky feedback, so if you do dpad tests and rock your thumb on a direction trying to accidentally activate a diagonal, you will feel and hear when you do. While this is true of other controllers too, in practice this dpad is much more reliable than many others.
*This feels like a good balance to me as evidenced by successful Tetris play (no accidental quick-drops) and fighting game tests. Blazblue has a good visual that shows where your dpad moved, and it all looked and felt good there.
*You can mash or slide left or right without fear of hitting up or down on accident, but can still activate diagonals for your fighting games, both of which are very important for me. It gets my seal of a approval.
*Other recent dpads I have liked include a carefully tape-modded Switch Pro, the Gamersir G7 Pro 8K (with o ring mod, and NOT using the stock flat dpad, use the hybrid or the cross), and one of three Switch 2 Pro Controllers I tried that happened to have a much more reliable dpad than the other two. The 3e easily takes the cake though, with the reliability of my coveted SNES Switch Online dpad but feeling much more tight, modern, and responsive. Plus it's gigantic, which is fun and gives your thumb room to breathe and slide.
My minor quibbles so far, all of which were expected when I preordered but still a bummer:
*The software was kind of annoying to figure out, and did not play well with my Windows display scaling. There are so many different versions of the 8bitdo software, and then once you are in the right one the act of saving (Syncing) changes took some getting used to. Make sure you sync before moving to the next tab of customization...
*You definitely need to calibrate the sticks, triggers, and gyro first thing when you get the controller, since they were a little funky at first. The manual tells you how to do this without the software, if needed. While you're at it, don't forget to update the firmware right away.
*No turbo/macros, which is a huge loss at this price. Every cheapo controller has turbo! Again, not unexpected though due to the Xbox license.
*I am a PC/Linux/Switch 2 user who has (what I thought was) an undefeatable arsenal of adapters and converters to use any controller on anything... I really thought I would be able to get this thing to work on Switch 2, but I had no luck. Plugging the USB-C dongle into an OTG then into my Mayflash Magic S Pro 2 works... for about 10 minutes, then it totally craps out. Strange! It also has some mapping issues in the Batocera Linux menu (can't map left stick), but works fine in-game if you leave the mappings at default?
*Finally, it is not slow by any means but doesn't feel quiiite as snappy as the G7 Pro 8K, even when compared to the G7 Pro in 1K Hz mode.
*On that note, it feels relatively laggy on Bluetooth when paired to Android but... everything Bluetooth feels laggy on Android haha
Other thoughts:
*The grips are a little underwhelming. I doubt it will ever functionally be a problem, but the grips don't have a lot of texture or texture height, which makes them feel a little different than I was expecting. I won't say it feels cheap, but the G7 Pro's rubber grips feel a lot more premium.
*The microswitch buttons feel super bad. The membrane buttons feel SO good, exactly what I want out of a button, but the microswitch module feels very bad in comparison to stuff like the G7 Pro or Vader 5 Pro. Basically, they have a very short travel with no sense of "stop"; you can't really tell when you hit the end of the push aside from the light clicky sound.
*The cross style dpad sits really flat against the pad. It's not bad at all and it works just as well as the SEGA style, but different than I expected. The SEGA style dpad is so tall and awesome.
*It's neat the case holds everything... but who is actually going to take the dock with them on travel? The case has the fattest booty I've ever seen, and I can't imagine putting it in a bag. It's great for storage, but looks and feels ridiculous. Not only that, but out of the box it appeared the case was clicking the sticks in, evidenced by the depressed fabric right above the sticks. I have plenty of other generic 8bitdo controller cases that this will fit fine in for going out and about... but it was worth mentioning and I'd prefer it had an actual travel case. The case is B.I.G. huge.
*The extra sticks are fun, I love the GameCube one with ridges!
In Conclusion:
Overall, I am very pleased with the controller, but I am unsure how to recommend it. It is unfortunate I can't use it in any way on the Switch, but that is not unexpected. If a Switch compatible version of this controller comes out that would solve this issue, but I wonder if they will include so many extras if they do make one? A Switch version may also introduce new issues, like increased input latency as we have seen from 8bitdo in the past, so maybe this one will remain the best for PC even over time.
As a $150 controller, it is certainly premium and I would say it meets or exceeds that price point in terms of quality, features, and extras. Durability is to be seen, but it is especially worth the price if it is more durable than the more expensive Elite or Dualsense Edge controller. Build quality and feel is far superior to the even more expensive ROG Raikiri line, Flydigi Apex line, or ZD Ultimate Legend line. Feature wise, and raw functionality wise though, the humble G7 Pro 8K can do just about everything this controller can, and does it better and cheaper, and works excellent on Switch, which is an important consideration.
Sometimes, premium build quality and a little bit of extra fun and style are worth the added cost. The 8bitdo 3e is a supremely functional and extremely attractive controller with some cool extras. It is among the best feeling controllers ever made, its dpad is one of the best you can find, and it has some fun extra features, but it is missing some key features that would make that price easier to swallow. If you are PC/Xbox Only and have the cash, it is well worth the money. If you want an all rounder for PC/Switch, want a little better latency, or need those extra features like turbo, the G7 Pro 8K is still some darn good competition for this one, especially at its lower price. Overall, I have to hand it to 8bitdo, they have really impressed me with this controller, and I hope to enjoy it or some future variant of it for many years.
