Nacon Controller Revolution 5 Pro review: Still evolutionary

We cover a great deal of peripheral reviews, and a lot of them have the word 'Pro' in the title without really earning it. Is it 'pro' because of the extra buttons? Or for the price tag?

The Nacon Controller Revolution 5 Pro falls into both camps, with an RRP of £199.99 that it sadly struggles to live up to, despite some good ideas. Despite a few Pros, my excitement was tempered by more than one Con, too.

We, the Pros of Con

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Let's get things clear right off the bat - the Nacon Controller Revolution 5 Pro is a very, very comfortable controller. Each of its side grips rolls nicely into the palm, and it's easy to hold for long gaming sessions thanks to its lightweight nature.

If you want a weightier feel, you can pop a couple of weights inside the handles to help balance things to your liking - I found myself putting one on each side to add to the premium feel of the controller.

As is often the case with competitively-minded controllers, the thumbsticks can be swapped out for alternative versions. While playing EA FC 24 or Call of Duty, though, I tended to stick to the defaults.

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Speaking of Call of Duty, the shortened triggers are also ideal for semi-automatic weapons fire, and while it's not uncommon on PS5 controllers, I'm always happy to see offset sticks on the platform - despite Sony's own insistence that PlayStation owners would prefer symmetrical ones.

More customisation can be found within the Nacon app, but only on PC for now - there's no mobile alternative, so console-owning consumers beware. A mobile version is planned, but there's no release date for it as yet.

Not so revolutionary

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Sadly, that's the first of Nacon's shortcomings here, and while many may be allowed to slide in other controllers, the asking price here certainly demands a sterner eye. After all, PlayStation's own Dualsense Edge is only a tenner more, and naturally offers plenty of crossover and is first-party to boot.

That's important because when connected to a PS5 you'll get zero rumble from the Nacon Controller Revolution 5 Pro. Considering how many PS5 games take advantage of both rumble and adaptive triggers (also lacking here), it's a big omission - and one the DualSense Edge doesn't suffer from.

Instead, triggers can feel too binary at times, resulting in awkward sprints in EA FC 24 that affected my enjoyment of the game.

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Switching to PC is an option, but not one that's made easy - to connect to the app, the controller needs to be in PS5 mode. For playing though, it needs to be, as you'd imagine, in PC mode, and I spent longer than I'd care to admit switching between the two to get things set up for PC gaming but with the app tuned the way I liked it.

The connectivity issues don't stop there, with a lack of Bluetooth connectivity for playing, meaning you'll need to use the included dongle.

The Verdict

Despite its clear PlayStation branding, the Nacon Controller Revolution 5 Pro is much better off as a PC controller - but even then it's at such a high price point it's tricky to recommend without a sale, especially since the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 is significantly cheaper.

If you're less interested in rumble and adaptive triggers, and regularly switch between your PS5 and a PC, you may find it ticks both boxes, but for our money, you'll be better off checking out the DualSense Edge instead.

2.5/5

Review unit provided by the manufacturer.