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Pros
- Excellent layout
- Fantastic button and stick feel
- Straightforward controller app
- Wired 1,000Hz polling rate on PC
My gaming reflexes aren’t what they used to be (not that they were ever that great), so I’ll take every little bit of help I can get to improve my accuracy and speed. Razer’s completely overhauled Wolverine wireless controller for Xbox/PC can do just that. Upgrading the design and components of its V2 Chroma version, the V3 Pro lets you play how you want to play with greater precision and comfort than its earlier models.
True to its name, this is a “pro” controller with features that will likely be overkill unless you’re a competitive gamer (although you may want an edge even if the competition is only among friends). It would be easier for me to say run out and buy one right now if the controller wasn’t $200. While it’s not overpriced, considering what you’re getting, it is expensive.
The price is in line with other pro controllers I’ve tested, though, like the Vitrix Pro BFG and Scuf Instinct Pro. While those have their own perks, the Razer wins for its all-around excellence. And if you don’t mind losing the wireless and a couple of other minor features, there’s a wired Wolverine V3 Tournament Edition that gets you almost all of the V3 Pro features at half the price. Stepping up to the Pro gets you high-speed 2.4GHz wireless, a carrying case, a slightly rubberized finish, two swappable thumbstick caps (shorter domed and taller concave), better haptics and the Razer wordmark has the company’s Chroma backlighting. There’s, of course, a built-in battery, too, to power it when used wirelessly. The rest of the features are the same between the two versions.
- Hall Effect thumbsticks
- Adjustable triggers
- Claw-grip bumpers
- Four back paddles
- Tactile action buttons and eight-way floating D-pad
- Tournament mode with 1,000Hz polling rate on PC
There’s a headset jack at the front if you want to plug in.
At this point, getting Hall Effect thumbsticks on a premium controller should be a given, but that’s not always the case. They’re one of the prime features of the Wolverine V3, though, ending drift and increasing durability. They have just enough resistance for finer control, and the anti-friction rings around them let the sticks slide around smoothly.
There are trigger stops, so you can have a short, quick actuation or a longer pull. That’s not unusual to find, but the feel is significantly better here, giving you a mouse-click trigger response for first-person shooter games when locked out or a smooth trigger motion with a perfect amount of resistance for precise control for racing games.
The claw grip bumpers are helpful to have, even if you use a traditional grip. I’ve never played using a claw grip, but when combined with the back paddles, I did eventually get faster when playing FPS and team-based co-op games. It helps that all six of the buttons are remappable.
Razer’s Xbox app for customizations is clean and straightforward. You can remap or completely disable each of the four back paddles and the claw grip bumpers, adjust thumbstick sensitivity, tweak haptic strength and change the RGB color of the Razer wordmark, among other things. Settings can then be saved to individual profiles for different games, genres, users or whatever you want. You can’t remap the triggers, regular bumpers or action buttons.
The back paddles are less like actual paddles on the V3.
I’ve used many controllers with back paddles/buttons over the years, and they always seem to get in the way or are awkward to use. Razer somehow managed to get the paddle sizes and positions just right, significantly better than the Wolverine V2 Chroma. The button feel is good too. In fact, all of the buttons and the D-pad have a wonderful responsive clickiness to them — not a single mushy button here.
The controller connects wirelessly to an Xbox or PC using the included 2.4GHz USB-A dongle (there’s no Bluetooth if you were hoping for a controller for casual gaming too). There’s also a 10-foot USB-A-to-USB-C cable, so it can also be used wired. The best part: when connected to a PC, you can access a Tournament mode that reduces input lag by raising the polling rate to 1,000Hz.
Again, $200 is no doubt a lot to spend on a controller, but Razer didn’t skimp on the Wolverine V3 Pro’s features. If you’re looking for a full-featured Xbox or PC controller, this is one of the best you can get right now. Plus, you can get almost all of its features in a wired version for $100, which is tough to beat.
