More than two years since the PS5’s release, Sony’s new DualSense Edge controller offers a premium upgrade to the gamepad bundled with the console — and is a competitor to Microsoft’s Xbox Elite controller. It’s a game-focused professional gamepad with rear paddles, fully remappable buttons, adjustable triggers, and replaceable parts. The Edge cost a whopping £210/$200 at launch – so is it worth the premium? How does it compare to third-party alternatives—not to mention the Xbox Elite controller? Let’s find out.
First, let’s give the original DualSense its due. The £60/$70 controller has taken off, and the bundled Astro Playroom game beautifully showcased its capabilities at launch – from adaptive triggers and haptic feedback to speakers, gyroscopes and accelerometers. Other games like Return and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart also take full advantage of the hardware’s capabilities, but also have more basic implementations – like in Call of Duty, trigger resistance is more of a block to action than immersive revolution.
Despite its success with its more advanced features, the DualSense is an ergonomic controller better than its predecessor – and that goes for the DualSense Edge as well.
Of course, for a controller priced at £210, $200 or $240, we wouldn’t expect any lower – around 3.5 times the price of the regular DualSense, so the Edge really has to deliver. Before we get into the highs and lows, let’s take a look at what’s in the box.
The Edge comes in a tough white case that matches the PS5 perfectly, with a long braided USB-C cable and plenty of spare paddles and sticks. You can charge the controller in the box thanks to a hatch on the back, and there’s an extra plastic connector that lets you physically lock the USB cable into the controller — just for peace of mind, I guess.
As for the edge controller itself? Well, Sony isn’t going to change what’s already worked. In terms of size, the feel and feel are pretty much the same as the regular DualSense. Grips, button positions, joystick positions are exactly the same, accurate to the millimeter. There are some minor tweaks elsewhere though – that’s an increase of 335 grams compared to the regular DualSense’s 280 grams. The bottom half of the controller has a glossy black plastic, and the trackpad and buttons are also black. besides? Well, this is where we start to see the first new features. The main advantages and their corresponding disadvantages.
So the number one advantage is its swappable analog sticks. I’m not talking about the stick tops either — though you do have three pairs to choose from, each with a different style. Instead, the entire stick module can be ejected by pulling a release slider on the back, opening the front of the controller and allowing the entire mechanism to be replaced. It is now possible to fix a drifting stick or a completely broken thumbstick without having to box the entire controller, although this is a complicated process. In this sense, DualSense Edge offers a unique solution. Maybe we’ll even see a third-party replacement stick for this thing – a Hall effect joystick, for example, which is more durable and thus has less dead zone, which would be incredible.
This modular approach makes sense. However, don’t expect to get replacement stick modules for free – you’ll have to pay £20/$20 each, or double for a pair on Sony’s website. And if you’re replacing both sticks, you can basically buy a whole new regular DualSense. So if you’re buying it mainly to enjoy the swappable sticks, or to avoid stick drift, remember to pay extra.
A second benefit of the Edge is that you can adjust the trigger for competitive shooters. Two sliders on the back of the controller allow you to set the physical stop point of the trigger press, changing from a full-distance travel suitable for racing games to a hairy trigger arrangement more suitable for shooting guns in FPS games. In my experience, though, it’s not as tight as you might think—third-party alternatives like the Hex Gaming Rival Pro have just 2mm of trigger travel, beating the Edge in terms of instant response. However, the Rival Pro controller is only suitable for FPS games, while the Edge offers the flexibility to play all PS5 games.
The third is perhaps the most transformative upgrade: the rear paddles. Just like the Xbox Elite controller, the DualSense Edge features magnetically attached metal back buttons for easy replacement. There are two styles in the box, the long and the short, and they fall perfectly on those spare ring fingers in terms of positioning. Crucially, they bring all the benefits you’d expect from two extra inputs; for Elden Ring and other Souls-like games, this means no more awkward claw hand positioning to press the round button to run while flicking the analog stick for camera control. With DualSense Edge, you simply assign the circular “Run” button function to the rear right paddle. Put item use on the left paddle, rather than square, and get the job done – your right thumb now rarely needs to leave the stick in combat, giving you full control.
The ability to remap the paddle buttons is handy, but Sony goes one step further. Integrated into the front of the PS5 is a full menu exclusively for DualSense Edge users. Here, we can remap anything: whether it’s face buttons, D-pad or touchpad input. It’s possible to completely redesign the layout of any game — just like the Xbox’s controller menu. We also had full control over stick calibration via a nifty menu, with different speed curves for each stick and even adjustable trigger deadbands. I have to say, having it all integrated into the PS5 menu gives the DualSense Edge a huge advantage over third-party options — plus, they’re all fully remappable. Just by pressing the FN button on the front of Edge, you can switch between three profiles and the default settings. Oddly, there are two FN buttons, left and right, to access this extra menu, while one might have already done this trick, so maybe there’s an opportunity here to add more profiles based on which FN button you press.
For all its huge customization benefits, the DualSense Edge has one glaring downside: You’re limited to two backplates, compared to four on third-party products like the Xbox Elite controller or even the Scuf Relex Pro. Especially in FPS games like CoD, the four rear paddles allow you to remap all of the face buttons so your right thumb never needs to leave the joystick. Unfortunately, with Edge, you have to choose between the two most-used moves–so I went with jumping and reloading in Modern Warfare 2. For all the goodness in Elden Ring, it’s clear that four buttons would be better here, perhaps putting the extra two on task for switching items. Likewise, the rear paddles feel like the most transformative advantage of the DualSense Edge given the support of the PS5 OS, but having only two is a bit of a letdown.
Finally, a note on battery life. The regular DualSense is rated for around 12-15 hours of battery life, although in my experience it often feels shorter. However, Sony admits that the DualSense Edge has shorter battery life. An online teardown (embedded below) also confirms why this is the case. Internally, the Edge appears to pack a 1050mAh battery, compared to the original DualSense’s 1560mAh. It’s frustrating – the Edge model is incredibly flexible, but it’s a shame it doesn’t address a major criticism of the standard controller.
Overall, the DualSense Edge has features unmatched in the realm of PS5 controllers. The first is official OS-level support, allowing for full button remapping and fine-grained control of every stick and input. Second, both of the analog stick modules on the Edge can be swapped out for a new official unit — albeit at an additional cost. Also huge pluses are the customizable picks, analog top, adjustable trigger travel and lovely hard case. This is a great package. At £210/$200, it’s a significant upgrade for audiophiles.
That said? It’s also hard to ignore the shortcomings. Microsoft’s equivalent Elite controller is now much less expensive, starting at £140, and while the Elite doesn’t have a replaceable stick module, it matches nearly every other point of the Edge, while also adding four rear Picks. There’s no question that Sony’s Edge effort is strong, but Microsoft has fine-tuned and refined its own premium tablet years in advance, making it hard to beat.
As a way of tying this review together, I actually asked Will Judd at Digital Foundry if he could send a similar “competing” option to Edge – luckily he’s been testing the best controls for a while now processors, including three Edge alternatives.
First up is the Scuf Reflex Pro, which costs £220 for the PS5 model. (In this case, we have the Xbox ‘Instinct’ model, though the PS5 version works in a similar fashion.) In terms of features, you get rubber grips and four back buttons with custom profiles to remap the buttons . At £250, there’s also the more expensive Reflex FPS model, which removes adaptive trigger support and replaces both triggers with ‘instant’ shorter keystroke inputs. Sadly, for the PS5 model, there doesn’t appear to be a way to adjust the trigger style with a physical switch like on its Xbox counterpart. It’s one or the other, depending on your order. This high-end model is great for shooters, but for full compatibility, the Scuf Pro is more flexible. The controllers feel great in the hand, and you can also choose your own custom design – for a higher price.
Next up is the Megamodz product (golden design in the picture). This “eye-catching” controller costs about $170, but you can customize the controller to your liking. The Megamodz really lives up to its name; at its core, it’s an official DualSense controller with just every possible modification – customizable shoulder key travel, two rear paddles, mechanical face buttons, rapid-fire mods, and other cheat-level options. There’s also a wide range of color and theme options, and a fully equipped controller can cost over $300. It’s probably still very expensive then – and it’s hard to match the DualSense Edge features on price. But for a personalized touch, Megamodz are an interesting descent.
Finally, the Glory 420 from Hexgaming Rival Pro (also pictured above). Thankfully, there are other designs available, and you can get similar features to the Edge for a similar price ($200). You get multiple replaceable thumbstick tops and four back buttons in the package, all of which are remapable via the controller itself. The trigger travel distance on this Rival Pro is shorter at 2mm compared to the standard DualSense’s 7mm. The travel is fixed, though, so it can’t be adjusted between games like you can with an official premium controller.
Looking at the third-party competition, the DualSense Edge does match its price in terms of features. Most alternatives do have a unique advantage — like shorter travel, more back buttons — but cost accordingly. It seems like making adjustable triggers a bargain would also be a big ask for a third-party solution for the PS5.
So I think the DualSense Edge is in a pretty good place. The original DualSense is certainly a better value proposition and good enough for most people, but if you do spend a lot of time gaming on the PS5 — especially in competitive games — then the Edge does Offers some key advantages at an additional cost, while offering flexibility, repairability, and OS-level integration that third-party alternatives can’t match.
