It’s been over a year since we first heard about the DualSense’s assumed lifespan of 417 hours and read a report that suggested the cause of stick drift in pads. At the time, reports from iFixit indicated that for most gamers, DualSense would begin to degrade after an average of about seven months. Not ideal, when DualSense is $80 or £60 to buy new, right?
Well, Sony may have fixed this issue. At least in part. A new video from Youtuber TronicsFix shows us the newest pads – in Nova Pink, Galactic Purple, Starlight Blue – and Sony seems to have quietly improved the internals since the first wave of DualSense pads came out (thanks GamesRadar).
According to TronicsFix, the new controller is made with a slightly different spring loaded into the L and R buttons. In older models, the springs were 0.25mm thick, but these newer models are only 0.3mm thick. This suggests they will be more durable and hopefully inject more life into the pads.
The new controller line also features slightly different analog stick modules: According to the video, Sony has swapped out a piece of black plastic in the stick for the same-looking green plastic. That remains to be seen, but TropicsFix says it could – possible
Given the current ongoing class-action lawsuits against Sony and Nintendo around the world over “significant, serious, and hidden flaws” that constitute the controller drift problem, it makes sense that Sony wants to improve the technology with its latest hardware line.
Sadly, battery life hasn’t improved — as our own Alex pointed out before, the pad’s battery life isn’t what you’d expect from a modern kit. Hopefully Sony will also look at battery life in the future.