I currently use Gulikit KK3 Max and it's superb, anything for these hall effect sticks. But now I would probably wait when Vader 4 Pro is released worldwide, it's got hall effect and adjustable tension for sticks.

What is this hall effect? A quick search says that it improves dead zones and whatnot.

Leaving this for anyone looking for a price:perf ratio king of 2024 (and likely beyond) among wired gamepads aka the updated "8BitDo Ultimate 2C Wired Controller". 1kHz polling rate, hall effect sticks & triggers, better dpad, extra bumper buttons instead of the Pro paddles at the back. For 20bucks msrp, it just can't be beat. Just the colours are all 60's art-deco pastel style.

Basically, instead of a physical sensing mechanism that wears out, it uses magnets.
(Yes, really.)

Yeah, the value is fantastic on those, I bought 3 wired Ultimate C (1st version) and they are quite decent. Although a bit of strange behaviour has come up with prolonged use:

1st- and most weird behaviour: it doesn't connect to all USB ports for some reason, some PC's can connect to half the ports, in others is not recognised in any port at all. It's funny that all the computers that had issues were HP, two desktops and two laptops. The gamepad connect just fine to any USB port if a USB hub is used though...
At first I thought the kids desktops were the problem since they install all and any crap they find but no, fresh Windows 10 install, Linux live and installed systems, none work on some ports without the said USB hub.

2nd- This is kinda difficult to replicate but the controller sometimes keep pushing to the right side, like stick drift but is clearly software related, this also happens in the Ultimate non-C version but to a less extent. None of the 4 gamepads (3 C and 1 non-C) have potentiometer stick drift or any physical anomalous function.

The weird behaviour persists even after updating the firmware to the newer version were suposedly some fixes:
"1. Fixed the issue of certain AMD devices not being able to use."
"2. Fixed the issue of Windows computer unable to load drivers."
"1. Optimized the dead zone range of the joystick center."

The weird connection problem has nothing to do with AMD as it happens on Intel as well and the "software drift bug" has nothing to do with actual pot drift.

Does any of this happens in your controller?

Also worth noting for any potential buyer that the Linux support is hit and miss, it needs a kernel 6+ version (can't remember the exact version) because of the different driver. I've never felt any "stick drift" in Batocera Linux either.

The down button on my backbone stopped working, so I've decided to get a different controller for my android phone. This time, it's the 8BitDo Ultimate Mobile Gaming Controller.

It's bluetooth rather than USB-C, which has its pros (easier to attach and detach) and cons (extra battery to deal with, slightly more input lag). On the other hand, at $50 it's only about half as much as I paid for the backbone.

Have not received it yet, so I can't tell you how good (or bad) it is.

Thanks for sharing your experience. Unfortunately I can't really comment on how it behaves, as my own Ultimate 2C is still backordered (supposed to arrive in late January unfortunately through amazon). I just had a chance to try and closely examine it out last weekend at friend's place - he bought a pair of them for kids. They seem to like the funky colours too. I've decided to order one right there on the spot, since I'm abroad and traveled there without my collections of gamepads ^^ Then I remembered this thread, so I had to write the first impression, esp. for the price. I've made a switch to hall sensors on my flight sticks and flight peripherals ~12 years ago, even diy modding some and never looked back at pots since then.

Back home I only have from 8bitdo the pro2 and the digital-only neogeo with a clicky dpad. I had no issues with either so far, though i did update the dongle on neogeo pad, however it was through windows machine... no idea how the process goes on linux. But the usage was fine on the current arch linux (kernel 6+) as far as my experience goes.

About the issue #1, I had something similar with prebuilt office computers of our customers, where I couldn't hook up the rfid card reader because some ports were "green energy saving usb" ones (not marked on the I/O shield as such at all) and they were limited in power delivery. Similarly a 500Hz / 1kHz mouse didn't work on it, because the port failed to auto-negotiate the correct polling rate. I suspect that the external usb hub runs at 250Hz and that gets divided between devices connected to it - potentially improving the compatibility and connection at the cost of responsiveness of the pad.

ive been using the latter one for about 3 months now and im loving it

It was primarily a keyboard switch used experimentally back in the day, and I assume patents have expired.

I've had my Logitech F310 USB controller for years, and its worked on pretty much everything so far. When I downloaded the first three Mortal Kombat games 2 days ago, I had some initial problems, but then I was shown how to use the keyboard mapper. Using DosBox turns out to be a whole different ballgame than I expected.

If an arcade joystick gamepad is a gamepad, can surely recom BSP-Y01. It works everywhere, every game where the xbox gamepad works. It's also wireless and working with mobile. Got two, testing two months. Happy bee.
https://thearcadestick.com/bsp-y01