Both of the new Abxylute controllers have larger, more comfortable grips than the Joy-Cons offer, along with longer-lasting Hall effect joysticks. I tested a working prototype of the N6, and it has almost everything people could be looking for to enhance their gaming experience: full-featured controllers, vibration, motion controls, customizable back paddles, and a turbo mode for spamming commands.
What the N6 is up to is nothing new. CRKD popularized the plug-in form factor with the original Switch. Adds strong grips to your console to make it look and feel more like a Steam Deck. As much as it contributed to ergonomics, it stood out as a solution to the Switch’s Joy-Con drift drama by offering non-deteriorating Hall-effect sticks. The N6 doesn’t mess with that formula much. It has full Hall effect joysticks that are more grippy and have a concave top so your thumb can rest instead of slipping. It has thick grips that run around the back of the console to stretch your fingers, and its triggers are larger and offer more tactile feedback.
The thing is, the N6 doesn’t feel like an upgrade over the Joy-Cons like the Nitro Deck, based on my time with a working prototype. First, the left and right sticks are too low for my medium-sized hands to comfortably reach with fingers fully extended around its grips, making access to the D-pad and any system-level buttons below them particularly tricky. People with larger hands would probably have more trouble.
If you have small hands and/or if you primarily play games that don’t require fast reaction time, you shouldn’t have a problem. The N6 handles quick responses, but I never felt confident enough in my grip to execute twitch commands accurately.
Ergonomics could be improved if Abxylute made the left and right sides of the controller taller and spread out the levers and buttons more. This would make it easier for more people to fully grip the N6 without having to struggle to reach levers or buttons. As it is, I have to hold it in a precarious claw grip in order to play some games. Taller controls would also cover the upper left and upper right edges of the Switch 2, which are inexplicably exposed by the N6’s design.
A few aspects of the N6 remain in development, including how the rumble is (strong, not trying to be HD rumble, but not terrible either), and how the buttons and triggers sound (very distinctive – I’d have trouble using it with my wife when she’s reading at night).
Abxylute proactively shared a list of known issues it’s working on before the final release in April, which I think is a good move from a company hoping to get your pledge:
Abxylute is asking for N6,618 HK$, or about $80, as a special early backer price. He offered a limited allotment at this price and had already sold most of them by the time of publication. Whether it goes up in price after the crowdfunding or not, it’s in the $99.99 CRKD Nitro Deck 2 price range coming this spring and offers many more features. Based on my experience with an early N6 prototype, I’m not convinced it’s worth getting a controller that leaves a large portion of your console exposed and struggles with ergonomics.
Photo by Cameron Faulkner/The Verge