First, let me put a disclaimer. PowerA sent us these controllers for us to test. However, they will not get access to this review before we post it on our blog.
This is the PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Wireless Controller.
This is the PowerA Battle Dragon Wireless Controller. 
The difference is that one of the controllers, the one with the gold finishing, is an advanced controller. Whereas the other one is the “normal” version of the PowerA Battle Dragon. In this review, I will be focusing on the advanced controller.
The PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Wireless Controller can come off as a little flashy. Hey but flashy controllers break up the monotony of gaming, don’t they? At times, gaming consoles are now more about how they look. I’ve known individuals who bought a Spiderman 2-themed Playstation 5 even though they already had a PlayStation 5. The reason? It just looks nice and they had to have it. Could they not just have bought the face plates? Well, they could have but these individuals would rather have the whole set in a box rather than an original PlayStation 5 with the face plates changed.
I went for the easier route. I bought the Spiderman 2 controller…
I also have this very nice Pikachu Nintendo Switch controller holder…
Holding a controller with Spiderman 2 artwork while playing a game just feels like you are using a controller that is just a little more special. I know all the features are the same as a plain vanilla controller. However, it just feels nice to have this controller in my hand.
You know what… this is from PowerA as well. This is my own. Bought it with my own money. The product feels well made. Like the original one that Nintendo makes.
To put things into context, I have never played a game on my PlayStation 5 that consists of more than 2 players. This is because I only play games with my younger daughter. So that makes two of us. Oh, and we also have a PlayStation 4, an Xbox and a Nintendo Switch. So mainly 2 player games on these consoles. Yet I have these controllers lying around at home…
These are not all the controllers I have. There are more… Just could not be bothered to dig out the rest.
To put things into context, I am a gamer at heart. I wish I could have more time to play computer games. I have so many consoles and have used so many controllers.
To put things into context, the PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Wireless Controller is not a pro controller. This is why I am pulling out all my “normal” controllers. Even though it has some pro functions, it still lacks some of the features to make it a truly pro controller. One of which is the ability to swap out the analog stick modules. Hence I deem that tt is not coming up against the PS5 DualSense Edge wireless controller or the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2. Neither is it pitting itself against the Victrix ProCon or Razer Wolverine V2 Pro. It is trying to be in the ballpark of where the Sony DualSense Controller or Xbox Wireless Controller when it comes to gaming on a PC.
In terms of price, it is cheaper than both those controllers. The RRP for an Xbox Wireless Controller is $84.90 and the Sony DualSense controller is in the region of $107 to $114. These prices are on the Microsoft Xbox and Sony websites respectively. I believe you could get them for cheaper on certain online platforms. However, in some cases, there will be no warranty.
The PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Wireless Controller retails for $62.54 on Amazon. The regular PowerA Battle Dragon Wireless Controller going for $47.04.
If you are looking for a reliable and comfortable controller to game on a PC, the PowerA Battle Dragon Wireless Controller at $47 is a great steal. You are getting a controller which feels like an Xbox controller but yet has way more functions for a lot cheaper. However, in this article, I will be focusing on the PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Wireless Controller which is retailing for $15 more than the non-advanced version. So is $62 for the controller a compelling sell?
Let’s set some context.
When you talk about gaming on the PC, you can use just about any console controller. Objectively, you would consider controllers from the PlayStation 5, Xbox (Either from the Series X, Series S or Xbox One), Nintendo Switch or PlayStation 4. In terms of controllers for gaming, the Nintendo Switch controller is never going to top the charts in terms of functionality and ergonomics and hence we do not need to consider pitting it against the PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Wireless Controller. It was never designed to be held as a controller to begin with. More like two independent joypads in either hand. The PlayStation 4 is just very last gen and let’s not have to use it in this comparison as well.
My current favourite controller is the Sony DualSense Controller. I feel it has the best haptics and that is my main consideration. As a casual gamer, I am not looking for that distinguishing edge that a pro controller can provide. Rather, I believe casual games should be looking at comfort, haptics and battery life. I believe that these are the three main factors after the price consideration.
Comfort
The Sony DualSense is not the most comfortable. That title should go to the Xbox controller. There is something about the flared edges that contour to smaller hands that make the Xbox controller comfortable. I do not have large hands and I find that holding the Xbox controller for long places less pressure on my hands as compared to the Sony DualSense.
The PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Controller is more similarly shaped to the Xbox controller than the Sony DualSense. Which is a good thing. In terms of comfort, I played a whole solid two hours of FC24 and it felt extremely comfortable.
No issues here, the PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Controller scores high in terms of comfort.
One thing to note, while at first glance, the PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Controller looks similar to the XBox controller, there are extra buttons on its back while the XBox controller does not.
Haptics
The reason why I always gravitate back to the Sony DualSense is the haptics. There is something very satisfying when receiving comfortable feedback from your controller. The Xbox controllers always have a muted feel. For me, I place a high degree of emphasis on haptics. More so than comfort. Which is why the Sony DualSense is my controller of choice. For context, even though my platform of choice is the PlayStation 5, I spend the majority of my time playing solo games on the PS Remote Play app on a PC or Mac.
In terms of haptics, the PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Controller is comparable to the Xbox controllers but still loses out to the Sony DualSense controllers.
Battery Life
One of the reasons why I have more than two Sony DualSense controllers even though gaming sessions on the PlayStation 5 are maximum a daddy and daughter session is because of the horrible battery life of the Sony DualSense controllers. This is the Achilles heel of the controller. I am getting about 7 hours of gaming on a full charge. This means that there are many instances where I have seen the low battery warning and also many instances where the battery has gone dead in the middle of a game. I remember an instance when my daughter and I were battling a boss level on It Takes Two and my controller went dead. I have no idea why the DualSense batteries are this poor. It is claimed that they have rather large inbuilt rechargeable batteries (I believe they should be 1560 mAh).
The PowerA Battle Dragon Advanced Controller claims to get up to 30 hours of playtime. If they even come close to this claim, it would be a huge upgrade from the DualSense controllers.
What other bells and whistles are there?
- Mappable buttons
You have the ability to map certain combos on the back of the controller. You have no idea how useful this is.
- Hall effect sensors on the analog sticks
Hall effects are a technology that uses magnets and electrical conductors to measure movements on the analog stick. Not only do they provide a more accurate movement when playing games, due to the lesser contact points, this also minimises wear. It is highly unlikely that analog sticks with hall effect sensors will have that drift effect. The drift effect is when an analog stick drifts without any input. It can be detrimental when playing a game and you are trying to remain still and do not want to have any input on the analog stick.
My PS4 controller is now suffering from this drift effect. If I leave it without any input, my character will drift to the right.
This is my faulty, drifting controller. That left analog stick is the drifting stick. It started drifting after two years of use.
- Adjustable height analog sticks
This provides a certain level of customisation to the controller. I think all controllers should come with this function. It allows you to alter the ergonomics of the controller. You can customise the height of the analog sticks to suit the length of your thumbs or to match where the controller rests on your palms. In certain games, a longer analog stick may come in handy and vice versa. Consider instances of you playing a driving simulation game and a first-person shooter. The height of the analog stick should vary. - Mechanical switches
This is a very different feel. You get that very satisfying click. The responsive feedback you get is also important in certain games. You intuitively know when you are reaching the end of the button press and when the end of the button has been reached because you feel that mechanical click. While this may seem trivial, I do think that this is perhaps the most impressive feature of the Power A Battle Dragon Advanced Controller. - Turbo Buttons and 3-way Trigger Locks
For those gamers who are a step more serious than the typical casual gamer, these functions will come in handy. Trigger locks especially on certain games. This reduces the travel distance required for an axis to register an input. Typically it’s full, half and instant. For example, if the setting were set to half, you only need half the travel distance to register the input. This is a pro controller function. It is masquerading as a function in this so-called non-pro Power A Battle Dragon Advanced Controller. - App support
Yes, there is an app just specifically for the PowerA Battle Dragon Apps. You can customise and calibrate the controllers on this app. A slight suggestion would be to have all controllers housed under one single app. This allows users of multiple PowerA products to house all their products under one app. This is way more convenient and would aid in the longer-term adoption of their products as people become familiar with a certain app.
While PowerA sent us these two controllers to test, I would seriously consider the Battle Dragon Advanced Wireless Controller if I were in the market for a PC-specific gaming controller. For the price, the functions it offers are impressive. It costs 3/4 of the price of an Xbox controller with a host of additional functions and buttons. It feels like you are getting a pro-level controller for less than the price of the typical Xbox controller.
Watch my unboxing video here:
Yours sincerely,
Daryl
p.s. One thing that PowerA highlighted to us was that for connecting the controller to the PC, they recommend using the USB-C wire provided or using the 2.4 GHz wireless protocol. For all Android devices, the connection should be made using Bluetooth. I am not sure why there is this necessity.
p.p.s. You can find PowerA on Instagram at @powera_singapore. You can
