Still No Hall Effect Sticks

[Preacher JLU]

I would never EVER buy this until they use the hall effect sticks, to pricey to get stick drift with the old analog sticks.

God bless

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Preacher JLU:

I would never EVER buy this until they use the hall effect sticks, to pricey to get stick drift with the old analog sticks.

God bless

The sticks are one of the most replaceable components in the steam deck.

I do not believe it's the weakest part either. All buttons, sticks are consumables.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zb7Bs98KmnY

I would avoid the LCD deck because the L1 and R1 buttons are connected to the daughter board. Valve has been rather crappy at not providing them at reasonable cost.

[Haruspex]

Stick drift was never a concern or even talked about until the Nintendo Switch, and the drifting problems that plague the Switch aren't a problem with other sticks.

However like any other moving part, they are subject to wear and tear over time, and the sticks on the Deck are very easy to replace. Unless you are particularly hard on your controls, you will most likely not have a problem until well after you're ready to upgrade to a newer device anyway.

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Stick drift was never a concern or even talked about until the Nintendo Switch, and the drifting problems that plague the Switch aren't a problem with other sticks.

However like any other moving part, they are subject to wear and tear over time, and the sticks on the Deck are very easy to replace. Unless you are particularly hard on your controls, you will most likely not have a problem until well after you're ready to upgrade to a newer device anyway.

Stick drift isn't uncommon because consoles have pretty long lifespan. Consoles last like 8-10 years. Many gamers play games like everyday, so sooner or later sticks will drift.

For Steam Deck, the lifespan will be like 4-5 years. I believe there will be at most one stick replacement. Steam Deck isn't like the xbox controller where the sticks are soldered to the board.

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Steam+Deck+Left+Thumbstick+Replacement/♥♥♥♥96

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Stick drift isn't uncommon because consoles have pretty long lifespan. Consoles last like 8-10 years. Many gamers play games like everyday, so sooner or later sticks will drift.

Yes, but we used to just call that regular wear-and-tear. Stuff gets old and wears out as you use it, as expected. It wasn't until the Switch that the "stick drift" panic set it and everyone started losing their minds with anxiety that anything with a stick could potentially drift.

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Stick drift isn't uncommon because consoles have pretty long lifespan. Consoles last like 8-10 years. Many gamers play games like everyday, so sooner or later sticks will drift.

Yes, but we used to just call that regular wear-and-tear. Stuff gets old and wears out as you use it, as expected. It wasn't until the Switch that the "stick drift" panic set it and everyone started losing their minds with anxiety that anything with a stick could potentially drift.

You are right. Letting stuff break is an OK engineering compromise as long as it isn't devastating. I believe general public do not understand about it and over build/buy.

[RedBaronK™]

Originally posted by Preacher JLU:

I would never EVER buy this until they use the hall effect sticks, to pricey to get stick drift with the old analog sticks.

God bless

You can swap it out under 30 minutes, I actually did it but had to revert because the actual gulikit sticks were defective... Ironically.

[Mahjik]

Everyone has their own standards.

[Aletheia]

Originally posted by Haruspex:

Originally posted by deaddoof:

Stick drift isn't uncommon because consoles have pretty long lifespan. Consoles last like 8-10 years. Many gamers play games like everyday, so sooner or later sticks will drift.

Yes, but we used to just call that regular wear-and-tear. Stuff gets old and wears out as you use it, as expected. It wasn't until the Switch that the "stick drift" panic set it and everyone started losing their minds with anxiety that anything with a stick could potentially drift.

Well, out of the box when I first got my Deck, I had stick drift on the left joystick. It was new.
But it's pretty simple to replace these anyway so I only got the regular sticks like 1 week before going for the hall effect joysticks.

[Preacher JLU]

I have bought brand new xbox controllers and less than a month had stick drift. I won't buy anything but hall effect controllers going forward, stick drift is NEVER an issue.

God bless

[S01itUde]

Then don't buy it. Not that you shouldn't voice your opinion, but this post is kinda a lame take IMO.

You say "to pricey", but when you actually shop around all the handhelds it quickly becomes apparent that this is an uninformed statement, since the SD is easily the best value. Furthermore it's not like every handheld HAS hall effect sticks; while it is becoming more common it's not standard yet.

Also, just like Haruspex stated, stick drift has never really been a concern until the switch, and was a concern with the switch because the joycons were VERY prone to it despite being relatively expensive (and also kinda a nightmare to fix from my experience).
I've not really seen complaints about drift on the steam deck, and valve has been VERY good with handling returns/repairs (even outside of warranty), so if you do happen to have issues you'll likely be taken care of.

Personally I did replace mine with hall effect sticks, although not because of drift concerns i just wanted less OOB deadzone, and it was incredibly easy so replacing sticks that go bad somewhere down the line is really no concern to me.

ON THE FLIP SIDE: Someone from Valve did state that the primary reason they didn't put hall effect sticks in the OLED edition was because they weren't satisfied with the reliability of what is available on market. Which means, once again, Valve made the right choice.
In the grand scheme of things risking increased issues of controllers going bad because of unreliable parts isn't really an upgrade in the sense of reducing wear and tear on a device that all data/research suggests that users will upgrade/replace within a time-span so short that the wear and tear wouldn't even be a concern. (just ask RedBaronK)

[RedBaronK™]

Originally posted by S01itUde:

Then don't buy it. Not that you shouldn't voice your opinion, but this post is kinda a lame take IMO.

You say "to pricey", but when you actually shop around all the handhelds it quickly becomes apparent that this is an uninformed statement, since the SD is easily the best value. Furthermore it's not like every handheld HAS hall effect sticks; while it is becoming more common it's not standard yet.

Also, just like Haruspex stated, stick drift has never really been a concern until the switch, and was a concern with the switch because the joycons were VERY prone to it despite being relatively expensive (and also kinda a nightmare to fix from my experience).
I've not really seen complaints about drift on the steam deck, and valve has been VERY good with handling returns/repairs (even outside of warranty), so if you do happen to have issues you'll likely be taken care of.

Personally I did replace mine with hall effect sticks, although not because of drift concerns i just wanted less OOB deadzone, and it was incredibly easy so replacing sticks that go bad somewhere down the line is really no concern to me.

ON THE FLIP SIDE: Someone from Valve did state that the primary reason they didn't put hall effect sticks in the OLED edition was because they weren't satisfied with the reliability of what is available on market. Which means, once again, Valve made the right choice.
In the grand scheme of things risking increased issues of controllers going bad because of unreliable parts isn't really an upgrade in the sense of reducing wear and tear on a device that all data/research suggests that users will upgrade/replace within a time-span so short that the wear and tear wouldn't even be a concern. (just ask RedBaronK)

Yep, it pissed me off to no end when I took the time out to take it apart... While risking screwing up the shell with self tapping screws that we have.... Only to find out one of the sticks were bad. I uploaded pics to Amazon, maybe I can find it and post here.

The stick was off centered right out of the box... Physically off centered, so I'm guessing the spring or whatever they use for tension was defective. You'd think they would have inspected for that from the factory.. Nope.

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by Preacher JLU:

I have bought brand new xbox controllers and less than a month had stick drift. I won't buy anything but hall effect controllers going forward, stick drift is NEVER an issue.

God bless

And yet I have a dualshock 2 that has no drift 20 years later (even without center calibration). Regular joysticks are absolutely fine, only if you get a defective device you get problems.

[Preacher JLU]

Originally posted by Škoda 14Tr:

Originally posted by Preacher JLU:

I have bought brand new xbox controllers and less than a month had stick drift. I won't buy anything but hall effect controllers going forward, stick drift is NEVER an issue.

God bless

And yet I have a dualshock 2 that has no drift 20 years later (even without center calibration). Regular joysticks are absolutely fine, only if you get a defective device you get problems.

I have bought several brands and all have had this issue, from cheap to expensive.

[NimrodX]

Call me not a console pro, but you can't just recalibrate this away?

[deaddoof]

Originally posted by NimrodX:

Call me not a console pro, but you can't just recalibrate this away?

All mechanical components have wear and tear. I believe they call sticks and buttons consumables because sooner or later these components will break. They will need to be replaced.

I do not think hall effects sticks for durability are even a great idea anymore for the OLED deck. The sticks holds the trigger buttons. The trigger button will break before the stick anyways. I concur with S01itUde, less deadzone would probably be a good reason to move to hall effects sticks.