Welcome to my review of the Nacon Pro Compact officially licensed Xbox wired controller. Not only is this designed for Xbox (Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One) it also works on Windows 10 and Windows 11-based PCs.
I have primarily used this controller on my Windows 11 PC but have also used it with my Xbox Series X.
Small yet Mighty!
The controller offers standard controls and these can be personalised through a free app that is available on the Microsoft Store.
At the time of writing, this controller costs £30. For my review, I was kindly sent the blue “Pastel Edition” colourway.
The Hardware
I mentioned at the start that this is a wired controller. This is where things will start to sound weird, but usually, I hate cables and things like wired controllers. However, the Nacon Pro Compact is a bloody nice controller and feels great to use.
We don’t get much in the box, the controller with its three-metre braided cable and a small leaflet. To add to that, at the USB end of the cable it has one of those safety attachments. You know the type, like on the Xbox 360 controllers where if you yanked or threw the controller it would disconnect just after the USB connection instead of pulling it straight out of the console. Great idea.
I only really have one negative about this controller, and I want to get this out before the other stuff. I feel that the locations of the View and Menu buttons are a bit too close to the left thumbstick and Y button. Particularly the View button as it felt way too close to the left thumbstick. I felt like I had to kind of reach over the thumbstick to be able to press the View button. Anyway, that’s the only negative in my opinion.
The rest of the layout feels good, even though the controller is smaller than a standard Xbox. I genuinely think that this controller would work well for the younger Xbox / PC gaming audience. However, that’s not to say adults won’t enjoy it, because I did.
Of course, we have the standard Xbox buttons here, including the Nexus (Xbox Button) and Share buttons. One thing I will point out that is a huge positive for this controller is the D-PAD. It is silent. That’s one of the things I hate about the official Xbox “Series” controller is how loud the D-PAD buttons can click. It’s horrible, but not here on the Nacon Pro Compact. In fact, all of the buttons are pretty quiet and all are very responsive.
The controller also has a 3.5mm headphone jack which unfortunately I could not test as I do not have any wired headphones. However, my PC did seem to pick up the audio as an option to play audio through.
The vibration motors in the controller gave out a nice feel when playing games, helping to immerse one into the game at hand.
Conclusions
The Nacon Pro Compact is a very nice controller to use. As mentioned above I am not usually a wired controller fan, but this one feels great.
The software also seems to work well, but I didn’t use it much as the controller seemed to be fine straight out of the box. If you wish to learn more, please visit the official website. You can also check out our previous reviews.
I score the Nacon Pro Compact a 9/10.
A sample was kindly provided for us to review this product.