GameSir Tarantula Pro, NYXI Master P1 and BEITONG Asura 2Pro+ NearLink head-to-head

Doing things a little differently this time round as I have three controllers to cover and a whole range of features and specs to compare, so a head-to-head seemed the best way to capture what each one has to offer and whether there is a lemon in the bunch.

I most recently reviewed the PB Tail Crush Defender, the world's first TMR stick controller to hit the market. TMR sticks continue the same magnetic sensor tech that hall effect sensors use but go several steps further with higher resolution, lower latency and lower power consumption.

PB Tails has been very receptive to review and customer feedback: we have seen several updates to the Defender in recent times, the latest enabling a 1000Hz polling rate over the 2.4GHz dongle, which I can confirm works well. I say this because at least one of the controllers in this head-to-head supports 2000Hz polling over wireless. It seems various brands are jumping on the high polling rate wagon, which is great to see; many are now coming out of the box with 1000Hz wired and wireless.

The three controllers are:

GameSir Tarantula Pro:

NYXI Master P1:

BEITONG Asura 2Pro+ NearLink:

In this feature, I will examine whether the respective polling rate numbers alone can help improve the gaming experience or if they are just improving benchmark measurements. Some of my findings were surprising. The BEITONG is the first controller I have used with a 2000Hz polling rate, for example, and whilst I appreciate that all three are priced and specced differently, they all market themselves as high-tier game controllers. If their model names were not enough to give that away anyway with the use of Pro and Master, etc.

So then, price is not the only factor in a buying decision here. Features, performance, and feel in the hands all matter, too. However, it does help that whilst all three of these controllers offer different features that may appeal to different people, they are not a world apart in price, so someone looking specifically for a controller that doubles up to Nintendo and PC gaming combined may prefer the Tarantula Pro at £60 vs. the NYXI P1 at £50 which does not offer the convenience features that GameSir offers.

One lucky Neowin reader also stands a chance to win a GameSir Tarantula Pro. Instructions on how to enter are at the end of the review. Whilst GameSir has kindly offered up shipping to the lucky winner, all my findings in this review have been presented without pre-screening by any controller manufacturer. I tell it like I find it!

Specifications

Materials & Feel

All three controllers are entirely plastic with a subtle texture finish to them. The underside of the grips has a more coarse texturing, with the NYXI P1 being the only one that has rubberised grip faces, which actually feels rather nice.

The BEITONG Asura has a pearl white colourway that glistens as any light bounces off the surface. I really like this theme and beats the usually boring plain black we see all too often, kudos for doing something different there.

I also like the clear ABXY face buttons, these are not removable, but they do look and feel nice enough, although compared to the other two, and all other controllers I have used, the button spacing is rather wide which can feel odd at times.

Nevertheless, these are very short-throw mechanical switches that are very easy to spam, almost too easy. In fact, as I realised, I was actuating them just by gently resting a finger on top, sometimes in the heat of the moment during gameplay.

My personal preference is am medium throw button with a solid tactile feedback, membrane or mechanical doesn't matter too much, it's the feedback that is important.

This is where the NYXI does a better job. The sound isn't as nice as on the BEITONG due to being membrane face buttons, but the positive is that they are medium-throw and offer nice tactile feedback. Button spacing on the P1 is semi-wide, somewhere in between the GameSir and the BEITONG.

The Tarantula Pro is the most premium in design, features and feel. Imagine a PlayStation 4 Dual-Shock controller but re-imagined for the modern gamer. This is it. The ABXY face buttons are membrane but custom tactile with a medium throw. A more satisfying level of tactility than most other controllers I have used in the last 18 months.

I would liken the actuation force needed to press them to slightly higher than the PB Tails Crush Defender, another controller with what I think are excellent feeling ABXY buttons.

Apart from the ABXY buttons, all the other face buttons on the Tarantula Pro are microswitch/mechanical, with the shoulder buttons being membrane tactile, with physical lockouts on the triggers for hair-trigger mode, which actuates Kailh micro-switches, just like on the D-pad, which is nicely oversized.

A nice touch on the Asura is that on the underside is a little cubby tray where the USB dongle can be stowed away when traveling with the controller or when it is not in use. This is the first time I have seen such a convenient feature on a controller, though it is basic and requires longer nails to pinch the dongle to eject it.

Each controller features remappable back buttons, though only the Tarantula Pro offers fully featured customisation through the use of the GameSir Connect software on the Microsoft Store or Google Play Store.

The joysticks between all three have a different feel, which may appeal to different types of gamers. My own preference much prefers the higher quality and grippy feel of the Tarantula Pro's stick caps. They feel just like those found on first-party controllers from Sony and others, meanwhile, the P1 and Asura sticks have a lower-quality silicone/rubber material that I found felt too slippery

In fact, the additional cost of the Tarantula Pro is more justified by the inclusion of some unique features, and I don't mean the TMR sticks or the symmetrical stick layout. I am on about the included stand if opting for that version:

It's not just the stand, though, the software side of things is superior to most other controllers, more on that shortly.

The comfort and feel of the Tarantula sit firmly alongside the metal PB Tails Defender for me. It feels like what it costs; though it doesn't have the metal weight and heft of the Defender, it does have the rigidity, and the HD Rumble haptic motors trump every other controller mentioned here today, as well as essentially all controllers I have handled to date that don't have an official PlayStation Dual Sense name in the title.

Software features

The Connect software allows full control over essentially every button on the Tarantula Pro. However, it only offers one profile to use for this controller, whereas the newer Cyclone 2 controller has up to four profiles available. Slightly annoying!

You can even remap the buttons to keyboard commands and shortcuts, and these are stored on-board

NYXI do not have any software, everything is barebones and has to be done via button press combos. Meanwhile, BEITONG does have a similar piece of software to GameSir called the BEITONG Gamepad Assistant, though to my surprise and wary mind, it's just a zip file download with a 500MB package inside, and as I do with anything I download from an unknown URL, a VirusTotal scan resulted in the following:

This did not inspire me with confidence. I double-checked the source website that linked to the zip file, and it was indeed from BEITONG, and they do state this in the user manual:

Again, not really confidence-inspiring. I emailed BEITONG about this and asked why the software was not on either app store. The only answer I got was that the software was safe and that I should not worry about it.

Needless to say, I did not run the software, so I have not been able to fully test all features of the Asura as a result of this. It could well be a set of false positives, but 7 flags, with one of them being Google, does make my eyebrows rise.

The downside to this, too, is that the Asura's 2.4GHz Nearlink connection offering 2000Hz polling rates cannot be used without the software to toggle it on. By default, it is set to 1000Hz over wireless, whilst 2000Hz worked OK when wired, which averaged 1400Hz in my testing.

With no reasonable answer given to me by BEITONG as to why the software is not available on a recognised storefront or why the zip package flags up these hits, I only tested the out-of-the-box performance of the controller. None of the customisable features are possible without the software, so none of these were tested due to this issue.

This may be acceptable to some, but I regard security and software integrity quite highly, it is important that such things are easily accessible from a source that is recognised and has its own internal security policy being enforced on app developers.

Only one controller here has a true ace up its sleeve. The Tarantula Pro has a motorised gear system that converts the ABXY buttons to the Nintendo layout. Not only is it visibly cool looking in action, but it has a cool sound to it as well, take a look:

The physical shift to Nintendo layout also adapts the mapping of the buttons accordingly, so there's no need to remap buttons in your game or Steam or emulator/Switch. Questions have been raised as to the longevity of this mechanism, anything with moving parts is sure to eventually fail, this of course remains to be seen and only time will tell. All I can say is I did have to open one of my Tarantula Pros for another purpose and had a brief look at the mechanism. Nothing stood out as flimsy, so I have every confidence it will last many years, probably even beyond the typical recharge cycle life of the battery anyway.

Though credit where due for the price, the NYXI Master P1 offers decent value for what you get, even if the feature extensions are cut down, such as only 500Hz polling in wired mode, slower in wireless, no software to customise things, reduced customisation on-board and cheaper feeling materials around the joysticks and membrane tactility.

D-pad variances

This is one area that divides people in the gaming community. I have seen plenty of people hate the oversized mechanical D-pad on the Tarantula Pro as they find it unusable for certain games, yet I have no issues with the same games. Everyone has a different preference, and not everyone has the same hand or finger size. Hell, not everyone holds a controller the same way! So how a button layout, the size of the d-pad feel, and the feedback the tactility provides are hugely important.

With that in mind, and with my experience now using countless controllers with various sizes of the d-pad, from a mechanical switch to a membrane, my current favorite is the Tarantula Pro, thanks to how the cross is sized and how the micro switches are fenced off.

What I mean by that is that when you press down on one cross direction and wiggle that direction, you do not actuate by accident another cross direction, leading to activation of a diagonal when you don't want to. This often leads to a forward or backward jump in fighting games, for example. when holding just left or right.

As an example, to demonstrate the issue, the Asura does not have a decently fenced-off d-pad, so the problem is clearly seen above where I am holding the left button and wiggling it, which then activates up and down. The Master P1 fares better here, although it is still not completely fenced.

The button sounds are important to many gamers, too, sometimes just as important as the feel and feedback. Take a listen to each controller:

Performance

Gone are the days where there was a noticeable difference in stick performance during actual gameplay, now hall effect and the recent release TMR stick controllers are so good, most sporting at least 1000Hz polling rates, that you'd have to have used several controllers to tell subtle differences apart.

That's not to say that there are no real differences between these three controllers because there are plenty, but what matters most is the stick filtering or processing. A lot of controller makers still apply filtering to stick movement, which then results in a latency delay that can be observed in fast gaming situations and can also be captured with a phone camera in slow-motion mode.

I have shown this before with other controllers, and it is an easy way to see where the subtle differences are and how much filtering a particular controller is applying. In all my testing, only TMR stick controllers seem to have the lowest amount of filtering, which results in a more natural response in the form of feedback to gradual and twitch movements on the sticks.

The following response latency tests were done using a 240fps camera capturing a 240Hz OLED display, which has a 0.0xms pixel response time. These slow-motion captures are useful for visualizing what the most sensitive of gamers may be able to notice.

UIsing the Tarantula Pro as the reference point, here are the results:

Now let's look at how the BEITONG performs:

Notice the latency during snap-back? how about the Master P1:

The Tarantula Pro and Asura both pull at high polling rates in these tests, whilst the Master P1 hits up to 500Hz but mostly averages 188Hz. With TMR sticks, the polling rate doesn't seem to make a huge difference to this test, whereas it does on Hall Effect sticks. Before the update, the PB Tails Defender at 125Hz had a similar response to the above test as it now does in 1000Hz mode, the same as the Tarantula Pro. What I mean by this is that the TMR sticks at a lower polling rate respond as good as, if not better than, Hall Effect sticks at higher polling rates.

Can this difference be noticed in regular games? The short answer is no, for the casual gamers playing games that aren't Call of Duty or similar, all these controllers will feel quick, but the most natural feeling, as if it's an extension of the thumbs is definitely one with TMR sticks.

Having said that, some new stick technology will very soon be announced and released, with even higher bit-depth resolution, lower power consumption, and reduced magnetic interference potential. Stay tuned for details on this in an upcoming review :)

Stick circularity

Another area of importance is whether you can enable raw mode for the sticks and defeat the fake circle filtering. Usually, this can be done with a simple button combo or by using the controller's software/app.

What this does is make use of the full sensor square to extend the operating range in each corner, which is useful for many games and preferred by many gamers. It's like enabling mouse raw input in a game's settings in a way.

First up, the Tarantula Pro:

Here we see some inner deadzone by default as each axis rests at the same value, this is fine as the deadzone can be customised in the software, not that it's needed since it's so precise anyway. An average error rate in the raw mode of 9% is perfect and what I'd expect to see from a well-calibrated stick at the factory in this mode.

Next, the Asura:

I can't enable raw mode as the software is needed for that, so by default, the BEITONG uses filtered circles, as shown by the 0.1% error rate. This is fairly common across the board. It's rare to find a controller that has raw mode out of the box, but not being able to toggle it with a button combo and being forced to use the software is annoying.

Finally, the Master P1:

Heavy filtering here on this controller, and no way to turn it off since there is no software, and NYXI does not have button combos either. A shame.

I continued testing with various games across platforms and found that the d-pad on the Asura genuinely felt the worst. The size of the pad is too small to feel good, and the finishing material is rather cheap, the type of plastic that rubs away, leaving the primer underneath after some time, or at least it feels that way anyway.

The D-pad on the Master P1 isn't much different in size, but it feels considerably nicer to use thanks to its better shape and concave recess, with the Tarantula Pro, of course, feeling the nicest out of all of them.

Conclusion

All three controllers have their own set of USPs, although to the detriment of BEITONG's reliance on the software suite to change anything functional on the controller. Many of the customisations should also be available as button combos, but they are not. The Asura should also be 2000Hz out of the box, but again, you need the software to enable it.

The Tarantula Pro comes in with a controller that feels familiar in the hands (PS4 gamers will know what's up), whilst adding a whole bunch of customisations that are easy to tailor to your individual needs. It's a shame that you can only have one profile, as having a set of button mappings for PC, another for Switch, and so on would have been useful.

That's really the only negative aspect of the controller. The price is justified by the suite of features and the high-end performance on the table.

Meanwhile, the NYXI Master P1 makes a commendable effort, although only being a bit cheaper means it falls short by lacking any real customisation. The trigger lockouts to enable hair trigger mode also feel much less robust than that on the Tarantula Pro, whilst the BEITONG has no lockout at all.

GameSir's new Cyclone 2 may be an alternative option, too, my review of that is coming soon so stay tuned. The Cyclone 2 has the same TMR sticks and tactility as the Tarantula Pro but is much closer to the Master P1's price.

As for this trio, my recommendation goes to the Tarantula Pro. It's a jack of all trades, and that mechanised ABXY switching system is ingenious. The stand version is more expensive but offers the convenience of never having to plug it in.

I can't really recommend the BEITONG due to all the issues mentioned, but once they get the software situation sorted out, then this can be re-visited. I can see the potential with BEITONG, absolutely, but with so much being restricted by a software decision means it doesn't quite cut it for me, especially when the competition has better offerings with one of those issues.

My ultimate recommendation would have to be the Tarantula Pro out of these three. Yes it's a little more expensive with the stand, but you get so much more controller for the money and the fully remappable buttons have been hugely convenient given they are stored onboard and don't need the software to be running to work.

For those of you looking for alternative controllers with TMR sticks, the PB Tails Crush China White edition is competitively priced and offers all the performance and internal features of the Defender limited edition, as well as GameSir's own Cyclone 2 which I will have a review of very soon.

As for the free giveaway, all you must do to enter is leave a comment below, and the winner will be chosen at random. GameSir will then ship a Tarantula Pro directly to you. The winner will be announced as an update to this review a week after publication.