This $49.99 wired Xbox controller has sticks that won’t drift

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By Antonio G. Di Benedetto, a writer covering tech deals and The Verge’s Deals newsletter, buying guides, and gift guides. Previously, he spent 15 years in the photography industry.

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Stick drift can plague any controller still using wear-and-tear-prone potentiometers, and unfortunately for us, that includes all current first-party gamepads from Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft. However, after years of notoriously drift-prone Joy-Cons, third-party accessory makers like 8BitDo and GuliKit have been slowly stepping up to offer alternatives that utilize drift-free Hall effect sensors. The latest is the GameSir G7 SE, the first licensed Xbox controller with Hall effect sticks.

GameSir’s G7 SE is a new model based on the G7 it released earlier this year, which is a solid gamepad I gave a small nod in our Xbox controller buying guide. Like the standard G7, the SE is a wired-only controller for Xbox Series X / S and PC with a USB-C port for its connection, two programmable rear buttons, and a magnetically removable and paintable faceplate for personalization. What the G7 SE adds to the equation are Hall effect sensors in its sticks and triggers as well as lockout switches for the rear buttons to prevent accidental activation. The revised anti-drift version of the G7 SE runs $49.99 (currently already on sale for $44.99 at Amazon) — just $5 more than the standard G7 when it’s not discounted.

The G7 SE has a white body and only comes with a white faceplate, as opposed to the standard G7’s black chassis that includes both white and black faceplates, but if you plan to paint it, the white plate is probably the one you want anyway. (You can