Pro gamer. Top e-sports athlete. Although he is a well-known figure in the competitive shooting world, I am not one of them. But is it because of the controller I chose? Could it be a step up from the standard Xbox pad you use on both PC and console and could literally improve your gaming?
Thrustmaster HEART (which stands for “Hall Effect AccuRate Technology”, which is a rather tricky acronym, we’ll explain what that means in a moment) is designed to give you greater precision and responsiveness without breaking the bank. We promise to improve your performance within. Essentially, it aims to be an entry-level pro controller.
It may sound contradictory, but it kind of makes sense when the HEART is in your hands. It’s a pad with a familiar (almost) premium feel, with the same layout as the Xbox (which has pretty much become the default for most games these days), plus two programmable paddle buttons on the back. . The gentle texture on the grip and trigger keeps your fingers from slipping, the thumbstick has plenty of resistance, and the extra paddle fits comfortably under the middle fingers of both hands. The asymmetrical black and white design is also striking, enhanced by a single LED strip that separates the sides when in use.
Photo: Thrust Master
The only thing detracting from this premium feel is the ugly, floppy D-pad and the Xbox function buttons (View, Menu, Share), which are too small. The D-pad is terrible and seems at odds with HEART’s sophisticated design approach. The rounded tip means you don’t feel any real directional boundaries, and there’s no texturing on the surface, so your thumb glides over it aimlessly. On the other hand, the function buttons are small and shallow, so they have no presence.
Still, much of the design is impressive, and Thrustmaster has built the design around upgraded parts compared to the standard controller. While it doesn’t have the sometimes mind-boggling array of interchangeable components or meticulous customization found on high-end products like Microsoft’s Xbox Elite or Thrustmaster’s Eswap X2, the HEART’s mechanical buttons are easy to press. Trigger feel is good, providing a satisfying clicky pushback every time. It’s smooth and the control sticks slide under your thumb.
magnetic attraction
Some of the pad’s high-end technology is on the thumbstick. Most standard controllers use potentiometers to determine stick position. With a potentiometer, (very simply) a contact pad measures the resistance as you move the stick. The problem is that the friction of the process (there are thousands of micro-movements per play session, each rubbing against the contact points) causes the components to wear out over time. This causes “stick drift,” where characters and objectives on the screen wander by themselves. In contrast, HEART uses magnets, and the position of the stick is determined (again, very simply) by which direction the electrons are pushed on the sensor.
This is the acronym Hall effect, named after physicist Edwin Hall, who discovered the Hall effect, and back in 1879, he probably didn’t foresee its better application to video game controllers. But the important point is that the process is smooth. This means not only that the components do not deteriorate over time, but also that the position of the components can be measured much more accurately in the first place. Thrustmaster says it can track component movement to within 0.01 degrees. But does it really lead to improved in-game performance?
