The Nintendo Switch’s infamous “Joy-Con drift” showed us that we deserve more from joysticks and that one company is only too happy to help. Now, GuliKit is officially bringing its drift-resistant magnetic joysticks to a PS5, PS4, Xbox, or Nintendo Switch Pro gamepad near you in the form of upcoming upgrade kits. Kits are priced at $17 each.
GuliKit’s anti-drift TMR sticks are coming for your PS5, PS4, Xbox, and Switch Pro gamepads
But the DualSense Edge version has been canceled.
But the DualSense Edge version has been canceled.
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
They’ll be available for the Sony DualSense, DualShock 4, Xbox Series gamepad, and Nintendo’s own official Switch Pro controller. But surprisingly, GuliKit is no longer bringing it to Sony’s modular DualSense Edge like it originally promised and won’t offer it for Xbox Elite controllers, either. GuliKit business director Jack He tells me that’s because neither Sony nor Microsoft offer working calibration tools for their flagship gamepads. (Magnetic joysticks do need to be calibrated before first use and periodically afterward.)
Instead of producing a drop-in Hall effect module for the DualSense Edge, He suggests that “players can use this new stick to install on the stick module,” presumably soldering it in themselves if Sony adds a calibration tool to the PS5.
Speaking of soldering, that might be a required skill for these other gamepads, too. While GuliKit’s Steam Deck and Joy-Con sticks are attached with screws and are easy to remove, Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all tend to solder their ALPS potentiometer joysticks directly to their gamepad circuit boards, as you can see in iFixit’s many guides.
GuliKit’s He originally said that these sticks are “a very new patented technology which is different from our current hall effect joystick.” Weeks later, he clarified that they’re not Hall effect joysticks at all — but tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR) sticks that can detect smaller changes in magnetic fields, making them more sensitive, more stable, and operate with less power, according to He.
He explains:
Hall effect sensors work based on the Hall effect, which generates a voltage difference across a semiconductor material when a magnetic field is applied.
TMR sensors work based on the tunneling magneto-resistance effect, where the electrical resistance of a material changes when a magnetic field is applied.
The power consumption of TMR sensors is usually in the range of 0.1-0.3 mA, while Hall effect sensors can consume 0.5-2 mA.
(Mainly because of this difference, hall effect joystick cannot work very well when installed on those stock controllers.)
Gulikit says it has design patents on its TMR sticks, as well as its earlier Hall effect ones.
Many manufacturers have begun to adopt drift-resistant joysticks in their premium controllers and handhelds, many if not all of which are supplied by GuliKit, though others (including Valve) say they believe their existing ALPS sticks are good enough. With the ROG Ally X, Asus is trying to hedge its bets; it’ll ship with ALPS sticks rated for 5 million rotations, but Asus also worked with GuliKit to offer a Hall effect upgrade kit.
Correction, July 3rd: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the type of magnetic sensing technology inside these sticks. They use tunneling magneto-resistance (TMR) sensors, not Hall effect.
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