The new Crush Defender is special, this one is the first to go into production using TMR technology for the joysticks. Housed in a hand-finished limited edition housing, I put it through its paces.
Back in March I was impressed by the PB Tails Crush controller in its Ghost metal flavour, though it did have several issues that needed addressing, I was then doubly impressed by how responsive PB Tails was to feedback and their goal to address issues as they explore solutions and updates over time.
Fast-forward five months and the Crush series has had firmware updates to remedy many of the problems I and others highlighted, along with a new model, the Defender, joining the model family.
The Defender is a limited edition run of only 999 being produced, with each one being hand-finished with a battle-scarred aesthetic, like something out of a Fallout game, and I’m all here it!
I’m told that no two Defenders will look the same, and all 999 customer orders will be individually numbered. Being limited edition isn’t the only thing that makes the Defender special, though, as this is also the first Tunnelling Magnetoresistance (TMR) stick controller to hit the market.
As PB Tails reached out to me and offered an exclusive first look at this controller, this will be the first TMR controller review online.
TMR sticks offer a more precise way of detecting magnetic resistance as well as offering power consumption savings (4 milliamps Vs 400 microamps) and stick response/latency advantages. This means that TMR sticks do not need to have as much processing/filtering applied by a controller manufacturer which can have a negative impact on how the sticks feel in games, a trait that is common in many Hall Effect joysticks today due to bad factory calibration or dodgy deadzones requiring filtering out to appear accurate, a false sense of hope, so to speak.
TMR sticks also have much finer control of small movements, where Hall Effect has an average points per axis rate in the hundreds, TMR reaches into the thousands. Equally, the polling rate can go up to 20-30,000Hz, not that this is ever going to be seen in a controller anytime soon, but the fact that the technology is capable of it is impressive.
New technologies like this don’t always see a great start due to launch bugs that need addressing, but my first impressions have been excellent, and the only issues I have found have been fed back to PB Tails who are already working on fixes which will be in-place before customer orders ship later this month. The team’s willingness to listen to community feedback deserves praise in my opinion, as it’s something that too many companies just don’t bother to pay attention to which leaves us consumers in frustration time after time.
Other brands such as EasySMX and GameSir have models coming very soon, as well as GuliKit releasing their in-house TMR modules for console controller retrofitting so that community members can beta test and provide feedback.
In usual PB Tails fashion, the hard-shell carry case in the box is quite impressive, I wish it came with a carry handle, though, because it only has a loop to attach something to but that’s about it, a minor gripe.
The interior has slots for spare joystick caps and the USB dongle, as well as a pocket for the USB cable and anything else. A nice quality carry case.
At first glance you might think that the whole controller is metal, but it’s only the top face plate that is wholly Zinc alloy, and the electroplated joysticks that are weighted metal. The rest is finished to look metal, and convincingly too.
The whole controller looks and feels solid, and whilst the D-pad and ABXY buttons are not mechanical switches like on other controllers on the market, they are very nice tactile rubber membrane buttons. The accessory buttons are clicky microswitches, as are the two shoulder buttons.
In my review of the EasySMX X05, I said that the membrane buttons felt very good, the Defender’s buttons one-up those and feel even better. Because of the internal structure, the ABXY buttons have definitive tactile feedback with no post-click travel. The actuation feels solid and is very easy to spam for games that require that style of play.
Likewise, the D-pad feels good, too.
