Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 review

Our Verdict

62%

Cheap but not very cheerful, you’re better off spending a touch more to get a much better controller.

With a price of just $18, the Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 is among the cheapest gamepads you can buy that still includes two analog sticks. Drop to a lower price and you’ll be confining yourself to controllers with just a D-pad and ABXY buttons, and that style of gamepad isn’t much use for the games that benefit most from using a game controller for gaming on a PC.

Inevitably, such a low price comes with a few compromises. For a start, the Dual Analog 4 lacks analog triggers. It’s an acceptable compromise for such a low price but limits the sorts of games such a gamepad can be used with – most obviously, driving games will suffer from the lack of analog accelerating and braking controls.

Elsewhere, you also miss out on any buzzing-motor haptic feedback, making this a particularly light gamepad at just 132g, not including the cable. The cable itself is also fixed and measures a modest 1.9m long, so while it will easily reach the back of a PC at a desk, it may struggle to reach a coach further away.

Other issues include the D-pad feeling mushy and indistinct. The buttons lack a clear click or step when pressed, instead offering a stiff, linear movement. This makes it very bad for games that require rapid, precise button mashing, such as in beat ‘em ups. It will just about do the job for adjusting your point of view in a flight sim, though, for instance.

The other buttons mostly fare better, with them at least offering a more defined pressing action than the D-pad. However, the bumper buttons annoyingly hinge from the outer edge, rather than their inner edge, so it’s not enough to simply tap the outside edge to activate them. Instead, you have to reach further in, over the hinge point, in order to press them.

Meanwhile, the all-important analog thumbsticks are usable, providing a basic amount of fine-grained control for mimicking steering a car or controlling the flight stick of a plane, but they’re not great for more demanding control. Trying to play a first-person shooter was not fun with this controller.

The overall design is quite compact, with small hand grips that require you to wrap your fingers much further around them than the fuller designs of more premium controllers. It’s better than the Logitech F310 in this respect, though, thanks to that controller’s, particularly short, steep grip design. The Thrustmaster’s modest size, slim shape, and button layout that has the buttons quite near the edges also works surprisingly well for alternative grip styles.

Build quality is also sturdy enough, with no flexing or creaking when stressed. The textured plastic surface also feels quite good in the hand. It’s certainly not a premium feel, but there are no sharp edges or obvious other such concerns you may have with a very cheap unit.

One final point of caution is that this controller only supports the older DirectInput system so, as with the Sony DualSense, you’ll have to use a remapping app to make it work with more modern games.

Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 pros and cons

Pros

• Great build quality
• Lots of extra buttons
• Customizable
• Rechargeable battery

Cons

• Very expensive
• Limited color options

Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 specs

The Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 specs list is:

Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 price

The Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 price is $18 (£15) making it a very cheap controller with analog sticks, though it lacks analog triggers.

Price: Expect to pay $18 (£15).

Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 review conclusion

With its two analog sticks, the Thrustmaster Dual Analog 4 delivers the absolute bare minimum for a gamepad that you might want to use with a PC. However, its lack of analog triggers, poor D-pad quality, and odd bumper button design means it struggles to make a convincing case for itself. You only have to spend $10-$15 more to get a vastly better experience, so it’s well worth saving for a little longer.