“I wanted to love the Pro 3, but the D-pad was an atrocity. Pressing a pure direction too hard giving a diagonall 100% of the time made me wonder if anyone even tested the design.”

50% of 109 verified owners recommend the Pro 3, based on real owner verdicts aggregated from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube.
The headline score reflects owners (Reddit, enthusiast forums), independent lab tests, blogs with no affiliate links, and YouTube owner-comments when they line up with owners. is shown for perspective but kept out here — hover the i for why.
Synthesized from what Pro 3 owners say — not a spec sheet.
“I wanted to love the Pro 3, but the D-pad was an atrocity. Pressing a pure direction too hard giving a diagonall 100% of the time made me wonder if anyone even tested the design.”
“Battery life on the P2 is great, but every now and then I forget to plug it in when I am done gaming and I pick it up next day and it is out of juice 5 min into my game. P3 never is.”
“I personally only have issues with the dongle mode only working with x-input as I prefer d-input because that allows me to use gyro and analog triggers at the same time when playing games.”
“I actually found the d-pad so incredibly stiff that I could only get diagonals by pushing way harder than I normally do. It was effectively useless for fighting games as a result”
“Been using mine as my main controller after I swapped the buttons from my 8bitdo pro 2 into it. Steam input support is by far the most important feature on any controller for me.”
“then i decided to try Stellar Blade, and it just didn't work, even tho on the Pro 2 i never needed Steam Input there”
“It's hard to justify if you have the Pro 2 since the improvements, while there, are pretty minimal.”
“I got the orange Pro 3 I believe shortly after release and I love it. Love the dome switch dpad, love the triggers although they can snap back to analog mode pretty easily”
“coloured buttons set are one-piece things and trash quality, I barely used this controller, and they had cracks anyway and green buttons just fall apart by itself in the box”
“I use the Pro 3 for games played with the d-pad, otherwise I use the official pro controller.”
“The 8Bitdo Pro 3 solves the issue that I have with ALL 8bitdo controllers, making this may favorite controller of all time: The ability to convert from analog triggers, to digital triggers.”
“My L2 trigger started acting on its own... quite disappointed :( Gamepad Tester is showing the value changes from 0.00 to 0.01 intermittently, which is enough to make some games unplayable.”
“I am selling it - I just really dislike the hard clackiness of the face buttons and the D pad. It’s also giving me an insane amount if false diagonals in Celeste.”
“I only prefer the Pro 3 for games where I'll be using DPad movement. Otherwise, Ultimate 2.”
“The TMR sticks and 2.4G connection were enough for me to buy the Pro 3. Plus, the charging dock keeps the batteries topped up while the controller isn't in use; it looks really sleek on your desk.”
“the D-Pad of the Pro3 is leagues above the Pro Con 2 and is the best D-Pad I've used on a controller above anything from the big 3 console makers”
“Fine but I stopped using it a couple days ago as I got another Tarantula pro, which out of the box is superior in every way for competitive rocket league.”
“They do come with spare buttons but it will make the controller look a bit ugly lol”
“Was playing Mega Man 6 last night with this controller and realized how often I was missing inputs on the dpad, or hitting more directions then expected.”
“The tension on these joystick kinda strong or maybe that's just my controller”
“I have had no issues so far. I love the clicky dpad, face buttons are great, shoulder buttons are great. Whole thing has been spectacular so far.”
“I returned 3 pro controllers. Had varying issues with the trigger stops between the 3 and the dpads all dropped inputs when quickly changing direction.”
“once you give it a proper chance the Pro 3 D-Pad is amazing. It's very responsive and I barely if ever get an unwanted diagonal or anything bad.”
“I have both, usually I use Pro 3. But ultimate 2 has more functional pros”
Practical notes owners raise — setup, quirks, and issues to watch for. They don't say whether the person likes the product, so they're not counted in the score, but they inform the pros, cons, and who it's for.
“The sticks on the entire SN30 lineup are incredible slippery, I put the skull and co stick toppers on, all 3 sizes (OEM style, to the FPS tall) have clearance on the Pro 3 and fit perfectly.”
“Well, worn out membranes is normal, should take years of casual gameplay or at least 1 year under warranty with very intense daily gameplay, and they are easy to replace unlike mechanical buttons.”
“Just so you’re aware, the joystick inclusions aren’t part of the normal package. They’re added by some Amazon sellers as incentives to buy from their stores.”
“Newer revisions of the 8bitdo Pro 3 come with thin rubber lining inside the shell, between the shell itself and button. That helps mask the noise that was present with the first version of the controller.”
“With what's under it, it looks like those 3 lil cylinders take most of the force and if you get your finger lower on the trigger it puts the majority of it on that one that broke. Seems like a shit design.”
“That's correct, all of the controller's features in D-input mode are supported by Steam Input, including the back buttons independently and gyro. Everything can be mapped to whatever you want in Steam Input.”
“She'll just keep walking diagonally even though I'm pressing right. I have to either push down super hard to get it to click or let off the dpad completely and press the new direction. Completely impractical.”
“The joysticks are replaceable, and they come with a set of mini arcade-style sticks mainly as a novelty, I hear they aren't very ergonomic.”
“I thought it worked well at first, but no, you end up with very unpredictable diagnals. They come out of nowhere! I'm now waiting for a couple genuine snes controllers to show up. To be honest these are my first gamepads since the ps3.”
“I love the Pro 2, but I haven’t bought the 3 because of a combination of seeing broken buttons and the noise of the buttons.”
“It’s the same price as the U2, which is a more comfortable controller with the generally preferred asymmetric thumb sticks.”
“The updated Pro 2 with Hall effect sticks wasn't that old, and then the Steam Controller came out as well (I have both of them and didn't end up getting a Pro 3). Also the extra shoulder buttons instead of 4 back buttons was an odd choice.”
“The loud buttons are why I didn’t take the plunge on the 3. The buttons on the 2 are as loud as I can tolerate.”
“When it first came to the market, it also was somewhat common for people to have cracked/broken buttons after use or a fall. Normally it would the SNES colored styled ones. I haven’t had that happen but I also don’t use those ones and stick the ABXY ones.”
“A quick look at that official website and it says that it can shake to wake for the Switch 1 only”