Two years on from the launch of its popular Wolverine V3 Pro controller, Razer is launching the Wolverine V4 Pro, and while it looks nearly identical, it's hiding some tricks within. Most notably, this new Xbox Series X controller has opted not to use TMR thumbsticks, which have become the industry gold standard since the last Wolverine hit the shelves.
In fact, Razer has chosen to include swappable magnetic elements in the Wolverine V4 Pro, which means a choice of TMR sticks (Tunneling magneto-resistance, which utilize tiny electromagnets) would undoubtedly cause performance issues. Instead, Razer is opting for what it says are even higher-resolution capacitive sensors that are also more power-efficient than TMR and Hall sensors.
This fancy new style of thumbstick technology is still immune to stick drift; don't you worry.
While the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro received an updated 8,000Hz polling version for PC players that dropped the Xbox licensing, the V4 Pro kills two birds with one stone. It'll have the standard 250Hz when connected to Xbox, but on PC it'll allow you to bump all the way up to 8,000Hz.
Interestingly, this time around Razer has dropped the carrying case from the offering, even while keeping the same $199.99 / £199.99 price as its predecessor. When I saw a sneak peek of this controller at Gamescom, I asked why that was the case, and the product designers told me it was because they find that people don't take their controller on the go enough to warrant it. Personally, that was never the reason I made use of the carry case, as it was a handy way to store the pricey accessory and keep all of its swappable parts safe. Not to mention, it was another way to differentiate it from its Tournament Edition model, which is a fully wired, cheaper alternative that'll also return for the V4 Pro generation.
That said, the Wolverine V4 Pro has the same swappable parts you'd expect from this product family. There are differently sized thumbsticks for you to choose from, a cable, a wireless dongle, and some blanks you can magnetically swap out if you'd rather remove the controller's back buttons.
In addition to those four back buttons, you'll also get two extra bumpers/shoulder buttons. As was the case for the V3 Pro, the entire gamepad is decked out with extremely clicky microswitch buttons brought over from the brand's Esports mice. This time, these have a slightly adjusted actuation, which the folks at Razer told me was implemented to add a bit more comfort.
The triggers maintain their stop switches too, so you can turn them into microswitches as well if you want the absolute speediest button presses possible. As you might expect, the entire device is controllable through Razer Synapse in case you'd like to fine-tune all the aspects of its settings. There will be four onboard profiles.
It seems as though Razer may be planning some more aesthetic choices this time around since it's emulating Scuf's magnetic faceplate design. I'll be interested to see what kind of cosmetic support arrives for it.
Most of all, however, I'm excited to see how Razer's gamble with a previously untested type of thumbstick module pays off in the V4 Pro. TMR sticks are already getting to a point where they're imperceptibly fast and even twitchier at higher polling rates, so as a controller reviewer, I struggle to see how we could be moving into an even more accurate generation of thumbstick technology. That said, this is the first gamepad of its kind, so it will be interesting to see if other brands pick up Razer's design in favor of magnetic, swappable parts.
Want to dive deeper? Check out the best PC controllers, the best TMR controllers, and the best PS5 controllers.
