I didn't expect to see one of my favorite controllers from 2025 so far getting a discount at this point in the year, but Memorial Day can be a great way to save on some of the gaming hardware that's launched in the first half of the year. The Manba One has fallen by $15 at Amazon, and since its price was already pretty affordable, it's one of the controller deals to beat this holiday weekend.
This deal brings the Manba One down to $55.99 at Amazon (was $69.99), which is cheaper than the most recent outings from my favorite budget controller brand, Gamesir. The Manba One stands out thanks to its large onboard display, complete with an in-depth settings menu. Most of the time, I find pro controllers with these screens to be nothing more than a gimmick, but I think the Manba's gives it so much value for money.
The best PC controllers can sometimes come in $100 or $150 more than this, and although they might offer more in terms of adjustability and swappable parts, the Manba One does an excellent job of competing against them for so much cheaper. There are four back buttons to be enjoyed here, as well as swappable thumbsticks.
Should you buy the Manba One?
So, if most controllers with screens on them are usually gimmicks, why does the Manba One succeed where the others fail? For starters, I think the Manba One made the correct design choice - it makes its display larger, and the designers clearly weren't afraid to do that. On the Turtle Beach Stealth Ultra and Turtle Beach Stealth Pivot, for example, the onboard displays are tiny. It makes them a nightmare to try and navigate, and it means they're fairly limited down to basic functions that other controllers do better with function button combinations.
A larger screen on the Manba One means it can fit images, graphs, and an easy-to-navigate settings menu in. So much so that you don't even need to hook up to a gaming PC to customize deadzones and trigger input curves. It's all there right in front of you, and it makes for such a convenient quality of life win.
The Manba One also has handy navigation buttons at the bottom of its face that let you clearly distinguish between using the controller for playing games and customizing the onboard menus. That's a slip up other controllers with screens make - it's annoying and confusing to work out which buttons actually control the controller, and which control the menus. The Manba One is the first controller with a screen to actually make it worth having, and I didn't want for an in-depth PC app the entire time I was testing it.
On top of that, the Manba One is a controller that does the basics really well. It isn't exactly the speedy performer that the Razer Wolverine V3 is, but it's versatile for lots of different genres, and it's comfortable to hold. Four back buttons is hard to find at this price point, too, and swappable thumbsticks add an extra customization win for those players who want more accuracy in FPS titles.
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