In a world full of $200 controllers, this $35 Xbox pad manages to afford anti-drift sticks, so Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo should take note

Over the last few years, I have found myself gravitating further and further towards PC gaming, but after spending 8 hours at a desk all day at work, I don’t want to spend my downtime sat in front of a mouse and keyboard - I want to be firmly planted on my sofa with a controller in hand. The only downside to this is that the best Xbox Series X controllers that dominate the PC gamepad market can be expensive, so I needed something that offered as many features as possible without the price tag that comes with it. This is where newcomer brand Drakong comes in.

Drakong, a new peripheral brand owned by Hyperkin, seeks to give gamers like me the experience I crave but at a budget price; it strips away the fancy frills like RGB and wireless connectivity to keep the price down, while focusing on providing you with high-performing Hall effect sticks and triggers instead.

At a very reasonable price of $34.99 / £45, the Drakong Challenger certainly keeps its promise as a budget controller. But can the Challenger “challenge” some of its more expensive peers to be worthy of your hard-earned cash?

Design

Like many of the best PC controllers, the Drakong Challenger has taken its design cues from Xbox’s iconic controller. The layout of the sticks is offset as you’d expect for an Xbox pad; it has the classic button layout and trigger position, and has the Xbox home logo front and centre to mark its official licensing from Microsoft. The only visual differences on the surface are the black shell, which features a print of green around the thumbsticks, and the M button, which I’ll elaborate on in a second.

On the back of the controller, the plastic is textured to offer some form of additional grip; jury is still out on how effective that is, in my opinion, but more on that later. Also on the rear of the pad are the back buttons. This is a must-have feature in my mind when it comes to being a pro controller in 2026 - I say that, but it should really be standard across all gaming controllers at this point, looking at you, Sony and Microsoft. Thankfully, mapping these is nice and easy without the use of companion software, because like any of GameSir’s controllers, the ‘M’ button I mentioned a paragraph back will help you tailor them to your needs.

One of the most noticeable aspects of the Drakong Challenger for me is how small it feels. While it visually looks the same as any Xbox controller, it appears to be slightly smaller, which can make or break how it feels in hand for gamers. In addition to this, it is also very light compared to others I’ve tested, like the PowerA Fusion Pro Wireless (645g), coming in at roughly 205g.

I can’t say the Challenger looks or feels “premium,” as it’s dressed in a fairly cheap-feeling plastic. This may be a turn-off to some, but maybe don’t expect too much more for the price.

Features

The standout inclusion for me is Hall Effect thumbsticks and triggers; especially in a budget option like this, it really speaks to Sony and Microsoft’s homegrown controllers costing more and yet sticking to their stick drift-prone potentiometer modules. Drakong opting for Hall effect in a more affordable alternative shows how easy it is, and will guarantee that you won’t get drift here.

Another key feature that I’ve previously mentioned are the back buttons; they feel nice and responsive and are placed in a really good spot for where my middle fingers rest on the rear of the controller. For something this cheap, it’s nice to see this feature being added.

I also appreciate the fact that the buttons are programmable without software; you simply press the ‘M’ button, and then press the button you want programmed. It vibrates to confirm it has worked, and then you’re good. While it isn’t documented anywhere when unboxing the controller, it’s pretty easy to work out.

Speaking of vibration, when I first picked up the Challenger and felt how light it is, I assumed it wouldn’t feature rumble. But to my surprise, when I programmed one of the back buttons, the whole pad shook in my hand. I feel like this is a feature that would be very easy for them to have cut to keep the price down and one that’s often missing in lighter gamepads, but I am glad it is here.

Performance

Given the price point, I was ready for there to be compromises when actually using the Challenger day-to-day, and I really put it through its paces across a number of titles - Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, Grand Theft Auto V, Resident Evil 2 Remake and The Blood of Dawnwalker. Across all titles, I found that the back buttons - like they are with most controllers - are the standout feature. They really elevate my experience when gaming, and it is no different here. They allowed me to really lock into the experience and gave me ways to tailor the way I play a game. My parries in Black Flag and Dawnwalker really benefited from this feature.

Thanks to the Hall Effect sticks and triggers, all of my inputs felt responsive and precise, especially when I was in the halls of the RCPD, and I needed to conserve ammo and pop heads. I had previously played through this game with my standard Xbox controller and found the experience here to be much more controlled. This extends to Grand Theft Auto V, where the triggers, while very responsive and sensitive, did allow me to very quickly accelerate and brake whenever a civilian decided to get in the path of my car - I’ll let you decide if I was speeding up or slowing down.

Having said that, I really don’t like the texture of the thumbsticks. They’re a soft plastic with a textured rim around the edge, but I found my thumbs slipping off them more often than not. I feel like they don’t provide much grip when using the pad and that’s something that is quite essential for playing games. When they worked and I could keep my thumbs in position, they were great, but I was really disappointed with how cheap this aspect felt.

This extended to the textured grip on the back; while I appreciate that it is trying to make it easy to hold the device, it didn’t stop the cheap plastic from sliding about in my hand. What doesn’t help this is the fact that it feels noticeably smaller in my hand than my go-to controllers - the PS5 DualSense Edge and the Power A Fusion Pro Wireless - so I constantly felt like I was holding a toy in comparison to what I normally use.

Across the rest of the Challenger, I found the face buttons and D-pad to be pretty standard; they provided me with good responses and nice tactile feedback. A nice surprise sitting at the bottom of the controller was the headphone jack; while I wouldn’t normally use headphones that are plugged into a controller, this is a nice addition if you want to plug in a mic.

I’d have liked to have wireless functionality included here, but I understand why it isn’t; they want to keep the cost down, and this is one way to do it. The USB-C cable provided is a good length and works, but for anyone whose PC is further away from their sofa and TV, it may be a little bit of a struggle to use outside of a desk environment.

Should you buy the Drakong Challenger?

I think the big selling point here is the fact that the Drakong Challenger isn’t going to break the bank; it’s $25 cheaper than the official Xbox controller, which is a whole portion of Avocado Toast in the current economic climate. For the price you are paying, you are getting a really good budget option that opens you up to some pro controller features.

For half the price, you’re getting Hall-effect sticks and triggers, and rear programmable buttons; unless you wanted something wireless, then for me it would be a no-brainer between those two choices. It’s really hard to beat the Challenger on a price-to-performance scale.

While it won’t be the controller I decide to use in my daily gaming life due to it feeling too small and light in my hands, plus finding the thumbsticks a bit uncomfortable to use, I can recognise that this would be a great purchase for anyone looking for a new controller… or has smaller hands.

How we tested the Drakong Challenger

I used the controller for a few weeks as my primary controller when playing games on my PC. I tested Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, Grand Theft Auto V, Resident Evil 2 Remake, and The Blood of Dawnwalker while using the controller.

For more on how we test controllers, take a look at the GamesRadar+ hardware policy.

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