Sponsor: Thermal Grizzly Duronaut on Amazon - https://geni.us/tpgcPMw The Valve Steam Controller has arrived. We're testing it for latency performance, wireless and bluetooth range and response, battery life, charge time, and more. Our Steam Controller (2026) review also includes an explanation for TMR thumbsticks (tunnel magnetoresistance analog sticks) with a custom 3D animation that we made, hopefully making it easier to understand how TMR sticks work. Our tear-down of the Valve Steam Controller will post shortly after this video, but we found its assembly and ease of access to be a major positive. Watch our Steam Controller tear-down! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVRfie61QyE Watch our technical interviews on the Steam Machine, Steam Frame, and Steam Controller here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWUxObt1efQ And our Steam Frame engineering deep-dive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NSjvJDe6Ic The best way to support our work is through our store: https://store.gamersnexus.net/ Like our content? Please consider becoming our Patron to support us: http://www.patreon.com/gamersnexus TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Valve Steam Controller 2026 Review 01:52 - Valve Steam Controller Overview 02:42 - TMR Thumbsticks Tunnel Magnetoresistance 08:15 - Latency Testing and Benchmarks 12:34 - Battery Life Testing 13:27 - Charge Speed Test 14:29 - Range Test with Puck 16:03 - Hands-On Use and Impressions 18:32 - Repairability 19:36 - Deck Support 20:43 - Opinions and Subjective Thoughts 22:27 - Conclusion ** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! ** Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video ("this video is brought to you by") and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or "sponsored content" (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage. Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates: t: http://www.twitter.com/gamersnexus f: http://www.facebook.com/gamersnexus w: http://www.gamersnexus.net/ Our policies, processes, and ethics statements relating to review samples, advertising, travel, errors, and more are transparently and publicly available on this page: https://gamers.nexus/ethics-statements Steve Burke: Host, Test Lead Patrick Lathan: Testing, Writing Vitalii Makhnovets: Editing, Camera Andrew Coleman: Camera, Editing, Animation
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waiting for my reservation hahaha
Glad to see that Valve took us serious when we pointed at the Deck and said "we want this but without the screen in the way"
Absolutely beautiful digital demonstration of the difference between the various analog stick technologies.
Steam controller: battery lasts 73 hours Steve: oh wait its not really dead it still has 10 minutes left
Nice to see you’re back to making the same ol’ videos too. 👍🏻
Respect for someone who actuallyputs the work in to make proper reviews
Really like the animation. Gamer's Nexus is doing some of the best journalism on the platform. PERIOD.
This will be my next controller. Quality + repairability is all I need. Also, 11/10 job on the explanation and animation of the TMR sticks.
4:21 ok I CAN'T be the only person who looked at that and immediately thought 'XANA from Code Lyoko' ☠️
Gotta appreciate the investment and interest the team put on. Nice video!
The animation helped me understand the first 2, but the tmr still seems like magic.
Stuff like keeping easy repair in mind is one of the many reasons why I love valve. This is old school design vs today's buy and throw away then buy again. I love it.
The N64 controller was unique in that it used a rotary encoder, the motion linked to gears which translated motion into two disks. Instead of capacitive resistance, the wheel had a slot which was wider or narrower along the edge of the wheel, which allowed more or less light to pass from an LED to a photo-receptor, and this was how it measured position. It was EXTREMELY accurate, with almost no dead zone which is why you remember being able to move Mario around with such incredible precision, from a tiny sneaky little foot steppy crawl to a full sprint. It's weakness? Materials. Instead of oiled metal on metal, it was plastic on plastic, which wore down over time, making the actual mechanical link loosen. The stick was literally looser, as you could feel and even see, along with all the grey dust of the components visible in the well of the control stick. There are modern attempts to reproduce the parts, and the best one recasts them in metal, but is VERY expensive due to economies of scale in reverse, as it's a VERY niche product. All in all, they'd be a great solution but even in plastic, Nintendo's original analog stick was rather expensive to make. There's a reason the industry, including Nintendo, just went to capacitive wheels like a speaker's volume knob instead. Sadly, while the early ones were more durable, cheaper materials used by the time of the PS4/XBoxOne/Switch meant they wore out MUCH quicker, which is why complaints of stick drift went up so dramatically. I'm glad to see these competing technologies that restore the accuracy we once had on the N64 and combine it with durability and reduced cost.
Ah just the review i needed that's trustworthy
I cannot wait to get my hands on that controller.
I appreciate hardware that is well made, long lasting and repairable. I'll be buying one or two for home.
2:45 that ICP joke will never die
Nice I’m glad i got a job making magnets.
I love that valve is targetting their own auidance and not trying to overtake the market
This is a review in a true sense with proper time spent and research. Unlike that Linus guy who just show pointless and useless dissatisfaction just to sound unbiased and genuine, which he is clearly not.