Review: Thrustmaster H.E.A.R.T.

A professional gamer. A top-ranked esports athlete. A renowned figure in competitive shooter circles—I'm none of these things. But could that be down to my choice of controller? Could something that's a step up from the standard Xbox pad I use for PC and console alike up my game, quite literally?

The Thrustmaster H.E.A.R.T. (a rather tortured acronym, standing for “Hall Effect AccuRate Technology”—more on what that means shortly) promises to do just that, offering greater accuracy and responsiveness to deliver improved in-game performance, without breaking the bank. In essence, it aims to be an entry-level pro controller.

That might sound like an oxymoron, but it makes a certain kind of sense once the H.E.A.R.T. is in your hands. This is a pad that offers a familiar layout—the same one as on Xbox, which has become all but the default for most games in recent years, plus two programmable paddle buttons at the rear—with a (mostly) premium feel. A gentle texture on the grips and triggers ensures fingers aren't likely to slip, thumbsticks have a satisfying degree of resistance, and those additional paddles sit comfortably under the middle finger on each hand. Its asymmetric black-and-white design is striking too, bolstered by a single LED strip partitioning each side when in use.

The only detractors to that premium feel are an ugly, blobby D-pad, and Xbox function buttons—View, Menu, and Share—that are far too small. The D-pad is the worst, seeming at odds with the otherwise sleek design approach the H.E.A.R.T. takes. Its rounded tips result in a feeling of no real delineation between its directions, and with no texturing to its surface, the thumb slides aimlessly over it. The function buttons, meanwhile, are both tiny and shallow, making them feel insubstantial.

Still, the design impresses for the most part, and Thrustmaster builds it all around upgraded parts compared to standard controllers. While it doesn't have the sometimes daunting array of swappable components and meticulous degrees of customization that the higher-end likes of Microsoft's Xbox Elite or Thrustmaster's own Eswap X2 offer, the H.E.A.R.T.'s mechanical buttons deliver a satisfyingly clicky pushback to every press, its triggers feel smooth, and its control sticks glide under your thumbs.

Magnetic Attraction

It’s in the thumbsticks where some of the higher-end tech of the pad lives. Most standard controllers determine a stick's position using potentiometers, where (very simply) a contact pad measures resistance as you move the stick around. The problem is that the friction of the process—thousands of micro-movements in every play session, each one rubbing against the contacts—wears components down over time. This results in “stick drift,” where your onscreen character or aim might wander of its own accord. The H.E.A.R.T., in contrast, uses magnets, with the stick's position determined (again, very simply) by which direction electrons are pushed over a sensor.

This is the Hall effect of the acronym, named for physicist Edwin Hall who discovered it, and while he probably didn't anticipate its application to better video game controllers back in 1879, the key takeaway is that the process is frictionless. That means not only that components don't degrade over time, but that their position can be measured far more precisely in the first place—Thrustmaster says they can be tracked to within 0.01 degrees of movement. But does that really translate to improved performance in-game?

Short answer: yes. In prepared demo software provided by Thrustmaster designed to showcase accuracy and stick position, the H.E.A.R.T. was resolutely on point in a simple tracking game, using the thumbsticks to move a cursor over shifting targets, while landing hits on mannequins in a shooting gallery immediately felt far more precise. Using my existing (and ancient) store-bought Xbox controller for PC with the same software showed just how much drift had crept in over the years. On the target-tracking microgame, I couldn't land a single hit, compared to over a dozen hits with the H.E.A.R.T.

The improved accuracy was noticeable on “real” games too. Switching over to a spot of Borderlands 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, my overall performance was notably better, delivering critical hits and headshots while saving in-game ammo. (Although on the former, half the charm is in the chaotic spray-and-pray approach, so does better accuracy make the game less fun? One for the philosophers.) The controller held up well on racers like Forza Horizon 5 too, with steering and lane control feeling far more precise. Button responsiveness was clearly improved too—Thrustmaster cites a minuscule activation distance of just 0.3 mm, and the reaction for each press feels lightning-fast, accordingly.

Custom Controls

Beyond the functions and performance of the H.E.A.R.T. controller, the other area it leaves standard controllers for dust is its customizable nature. Although individual components can't be added or removed, as with the manufacturer's higher-end, modular Eswap pads, the same ThrustmapperX software (available on PC or in the Xbox store on consoles) can be used to remap each button to a player's liking. If you prefer a Japanese-style layout, where the A and B buttons are typically reversed, or want to swap shoulder button inputs for face buttons, it's quick and easy to do so.

This is also where those rear paddles come in. Labelled M1 and M2, by default they map to duplicating the inputs of the A and B buttons. That might sound redundant, but it soon proved useful in Borderlands 3, making the jump and crouch/slide controls just that bit more accessible. It's a subtle difference, but not having to take your thumb off the camera-controlling right thumbstick to activate those integral navigation controls makes the game feel that much smoother.

Like the rest of the H.E.A.R.T. buttons, M1/M2 can be remapped too, so if you prefer to have them perform, say, a reload function on a shooter, or manual gear changes on a racer, you can.

Unfortunately, though, you can't map multiple inputs to a single button—for instance, kick and punch in a fighting game to make a combo easier to pull off. Perhaps that would feel too much like cheating anyway, but it does feel like a bit of a missed opportunity.

Beyond merely swapping around what each button does, there's a huge degree of tinkering to be done with the pad too, such as tweaking the sensitivity curve of each thumbstick—which changes where each stick is most responsive depending on your movements—or the activation threshold for the triggers, and even the intensity of the vibration features. Two personalized control profiles can be saved to the controller itself too, allowing quick switching between preferred layouts on different games, or for different users sharing the same pad.

There are some neat little hardware-level customizations to hand too, such as disabling the M1/M2 paddles if preferred, or holding down the profile button and cycling left or right on the D-pad to switch between six LED bar colors. Up and down also adjusts intensity, but don't worry LED-haters, it can be switched off entirely if you prefer.

If a headset is connected to the 3.5-mm jack, audio can be similarly adjusted by holding the mic button at the base and using the D-pad as a volume rocker. Nothing groundbreaking there, but it's nice to be able to tweak the odd setting without having to use the custom software.

Tethered Trade-Offs

For all that the H.E.A.R.T. does right though—that Hall effect responsiveness, the mechanical inputs, the customizable layouts—it comes with a hefty trade-off: This is a tethered controller. It's a nice tether, a braided 2-meter USB-A to -C cable packed into the box, but it does undermine the cross-compatibility of using the controller between PC and Xbox.

On a PC, it may not actually be too much of an issue, as players are more likely to sit right next to the machine anyway—sticking a cable into a USB port is usually no bother. Plus, without the need for a battery compartment or Bluetooth components, it means the pad sits that bit lighter in the hand.

For Xbox owners though, especially for those using their console in a living room setting, the corded-only approach means you're probably going to be forced to sit too close to the TV screen. After decades of wireless controllers, that feels like a step backwards. You could swap out for a longer cable, but then you're entering viper's nest territory, where sprawling cords become a trip hazard—and that's if you don't accidentally yank the cord lose and disconnect it entirely. Plus, given Microsoft's push to make “every screen an Xbox” via cloud gaming, it means you simply cannot use the H.E.A.R.T. if the device you're streaming on doesn't have a USB-A port. It's not ideal.

However, with its responsiveness, precision, and easy customization, the Thrustmaster H.E.A.R.T. makes for a solid go-to controller for PC gaming. For anyone looking for a step up from a basic pad, its high-grade parts and personalization features deliver a premium experience without becoming overly granular or demanding. Its corded-only design makes it a tougher sell for Xbox gamers, particularly if you want to play on a couch or more than 2 meters from your screen. It's a restriction that really puts the “entry-level” in “entry-level pro controller,” but for PC players or those who don't mind the tether, this is undeniably going to deliver an improvement to your gaming experience.