Gadgetory

one big complaint that a lot of switch owners have had is the lack of a d-pad on the left joy con and we've gone over a couple different ways you can address this problem if you'd like to first off there is of course a separately sold cheaper joy con made by Horry which features a d-pad but is missing a lot of functions of a traditional joy con and then there is of course the option of doing your own shell exchange which runs a lot of risks but does give you a fully functioning joy con plus d-pad well today we've got a third option that runs the cheapest and possibly even the most convenient option out of the mall and that's a gel case for the joy con which adds a little d-pad overlay on top of the button so we're gonna talk about how this method compares to the other options and whether or not this is the way to go first let's do a brief recap on the two methods we've covered before starting with the hoary deep edge Wakanda these are sold separately for twenty-five dollars there's only the left show come by itself they don't come in and kind of pair anything and the main thing this does is well give you a d-pad now this is not a fully functional joy con you cannot use it wirelessly it has no battery it is only usable in the handheld mode for the switch once directly connected the option will not work now when it comes to just giving you a d-pad in handheld mode I think it does a pretty good job the d-pad is a slightly more old-school style where it has this kind of softness to it it's not clicky like the buttons on a regular joi con which is kind of a matter of personal preference I do kind of like the click enos a little more but the still works really well aside from the obvious fact this has to be plugged in at all times there are a couple of there downsides that it has compared to a regular joi con it does not have motion controls it doesn't have vibration and its shape is just a little different compared to regular drug cons it has a little up raised area on the back where the release button is and because of that certain grip cases for handheld mode are actually not going to fit while you're using this droidcon which is a big problem on the upside though I do really like the designs at Hori has done for these controllers I think they're really good looking I love the zelda one the Mauryan one's a little more hit and miss for me though I love the color red on it and they do have a Pokemon one coming out really soon - that looks really nice now as for the other option that we've done before there's also of course the shell exchanger I think results in the best feeling d-pad out of these two options because it still uses the internal switches on the joique on it just replaces it with this deep so it feels like those buttons but gives you that d-pad feeling which I really like basically you've never seen this done before you have to take apart the joy con remove the shells and then disassemble the insides by undoing some cables and then rebuild it together with the new shell which has a lot of problems because you could accidentally shock something you could destroy a cable and thus making the joy con completely unusable it's also technically the most expensive option because while the shell exchange itself is fairly cheap you do have to use up a regular joi con at the same time so either you're buying enjoy con separately or using the one that came with your switch and if you end up accidentally breaking that well name to buy a whole nother joy con so it's a little dangerous that being said if you are successful unlike the hoary joke on this is still a fully functional joy con you can use it wirelessly you have vibration you have motion controls overall a much better control as for our third option the gel covers these come from a company called a collective minds and they actually reached out to me after seeing the other D pad videos and sent these out for me to try out and we're gonna have these link down below in the description along with the other two options if you guys want to check them out first off this is the cheapest choice out of the whole group it's 10 bucks for a pair of covers like this as opposed to the $15 the shell exchange will get you plus not to mention the droidcon itself and $25 for the Hori joint con they also come in three different colors we have the red ones right here they also have a black and blue and the idea behind how these work is actually really simple it's just a gel cover that goes over the joy con if it's nice and tight super easy to apply easy to take off and it adds this little d-pad cover onto the left joy con that it covers the four directional buttons so in theory this is actually very similar to the shell exchange where it puts the d-pad over the four switches but in this case it's the d-pad hitting the buttons which is then hitting the switches as a result it kind of has a feeling that's like the midpoint between the other two options it's not soft like the Hori one you still get a little bit of click enos but it's not the same degree that you get with the shell exchange by the way if you like the look at these grips but like I recommended you don't want to use the right one a really great way to get a matching droidcon is to actually use a skin made by today's sponsor D brand they've made a whole line of skins that are totally safe to use on joy cons on the switch itself is on the dock and they come in a wide variety of colors from matching with this guy there's some really great choices for red blue and a carbon fiber black that looks great if you want to check them out and getting more info check out the link down below something that's unique about this design versus the other two is that it's the only d-pad that uses the webbing design instead of the traditional just straight cross the upside of this is that if there's ever a game that has rolling inputs using a d-pad it's a lot easier to perform with this as the gel design itself it's very comfortable I think it works well over a long period of time gaming the only thing that's kind of a downside to it is that the softness on the capture button and minus button feels a little awkward but since these aren't usually super important buttons for mid B gameplay it's not that big of a deal and it still leaves the shoulder buttons and coverage those works just like normal where you start to run into problems with this design though is the right joint con like the left row con it has a little bit of the softness on the Plus and home screen buttons but the real issue with this is that while the left joi con gets that d-pad cover the right Detroit con just leaves the ABXY buttons exposed which you would think is a good thing but because the padding on this is pretty thick it ends up causing the buttons to be flush with the rest of the body which doesn't feel very comfortable to me now thankfully this is a very easy problem to avoid you just don't use this cover which might sound a little silly because you're buying this paired thing for ten dollars but honestly just to get the benefit of this d-pad alone at that price I think it's still worth picking up even if you're not actually going to use this one it might cause a little visual mismatching but I think it ends up working out a lot better just sticking to the one side there really big benefit to this design versus the other options is the convenience and the lack of permanency with the Hori d-pad joy con you bought a whole other joke on you're holding on to with the shell exchange droidcon you're doing this whole heavy process that might cause something to break and even then if it works you're down one right joy con with traditional buttons in this case it's just a cover that you can add and remove whenever you want at your leisure for only ten bucks at the end of the day I do think that the shell exchange does result in a more comfortable better d-pad design but for something that's cheaper and less risky and is something you can undo and redo as you wish this is a great option