PowerA Fusion Pro 3 Review

Manufacturer: PowerA
Where To Buy: PowerA/Amazon
RRP: $79.99

PowerA are well known for providing some top-tier peripheral support on Xbox – we’ve even been lucky enough to check out several of their wares ourselves over the years. We’ve spent the last couple of weeks playing with the newly released Fusion Pro 3, a souped-up wired pad that offers more than enough to justify its asking price and then some – in fact, it comes close to having us retire our Xbox Elite Series 2 pad were it not for that one fine detail.

Let’s get it out of the way; the Fusion Pro 3 is wired. You’ll likely know if that’s a deal breaker for you already, though we’d urge you to reconsider that thought. While wireless has become standard, if you’re in a position to go old school and tether up – kids/pets/large rooms notwithstanding  – there’s very little else that we can find to complain about here.

First off, the Fusion Pro 3 is an incredibly comfortable pad to hold. We’ve pretty much exclusively used it for the last few weeks, but anytime we’ve picked up our Elite Series 2 we’ve almost been put off by how heavy it is in comparison. Of course, the Elite pads are built with the highest premium quality in mind (as well as an in-built battery)  hence the extra weight, but it wasn’t long before we were looking to go back to the Fusion Pro 3.

It’s not just weight either. The ergonomics of the pad are fantastic, easily rivalling the official pads in shape and feel, while the slightly textured grips offer that extra bit of support when playing. Almost every input on the pad has just the right amount of give without feeling to cheap or clacky too. The only buttons we found mild issue with were the capture button – it’s slightly too small and close to the Guide button – and the back button assign input. Here, we found ourselves occasionally accidently clicking it in in the midst of a game, only to notice our back buttons had stopped working.

Yes, back buttons. A staple of the premium pads and included here to great effect. We get four customisable buttons, and while we’ve always preferred the Elite way of doing these (flappy paddles that can be removed) the Fusion Pro 3’s are probably the best implementation since those came to market. The buttons are chunky but also perfectly placed, and, thanks to the aforementioned button we occasionally hit, can be customised on the fly, no need to go to a separate app to assign inputs. This does have the slight downside that we can’t set up several profiles, but realistically we never really swap out this on the Elite all that often, so it’s not a big issue.

We can also set the triggers to one of three locked positions, with the lowest turning them into super quick hair triggers. This is also easily done by sliding the switch on each side, and is great for shooters especially.

Headphone support is catered for too, with the Fusion Pro 3 having the company’s signature mute/volume switch directly above the headphone jack. A simple click in mutes the mic – noted by the button turning red – while short flicks left and right turn the volume up and down. This didn’t work when we had a wireless headset attached, but wired ones worked exactly as they should.

The aforementioned cable comes in at 3 metres, and for our set-up was more than adequate. Our console is above to screen to the right, so occasionally we’d see it sway into view, but those with more sensible placement of the Xbox will barely even notice it’s there. It even has a cool Velcro tie to wrap the cable up after playing, and can be detached and even replaced with a longer one should the need arise.

Special mention must got to the vibration motors in the Fusion Pro 3 – they are super strong, with the bus taking off in Fortnite giving our hands a good shake and a half. This was true even in easier moments, such as combat in The Last Case of Benedict Fox, though for our money we like a good bit of rumble in our controllers so this is a win in our eyes.

We were sent the unit with the black pattern, with customisation a possibility as the front face plate is simply magnetised on. A quick flick from the bottom allows us to remove it and potentially change it out. We can also replace the analogue sticks, with them simply clicking on and off. Within the box we get two extra styles of stick (one convex, one slightly taller). We preferred to keep the standard sticks on, though the fact they’re included is yet another bonus. We also get a sturdy case to keep it in, which can house the extra sticks as well as the USB-C cable. Granted, this didn’t get much use these last few weeks, but again, it’s another premium touch that makes that roughly $80 price tag all the more worthwhile.

Conclusion

Simply put, if you’re in the market for an extra controller – or a replacement for your day to day gaming – then as long as you can handle a single cable, the Fusion Pro 3is one of our favourite pads we’ve checked out so far. It’s packing features far more expensive pads have, as well as comfort and button feel to stand toe to toe with them. The third party peripheral market continues to impress, and PowerA stand to be the players to beat in the controller realm with the Fusion Pro 3.

Hardware provided by the manufacturer for review purposes.