Nintendo Switch controllers are a tricky market. Everyone has their fair share of complaints about Nintendo's Joy-Con, but when it comes to alternatives, every option that fixes one major pain point has another frustrating downside. Many of them are just remote controllers you can't use in handheld mode, and many others are exclusively handheld with no wireless communication, and that's to say nothing of the multitude of features Nintendo crammed into the Joy-Con that are usually left out of products like these. But then there's the Mobapad M6 HD.

You might not have heard of Mobapad before, but the company basically set out to make the ultimate controller with this Mobapad M6 HD, and I think it's fair to say it did exactly that. It's not perfect, but as far as alternatives go, this offers all the advantages you could want over Nintendo's Joy-Con, while being the closest yet to keeping all the features Nintendo offers. That includes amiibo support, HD rumble, and motion controls. It only misses out on the IR camera, which is a feature most games don't use in the first place.

There's also the Mobapad M6s, which is a cheaper variant that sacrifices some more advanced features for a lower price point, though it's still great.

About this review: Mobapad sent us both the M6 HD and M6s for review. The company didn't have any input in its contents.

Mobapad M6 HD and M6s: Pricing and availability

The Mobapad M6 HD and Mobapad M6s are available on Mobapad's official website and through AliExpress. unfortunately, the company hasn't made the controllers available through stateside retailers like Amazon or Best Buy, which means your purchasing options are a bit limited, which will make warranty claims that much more difficulty if necessary.

Pricing for the Mobapad M6 HD comes in at $80, making them cost about the same as an official pair of Joy-Con, and they come exclusively in white.The M6s models are a much cheaper $50, and they come in a combination of blue (for the left controller) and purple, with a yellowish accent for the D-Pad. You can get an $8 discount with our link above, though.

Design and controls

Much more ergonomic than official Joy-Con

Right off the bat, the biggest upgrade with the Mobapad M6 HD and M6s is how much more comfortable they are than Nintendo's Joy-Con, especially if you have bigger hands. The elegance of the Joy-Con is certainly great for portability, but it comes with a major downside in terms of grip, making it less than ideal. The Mobapad M6 HD is pretty much perfect in this regard, with a larger textured grip that fits right in the hand and it makes the console very easy to hold without feeling heavier than it normally is. A slightly bigger grip would still be good for my hands, but this is a huge step up.

They're especially great in handheld mode, but even if you're using them wirelessly, the curved design still makes them relatively easy to hold on to. I did find myself accidentally pressing the rear button while swinging my sword in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, though, but it may just be a matter of getting used to having a better grip.

It makes the console very easy to hold without feeling heavier than it normally is.

The controllers are obviously heavier than the Joy-Con, and much larger, too. While the weight isn't much of a problem, I'll say if you travel with your Switch, you might want to get the controllers with the optional carrying case. You'll have a hard time fitting the controllers into a standard case, so it's best to be prepared.

As for looks, both the white and colored models are great. I definitely prefer colors and I wish the M6 HD model had that option, but these are far from ugly controllers.

These controls are excellent

Of course, the point of the controller is the controls themselves, and the Mobapad M6 HD and M6s are both excellent. Almost every button on these controllers — including the ABXY buttons, D-Pad, and shoulder buttons, use micro-switches, and they feel excellent. They're clicky (and a bit loud), but super comfortable to press and they feel very precise. Mobapad says the M6 HD model uses Omron switches while the M6s uses "standard" switches, and while I think I hear a slight difference in how they sound, they're both fantastic. Maybe there's a bigger benefit in durability that I'll find out over a longer testing period, but for now, either option is great.

Mobapad also goes the extra mile and includes some easily swappable parts.

Meanwhile, the analog sticks use the famed hall effect sensors that are all the rage nowadays. Hall effect sensors combat the much-dreaded drift problem by using a magnetic field to determine the deposition of the analog stick, rather than a potentiometer that requires physical contact and thus wears out over time. Moving the analog sticks feels great, with just the right amount of resistance and super smooth movement making it a super comfortable experience. It's a far cry from the tiny analog sticks on the Joy-Con, The concave caps also make it that much more comfortable to use than the convex designs on Nintendo's controllers.

Mobapad also goes the extra mile and includes some easily swappable parts. You can change the faceplate on both controllers so instead of a round housing around the analog stick, you get an octagonal shape to facilitate eight-direction movement. The faceplates are magnetic, too, so they're very easy to remove and insert. You can also change the D-pad between a traditional cross shape or a round cap that's more tailored to fighting games where you need to quickly point in different directions (akin to what's included in Microsoft's Xbox Elite Wireless controllers).

In addition to the standard Switch buttons, there are also two triggers on the back of the controllers (one on each side) which you can map to any key on the controller, or create a macro (more on that in a bit).

Features and customization

They work wirelessly and in handheld mode

One of the biggest factors that's always held me back from third-party controllers is that you have to sacrifice the nature of the Switch in order for them to be useful. There are great controllers like the Hori Split Pad Pro that only work in handheld mode and not wirelessly, and then there are great standalone controllers such as the GulliKit KK3 Max, which are only useful in TV mode.

The Mobapad M6 HD and M6s don't make that sacrifice. You can attach the controllers to the Switch to use in handheld mode, or you can use them wirelessly as either a single controller or use each half individually, though using them sideways is pretty uncomfortable with this shape. For all the flak the Joy-Con get, the simple compact design is the best way to do everything Nintendo wanted Joy-Con to do. But at least you have the option, and it's commendable that Mobapad didn't just exclude that capability. Feature-wise, these are nearly perfect recreations.

The only downside is that Mobapad doesn't include a grip or mount in the box to make these controllers feel like a single piece. They're still pretty comfortable to hold separately, but it would be nice to have that option in the box.

I'd also mention that wireless communication seems to be a bit more stable than the Joy-Con. I have semi-frequent issues with missed inputs on the official Joy-Con, but these controllers seem to handle it better.

As for battery life, I can't say I've run dry on a pair of Joy-Con in a very long time, and that also didn't happen here, because I don't play wirelessly for that long consistently anyway. That said, Mobapad promises up to 15 hours of playtime, which is a little less than the 20 hours Nintendo advertises for the Joy-Con. Both are comfortably beyond what I'd need in a controller that's usually going to be charged by the console anyway.

You get (almost) all the features

On top of supporting both wireless and wired communication, the Mobapad M6 HD packs in almost everything that makes the Joy-Con special. Six-axis motion control is supported and works as well as you could expect it to. I played the final boss fight in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, in which swinging the sword uses 1-to-1 motion controls, and had no issues beating it. I also tried flying the beetle in that game and it worked well. Just like the Joy-Con, the motion sensor can get misaligned after a while, but most games are made with this in mind and you can easily recenter the position to fix it.

You also get NFC support for amiibo and, most impressive of all, HD rumble. This is a feature I've never seen in a third-party controller, and it's so good to see. HD rumble uses more precise linear motors compared to traditional rumble, and it's far more subdued in terms of intensity while conveying the intended feelings more vividly. HD rumble on the Mobapad M6 HD works well, though it's not on the same level as the Joy-Con.

the Mobapad M6 HD packs in almost everything that makes the Joy-Con special

One good example is in Super Mario Odyssey. The Sand Kingdom has a moon that needs to be found by sensing the vibrations as you move around a room, and I found this a bit easier with the Joy-Con than with the Mobapad M6 HD. Another great test is playing Super Mario Bros. Wonder in TV mode, where a couple of musical stages will use the precise capabilities of HD rumble to produce actual musical notes. While the Mobapad M6 HD do produce these sounds, they're far quieter, and I could only hear them distinctly with the TV sound all the way down and the controllers up to my ears. The Joy-Con are audible in normal playing conditions and even the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller is still a bit better. But the feature is there, and this is the closest we've come to great HD rumble on a third-party controller.

Of course, this feature is sacrificed in the Mobapad M6s, which makes it far less interesting, albeit not worse than the many third-party controllers out there. It's much less refined and it can be too much in situations where you'd expect soft vibrations, but that's true of any controller that doesn't have HD rumble.

One thing that's sacrificed entirely is the IR camera on the bottom of the right Joy-Con. Losing any feature is a bit of a bummer, but I will say I haven't used the IR camera in years and most Switch games have no use for it, so I really don't think this is a big reason to avoid buying these controllers.

You can create fairly detailed macros

As many third-party controllers do, the Mobapad M6 HD and M6s also come with buttons on the back, which you can map to any button on the controller. On the M6 HD, though, you can also create macros to assign to these buttons, making them even more useful. Remapping one button to another only allows you to map buttons on the same controller, meaning the trigger on the right can only be reassigned to a button on the right controller. But with macros, you can go much more in-depth.

Macros can be created using the Android, iOS, or PC app, though I mostly stuck with Android. The app isn't on the Google Play Store so you'll have to get it from the company's website, but once you get past that, it's actually quite nice. Creating macros lets you choose which keys to be pressed and for how long, as well as the time between each button being pressed, so you have plenty of flexibility to make macros do what you want them to do. It's not too hard to use, either.

The app can also be used for firmware updates and it also includes more customization options, like setting a deadzone for the analog sticks or adjusting the sensitivity curves. It also includes a couple of custom profiles for specific games, though this feature is currently very limited.

The Mobapad M6s doesn't seem to be compatible with the app, so all of these capabilities are exclusive to the M6 HD model.

Should you buy the Mobapad M6 HD?

I can't fully recommend these controllers without mentioning the obvious risks of buying from a Chinese manufacturer that doesn't seem to have a big representation in the United States. Warranty claims might be difficult, and support in general may not be the best.

That being said, the Mobapad M6 HD offers the best hardware I've seen in a Nintendo Switch controller, with pretty much all the features you could want in a much more comfortable design with higher-quality buttons and analog sticks. It costs the same as a set of Joy-Con, but feels a whole lot nicer. If you've been on the hunt for the best Switch controller, I'd argue this might be it.

If you want something a bit cheaper, the Mobapad M6s is a great alternative. It sacrifices HD rumble and macro support, but it retains most of what makes these controllers special, so it might be worth it if you have a tighter budget.