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So I ordered the Sabertooth the day it was first available, I think it was January 5th. Needless to say it immediately sold out, and has been sold out since. It finally shipped on the 27th to arrive on the 30th.
First Impressions from an Onza owner: Having had 6 Onza replaced over 2 years, I was ready to write off Razer. So far the Sabertooth has changed my mind.
It makes the Onza feel like a cheap toy from the dollar store. The construction feels much better. It feels more like an official Microsoft controller from the thumb sticks to the now rounded triggers. It doesn't creek or flex when you hold it tight like 4 of my Onza did. The weight feels lighter but stiffer than an Onza (still has the grip coating on the plastic that the Onza TE did).
The screw in cable is a nice touch, but younger users might be prone to damaging the pins when trying to assemble it. The D-Pad is a huge improvement, I don't play fighting games but I downloaded a few demos on Xbox live just to compare it to the Onza. Again, it was night and day... no thumb fatigue or pain when performing "moves" and they actually registered.
I'll add to this as I test it out more thoroughly. I've only had it 24 hours. So far though, I'm very glad I didn't purchase the MadCatz or Fus10n controllers.
PS: FPS Freek's fit the thumb sticks perfectly.
EDIT: Another day, more info to add.
The OLED screen feature is fantastic. I can on-the-fly make each of the two thumb sticks more or less precise. Unlike the Onza (that used mechanical tention thumb sticks that were the culprit of 3 of my failed Onza) the Sabertooth does this all digitally, so the feel is the same. Imagine setting the "sensitivity" in-game higher or lower... its just like that, but it has 20 levels of sensitivity and each thumb stick is changed independently.
Another really cool feature that I did not know existed is the built in "test" mode. With the Onza, a lot of the thumb sticks would fail because the tension springs warped or became unreliable, this would cause "ghosting" (having the thumb sticks drift or pull in one direction even when the controller is sitting idle). This "test" mode lets you see the axis of each controller as you press forward, backward, etc. So you can see immediately if one is not registering to its full potential, or is ghosting by itself.
EDIT2: My latest play session with the Sabertooth resulted in remapping the XY/AB buttons to the bottom of the controller on the M3/M4/M5/M6 buttons. I must say this was a real treat! I was playing COD and Halo without moving my right thumb off the analog stick, it was amazing!
EDIT3: I've owned the controller now for two weeks, and Its becoming hard to game without it. A couple days ago I was at a friends house and we decided to play some Forza and Left4Dead. I really missed not only the "under triggers" as I have named them, but also little things like being able to change sensitivity on the fly and even the rubber-ish coating that the Sabertooth has. I've become spoiled on this controller. So much that I just ordered another, as a backup, if something happens.
As far as durability that others have suggested; between my roommate and I, I would say this thing has over 50 hours on it with no issues (knock on wood). In fact, we recently picked up a to use the Sabertooth on our PS3 and Mac.
Regarding fighting games, I've only tested it with demo's and admittedly it was only for about 10 minutes. I had written off fighting games on the Xbox because of the Onza and MS controllers. Since using the Sabertooth, I have already pre-ordered Injustice: Gods Among Us.
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If you're going to use this on a PC, the six additional buttons are not separate inputs. They can only be mapped to other buttons on the controller. So, you're not actually getting six extra buttons.Just wanted to warn any other would-be buyers.
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I bought this controller of the Razerzone website directly and thought that the Razer brand would deliver a top notch peripheral. From taking out of the box it looked impressive but that's about it. Some things to list about this controller are:Construction It's OK at best I've played it for about a week and nothing has broken off it yet. Has backlit face buttons and LED screen. However some buttons have lost their sensitivity. The "Start", second right bumper and the "A" button have to be pressed hard in order to get the button to actuate. Not good especially if your playing fighting games, or games where you jump or use it as a handbrake.
Buttons I love the feel of the D-pad the most which mimics the Playstation design and the triggers are great but when it comes the face button they built it as a mechanical button here it clicks when you press it. However Even though I hear it click it sometimes does not necessarily mean that it actuates. You have to press down harder in order for the press to go through which makes it a useless and confusing feature. You get a lot of those "I thought I pressed the button" moments. Especially for Quick-Time Events.
Macro Buttons This is by far the best feature of this controller. This is accomplished by rocker switches on the bottom where you tilt them up and down. But this can be potentially problematic if you mapped two frequently used key or keys that would need to be pressed together on the same rocker. Any button (including Start and Back, with the exception of the Dashboard key) can be mapped into the rocker macro buttons and are far more reliable that the face buttons. I find myself using these more than the face buttons due to their reliability. Although the bumpers Macro buttons are a little more finicky and have to be pressed harder than you would expect for them to register.
Thumbsticks The thumbsticks feel very much like the original Xbox 360 controllers but they have an added software sensitivity function that doesn't really seem to be effective to the overall feel and use. I've read other reviews say that the previous version did this better by a setting the sensitivity physically on the thumbsticks but I'm not familiar with it. What's really horrible about these thumbstick and partly why its a 2 star rating is the "Dead-aim". That's the amount of tilt it takes for the stick to recognize its tilting. The "Dead-aim" on the these sticks are really wide and there is no setting you can change to fix it. Also I find that each stick has different amount of dead aim depending on the direction you push it. For example if you push up on the Left stick 1 degree it goes up but if you tilt the left stick left you would have to go maybe about 3-4 degrees to get it to register. Thats a big issue if you take into account all sides and for people that play FPSs. You can see this easily from the Test Mode on the controller itself.
In conclusion this is a very poor product for it's price. I would expect better things from Razer and for them to actually put quality parts into their products. From the degredation of the buttons to thumbsticks, for a controller aimed toward competitive players this really aims low in its overall quality. I would suggest saving enough money for a SCUF Brand Controller or just switch back to the an original 360 controller.
I've bought many controllers with underside macro buttons. Madcatz Black Ops Controller. Custom controllers from Head in the Game (HG) and one by Evilcontrollers. All of whom don't sell those controllers anymore. This is by far has the best design so far if it only had better quality parts. I would purchase this if they can fix the thumbstick issues, button problems and for the other customers, the problem with it breaking within a week.
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