Mobapad Huben2 review, one of the first capacitive joystick controllers to release

In 2024, I was lucky enough to have had early hands on with the world's first Tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) stick controller, the PB Tails Crush Defender. TMR promised better precision than hall-effect, better resolution and better polling rates. Both technologies use magnetism to relay the stick position with high levels of accuracy and no stick drift. Hall-effect is still the dominant technology, but TMR is fast taking its place.

In the console world, first party controllers still use traditional potentiometers for the sticks, but a growing trend in the modding community has seen people replacing those sticks with TMR or hall-effect modules. These mods require soldering and calibration, so not a job for the average gamer.

Since then, many other brands have released their TMR stick implementations into new controller models, my personal view, having seen what's out there now, is that TMR has matured into something quite excellent. I still game with the Defender, for example.

Today I bring an early look at one of the first capacitive stick controllers to hit the market, the Huben2 by Mobapad.

What is a capacitive joystick?

"Capacitive joysticks are joysticks that use capacitive sensors to detect the position and movement of the stick, rather than relying on mechanical components like potentiometers. These sensors measure changes in capacitance caused by the proximity or touch of a finger, allowing for more precise and potentially more durable joystick control" - Google Gemini

What surprised me most about the Huben2 package was just how good everything looks and feels. I don't think photos do it justice, in the hands, the quality of the plastic and grips are all very good.

There will be frequent comparisons to the GameSir Tarantula Pro here, since it has long been my personal benchmark thanks to it being an excellent all-round package with bags of customisation and very high quality construction.

Let's check out the Huben2 in a bit more detail.

Unboxing

The packaging is quite nice, not that this matters much, but from the box to the contents inside, everything has a premium feel about the whole presentation and material quality.

The protective hard shell case is very nice quality, the best I have laid hands on to date in fact, these must cost a fair bit to produce to this standard.

It's nice to see that both types of d-pad cap included, I never liked the circular cap found on other controllers, but here, with the Omron mech switches, this cap feels rather nice to the point I prefer how it operates compared to the traditional cross-type.

The wireless dongle is 1000Hz and it is already paired to the controller out of the box, although manual pairing is quick and easy.

The USB cable is high quality and braided, should you ever need to use it, though thankfully unlike some other controllers, the port on the controller is flush with the surface and not recessed, so any third party USB cable will work just fine.

both grips have a rubberised layer that's comfortable and grippy, I am unsure as to how long these will last as in the past I have seen similar things start to peel away after a year of use:

You may have noticed the switch toggles on the backside near each trigger. These lock the triggers into hair trigger mode which then actuates a mechanical microswitch under each trigger. Activating the lockout is easy and satisfying, but to revert back to analogue trigger mode requires quite a bit of finger force, more than I feel happy about as it requires more concentration and energy which means attention drawn away mid-gameplay.

The top faceplate is swappable, though there are no alternative options to buy, yet, the included cover is double glazed with a top layer that's clear.

The whole piece feels rigid and high quality again, though some may find the glossy top finish a bit annoying depending on how oily your hands get during heated gaming, because during those situations a matte textured surface offers better comfort and grip.

You may have noticed that there are pogo pins on the underside of the controller, it is not clear if these are for charging or an attachment accessory as there is no documentation clarifying. We will have to wait and see what Mobapad has in store for this.

Here is a video showcasing the sounds of the Omron mechanical microswitches, and let me just say, these switches are amongst the nicest feeling and sounding in combo that I have used on a controller yet.

Performance & measurements

I handed the pink one to my brother since he just got the Switch 2, he's pleased with the Huben2, everything seems to work fine, although it has to be said the HD Rumble is the weakest part of this controller. Whether on Switch or PC, the rumble feedback is not anywhere close to the HD Rumble rebound and depth of the motors featured on the GameSir Tarantula Pro.

The Huben2's rumble feels and sounds more like a buzzing bee than nuanced haptics that can rumble low enough to satisfy the hiring action of a shotgun in Doom or Resident Evil. Even the act of running in a game feels a bit weak on the haptics front, meanwhile, the Tarantula Pro convincingly reacts to the patter of heavy running feet or jostling through rough surfaces in a game world.

The capacitive sticks seem to react with precision, and the zero dead zone can really be felt in most games as even gentle touches to the stick result in movement, assuming the game being played has no developer implemented fixed-dead zones for controllers. Some games offer up the options to change this in the game settings, but most do not.

I played extended sessions of GTA V Enhanced with no stick performance issues, though the trigger did prove to be a bit troublesome, more on this after the measurements...

... The triggers also come with zero dead zone out of the box, but internally the actuation doesn't register until the trigger has travelled quite a distance. This means that driving can feel a bit dead until the trigger has been pressed in further than you may be used to.

Here is a GIF showing how much the trigger has to travel before the screen register an input of even 0.02%

Other tests showed that whilst the capacitive sticks are largely excellent, there is processing/filtering going on when the sticks are moved very quickly or allowed to bounce back, a test I do with all controllers to check for filtering, take a look at this comparison versus the Tarantula Pro:

Notice how the indicator on the screen bounces back much slower on the Huben2, these clips were recorded on a 240Hz OLED monitor at 240fps, the final clip was slowed to 1/4x which then makes the differences clear.

For the record, the Tarantula Pro has no noticeable filtering in in real-time, and the indicator overshoots to the opposite axis when the stick is let go, exactly as the physical stick is doing.

This is something that Mobapad can fix with a firmware update, and i have passed my findings over to the team. At present, there is no way to turn off stick filtering in the apps or via button combos like you can on some other controllers.

Software

Configuration options are limited on the controller directly, so the phone or desktop app must be used to tweak things to preference. Mobapad's app is laid out nicely and I found no issues with connectivity, even over wireless on Windows.

Here is a look at all of the tabs within it:

The desktop app can be found on the Windows Store, or by searching Mobapad in your phone's app store.

Conclusion

The Huben2 is a good controller, its normal RRP is a little high for my liking having experienced all manner of controllers these past 18 months, but if you grab one at the discounted price, then it could be a suitable controller for you. Where it is missing some features, these could be added with a firmware update, such as button combos to disable the stick filtering which removes the latency on bounce back and snap-stick movements.

Sadly, one area which I do not think can be fixed with an update is the trigger travel distance before actuation, it feels like this is part of the physical build rather than a sensor register in the controller firmware. Clarification from Mobapad is required to confirm this.

The build quality is very good, the app on both mobile and desktop work well, the Omron switches sound and feel superb, and the accessories included are a welcome addition that competes the package. But package alone doesn't make a controller great, everything has to gel, and that includes features like customisation.

I only have one small nitpick to make, and that is the silicone quality on the joystick caps. They are OK, but GameSir controllers have much better grip on the sticks thanks to adopting Sony's cap shape and near-identical quality of silicone.

It is a shame that the Huben2 cannot remap the back buttons to keyboard buttons on PC, GameSir allows this in all recent releases from the past year, customisations are saved directly onto the controller so remaps are usable on other computers.

The Huben2 only allows remapping the four back buttons to existing face buttons, and in my opinion, this is quite pointless. I never quite understood why this was so common with brands when these are PC controllers primarily.

If a good discounted price is not possible, then a GameSir Cyclone 2 or later model would be a more suitable option offering more features, excellent TMR sticks which perform just as well as these capacitive sticks, and have no filtering applied to them, should this be an important deciding factor for you.