Gulikit TT Pro & TT Max Review: Finally, Symmetrical sticks

Gulikit is a well known name when it comes to third party controllers. Each generation of their controllers turns out to be the most well-rounded, easy to recommend controller for a lot of people.

So today I’ll be looking at the Gulikit TT Pro and the TT Max controllers. They’re kind of innovative, and they’re opening the doors to another avenue of controllers that remains largely unexplored. As you probably saw on the cover image, these controllers have PlayStation style symmetrical sticks. Finally! There is a distinct drought of premium symmetrical layout controllers. Let’s see if one of these is the right controller for you in this review.

• Gulikit TT Pro
• Gulikit TT Max

Some notable features of the TT controllers:

• Symmetrical, Playstation style sticks
• Tension adjustable TMR sticks
• Hall Effect Triggers with Proper trigger locks
• 4 detachable metal back paddles
• Hyperlink 2 Protocol for low latency high polling rate
• RGB ring around the analog sticks which clearly distinguishes it as different from other controllers
• 950 mAh battery

The TT Pro and TT Max are very similar controllers. The only differences they have are firmware/software based. Hardware-wise they’re pretty much the exact same controller. The TT Max has a good number of additional features, but the base performance remains the same.

SPEC SHEET

• Layout: Xbox shape but with Dualsense Stick orientation
• Connectivity: Wired, Bluetooth, Hyperlink 2 dongle
• Compatibility: PC, Android, iOS, Switch, Mac
• Sticks: Hall Effect
• Triggers: Hall Effect with motorised simulated trigger stops
• Extra Buttons: 4 rear paddles, 2 extra bumpers
• Battery: 1500mAh
• Colors: White, multiple special collaboration editions
• Software: PC and Mobile apps
• Price: around $60 base, accessories and special editions cost more

PACKAGING & contents

The TT Pro and TT Max boxes mostly have the same contents, aside from the extra sticks that are included in the TT Max and not in the TT Pro package.

In the boxes we have:

• Controller
• Hardshell case
• Extra D-Pad
• USB-A to USB-C cable
• Gulikit Hyperlink 2 Dongle
• Manual and Sticker
• TT MAX ONLY – Extra joysticks with varying heights
• An accessory kit containing xbox layout buttons, back paddles, and a stick tension adjustment tool

BUILD & APPEARANCE

At first glance, the TT Max and Pro look quite basic. They come in two colourways each – a basic colour and a retro console inspired colour. Top two are TT Max and bottom two are TT Pro.

I got the black colour for the TT Max and the Retro one for the TT Pro. They both look great, but I’ve noticed that the black TT Max gets some faint, visible smudges from my hands (which aren’t particularly grimy or oily, mind you). If that’s a turn off to you, you should get the retro variant of the controllers and avoid the black ones.

The TT controllers are build well, and they feel premium in your hand. It’s a very comfortable shape that fits most hand shapes and sizes well. You might have noticed that it’s quite a long controller. This is on purpose, to maintain enough distance between the two sticks so that your thumbs don’t rub against each other during dual stick usage.

The ergonomics of these two controllers are immaculate in my opinion. Every contour and button sits perfectly in your hands and under your fingertips.

The RGB here is quite cool too. There’s an RGB ring around the sticks and the Gulikit logo is also an RGB light. At the moment, you can only set the ring to certain pre-programmed patterns, but soon Gulikit will allow you to customize the RGB fully with their online tool. (They did the same thing for the KK3 series controllers)

The back half of the handles have a nice texture for grip. It works well, and feels nice and stable when gaming.

The included hardshell case is a nice addition. But Gulikit has repeated the same oversight that they had in the KK3 Pro/Max cases. The controller fits perfectly in the case when you don’t have the back paddles installed. But once you install the paddles, the controller doesn’t fit in the case anymore. This could have been prevented easily, and it’s quite an annoying oversight. I don’t enjoy removing the paddles whenever I travel (which I do quite a bit), so I’ve just been using a different controller case.

ANALOG STICKS

Both the TT Pro and Max feature TMR sticks, which should have kept stick drift at bay. But somehow there’s always a little bit of stick drift here. On my unit, even with the deadzone enabled there’s a slight drift. This is very annoying, as there isn’t any granular dead-zone control or an app for changing this setting. I think the sticks don’t fully center out properly and this causes a significant and noticeable stick drift. This is definitely a deal-breaker if Gulikit doesn’t fix this issue. It’s a mechanical problem so I don’t see how they even could fix this… You can see in the image attached below that the centering is just plain bad.

The sticks feel decent, and would be accurate if it weren’t for the bad centering. Rocket league was good with this controller but pretty much every other game was negatively impacted by the stick drift. I couldn’t aim properly on AimLabs, and even the gyro was being thrown off. My car wouldn’t drive in a straight line in Forza Horizon 5, and the camera was always slightly shifted to the right side even with deadzone enabled.

The sticks here use an internal restriction mechanism here, even though we can see anti-friction rings around the stick stems. The internal restriction implementation isn’t as smooth as other controllers I’ve used like the Flydigi Vader 4/5 pro or the GameSir cyclone 2. It’s not awful or anything, and it still feels great to use. Any lack of smoothness is only noticeable when you’re scrutinizing it. It completely disappears when you’re actually playing games.

The sticks feature adjustable tension. To do this, you need to pop the stick cap off and then use the tool included in the accessory kit. Turn it clockwise for higher tension and counter-clockwise for lower tension. The tension range here is from about 25g to 75g.

I like the way the sticks feel and perform, but the stick drift out of the box, which doesn’t go away even after calibration, makes it difficult to recommend this controller. Honestly they should’ve stuck with the ES Pro sticks for this controller.

The TT Pro has a fixed 100% joystick sensitivity. But on the TT Max, you can switch between three pre-set sensitivities using shortcuts on the controller.

The TT Max comes with additional sticks that have varying heights. This isn’t included with the TT Pro.

ABXY BUTTONS

The TT Max/Pro seem to use the same buttons as the KK3 series controllers. They use a tactile mechanism over the membrane contact point which gives it a nice feel. They’re very quiet and they feel nice. It doesn’t feel super premium or anything, but it also doesn’t feel cheap. It’s pretty good for a membrane button.

In the box for both the TT Pro and Max, you get the buttons in Xbox layout ABXY instead of the default Switch layout BAYX. Use the tool in the accessory box to take it off and replace it.

Do note that only the TT Max has firmware button swap feature. i.e. you can set the buttons to switch or xbox layout manually using the shortcut. TT Pro layout will be fixed depending on what mode the controller is in.

D-Pad

The TT Pro/Max features a floating membrane D-Pad. It’s excellent. It feels a little mushy, and it’s pretty light to actuate. But boy is it accurate. I’ve never had any diagonal mis-inputs with this D-Pad. It’s is in my top 3 membrane D-pads. The way it works, it almost feels like a joystick.

The stock D-Pad face is pretty mediocre. The extra face included, the hybrid cross one, that’s the one I prefer.

The D-Pad here is raised above the controller face, and it looks a little weird. But this height makes this more ergonomic IMO. The central pivot feels great. You can press the whole D-Pad down at once, but because of the size of the D-Pad, this only happens when you’re intentionally pressing it in the center.

On the TT Max, you can switch the D-pad between 4 Direction mode and 8 Direction mode with a shortcut. This feature isn’t available on the TT Pro, which only has 8 Direction mode. It’s kinda useful for some retro games and some fighting games.

SHOULDER BUMPERS

Not much to say here. They’re decent, standard feeling shoulder bumpers. They’re pretty quiet and they feel fairly tactile. There’s a hint of mushiness to the bumpers but it didn’t hinder my experience when gaming.

TRIGGERS

The TT Pro/Max uses hall effect triggers with microswitch trigger stops. They perform well, and I quite like ’em. There’s a little bit of an outer dead-zone to the triggers which is not noticeable during gameplay. They feel smooth and comfortable. The textured part of the trigger provides a nice grip.

The trigger stop has a short travel, and feels quite nice. The click is pretty satisfying.

BTW, you can see the triggers labelled as “ZR” and “ZL”. This indicates that this controller is Switch-first, even if it has PC support.

EXTRA BUTTONS

Both the TT Max and Pro have 4 detachable back paddles. They’re some of my favourite back paddles and they feel excellent to use. The paddles are made of metal and feel very premium.

They’re in very comfortable position and my fingers perfectly align with their position. Clicking the paddle is a nice and tactile experience. I haven’t had any accidental misclicks.

The programmability of the back buttons is a little limited though. You can’t set the back buttons to turbo (aka continuous fire) or do anything unique like toggle gyro. You can set it as a macro though (which gulikit calls APG or Auto Pilot Gaming), which would be a useful feature for fighting games and the like.

PC GYROSCOPE (TT Max only)

Both the TT Pro and Max have Nintendo Switch mode Gyro. This works fine and is an unremarkable, but pleasant experience.

But only the TT Max has gyroscopic controls that work on PC. It is mapped to the Right stick by default and there’s no mapping feature where you can map the gyro to the other stick (which gives it more versatile application like racing games and unsupported shooters). It’s a decent gyro, and you can choose between three gyro sensitivities. I wish you could freely pick the sensitivity and not just choose from “low, medium, high”.

I don’t like the fact that the gyro is tied to holding down a shoulder button or trigger. I prefer a toggle. This practically makes the gyro unusable for me. Combined with the stick drift which throws off your gyro accuracy… so yeah, this is a no bueno situation here.

HAPTICS

The haptics here are quite nice. Strong and detailed. It also has an HD rumble mode for Nintendo switch. Note that it uses Gulikit’s own Magnetic Levitation motor system. Important to note is that even in HD Rumble mode, it feels more like a rotor based rumble than a linear rumble. This table from their product page describes it well.

BATTERY LIFE

Even with a 950mAh battery in both the TT Pro and TT Max has a pretty mediocre battery life. With the RGB on and vibration set at maximum strength, the controllers lasted only about 6 hours. With vibration and lights turned off, it lasts about 15 hours. But most people will at least want vibration on.

I wish this came with a charging dock, because then the short battery life wouldn’t be as much of a bother. I don’t enjoy having to charge my controller every other day. A dock would just remove that bother.

OTHER FEATURES

APG and Continuous fire (Turbo)

The TT Pro and Max feature “Auto Pilot Gaming” which is basically a long macro. It records your inputs and when activated, automatically does all those inputs for you.

The TT Pro can record 10 seconds of inputs, whereas the TT Max can record 10 minutes of inputs. So the TT Pro is only useful for combos in fighting games, but the TT Max can be used for auto farming. This is a pretty cool feature and it does kinda set itself apart from your usual “macro” setting in controllers.

Turbo/Continuous fire is different from APG. It’s a standard feature you find in most modern third party “pro” controllers. There are two turbo modes here :

1. Normal (hold) – when you hold the assigned button down, it repeatedly presses the button till you release it.
2. Auto (toggle) – you press the button once to initiate turbo, and press again to turn it off. Like a switch.

Switch Wake-Up function

Not many controllers have this feature. Both the TT Pro and TT Max support wake up feature for both the Nintendo Switch and the Nintendo Switch 2.

Software & customization

At the moment, there isn’t a software. All customization is through shortcuts and button combinations on the controller itself. Soon, you’ll be able to customize RGB on the Gulikit web utility. But not yet.

CONNECTIVITY & LATENCY

The TT Max and TT Pro both are usable in either wired or in bluetooth mode. The included hyperlink 2 dongle is a handy little tool which basically makes the bluetooth connection stronger and more stable. This results in an increase in polling rate even when technically on a bluetooth connection.

The TT Max and Pro don’t support D-input for whatever reason. Gulikit has stated that it probably won’t support D-input. It only works in switch mode and X-input.

Here is the info in an easier to understand table :

	MODE	Polling Rate (approx)	Button Latency	Stick Latency
TT Max WIRED	X input	1000Hz	2.5ms	2ms
TT Pro WIRED	X input	1000Hz	2.5ms	2ms
TT Max DONGLE	X input	780Hz	3.5ms	3ms
TT Pro DONGLE	X input	780Hz	4ms	3ms
TT Max BLUETOOTH	X input	750Hz	3ms	2.5ms
TT Max BLUETOOTH	X input	750Hz	3ms	2.5ms

TL;DR – Good connectivity and latency. Doesn’t support D-input.

CONCLUSION

The TT Pro and Max could have been incredible controllers, but Gulikit messed up on some really basic things like the Stick Drift and the gyroscope toggle.

These controllers have my favourite membrane D-Pad ever, and the symmetrical sticks makes it a very unique controller.

I really enjoy using this controller but these basic oversights makes it impossible to recommend unfortunately. But if these don’t matter to you and you’re going to mostly use the D-Pad, then go ahead and get it. Truly a shame that this isn’t perfect…