Flydigi Vader 5 Pro Review

Flydigi Vader 5 Pro is the next iteration of a very well received Vader 4 Pro. Is it worth upgrading from Vader 4 Pro to Vader 5 Pro? And is it a good first purchase? Spoiler: it’s a very good controller and one of the best releases this year.

The specs of Vader 5 Pro are great. 8 remappable buttons (2 back buttons, 2 paddles, 2 shoulder buttons and CZ buttons), RGB, mechanical ABXY buttons, 1000Hz polling rate, adjustable ring for joystick force, rubber grips, phone stand slot, 2.GHz/Bluetooth and wired connection for Windows, Switch, Android and iOS. The price is around $79-$89 and you can get it now from MinixPC.

Vader 4 Pro vs Vader 5 Pro

The new model brings better grips, an improved Dpad, a refined shape, and a much more flexible set of back buttons. Triggers feel sharper and more responsive, and the upgraded materials make the whole controller feel more premium in hand. Most of the core performance stays the same, but the comfort and input upgrades are quite nice.

• Back buttons – Vader 5 Pro has redesigned 4 back buttons plus 2 extra top buttons near the triggers, while Vader 4 Pro has only 4 back buttons in a horizontal layout.
• LED design – Vader 4 Pro uses a V shaped front LED, while Vader 5 Pro switches to a horizontal LED strip at the bottom.
• Grip material – Vader 4 Pro uses textured plastic, while Vader 5 Pro upgrades to rubberized grips for better comfort.
• Shell finish – Both use matte plastic, but the Vader 5 Pro has a smoother, sweat resistant finish.
• Charging pins – Vader 4 Pro uses a 2 pin dock, while Vader 5 Pro uses a 3 pin dock compatible with dock V2.
• Function button layout – Vader 5 Pro adopts Flydigi’s newer layout, while Vader 4 Pro keeps the older arrangement.
• Dpad – Vader 4 Pro uses old Dpad, while Vader 5 Pro uses the improved Dpad V2 found in Apex 5.
• Mounting slot – Vader 4 Pro has an exposed phone mount slot, while Vader 5 Pro hides the slot and works with a new phone mount.
• Trigger feel – Vader 4 Pro has a heavier micro switch click, while Vader 5 Pro offers a lighter, faster mouse like click in short mode.
• ABXY buttons – Vader 4 Pro uses micro switch 1.0 with more resistance, while Vader 5 Pro uses micro switch 2.0 with softer travel.
• Shape – Vader 5 Pro has a slightly refined, more ergonomic shape compared to the Vader 4 Pro
• App – Vader 5 Pro uses Space Station 4.0 instead of 3.0 used by Vader 4 Pro

Latency is very much improved in Vader 5 Pro. The Vader 4 Pro had really bad joystick latency and now it’s almost as good as you can get. In my testing the button latency was around 3-4 ms wired and 4-5 ms with a dongle. And joystick latency was around 4 ms wired and 4.5-5 ms with a dongle. And the Gamepadla results done by other users match that. Really good results and the feeling was the same – the buttons and joysticks felt very responsive.

Flydigi Space Station 4.0

Vader 5 Pro uses the new PC app version – Flydigi Space Station 4.0 instead of 3.0 which was used for Vader 4 Pro and multiple other Flydigi controllers.

For now it’s 95% translated to english, but it’s still one of the better software apps for a controller in my opinion. There are plenty of settings to fiddle with. The install file is 155 MB.

There’s plenty of joystick settings, you can set controller sleep time, joystick debounce, calibration, rebounce algorithm, 8-12 bit accuracy and sensitivity. And that is on top of the joystick’s adjustable ring which can set the tension between 40gf to 100gf. Joysticks are Hall effect, not TMR, but still very precise and they feel amazing.

For buttons you can map them to different buttons or to keyboard keys, there’s a turbo function (up to 30 clicks with a single button press), you can create macros and also map buttons to mouse clicks or wheel up/down.

Here’s a sound test of all the buttons of Vader 5 Pro:

Opinion

My favorite controller of the recent years is Gamesir Cyclone 2 and I mostly play Rocket League and RPG/action games with a controller. And Vader 5 Pro felt very familiar when switching from Cyclone 2. I have small/average hands and the analog triggers were just a bit uncomfortable after longer gaming sessions, but the joysticks, buttons, bumpers felt great. Back buttons are placed just a tiny bit lower than on Cyclone 2, but they felt comfortable too. Paddles I don’t really use, but they felt alright.

Wired and dongle connection were both very responsive with low latency. Bluetooth was worse, but that’s normal for Bluetooth. I didn’t have any disconnect issues. RGB was only possible to turn off using the software which was a bit annoying.

Overall, this is an excellent controller, top 3 of 2025 controller releases in my opinion. It’s now available at MinixPC at around $79-$89 and Amazon listings should come soon too. There’s also a Dragon Ball edition with different color scheme.

And the Vader 5S which will be compatible with Xbox consoles is also coming out soon.