Scuf Valor Pro is an excellent and (relatively) affordable high-end controller

After a few weeks, I’m confident in saying the Scuf Valor Pro is one of my favourite premium gaming controllers ever.

It offers some of the key modular features of the highest-end gamepads at a more affordable price (US $99/about C$141), making it a welcome addition to my peripheral family. While it has some limitations, including Xbox- and Windows-only compatibility and a wired connection, its benefits more than make up for them.

General design

Above all else, the Scuf Valor Pro just comfy. In addition to nice rubberized grips, the Valor Pro’s front plastic shell is oh-so-smooth, making it a perfect resting place for my palms. Best of all, it’s incredibly light, providing greater comfort during prolonged sessions. Some may take issue with it being wired, but I’ve honestly never really cared about that, especially considering the Valor Pro includes a 10-ft USB-A to USB-C cable.

To its credit, Scuf also offers 15 radically different colour options on its website, including the floral-inspired Cherry Blossom, red dragon-covered Prosperity and wavy multi-coloured Nuclear. From third-party retailers like Amazon and Best Buy, only the standard Black, White, and Steel Gray variants are available. The faceplate is also magnetically attached and can be easily swapped with an alternative, but unfortunately, the ones for other Scuf controllers, like the Instinct, aren’t compatible here. Scuf says it plans to add more options in the future, but for now, the 15 colours that are there are impressively diverse.

There are a couple of downsides to the look and feel of the Valor Pro, though. For one, there are these odd and unsightly asymmetrical hexagonal and jagged line patterns along the triggers and bumpers. They remind me of the glaring little smudges that you’d get on glasses that become especially prominent under the light. Thankfully, these at least won’t be visible during most circumstances as they’ll be covered by your hands. A bigger issue, though your mileage may vary, is that each point on the D-pad doesn’t fully go in its corresponding direction, making it feel a little less clicky than I’d prefer. It’s by no means unusable — it’s just a slight blemish on the otherwise strong level of comfort.

Hardware features

Of course, the main reason you’re using this kind of controller is for how it impacts your gameplay, and in that regard, it’s got a number of benefits.

First and foremost is the Hall Effect analogue sticks and triggers, which use magnetic fields and electric sensors to provide more accurate in-game controls and reduced stick drift. It’s a smart way to ensure you get a more responsive and longer-lasting controller.

Like a lot of so called “Pro” controllers, including Microsoft’s $230 Xbox Elite and PlayStation’s $270 DualSense Edge, the Scuf Pro sports four customizable rear paddles. These can be set to substitute various regular buttons for quicker access, which, naturally, can be a great perk in competitive fast-paced shooters.

In Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, for instance, I could use the left paddle to jump and the right to slide, saving precious micro-seconds that would have otherwise been used up by my thumb reaching for the A or B button. You can also flip snappy little switches on the back to reduce the time of trigger inputs — again, a useful feature for multiplayer shooters like Call of Duty.

Naturally, these customizable buttons can also be handy in single-player games. I’ve been slowly working my way through the recently released Monster Hunter Wilds, Capcom’s brilliant — and more approachable than ever — action-RPG, and it requires a lot of button inputs as you keep up with all of the icons and notifications on the somewhat overwhelming UI.

Sometimes, you might want to fire off your grappling hook-like Slinger, which can retrieve distant items, shoot projectiles, trigger traps and swing you across gaps. In these cases, I like having the option to set the B button to a paddle so my thumbs can be focused more on running around and spinning the camera, especially in the thrilling white-knuckle monster fights.

Another interesting feature is the audio control system. With a wired headset connected to the 3.5mm jack, you can use little dials on the bottom of the controller. The left one controls game volume and headset mute, while the right one manages chat-to-game volume ratio and mic mute. Truthfully, I don’t use wired headsets (my ears quickly get uncomfortably hot with them), so this feature totally isn’t for me, but it should be useful for some others.

The verdict

Overall, I was quite impressed by the Valor Pro. While many high-end controllers can cost well over $200 in Canada, Scuf’s latest offering gives you that for just under $150. While you might not get wireless functionality or the full suite of modular buttons available with other gamepads, their absence is more than worth it to make the Valor Pro more affordable. Besides, the inclusion of the key customizable paddles, on top of the remarkably comfortable design and little bonuses like the audio system, ensure that you still get a great deal of value here.

The fact that you can get all of those features without breaking the bank is wonderful, and it makes the Valor Pro easy to recommend to anyone in the market for a higher-end controller.

The Scuf Valor Pro is available on Amazon and Scuf’s website.