AKNES Gulikit Switch Joystick Replacement - No Drifting Hall Effect for Joycon, OLED & Lite - Includes Repair Kit, Thumb Stick Cap (1 Pair)

Okay so, these things are new enough (as in literally came onto market less than 24 hours as of posting this) so, let's start with the basics in a super simplified TLDR version: Yes, hall effect joysticks are indeed confirmed as being far superior to the kind that we're used to. Normal joysticks-- whether they're in a Joy Con or in a "Pro-Style" (PS/Xbox/etc) controller will all drift. It comes from a design flaw in the way that they work. They have things inside of them that rubs against graphite that slowly wears away creating dust that eventually confuses the sensors. They are rated to last only so long and, back when controllers were cheap and almost disposable, that was fine with everyone. Needless to say that with controllers getting *very* expensive these days however... Yeah, folks was getting a little annoyed at their $70-$150 purchase wearing out in a couple of years (or less!)-- and yes, Nintendo Joy Con are both poster child and extreme example of this! Gulikit, however, have developed a new technology that uses magnets that don't even touch. So, *theoretically*, if nothing's touching, then nothing's wearing out! First they came out with sticks for the "Pro style" controllers which are bigger and now, as of last night, the "Joy Con style" sticks are officially on the market and these, are them. That's 100% confirmed btw as Gulikit came out with them on their own website sometime today. Others have already done a few teardowns as well to confirm and, I fully expect that all the various Tech Channels to come out with tear downs of their own just as soon as they can get them delivered. Again, this is about 24 hours of them hitting the market (early 2023) so... Bear that in mind concerning any and all reviews (including my own). I have *no* doubts that improvements will be made on any pet peeves in further production runs. Now. The sticks. Instructions aren't kidding, *calibrate* them when you first put them in!!!!! The right looked like the system thought it was a little off center before I did that but, they are not lying, it calibrated just fine and works perfectly normal after the calibration. I'm thinking it has to do with the tech. Maybe something to do with the magnets? I dunno but, whatever it is, it works fine once you do that calibration so, I'm not concerned. Feel really is comparable to OEM. Gulikit really has done it again. Those guys do indeed seem to be on an absolute tear working their way through the entire controller market. lol. That being said, will these do as advertised? Whelp. There's no doubt that they definitely *won't* be drifting due to dust created from contact wear. If there's no contact, then there's no wear from it and thus, no dust created to cause problems. So, yes, that part can indeed be said without a doubt without ever even having to touch them. That being said, this is a *very* new technology so, no one can honestly say that there isn't some *other* kind of weakness in the design-- and, to be 100% fair, the only way to know for absolute, 100% certain how any new tech is going to *really* behave is by a bunch of folks buying and using it and then comparing notes. So, at the moment, all I can say is what those of us that are following this technology can say: It's *definitely* an improvement over the original as it addresses a glaring design flaw that the entire *industry* has been suffering from for *decades*. Is it going to be as good as we hope? That we can't determine yet but it is still miles better than what we been working with before. Obviously, if there is anything bizarre, weird, unforeseen or whatever, I'll update this review but, for right now, my suggestion really is to just get them. Heck, given my experiences? If these things even last a *year* they're a *lot* better than the OEM! Also, R3 and L3 are absolute *killers* for causing drift so, I've already put a bunch of games that use them *a lot* in my list here and will be working my way through them over the next few months at which point, I will either come back to buy more or be back with a sad edit. But, if I haven't gotten back to this review by the time you read this, assume that they are still working normally. Thanks. :D UPDATE: 2 months in and yep. Still working just fine. I have done at least 10-20 hours of every game I can think of that uses R3 and L3 heavily and... Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. No drift. Honestly, the only thing I can think of so far is that I think that any minute differences that I thought I felt when I first put them in was just from either my own imagination because I *knew* that I had put them in or, it was because they were just new sticks because I honestly cannot tell the difference between them and any of the old stick joycons that are still miraculously working anymore.) As for that tiny gap? So far it hasn't posed any problems for me. At the risk of making this review really way too long, I'll try to update again at the 6 month mark (or earlier if something actually does go wrong) because that's been my normal usage length on normal Joy Cons before issues develop but, until then, yep. They're still working. :D July (leetle past the 6 month mark) Alas, I had to give away my joycon because they went with the old Switch in May when the husband upgraded me to the pretty Zelda OLED so cannot report on this further. Since I *know* that those sticks are gonna start drifting sometime this fall/winter given how all the others did with the way I use them, I have every plan to get a new set of the gullikits and will do another review of those-- especially since those will no doubt be a later production run from these first ones. Here's to hoping that they continue to improve them. :D

My original left blue Joycon from 2017 started to have some stick drift, so I bought this kit in order to swap the stick out with one of these. Replacement wasn't too bad, and the tools seemed to work just fine for me. Just be careful and be sure to use appropriate downforce when loosening the screws; I was able to not strip a single screw during disassembly/reassembly with the provided tools. After calibrating the Joycon stick, everything worked great, and so far everything is still working good for me. The only thing that I really do not like is that the top of the stick is quite smooth. The OEM Joycon sticks have a nice rubber texture on top which makes it easy to grip and not have your thumb fall off. However, these lack that same texture, so I find my thumb losing grip often. Sure, they include grips you can place on top of the stick. But, those grips really change the whole feel of the stick and make it too loose feeling for me in games that require precision. Ultimately, I'd give this 4.5 stars so far, with the -0.5 stars being from being too smooth on top compared to OEM sticks. If they had put a more grippy texture on top, these would be perfect. Otherwise, the stick has been a great replacement so far.

Just finished installing and calibrating them, Now link no longer has a mind of his own! After calibration they are very accurate and no drift whatsoever. Granted I just got them, but still. If they ever develop drift (which to my knowledge is practically impossible with hall effect sensors) I'll update the review. They feel almost identical to the stock switch sticks, but a tiny bit stiffer, could be because my switches sticks are like, 5 or 6 years old by now. Personally I like the slightly stiffer sticks. The included tools made assembly rather easy, I did have a bit of trouble with the right joycon, but that's because I wasn't following the guide I had (I did not use their guide, It seems a bit lacking in info for someone who isn't too familiar with dissembling small electronics. Overall great product, I wish the stock sticks were hall effect. Do remember to do the calibration in the switch software after installing them though, otherwise the switch will think they are drifting, because the system is expecting different signals from the sticks. Calibrating it tells the system what the signals are supposed to be (what zero is basically)

This isn’t a one-and-done solution by any means. It’s nice to be able to fix up your own kits but I’ve had to do replacements once or twice. They can still drift and get off-center over time and sometimes it can’t be calibrated out. Maybe it’s a dust issue or something but it’s still a bit frustrating. Consider whether or not you want to replace yourself or have nintendo do it before voiding your warranty. the caps also tended to pop off if they were pushed too much. Still, they work nice and are of decent enough quality.

My switch Joycon was having very bad drift, but I put up with it for a while because I didn't want to replace my Pikachu Eevee version Joycon with other color. That's when I found out about Gulikit and I saw a great review about it, so I gave it a try. It worked out great, no more drift, sticks move very smooth. After 8 months, they are still working great, but right stick thumb cap got a crack down in the middle, which caused it to be easily coming off from the stick shaft. They have red/blue/white replacement caps on Amazon but I wanted black one, so I contacted AKNES customer support to see if they sold the black caps. While they didn't have just the black caps, they were generous to send me a whole joystick kit replacement. I didn't want to do all the installation process again so I just took the cap off of the replacement and put it on the stick that's already installed. Now my Joycon works great again, and also got a set of joystick replacement just in case. Overall very happy with the product and the customer support. I recommend this to anybody who has drift issues.

This is nothing against the product, but more of a warning to DIY’ers. There are several small ribbon cables to work around. The most difficult being a tiny ribbon cable that connects the L and ZL (or R and ZR) buttons to the main board. It’s doable but very much a pain. The Right Joycon has an additional part that slides next to the battery. Apparently it’s the antenna. I thought I broke the thing but it actually snaps onto the board. Other than that the installation is straightforward. All tools work great in the kit, though I would have preferred a better quality tweezer. On the flip side it’s nice that one was included at all. There are also replacement screws which was a great touch. Used the new sticks a could hours now. No issues at all, they feel like better quality to the stock ones provided.

Bought the kit to replace the original joysticks as they were pretty bad on stick drift. Following instructions, replacement was pretty quick. One stick was bad, but I contacted Jim from AKNES, and he helped get a replacement stick in no time. Thank you! Edit: Installed the replacement set and was getting consistent direct left drift on the left Gulikit Joystick, and It seems to be happening when reinstalling the battery tray. While the battery tray is removed, there is no drift at all. When the joystick cable is pressed down or side to side, the Switch reads it as up or left movement. Still a great product, but just something to note before believing the Gulikit joystick is faulty.

The actual joysticks are great. Install was easy enough although I did have to watch a tutorial online as there are no instructions that come with it. Any write up out there will do, it’s a very simple swap. I got the set with the tools - the 2 screw drivers work great and feel good too. The one set of tweezers was very sub par. Difficult to grab anything with and they have so much flex that you can’t really get a good hold with them either. I used them and it only took me 30ish minutes to swap, but not the best quality Overall would definitely recommend this kit and would buy it again if I had faulty ones in the future.

It took six years, but we finally have what should be a permanent fix to Joycon drift. These use Hall (electromagnetic) sensors rather than the OEM sticks, that have a metal wiper on carbon. On the original sticks, that carbon wears down or gunks up over time, causing inconsistent readings, thus drift. With the GuliKit Hall sensors, there is no physical contact between stick and sensor, so nothing to wear out, and no drift. This kit comes with everything you need to install them, including two genuine GuliKit sticks. There've been some fakes knocking about, so make sure you stick with reputable ones. The replacement isn't difficult and doesn't require any soldering. There are good guides from people like iFixIt and SpawnWave for how to do it. Make sure to follow those, as opening the Joycons up can be a bit fiddly. Also make sure to calibrate the sticks in the Switch's settings menu before playing any games. These do seem a little stiffer than the stock sticks, but they probably just need a break-in period. Otherwise they work great.

Muy buena refacción para el joystick del joycon, al momento funciona correctamente, lo seguiré evaluando

Llevo casi 4 meses usándolos moderadamente, no hay fallas hasta el momento. Muy recomendables y más por los destornilladores incluidos.

(1 Month later) I'll come back to this in about a year or so and update the review but as of right this moment - No Drift, the thumb sticks feel firm (More so than other replacement thumb sticks I've tried). The only points I could take away from the product is the thumb sticks themselves feels like a cheap rubber however the caps feel great to distract from that texture. + The plastic tweezer felt cheap, couldn't really grip with them and I genuinely had no use for them. Other wise they were easy to install. Even with the points above I could not valid docking a star off my review.

These are good replacement sticks for Nintendo Switch. It is a bit difficult to take everything apart to make the swap, but once they are installed, they work well. They also should not be susceptible to stick drift. I had to look up a video online on how to disassemble the Switch Joy-Cons and install the sticks.