User Experience

Oh hey look, the SCUF Envision Pro continues to have the traditional magnetic faceplate. This means you can, at least when SCUF introduces them, purchase a standalone custom design faceplate and simply swap it on your controller rather than getting a brand new unit. It's held in place by six magnets and has accent rings in it that go around the thumbsticks. In fact, you can go to the SCUF website right now and get replacement accent rings, D-pad, thumb sticks etc right now in different colors/shapes. Removing the faceplate also exposes the reset button placed between the A and B buttons on the right in addition to providing access to replace the various elements. For example, seen above is the process of swapping out the default concave surface thumbsticks for the convex profile ones you get in the box.


Likewise, you can swap out the button covers for the side buttons and paddles for those in the accessory box. You will notice they go from the default angled finish to a smoother flat design. I personally prefer the default ones for the paddles since it is much easier—in my opinion—to get the actuation feedback. I do like the flatter side buttons though since I can place the side of my fingers on them now and press down the phalange bones instead. Try them out and see what works best for you. Do be aware that removing the covers may require more force than you think so carefully pry out one corner and then go around. This is again where metal parts would give me more confidence since I kept fearing I might break the plastic ones when removing them—SCUF says there should be a removal tool included to facilitate this but I didn't see one included with my unit. Also, while I am here, I should point out you can toggle through the stored profiles for the side buttons and paddles using the profile button on the front. The RGB LEDs and the vibration motor will confirm the profile and associated mapping.


The Envision Pro also gets different trigger stops for the left and right triggers. There is a slider underneath which you can move from end to end to go from a more traditional longer travel to one with a couple of millimeters at most. I noticed you could also set the slider in the middle for somewhere in between so you can see what works best for you in the games you play. Here is where I would have liked to see CORSAIR and SCUF go for Hall Effect sensors to allow for more precise analog feedback which some multi-platform games are supporting after the advent of the PlayStation DualSense.


SCUF seems to love its low actuation trigger feedback mechanism since the D-pad has low travel Omron mechanical switches underneath. So expect to see near-instantaneous actions when pressed in. The face buttons and the others on the top are all tactile but otherwise no different from what has been the case for a few years already now. The extra buttons are all very handy as can be the G-keys below. They are set to do volume control by default but, as with everything else, can be re-mapped using iCUE for whatever you want. There is no Bluetooth connectivity here so wireless battery life is lower than standard Bluetooth controllers since this uses a low latency, more power hungry 2.4 GHz channel. SCUF rates the battery life for ~17 hours of active gaming and I consistently hit 16 hours with the LEDs left default so as to indicate the profiles I am in, but not having any other lighting effect on. The battery status/charging indicator LED to the left of the 3.5 mm jack goes from red to amber to green while you do get a more precise gauge in iCUE. Charging is slow since it's restricted to USB 2.0 (USB 3.2 Gen 1) so this is another place where I would have liked to see the Envision Pro improve and offer fast charging. The 3.5 mm jack makes adding a microphone or headset to the controller an option although note that SCUF doesn't provide any details about the DAC/amp used inside. It's best treated as a last minute resort to pair with your audio devices without expecting great quality. I'll also note that the controller weighs ~285 g as it comes out of the box, which is a nice weight to hold on to and feels solid enough. Haptic feedback from the vibration motors was excellent too and allowing you to change how strong this can be is also quite handy.


It would be fair to assume most people gaming on a controller would be doing so in 3rd-person games of various genres such as RPGs and fighters. The analog control on offer with the SCUF Envision Pro helps a lot with precise movements and I did like the highly responsive D-pad for quick strikes in games in the Yakuza and Assassin's Creed franchises. Platforming is also quite easy with the directional movements and I set up the side buttons to pull up the item menu for use in battles with the triggers and shoulder buttons for different commands. In fact, Yakuza is built with a controller in mind where you have chain moves for special actions and iCUE allows you to remap the side buttons, or really anything not as frequently used, for such combos too.


While controllers are more typically used in third-person games purely because of the mouse advantage in first-person games, there are situations where having analog control over movement in FPS games can be useful, a typical example being stealth sections where AI behavior is often tied to the character's movement speed, which is translated into "noise." A lot of popular FPS action shooters also enable cross-platform play with friends on consoles so using a controller might also seem like the fairer thing to do. Of course there are controllers which don't have all the bells and whistles of this Envision Pro so you will still have some advantage if you set up the various triggers and thumbsticks to your liking, and this is even before the various extra keys and buttons are available. For the likes of COD and Battlefield, the preset profiles work very well too and I barely changed much from how the controller was mapped.


That analog movement is also very useful in racing games—gone are the jerky on/off inputs for acceleration in particular, with much smoother input as well as finer control with turning. You can add to this other game types including simulators too, although I did decide to be slightly impish here and use one of my favorite games of all time—Age of Empires 2. This game actually does not have controller support on PC unlike a lot of other such RTS games but, if you are patient enough, you can use iCUE to map the various buttons and combinations to mimic a keyboard and mouse. I played ~10 minutes before I gave up since it was far too ridiculous and completely impractical, although not before I had used one of the G-keys to input "HOW DO YOU TURN THIS ON" in a practice game.