GuliKit Steam Deck Joystick replacement

This is a review for the type B compatible SD02 version of the thumbsticks. In short, they worked great for me. The install and calibration can be done in less than 10 minutes. You'll probably have to calibrate them with the button on the back of each joystick before putting the cover back on, but it's not a huge issue. The container they shipped in also works well to store the original thumbsticks. I wouldn't have minded if you had to solder the caps on, but it does save you a couple of minutes if you ever have to swap back in your old sticks for whatever reason, plus you get a spare set of caps. My left stick's calibration was perfect from the box, but my right one was off a little bit. I had no weird issues with deadzones after calibrating, or with other issues people had with the previous version such as the sticks grinding / scratching / sticking, or the motion not being smooth. If I had to pick a "negative" it would be that one stick is was switched to A and one stick was switched to B from the factory. You should be inspecting this anyway before installing, but I'm sure someone will leave a one star review eventually mentioning the gyro not working correctly. Assuming they hold up over time these are a great replacement for the stock thumbsticks. Just don't expect them to make you a better gamer.

Easy to install, works awesome!!!!!

Highly recommended to purchase these as the original thumbsticks modules, (being potentiometers), will wear out over time with use and develop an issue known as stick drift. You personally may luck out and never experience this as it doesn't always develop at the same rate and severity for every module as it varies greatly on the amount of time the sticks are used, but given enough time and use it will happen. These hall effect modules are multitudes of times more resistant to drift issues and are much more accurate allowing you to set the dead zone of the stick much lower. If you plan to keep and use your steam deck for years to come, then it's a no brainer to invest in these. These are very easy to install if you have the tools necessary, (a small phillips head screw driver and a plastic pry tool). The only complaint I have is that there are no instructions included in the box and requires visiting the gulikit website for instructions which I highly recommend as if you simply just do a drop in install you may mess up as there is a small switch and button on each module you'll need to use to make sure the sticks are properly adjusted and calibrated as the box makes no mention of these.

Bought this kit as soon as I saw it available for the Type B (MHDA) joysticks. I had already upgraded the NVMe drive of my Steam Deck, so opening it back up was simple as before. Just go slow and be careful not to strip any of the screws, and make sure you remove your microSD card if you have one. From beginning to end, it probably only took about 15 minutes including calibration to install these new joysticks. Mine were slightly low of center even after multiple attempts using the button on the back, but running thumbstick_cal in desktop mode fixed it so now it's perfectly calibrated at 0,0. As others have said, this new revision still has the downsides of a square outer deadzone and that the joysticks max out at about 80% throw (e.g., if you press forward on the joystick 80% to max, it will always register 100%). I feel like most people won't notice the difference or can adapt to it, but nonetheless it would be nice if they fixed this for any future revisions. However, I would not recommend using these to control an underwater submersible due to this small inaccuracy.

They are smoother in action, but the dead zone is bigger than the original joysticks. I can tune it in SteamOS to make it not drift, but if you use Windows or any other OS on your Steam Deck you will get incurable joystick drift. Edit Sept 2024: I bought the Steam Deck OLED joysticks. I kept my old LCD Steam Deck with these joysticks and I had the OLED Steam Deck for almost a year with the original joysticks. It was easier to test the difference side by side. I noticed the Hall effect joysticks were much more precise and responsive (I still don’t get why they say these don’t have drift though. The joystick returns to the center with basically a spring, Just like a traditional joystick, so as the spring wears out or holds a position slightly off perfect center, it can drift. The only thing that prevents it from drifting is the ability to adjust the joystick deadzone in SteamOS, The functional difference between these Hall effect joysticks and traditional is that traditional joysticks use potentiometers which is a variable resistor that has brush contacts so it can read out difference resistances to determine the joystick’s position. This means it can wear out and be vulnerable to dust and static to give bad readings. The Hall effect joystick uses a magnet on the joystick and a sensor to detect the magnet’s position. Since the sensor is very sensitive it can articulate many times the amount of positions a potentiometer could. ) While my original comment still applies, I’ve decided that overall these are better than the original joysticks in game. You can make much finer movements with them. My new right stick unfortunately still occasionally drifts in games running on my Windows dual boot. The touch sensing wire connected to my left thumb stick was a little short. This caused the wire to snag when I was circling the sticks to test the feel of it. This prevented some movement. Thankfully I didn’t close the Steam Deck up yet so I took it out to look and I didn’t have to desolder the wire. I just had to use a utility knife to very carefully cut the glue they had covering the wire near the solder joint. The glue made the wire stiff and took away a few mm of slack which was needed. After I cut off the glue, I was able bend the wires so that they don’t rub and snag against the joystick component anymore. I played a few games and it works great.

My sticks started drifting so I picked these up. They were very easy to install and seem high enough quality. They needed a little breaking in at first but they seem good now. Recommended!

I didn't have much time to play games after getting them installed but if I run into any issues once I do I'll update Mt review if at 5 Star still it means everything is good to go. - easy install - zero deadzone Out of the box they were off centered. Thankfully calibrating them in (Konsole) with "Thumbstick_cal" made them dead center with zero deadzone. Super stoked about that. Especially after reading reviews on the lcd version. Very happy I did not need to use the tiny button on the back of the boards. They feel like stock sticks. Tension is great. The tension is actually more than stock stick but not sure if that is due to them being new and if that will change after breaking them in. They also felt a tiny bit shorter than stock sticks but side by side they are the same size.

Worked great for a Steam Deck OLED, feels like OEM. No modifications required. Took maybe 15 minutes start to finish Didn't come with any tools but for the price and number of 5 star reviews I'd rather that vs taking a chance on an alternative kit just because it came with a 25 cent screwdriver and plastic pry bar.