Admittedly, the DualSense Edge impressed audiences in its initial reveal. But, at a $200 price point, it’s difficult to justify buying a marginally better controller with a “moderately worse” battery life. According to Sony, it had to make compromises to keep the ergonomic design, and, unfortunately, battery life was one of them. Here’s Sony’s original statement on the topic: Users are understandably upset. As great as the new features are, they shouldn’t be paying $200 for a premium gamepad if the solution to the main issue is a 2.8-meter USB C cable. Sony already boasted a poor reputation when it came to the battery life of their controllers. Upon release, the original DualSense controller could muster up around 12 hours of battery life. But with continued use over the course of this year, reports claim that battery life has degraded to just 6 hours. Sony failed to specify the projected battery life for the DualSense Edge, but considering it will be worse than the original, it’s hardly good news. Despite the DualSense Edge being compatible with PC, it doesn’t justify the $200 price tag or make it an appealing alternative to the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2, whose battery life fluctuates between 30 and 40 hours. That is a light-year difference unless you are willing to play wired and a huge letdown despite Sony’s poor track record with battery life on their previous controllers. DualSense Edge product manager, Tomomasa Mizuno, explained that Sony has spent over hundreds of research sessions with pro gamers since it began creating the DualSense Edge in 2018. Although Sony hasn’t fixed all the problems with the DualSense Edge, it is an improvement. Specifically, Sony found an alternative to the drift stick issue. Even if the DualSense Edge could still technically suffer from the same issue, it’ll be easier for end users to replace their joysticks since they’re completely modular and will be available for sale starting next year. It’ll be interesting to see how well the DualSense Edge will sell when it launches on January 26. Alternatively, PC gamers who are interested to get the DualSense Edge can pick up an Xbox Elite Series 2 Core Controller or its more expensive but customizable variant, Xbox Elite Series 2.
