Razer Wolverine V3 Pro Review
A responsive wireless Xbox controller
Verdict
The Razer Wolverine V3 Pro is a solid gaming controller for Xbox and PC, offering fantastic performance with snappy and responsive inputs, as well as a comfortable frame and options for physical customisation. Its connectivity is good too, with its USB-A receiver, although it isn’t as versatile as the competition with as strong battery life.
Pros
- Especially responsive over wired and wireless means
- Solid connectivity
- Comfortable, and rather sturdy
Cons
- Shorter battery life than the competition
- Lack of much physical customisation
Key Features
- Compatible with Xbox and PC:The Wolverine V3 Pro works with PC and Xbox Series consoles.
- Up to 20 hours battery life:It also offers up to 20 hours of runtime on a charge.
- Swappable thumbsticks:The Wolverine V3 Pro also comes with some physical customisation with magnetically swappable thumbsticks.
Introduction
The Razer Wolverine V3 Pro is the green peripherals brand’s long-awaited follow-up to one of their best game controllers, offering an Elite-style touch to an Xbox controller.
At £199.99/$199.99, it’s Elite-priced too, sitting in and around the mark of two of the best game controllers we’ve tested with both the Xbox Elite Controller 2 and Scuf Instinct Pro, while offering the benefit of mappable buttons, swappable thumbsticks, and high-speed wired or wireless connectivity with Xbox and PC.
I’ve been testing the Wolverine V3 Pro for the last couple of weeks to see how well it fares against the competition, and whether it’s worth your hard-earned money.
Design
- Coarser, slightly cheaper finish
- Sturdy and comfortable in-hand
- Litany of extra buttons and paddles
Against the likes of the Scuf Instinct Pro and Microsoft’s Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, the Wolverine V3 Pro features a coarser finish that’s more akin to a standard Xbox controller. Its overall shape is also similar to much more affordable wired Xbox controllers I’ve used in the past, such as the Nacon Pro Compact.
That’s not to say this is a cheap-feeling controller, though. The Wolverine V3 Pro is comfortable, with a small rubberised section on the side grips, although it is mostly plastic. The plastics used here are of an excellent quality, with this controller having an especially solid feel to it when in hand.
In hand, it feels a little on the smaller side against the Instinct Pro, although remains comfortable. The button layout on the faceplate is a standard Xbox configuration, with diagonally opposed thumbsticks and a D-Pad between them, with the usual ABXY buttons in the top right corner.
You’ll also find a handy assortment of paddles, triggers and shoulder buttons as we’ve come to expect from these pro controllers which are easy to access, as well as a switch for locking the triggers. In addition, Razer has also put a pair of extra buttons across the top side of the Wolverine V3 Pro, marked as M1 and M2, to provide even more flexibility should you need it. These are easy to find and use with your trigger fingers.
In-keeping with this controller’s pro nature, the Wolverine V3 Pro also benefits from magnetically swappable thumbsticks, although there isn’t as wide of a selection as with the Xbox Elite Controller 2.
You get two shorter concave thumbsticks by default, with a spare domed and taller concave one in the controller’s neoprene case. The Elite Controller 2 provides a lot more in the way of additional thumbsticks, and swappable paddles and D-Pad, too.
Being magnetic means swapping the thumbsticks out is nice and easy, although it appears that the magnets aren’t as strong as with the Xbox Elite Controller 2. In use, I did find the thumbsticks coming off without much force if I pushed the sticks too much. Putting them back on is a little fiddly with this in mind.
The top side of the Wolverine V3 Pro also has the customary USB-C port for charging, while the front place has an Xbox button for accessing the console’s manuals, an illuminated Razer logo and the Menu and Pause buttons.
Performance
- Responsive over wired and wireless connectivity
- Snappy inputs with Razer’s mouse switches inside
- Solid, if unimpressive, battery life
Intriguingly, the Wolverine V3 Pro is Razer’s first wireless controller, and it’s here where things diverge from first-part options. Instead of using Xbox Wireless or Bluetooth to connect to both Xbox and PC wirelessly, the Wolverine V3 Pro utilises Razer’s Hyperspeed Wireless via a USB-A receiver, in a similar vein to their wireless mice.
It works plug-and-play with Xbox and PC and I had no issues in my testing. The only downside here is that you are sacrificing a USB-A port for the privilege of using it wirelessly. If not, you can use it with the bundled 10-foot USB-C cable without any trouble.
When wired where you can benefit from a higher polling rate (1000Hz) against when used wirelessly, which is higher than other eSports-grade controllers to allow for more frequent reporting of inputs for potentially faster performance.
In addition to this tech, Razer has also bundled all sorts of other oomph into the Wolverine V3 Pro, packing in hall-effect sticks to prevent drift and offer more responsive and accurate placement than normal analog sticks. You also get the benefit of the brand’s mouse switches underneath the paddles and triggers for snappy inputs.
Press them down, and they sound and feel exactly the same as the excellent mouse buttons on Razer’s number of competitive gaming mice, especially on the paddles.
The ABXY buttons have some solid feel too, with responsive microswitches inside that provide a firm, but short actuation for snappy inputs. In addition, the Wolverine V3 Pro has a floating D-Pad, which feels equally clicky.
All of this combines to mean the Wolverine V3 Pro packs some punch. Having lockable triggers and Razer’s mouse switches inside the paddles and buttons meant inputs felt seriously quick, which was useful in quick-draw scenarios in Call of Duty, and even in some playing GTA Online and Hitman III when I got into a spot of bother, too.
The vibrations here are strong, and well-placed, which helped me when playing the likes of Forza Horizon 5, where it gave me an excellent sense of where my car was placed on the road, and where other cars were when in racing scenarios. On PC, the strong rumble also helped emphasise the seriousness of crashes in BeamNG Drive, one of my favourite vehicle sims where it’s fun to pelt a car at a wall.
There is also some additional software with the Razer Controller app on console or PC, which offers simple but effective ways of remapping buttons and other elements such as granular adjustment of the strength of the rumble and the sensitivity of the thumbsticks. You can also create different profiles, so if you want the Wolverine V3 Pro to feel different for racing and FPS games, then go right ahead.
Battery life here isn’t as strong as the competition, though. Razer rates it to last for 20 hours, although in my time with the Wolverine V3 Pro, I averaged 14 or so hours of use before the controller needed to be plugged in and charged. For reference, the Elite Controller 2 lasts for up to 40 hours on a charge, while Scuf’s Instinct Pro can go for up to 30 hours.
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Should you buy it?
You want especially brisk inputs
The Wolverine V3 Pro is one of the snappiest controllers I’ve used with its mouse-button style triggers and paddles, as well as its tactile ABXY buttons and hall-effect analog sticks. If it’s a responsive controller you’re after, this is one to consider.
You want more modularity
If you want more choice in terms of physical customisation, then you’ll want to look elsewhere as the Wolverine V3 Pro only offers basic swapping of thumbsticks with a limited selection included in the box.
Final Thoughts
The Razer Wolverine V3 Pro is a solid gaming controller for Xbox and PC, offering fantastic performance with snappy and responsive inputs, as well as a comfortable frame and options for physical customisation. Its connectivity is good too, with its USB-A receiver, although it isn’t as versatile as the competition with as strong battery life.
For instance, the Xbox Elite Controller 2 and Scuf Instinct Pro offer a lot more modularity for swapping out the thumbsticks and the D-Pad or even the faceplate while retaining Bluetooth and Xbox Wireless connectivity and stronger battery life. For more options, check out our list of the best game controllers we’ve tested.
How we test
We use every game controller we test for at least a week. During that time, we’ll check it for ease of use and put it through its paces by playing a variety of different genres.
We also check the controller’s software support and battery life if applicable.
Played a variety of games to test all the features.
Tested on both Xbox Series X and PC.
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FAQs
No, the Razer Wolverine V3 Pro doesn’t work over Bluetooth, instead connecting via a USB-A receiver or USB-C wired.
Razer rates the Wolverine V3 Pro to last for 20 hours on a charge, although our testing put it at around 14 hours of runtime.
Full specs
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
