Fantech EOS Pro IIS Review: A Clicky Controller

In today’s market, a majority of controllers choose to follow a similar path. Offset sticks, stacked shoulders, and the Xbox One/Series styled ergonomics appeal to the most amount of people at once. While that may be the case, some companies choose to go against the grain. Sony’s Dualsense comes to mind immediately with symmetrical sticks, while 8Bitdo adjusts the ergonomics on their Ultimate line.

Falling into the latter category, the Fantech EOS Pro IIS tries to change the ergonomics while providing some additional features on top of it. Are the changes from the original EOS Pro worth the upgrade? Are the ergonomic changes going to be worth your time? Now’s the time to figure out, and that’s exactly what I’m here to help do.

Fantech EOS Pro IIS Specs

Just to get it out the way right off the bat, the Fantech EOS Pro IIS is about $40-$45 on Fantech’s website, placing it right in sight of a lot of other midrange controllers out on the market. However, to match their features in terms of charging docks among other things, you can get away with that for just an extra $8-$10.

Sticks: TMR
Triggers: Hall Effect
Face Buttons and D-pad: Mechanical
Extra Features: M1-M2 Buttons, Gyro, Adjustable Triggers, Customizable D-Pad and Stick Heights, Turbo and Macros
Battery: 1000mAh
Polling Rate: Up to 1000Hz
Connectivity: 2.4ghz, Bluetooth, Wired
Compatibility: Windows, macOS, Android, iOS, “Tesla Vehicles”, Nintendo Switch
Weight: 270g

Fantech EOS Pro IIS at AliExpress

What I Like

The Customization

One of the biggest upsides of the Fantech EOS Pro 2S, which I’m just going to call the 2S going forward, is the customization of it. I’ve covered a few different controllers here that have more customizability, but those came at a cost. The Beitong Zeus 2 Elite could do everything including the face buttons, but came in at a $100+ cost. For the $40-$50 of the 2S, you get the choice on how tall you want your sticks, and whether you want a standard or one of two dish-style D-pads.

When it came to my decision, I preferred the classic D-pad shape, and paired that up with a taller left stick for higher levels of control steering in racing games. But the nice thing is, that you don’t really have to keep that selection all the time. When moving into games that don’t need as fine control, I could easily just place the shorter stick right back on. I would just never recommend the taller right stick, as that got a bit too awkward.

The Sticks

Speaking of sticks, you’re looking at an upgrade to TMR. While I’d love to say they’re a massive step up from the Hall Effect, they really aren’t. As I’ve learned during my testing, TMR is another “Anti-Drift” option like the Hall Effect, but has lower power draw and interference. So they’re a nice addition, that doesn’t feel too different from normal.

Though I will point out, that these have been incredibly smooth in their movement, and that has made the experience way better overall.

The Experience

Might feel like a cop-out, but the actual usable experience of the 2S has been super nice during my time with it. When using the dongle, as long as I had the switch set to the right spot, I could just turn it on and get into whatever I wanted. A lot of controllers have been plug-and-play, with a few exceptions, not working on my Bazzite TV PC, but the 2S has worked on everything it’s been plugged into. From iPads to PCs and even a handheld, it didn’t fail, and that just made it a better experience.

What I Don’t

The Trigger Stops

Here’s my complaint with almost every company that uses them. The trigger stops are a nice add-on that can take an analog trigger to a more digital experience. However, the travel on the shortened triggers always feels a bit too long still.

It’s now a downfall, but it’s worth mentioning that it’s present, another thing to mention is that when set to short, the triggers now emit a click when they hit the end. However, that’s not the only click you’re going to hear.

The Face Buttons

Let me start off by saying, the usability of the face buttons is fine. They work really well and activate every time I want them to without fail. That’s not the issue I have with the face buttons. The issue comes from the mechanical setup they’re using for it. This is an issue I’ve come across before, but the 2S face buttons feature a decent bit of travel prior to the switches actually activating. What this means is they get a little bit squishy before they actually click.

If you’re rapid-fire pressing your face buttons, you may never notice this issue, but for those who want to know exactly when your face buttons activate, this may not be the best choice for you.

What’s in the Middle

The D-pad

Having three different D-pad shapes to choose from is awesome. Those who like the Xbox Series controllers can keep their dishes, but I prefer my cross. It’s a mechanical D-pad, and when you push down, it activates immediately. This has given me some of my better runs through games like Celeste as it tells me exactly where I’m going, even through the diagonals. But there’s really one problem with the d-pad. It’s loud.

The volume of the switches in the D-pad is currently higher than almost every other control on the 2S, minus the L1 and R1 buttons. Which, considering how much you might use your D-pad game depending, could get really annoying really quickly. Just don’t randomly click your d-pad if you sleep in bed with someone else, and you’ll be fine.

Software

One thing of importance to note is the software! Or lack thereof. There is zero software at the moment for the EOS Pro 2S, and I personally like it that way. Keep the manual or at least pull up the one on their website cause there’s a lot you need to remember.

Adjusting Lighting, Rumble, Macros, Turbos, and whether you use the stick as a d-pad or not is all done on the controller mostly using the function buttons up in the face of it. As a whole, this is my preferred method, and I’m glad it’s set like this.

The Ergonomic Discussion

As mentioned all the way back at the start of this review, I wanted to get into talking about the ergonomic differences of the Fantech EOS Pro 2S versus the competition. And that’s what this section is for. Most controllers ended up landing on the Xbox-style control layout, with variance only landing in what the material of the grips is, and smaller things like button placement and back buttons.

Fantech has gone about tweaking this, by rounding things out more. They feature a very similar texture on the back to an Xbox controller but slightly shorten the grips while rounding out the sides of the grips themselves. This in turn creates a slightly better experience for me personally.

The other thing is simply that the right stick is just slightly more inset on the controller versus comparing that to an Xbox controller. For those of you with below-average length thumbs, this could be an issue, but for me, it’s still a nice experience.

Final Thoughts

I really enjoyed my time the the 2S. It worked to its fullest ability the entire time and managed to go without dropping a beat. I’ve used a lot of controllers in the past year, and if it weren’t for the fact I keep jumping between them to review something new, I’d probably go back to settle on this one. It’s well-built, it has solid controls, and it just works.

At the $40 price range, it’s mostly met with competition from GameSir, EasySMX, Aolion, and cheaper GuliKit options. You can find controllers that feature docks, but it’s still a bit hit or miss on whether that includes it. The biggest issue is availability, as the EOS Pro 2S is only available directly through Fantech and on AliExpress. If you want something easily accessible and with quick shipping, this may not be the one for you. But if you’re looking for a clicky mechanical controller and don’t mind the weight, I do like this option a lot.

And maybe grab a mouse while you’re at it, I do like the egg shape of the Aria.