Beitong Zeus 2 Elite Review: Worth the ‘Elite’ Tax?

When I think of pro controllers, my mind almost immediately goes to things like the Xbox Elite Series 2, the SCUF controller lineup, or more recently the DualSense Edge. And if you pull back a little on the features, you can drop to something like the Xbox Elite Core line. But what if you’re not just looking at the big names over here? What if you’re looking for full customizability down to the buttons?

Well, it seemed like Beitong had the right idea, and they were kind enough to send their Zeus 2 controller over for review, with no stipulation on what to say. So let’s see if it’s worth your money. And if the Zeus 2 could be an endgame controller for you.

Beitong Zeus 2 Elite Specs

There’s quite a bit to talk about in terms of specs here so I’m going to do my best to keep it short and readable.

Sticks and Triggers: Hall-Effect, 3x Stick Height, 2x Trigger Distance Settings
Face Buttons: 4 Modules: Optical Microswitch, Mechanical Clicky, Membrane, and Optical(for Switch)
D-Pad: Clicky (4 total options for replacements)
Extra Features: M1-M6 on back, togglable Gyro, 3.5mm Jack
Battery: 1000mAh
Polling Rate: Up to 1000hz
Connectivity: Wired/Bluetooth/2.4ghz
Compatibility: Switch/PC/iOS/Android
Weight: 302 grams

Beitong Zeus 2 Elite at Amazon

Ergonomics

The control testing part of this look will likely be the longer part, so I figured I’d get the feel out of the way first. Initially, the in-hand feel of the Zeus 2 is incredibly reminiscent of the Xbox controller. Which for me is a good thing, as that’s still one of the most comfortable controllers I’ve found in use. All of the buttons are placed within reach of my fingers and are pretty easy to access. With the exception of M5 and M6.

These are placed on the top of the controller in between the shoulder/trigger button area. In use, I feel like I’m about to press down on the shoulder buttons just to press these. So in the end I would either not use them, or map them to something you don’t use often. But hey, there’s still M1-M4 that’s easy to get to.

The biggest concern I have with the feel in hand comes with the rubbery texture on the back of the grips. I always have my concern with this type of rubber that it’ll break down and rub away over time with use. So while durability is something I worry about, I’ve only been testing this for a little over a week and can’t make a final claim there.

Control Testing

Triggers

Out of the controls, this is probably the easiest one to get right into talking with. The triggers on the Zeus 2 are really solid. They take a nice bit of force to move down and have enough movement that make racing in Forza Horizon 4 a breeze. I don’t feel like I need to be worried too much about having enough distance to differentiate between full throttle and nothing. But it’s easy to get from one to the other quickly.

And as an aside, the switch to shorten their distance was useful in other games as well, in AK-olotl it made it easy to quick-fire against enemies, but that’s just a nice to have.

D-pad and Face Buttons

This one gave me the most testing trouble. With four different D-pads and four different face button modules, I ended up running my Celeste gamut a grand total of 12 times. Only because the switch face buttons were the same as the optical ones. So what’s the consensus? Let’s start with the good.

All three of the face button options are solid. The membranes are a little stiff, the mechanical buttons are light and clicky, while the optical buttons are lighter and even louder when clicking in. My favorite though was the mechanical ones, which gave me enough notification of my button presses. Though if I were stuck with any of these I’d be satisfied.

Now for the not-as-good. When it came to the D-pad options, my favorite of the bunch was probably the metal cross. I’m not too big into shield D-pads, but the plastic one would be my pick there. My biggest complaint with the D-pad comes in with the diagonals. Lower diagonals seemed completely fine, but particularly up and left was giving me issues during my Celeste runs. While putting a higher effort into focusing on which direction I was pressing helped, it never remedied the issue.

As a whole, all 12 of my runs landed in the 3:30-4:00 range, with my best run being with the optical face buttons, and metal D-pad landing at just under. 3:25 with 10 deaths. This shouldn’t be the be-all-end-all for a controller, but this is probably my only major complaint with the device.

Sticks

The sticks are another feature that took some extra testing to figure out for me. The Zeus 2 comes with a short, medium, and tall stick option for both the left and right sticks. In my AK-olotl testing, I found the medium stick to be the most useful on the left side, with the short stick sitting fine on the right. Just like the triggers, these gave me no issues. The texture on top was odd at first, but after a while, I found they added enough grip to make the experience pleasant.

Extra Features

When it comes to the extra features on this controller there are two that I really want to point out, and they’re very PC focused. If you hit the FN button on the bottom of the controller you activate mouse mode. Which lets you use the left stick to control your cursor, while the right stick controls the scroll wheel. I do recommend using their companion software to dial in sensitivity, but it’s a nice add-on.

The other is the giant AI button on the front. I don’t really like the use of AI in devices that don’t need it, but it is a nice tool for accessing a few things quickly. There are buttons for game recording, and screen capture, as well as to just open the companion software wherever you are. It is customizable, but I’ve left it as the default for now. Just a nice add-on for a controller at this price point.

Final Thoughts

The Beitong Zues 2 Elite is a controller that I’d almost put in a class of its own. Every part of the user experience is customizable. Longer sticks, less clicky face buttons, or a different D-pad. Almost everything just works out of the box, and unlike most controllers, I found a need to use the software that wasn’t mandatory.

At its $140 retail price, you come in close to those pro controllers that I mentioned in the beginning. I think this offers way more value than a DualSense Edge and a lot more customizability than some of the other options out there. If you can grab this on sale for like $100 like in their Cyber Monday Deal, I think this is a really good option.

The biggest benefit of customizing this thing is repairability. If a button breaks you don’t have to replace the whole thing. Just the module. It won’t last forever, but I think it’s a controller worth having for a while at least.