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Technologies like Hall Effect and TMR are terms you may have heard when looking for new controllers for your video game console. Both methods can be employed by manufacturers to reduce stick drift, an issue that plagues many analog sticks. This was especially evident in the Joy-Con drift on Nintendo Switch and Sony's DualSense, an issue that infamously plagued both controllers.

The reason this occurs is that conventional sticks tend to deteriorate over time. Once this occurs, there is little one can do except replace all the sticks or even get a whole new product. Companies such as 8BitDo and GameSir gained recognition specifically through their controllers with Hall Effect sticks, which became popular as a way to combat these defects.

Hall Effect technology uses magnets and voltage readings, without parts rubbing against each other, which helps solve the wear problem. Meanwhile, tunnel magnetoresistance, or TMR, follows the same principle. It also uses magnetism to avoid friction, but it detects changes in the electrical resistance of layers only a few nanometers thick. This change affects precision and power consumption.

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Hall Effect detects joystick movement by measuring the voltage generated by the magnetic field, and it works well, but it requires higher power consumption. TMR uses a similar technique to do this, but instead of measuring voltage, it detects changes in electrical resistance between two ultra-thin magnetic layers.

If you want a controller to play more casual games and avoid worrying about stick drift, Hall Effect can serve you well. If you prefer to play competitive games on a controller, TMR sensors offer more precision and can detect small movements with greater accuracy, such as a tiny aim adjustment. In this case, buying hardware with this technology made by the best controller brands pays off for titles that depend on this precision. 

On the electrical side, using a controller with TMR sensors also affects how long your battery lasts. Manufacturers like GuliKit point out that this technology operates at 0.1-0.3 mA, compared with up to 2 mA for Hall Effect. With lower consumption, you can get more hours of gameplay before you need a new charge.

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Although these two technologies are popular on the third-party market, companies like Sony and Microsoft still use the traditional sticks in their official controllers. Nintendo also follows the same path, even offering free repairs for players whose Joy-Con controllers suffered from stick drift. One of the main reasons for this choice usually comes down to cost.

Although adding a Hall Effect or TMR sensor costs relatively little, the logistics required to restructure all this production do not. Since companies usually produce tens of millions of controllers per year to support their consoles and additional purchases, the cost would rise considerably. In addition, manufacturers need to shield magnetic sensors from other internal magnets.

For example, the Joy-Cons on the Nintendo Switch 2 use a magnetic system to detach them from the console. At the same time, DualSense is considered one of the best PlayStation controllers ever made, thanks to the vibration motors and adaptive triggers that have their own magnetic field. So, ensuring that no interference occurs requires a little more engineering and additional expenses that affect the price you would pay for one.