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Dualshock 4 Planned Obsolescence / Poor Build Quality
BranniganSepp
Swiss Burrito EnthusiastPSN: ExMaloBonumRegistered User regular
Swiss Burrito EnthusiastPSN: ExMaloBonumRegistered User regular
Dualshock 4 Planned Obsolescence / Poor Build Quality
The Dualshock 4 is my favorite gamepad to date in terms of ergonomy and features, but it clearly has issues with build quality and battery life. There's 3 major build quality flaws, that strike me very much as planned obsolescence.
Picture Example of Problem 1 (Rubber Peeling Off)
Picture Example of Problem 2 (Trigger Hinge Breaking)
Picture Example of Problem 3 (Analog Trigger Contact Wear and Tear)
The Dualshock 4 is my favorite gamepad to date in terms of ergonomy and features, but it clearly has issues with build quality and battery life. There's 3 major build quality flaws, that strike me very much as planned obsolescence.
- The rubberization of the sticks wears off. Supposedly fixed in newer models, but not entirely.
- The trigger hinge tends to break for people with big/strong hands.
- There's a wear and tear issue with the triggers and their pressure sensing contacts (especially with R2), reducing the analog pressure range of the triggers to less than the maximum, causing issues in various games, especially some FPS games and racing games. Some guns don't fire properly anymore, and cars don't reach top speed anymore, and accellerate too slowly.
Picture Example of Problem 1 (Rubber Peeling Off)
Picture Example of Problem 2 (Trigger Hinge Breaking)
Picture Example of Problem 3 (Analog Trigger Contact Wear and Tear)
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The internet is rife with threads of people who have severe and recurring issues with the Dualshock 4 product, to the point that I will not replace my gamepads until this is publicly addressed by Sony, either by being forthright about a Dualshock 4 model upgrade addressing these issues (especially the trigger contact one), or by releasing an extreme enthusiast Dualshock 4 variant in the vein of Microsoft's Elite controller, with matching production quality.
I am adamantly against business practices such as planned obsolescence. It's wasteful, and extra bad for the environment, as well as disrespectful to the client and their money, as well as of the own brand. I won't be buying a replacement PS4 gamepad until this is addressed, and I will likely move over to XBox One in the longterm, if these issues with the Dualshock 4 persist. Especially the trigger contact issue shouts planned obsolesence rather than production oversight, and as an avid player of videogames, I won't be replacing my gamepad every 1000 hours or so, because the shitty trigger contact has worn out, due to purposefully bad engineering.
I guess this could be seen as a PSA, but really, I just needed to rant.
That said..... Yup. DS4 is not a sturdy controller at all. Which sucks cause it is so comfortable to use. I just bought a second one carrier of the analogstick rubber peeling off.
Well, there's another workaround it seems. I read somewhere that taking out the springs makes the triggers work again, so I tested it out (also, it's finicky as shit to get those springs back into place). Somehow taking out the springs does increase how much pressure I can exert on the conductive silicone pads, so I can achieve the full effect again. There's a slight delay and it's a bit sputtery, but it's better than not working at all anymore, so I'll let that be it for the time being.
Eventually I'll have to get those replacement conductive pads though, which will be a slightly more involved operation. I didn't quite figure out how to remove the L1/R1 bumpers, which would be required to replace the conductive silicone pads in question, though I guess it ain't rocket science, so I'll figure it out. Still better than rewarding Sony for their shitty planned obsolescence. Fuck those guys!
High quality builds mean that the end product is more expensive for the consumer, and experience has demonstrated to manufacturers that most customers are far more sensitive to cost than to build quality. Plastics & rubbers are cheap, but wear out (relatively) quickly; that's just the nature of those materials. If they started using steel / treated woods / ceramic, the cost per unit would increase dramatically, the units would be more vulnerable to catastrophic damage (being dropped, tossed, what have you) and would be heavier.
Only its not about material here, just about the shape of the thing that presses down on the conductive pad. Currently it's a thin bar pressing into the conductive silicone pad, damaging it by design. It could just as well be a larger surface, which wouldn't damage the conductive silicone pad in the same manner.
Planned obsolescence is definitely a thing, because if you'd take sound design and apply cheaper materials to it, it would most probably still be sound design. The way the triggers operate on the DS4 is not sound design. You could use the best materials in the world, that bar would still damage the conductive silicone pads. Hence, it's either planned obsolescence, or incompetence.
Both manufacturers have claimed they've thoroughly tested their hardware. Sony wouldn't have missed this issue, and for whatever reasons, I say it's for capitalistic profit maximizing reasons, the triggers are what they are.
Sure, I could be wrong, but then, where is the improved revision of the DS4? Some say the gamepads are already improved, others say they aren't. It might be true for the rubberization and the hinges. Who knows? It certainly isn't true for the how the triggers press into the conductive pads, because that's still the same bar-shaped thing as ever.
I'm trying it out now. Thanks for the tip.
It may well solve the problem for Helldivers, but not for the many other games that are affected by this hardware build quality side issue.
In the stores, for over a year now.
Not for this issue though? I've read the white ones have metal trigger hinges and supposedly better rubberization.
The triggers damaging the conductive silicone pads though? It's not an issue many even perceive. First of all it takes extensive use. Most casual Playstation fans won't ever play their PS4 for over 1000 hours. And then you need to play games that use the full range of trigger sensitivity to even know something's broken. And even then, you might never know. Cars might go 10 kph slower than they should. Would you know? Probably not.
I have no issue with the rubberization, because it barely bugs me. That doesn't stop me from buying a replacement DS4. I have no issue with the hinges breaking, because I'm not a Neanderthal squeezing triggers like a MMA fighter chokes out their opponents.
What keeps me from buying a replacement DS4 is that I will have to buy a new one every one to two years, because I play thousands of hours of games each year, and mostly on my PS4, and I just don't think shittly designed triggers damaging the hardware by design is acceptable in that context. I guess I could get into fixing the hardware myself. Ordering conductive silicone pad replacements and opening up the damn thing up every year or so. I might do that, but damn them for making me do it.
I might just do most of my gaming on Xbox One, and use a gamepad that's built to last.