Hori’s Split Pad Pro Attachment for the Switch costs $20 too much

You might already know about Hori’s $59.99 Split Pad Pro, which reimagines the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Con controllers as if they got jacked in the gym. Hori launched the controller a couple of years ago alongside Daemon X Machina. It’s made for people with big hands, or rather, anyone whose hands feel cramped using the Switch’s included controls. Like Joy-Cons, the Split Pad Pro slides into the sides of your Switch, but it’s about twice as wide, thicker, and has ergonomic grips and contours. Every button, trigger, and stick is larger and, thus, easier to control. With those changes, the Switch feels like an entirely different (and better) console to play on the go.
Since it debuted in late 2019, Hori has released several colorways, but this week, the company launched an entirely new accessory. It’s called the Split Pad Pro Attachment, which bundles the Joy-Con-like gamepads with a wired USB attachment that can let them be used with your Switch while it’s in docked mode.

The attachment is light on extra features considering its $79.99 price, outside of giving you a wired controller option. It offers a headphone jack, and there are buttons to adjust volume or mute your headphones’ mic, if it has one. That’s really the entire pitch for this new bundle, and strangely, the attachment can’t be purchased separately.
There’s little reason for current Split Pad Pro owners to feel compelled by the attachment, but it’s more alluring for first-time buyers. Although, if you spend more time using the Switch on the go than docked, I’d suggest just getting the gamepads to save some money. For such a pricey accessory, it feels limiting to be connected to the Switch via a cable, not to mention that headphones will dangle another cable between you and the TV. And depending on your gaming setup, the nearly 10-foot-long cable may not be long enough.
Hori would likely make the valid argument that the $79.99 price matches the cost of buying a set of Joy-Con controllers. But even so, the Split Pad Pro pads themselves are seriously compromised in terms of features compared to Nintendo’s Joy-Con. They can’t work wirelessly (as in, while detached from your Switch), and they lack rumble, NFC for Amiibo, and gyroscopic aiming for games that support it. (Though each features a remappable rear paddle for when they’re connected directly to your Switch.) As far as customization goes, the paddle on the left gamepad can be mapped to any function on the left Split Pad Pro, save for the minus and screenshot buttons. It’s similar on the right side, only omitting the plus and home buttons.
Yet, despite its flaky value, I enjoy using the Split Pad Pro Attachment — largely because of how good it feels to use. If you love Nintendo’s wireless Switch Pro controller as much as I do, this Hori controller emulates it nicely as a comfy, regular-sized gamepad. The Split Pad Pro’s analog sticks, triggers, and buttons feel just as responsive as Nintendo’s, with the added benefit (or annoyance, depending on the person) of being wired and never needing to recharge.


Oddly enough, I also enjoyed using it as a PC gamepad to play games like Elden Ring. With that game, I didn’t mind this product’s lack of vibration. Steam recognized it right away, and if you can get past some of the face buttons not matching up with what’s on-screen, it’s a seamless experience — at least in terms of controls. While the attachment can increase or decrease the volume in Windows, audio passthrough with its headphone jack doesn’t work. It’s tough to call that a flaw in a product that’s meant more as a Switch accessory, but it’s disappointing nevertheless.
Whenever I showed the Split Pad Pro Attachment to people in our office, the initial delight became confusion as I explained the pricing and just how little the attachment itself is capable of. It’d be a slightly different story if Hori started to include it alongside the Split Pad Pro for a smaller price difference. But as it stands, the Split Pad Pro pads are the only essential aspect of this bundle, not the attachment.
Photography by Cameron Faulkner / The Verge
You might already know about Hori’s $59.99 Split Pad Pro, which reimagines the Nintendo Switch’s Joy-Con controllers as if they got jacked in the gym. Hori launched the controller a couple of years ago alongside Daemon X Machina. It’s made for people with big hands, or rather, anyone whose hands…
Recent Posts
- No, it’s not an April fool, Intel debuts open source AI offering that gauges a text’s politeness level
- It’s clearly time: all the news about the transparent tech renaissance
- Windows 11 24H2 hasn’t raised the bar for the operating system’s CPU requirements, Microsoft clarifies
- Acer is the first to raise laptop prices because of Trump
- OpenSSH vulnerabilities could pose huge threat to businesses everywhere
Archives
- February 2025
- January 2025
- December 2024
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- September 2018
- October 2017
- December 2011
- August 2010