AKNES GuliKit Hall Effect Joysticks for Steam Deck OLED, Left/Right Thumbstick replacement with Original Touch Sensing for Steam Deck OLED - Electromagnetic Joystick with Caps, No Soldering

Installed quite easily, and I was lucky enough to have the sticks show up already on the proper setting (there is a switch you need to adjust depending on the original stick type). Performance is good and they look like original. I would recommend for an inexpensive easy fix for stick drift issues.

Pretty easy install, calibration was a little more complicated than expected but manageable.

Highly recommended to purchase these as the original thumbsticks modules, (being potentiometers), will wear out over time with use and develop an issue known as stick drift.You personally may luck out and never experience this as it doesn't always develop at the same rate and severity for every module as it varies greatly on the amount of time the sticks are used, but given enough time and use it will happen.These hall effect modules are multitudes of times more resistant to drift issues and are much more accurate allowing you to set the dead zone of the stick much lower.If you plan to keep and use your steam deck for years to come, then it's a no brainer to invest in these.These are very easy to install if you have the tools necessary, (a small phillips head screw driver and a plastic pry tool). The only complaint I have is that there are no instructions included in the box and requires visiting the gulikit website for instructions which I highly recommend as if you simply just do a drop in install you may mess up as there is a small switch and button on each module you'll need to use to make sure the sticks are properly adjusted and calibrated as the box makes no mention of these.

They are smoother in action, but the dead zone is bigger than the original joysticks. I can tune it in SteamOS to make it not drift, but if you use Windows or any other OS on your Steam Deck you will get incurable joystick drift.Edit Sept 2024: I bought the Steam Deck OLED joysticks. I kept my old LCD Steam Deck with these joysticks and I had the OLED Steam Deck for almost a year with the original joysticks. It was easier to test the difference side by side. I noticed the Hall effect joysticks were much more precise and responsive (I still don’t get why they say these don’t have drift though. The joystick returns to the center with basically a spring, Just like a traditional joystick, so as the spring wears out or holds a position slightly off perfect center, it can drift. The only thing that prevents it from drifting is the ability to adjust the joystick deadzone in SteamOS, The functional difference between these Hall effect joysticks and traditional is that traditional joysticks use potentiometers which is a variable resistor that has brush contacts so it can read out difference resistances to determine the joystick’s position. This means it can wear out and be vulnerable to dust and static to give bad readings. The Hall effect joystick uses a magnet on the joystick and a sensor to detect the magnet’s position. Since the sensor is very sensitive it can articulate many times the amount of positions a potentiometer could. )While my original comment still applies, I’ve decided that overall these are better than the original joysticks in game. You can make much finer movements with them. My new right stick unfortunately still occasionally drifts in games running on my Windows dual boot.The touch sensing wire connected to my left thumb stick was a little short. This caused the wire to snag when I was circling the sticks to test the feel of it. This prevented some movement. Thankfully I didn’t close the Steam Deck up yet so I took it out to look and I didn’t have to desolder the wire. I just had to use a utility knife to very carefully cut the glue they had covering the wire near the solder joint. The glue made the wire stiff and took away a few mm of slack which was needed. After I cut off the glue, I was able bend the wires so that they don’t rub and snag against the joystick component anymore. I played a few games and it works great.

Super easy to install, didn't even have to calibrate after install. They were pretty well calibrated, no drifting, no issues. Perfect direct replacement. Just have to install them into the correct position (Left and right stick position). I personally, feel they are an upgrade from the OEM sticks (OEM potentiometers) to installed (electromagnetic). I feel they have a better response time, of course calibrate after install, but I feel they also move smoother.

I watched a video on YouTube for the installation, it was a breeze. However, I wished that I had inspected the sticks before putting it on because as you can see from the picture, the stick was sitting uneven right out of the box and therefore defective. No matter how many times I moved the stick around, it would always recenter in this manner and be actually off centered. Because of this, the calibration did not help... How can it when it is this badly off centered physically? So I wasted all that time taking my deck apart and putting it back together for nothing. About an hour total. Worse yet, steam deck uses self tapping screws (you can look up what that means) but long story short each time you take the screws out of the deck and put it back in you run the risk of widening the holes or going in too deep, so this entire installation was a giant waste of time and a risk not worth the effort. I wished that the manufacturer had better quality control, it's so obvious that the stick was off centered visually, but it's clear their quality control was non existent since this unit was sold. Overall, I would say my stick felt cheap vs the original steam deck sticks, so I probably would not do this again until my stick starts drifting and its time for a replacement.The process was easy so if you want to do this, know that it is a breeze... Just make sure your stick is NOT defective before you waste your time with the installation like I did. I still recommend everyone do this mod, it's easy and worth it.