Razer Panthera Evo: Fully Mod-Capable - Sanwa Joystick and Buttons - Internal Storage Compartment - Tournament Arcade Fight Stick for PS4, PS5, and PC

I’ve owned a few fight sticks, and this one is the best. Love the proprietary Razer buttons (rather than Sanwa). Love the size and weight, the headphone jack, etc. Best stick currently on the market.

I'll try and keep this short, but I have a lot to say. I will give an overview then go into more detail.Pros:-decent cable compartment-easily changeable art-average cable length-light-ish overall weightCons:-PC compatibility-Getting to the internals-Top plexi cover to switch the art-USB plug itself-Razer proprietary buttons-USB compartment doorOn to my more descriptive review.One great thing about this stick is the overall size of the cable compartment. It easily fits the full length of the cable with no need to try and jam the cable into the space. I have had a couple sticks that require an artful form to get the full length of the cable into the space or risk breaking the cable.The next thing would be the idea of switching the art on the face of the stick. In general, this is much easier than any other stick I have. But, that doesn’t mean that it is a good process(which I will cover later). The fact that you don’t have to remove any of the buttons to remove the art is a plus.The cable length is about what you would expect from a normal fight stick in this day and age. It has the Razer feel to it, in this case there is plenty of USB plug side space to grab it easily meaning less strain on the cable/plugThis stick is a lot lighter than the previous Razer Panthera, but this comes with some issues. I will mention some of them in the cons, but the fact that this stick is fairly light makes it pleasant to use on my lap.Now onto the cons…My biggest issue with this stick is the PC compatibility. Sure it will work, but having to turn on the PS4 controller compatibility mode any time I want to use this controller is quite the turn off. I have 2 Hori Fighting Edge, a Qanba Obsidian, a Mayflash F500 and an Etokki Omni, but this is the only stick that requires the ps4 controller compatibility mode. When I turned on that mode, it made my Hori, Qanba and Etokki sticiks useless because of how the PC treated the controllers after the mode was enabled.I know that I said that changing the top art was easy, but that doesn’t mean that this is a good design. Looking at the original EVO, it had a button that enabled you to open the enclosure to switch out buttons or the stick if they broke. Now, ou can switch the art with 6 screws, sure…but that also means you have to unscrew the 6 screws on top of the additional screws to get to internals. I am not sure why they didn’t consolidate the two thoughts to make a Panthera with maybe a ¼ inch screw that locked the plexi in place with an easily accessible enclosure that allowed for easy button/lever mods. In the images, I compared it to one of my modded Hori Fighting edge fight sticks. If I wanted to spend a ton of time to install new buttons or a lever, I would just mod a bigger, more comfortable enclosure.Next would be the USB button itself. This might just be nitpicking, but it is WAY longer than any standard USB plug. Seeing as how I play on PC, it sticks out ¼ inch, maybe 1/8 of an inch more than any other plug that I have. Sure, it makes it ok for plugging and unplugging, but the added length also means that it is easier to catch if standing up or if a pet runs by when you put your stick down to get a drink(or something like that).My next major issue with this stick would be their proprietary buttons. Long story short, I would rather buy a brand new stick than use them ever again. At the beginning, they were great. A week later, much less so. The buttons stuck. I don’t just mean they were a little slower than when I got them. No, I would hit 2 and my character would just spam right punch(I am primarily a tekken player). This is simply unacceptable. I had better luck with the proprietary Mayflash buttons on a stick that was less than 1/3 the price. Why not just stick with Sanwa Denshi or Hori Hayabusa buttons? Everyone I have talked to has had similar issues with these “awesome razer buttons”. I don’t want to throw stones, but I already had reservations about Razer Products because of a recent lack in quality control (3 mice, 4 keyboards and 2 headphones stopped working under normal, every day use). I have had issues with their customer service in the past trying to get these issues resolved, but in the case of my mice, they would weasel around for months until I got sick of it. Instead of trying to get replacement buttons thinking that I got some faulty buttons, but my past experience turned me off and I just replaced the buttons with some Sanwa Denshi buttons. A tried and true Japanese arcade button supplier. The original Panthera had Sanwa buttons/lever, but the Evo only had a Sanwa lever. I don’t know why they went away from this. It is almost like they didn’t quality control their button production. I hope it is just a fluke and that I have had an unfortunate experience with the company, as I love the form factor of this stick and the feel of some of their mice, but I have had issues.Finally, the USB compartment door. This isn’t nearly as big of an issue as their buttons. This is more of a gripe of a spring loaded door. I prefer a locked door that is difficult to open/close, or no door at all. If it is difficult to open/close, I feel like it is less likely to just fall off, but with how flimsy the door feels, in my opinion, I feel like it is going to fall off randomly.

Nice buttons, easy to clean inside, didn't get sticky with all the dust it collected, function well still.

Like with all sticks, personal preference goes a long way, and no stick ever really ticks all the boxes, but this stick ticks most of them for me with only a few drawbacks from my previous stick (the Razer Atrox).The JLF is Sanwa, so that's great. The buttons feel close to Sanwa, but I don't like them as much and will likely be swapping them out at some point. One of them feels notably less springy than the others, and I have heard the micro switches jamming is a somewhat frequent complaint. So far, all the buttons are properly responsive and the difference in feel has not hindered my play in any way. If you don't want to mod this stick and you don't like their buttons, I'd say look elsewhere. But I have a little experience with modding, and even though this stick has a few extra hurdles to access the internals, I will likely not have any real problem customizing this stick to my liking. Changing the art is easier than most sticks, but changing the internals (buttons/JLF) is notably more complicated, as there are a lot of screws to go through.This design took out a lot of the heavy components that were in previous models (like the hydrolic lifts) and it is subsequently much lighter than the Atrox or the normal Panthera. This might be a downside for some, but I find that it is still heavy enough that it doesn't move in my lap, while being significantly lighter means carrying it around all day at a tournament is much less stressful. Even with my carrying bag, the Atrox was heavy enough that it would eventually dig into my shoulders after a day of carrying it around.In terms of build quality, this stick feels like a mix of the old Mad Catz Fight Stick Pro, and the previous Razer sticks. It feels light like the old Mat Catz, but still near as premium as the Panthera.Razer did away with the removable cable, which I both like and dislike. I lost my proprietary Atrox cable, and Razer was unable to replace it, hence why I bought this stick. On the plus side, this means you can't lose this cable, on the down side, I liked being able to detach the cable to fold the it up and tuck it in the stick. Winding the cable up while it is still attached to the stick feels a bit awkward, but again, this is not really a big deal.The compartment is nice and large, so you don't feel like you need to force the cable in exactly for it to close. The trap door concerns me a little, as it doesn't sit quite as flush as I'd like it to, and it is spring loaded, which makes me worry about it wearing out. But overall its easy to access, and stays closed on its own without a problem. I think I'd have preferred a magnetic trap door over a spring, and I would have loved for the cableto be removable, but have the plug sit inside the compartment so that the chance of damaging the jack is much lower than on the Atrox of the regular Panthera which had the cable sticking directly out of the back.I primarily play on PC, and only play on PS4 when playing at tournaments or casuals, so I did have to download a driver to get my PC to recognize it, but that was not a problem. I did have one moment where I lost all input options during a round of SFV on steam, but I changed a controller setting in steam after that and so far have not been able to replicate that problem. There might be a firmware update that I am not aware of. But I was not particularly worried about it after I changed the setting and did not replicate the problem after many hours of play.So overall, its one of the best sticks I've owned in terms of overall practicality. I'm going to keep an eye on the buttons, and will almost certainly be replacing them down the line anyway.