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GameSir's most premium gamepad has arrived. The G7 Pro 8K offers drift-resistant TMR sticks, dual-mode HE/microswitch triggers, that titular 8K polling rate and an included docking station, all in a pleasant transparent blue in this Aimlabs Edition. $90/£100 is a great price for this pro-grade wireless controller, given that first-party Xbox or PlayStation pro controllers (and name brand alternatives from the likes of Razer, Scuf and Asus) are all in that $170 to $200 range - but what are you giving up by going with the less established Chinese brand?
In short, not a whole lot. I've been using the G7 Pro 8K AE on PC to blast through Japan in Forza Horizon 6, make difficult choices in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, jink out of danger in Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor and enjoy a good old-fashioned shoot-out in Red Dead Redemption 2 - and the level of precision and responsiveness on offer has equalled the best efforts from those better known brands. And in competitive shooters like Call of Duty: Black Ops 7, the G7 Pro feels finely composed - and that 8KHz polling rate has the potential to provide a tiny, almost immeasurable advantage.
I'm going to tell you right now that I'm not going to do input lag tests or other objective benchmarks; I don't have the equipment or the expertise to measure that to the level of precision required - and experts on Reddit and users at Gamepadla have already done a great job with it, verifying that the device actually reaches 8000Hz, wired latency is 0.6ms (!), wireless latency at this polling rate is ~3ms (still great!) and dead zones are nearly non-existent. Objectively, a superior controller to pretty much anything on the market, though it lacks PlayStation and Xbox compatibility (only PC, Switch 1/2 and Android are supported).
Instead, I want to focus on the other stuff - the design, the software, and the overall usability, because it's in these sorts of areas that controllers from lesser known brands tend to suffer.
Let's start with the design. There's a lot I like here - the semi-transparent grips that show off the vibration motors spinning like mad, the removable magnetic covers that reveal the circuitry inside in greater detail, the teal-and-gold colour scheme, the textured surfaces of the thumbsticks and grips. Even the clicky optical micro switches used in the face buttons and clicky mechanical d-pad are just my cup of tea, in contrast to the "mecha-membrane" soft switches used in other high-end controllers for a softer report.
Yet the quality of the plastic buttons themselves isn't quite up there with the higher-grade plastic or metal options available elsewhere, and this is one of the few areas where the low build price of the controller is evident. The legends are also a little indistinct, and the Aimlabs-wordmark font used for the face buttons isn't particularly glanceable - I prefer the default Xbox arrangement. These can't be swapped out, but you do get two extra d-pads in a more traditional cross style, a 2.4GHz dongle that plugs into the included dock, and 3m USB cable, a cable retainer and a selection of interchangeable stick caps.
Inside, the G7 Pro uses some high-tech stuff. TMR sticks are the technology of choice these days, thanks to similar resistance to stick drift and improved precision as Hall Effect sticks, with lower power requirements. (The triggers are still Hall Effect, though.) Paired with a 12-bit sensor, and you have the hardware necessary for extremely precise inputs - something that's validated by the hardware testing results I linked above.
Moving around the back of the controller, there's little to complain about. The two rear back buttons can be easily disabled by flicking a switch on each side, locking them into a fixed flush position, while the pair of extra buttons near the triggers are comfortably out of the way if you don't use them. The default throw for the triggers works well for analogue inputs, like the throttle and brake in driving games, and flipping another set of switches to unlock the hair micro switch triggers works just fine.
The back also contains the connectivity mode switch (wired/2.4GHz/BT) and the four golden pogo pins for the charging dock, both of which are sensibly designed. You'll find a 3.5mm jack and two smaller buttons below the d-pad, which can be used to plug in headphones, pair the controller over Bluetooth and mute the microphone respectively. The 3.5mm connection works when wired or connected via 2.4GHz, but not Bluetooth.
The dock is dead simple but works well. Unclip the removable bottom to put in the 2.4GHz dongle, close it back it up and plug it in via USB-C. From here, dropping the controller onto the dock will turn it off and start charging it, and picking the controller up will turn it on - nice. The desk real estate required is fairly insignificant, and the perfectly flush marriage of gamepad and dock looks great. No notes, GameSir.
The software solution echoes the same simple but effective ethos. While others like Asus offer web software, which would be an improvement, the GameSir Connect downloadable software is at least available on the Windows Store and works with all of their various recently-released controllers.
The layout is intuitive, with almost all functionality on the first page, and swapping polling rates, changing stick dead zones, reassigning buttons and adjusting the lighting all works as expected. You can set up four profiles and swap between them rapidly too, so you can have different setups for racing, FPS and so on if you prefer.
The one criticism I have is that I'd like to have a bit more guidance when it comes to adjusting the sticks - some controller software has a few pre-made curves to give you an idea of what's possible, and that's not present here. It would be nice to have a cheat sheet for the various button combos too - something that's included in the manual, and includes a hair trigger mode, vibration adjustment, dead zone toggles and even a turbo mode for automating rapid button presses. Making these features more accessible feels like a sensible move to me.
After my testing in various PC titles, I came away impressed. As a package, the G7 Pro 8K AE is just solid. GameSir has been making controllers for 12 years now, and variations of the G7 since 2022, so the G7 Pro 8K represents the apex of that evolutionary line and feels extremely polished. Of course, echoing the shape and button placement of the Xbox Series X/S Wireless Controller makes that easier, but each new iteration has felt better as the stick response, grips and other small elements have been tweaked and improved. There are very few controllers that I can set a top one percent time in a Forza Horizon 6 time trial with, but the G7 Pro 8K is one of them.
Usability is also good. Accessing various functions requires some button combo memorisation, but once you have your profiles set in the software, you're pretty much good to go. Firmware updates are fast, unlike some controllers, and the wireless connection was stable even some distance from my PC. Battery life wasn't the longest, at around 12 hours between charges, but the convenience of the charging dock means that you'll always have enough to get through the day if you remember to place the controller onto the dock before heading to bed. And reliability has also been good if not perfect; I did have one instance where the controller was left in 8K mode and just didn't want to turn on until I reset it by poking its recessed reset switch with a pin. Since then, though, it's worked well.
If you're after a solid wireless controller and PC or Switch 1/2 is your focus, then the G7 Pro 8K is easy to recommend. There are alternative options that are fancier, like Razer's recent Wolverine V3 Pro, or are more adaptable, like the Steam Controller, or score higher in terms of battery life, like the ROG Raikiri 2, but in terms of pure features and performance per dollar, the GameSir option scores very highly indeed. If Digital Foundry was in the habit of giving awards, or writing "best PC controller 2026" lists, the G7 Pro 8K at $90/£100 would be a cinch for the "best value" category.