Yeah no, DS4 at the top, Switch Pro right after, X1 at the bottom.  Never used an X1 elite though so I cannot speak for that.

I'm sorry but the DS d-pad was never done because it was some ergonomic breakthrough in terms of d-pad design. At that time, the d-pad was done that way because of certain patents. Sony got around it with that contraption. And now we accept it because the PS1 was successful, despite the controls not because of it.

Why I think the d-pad is awful. You can't slide your thumb comfortably cause:

- The edges will wear your thumb when rocking it back and forth. The rocking motion on the d-pad is needed for many games, not just for games that require individual taps on a single direction.
- The plastic separations are noticable when you rock the d-pad or try to press it diagonally between the usual directions. First you have a gap (I think only the Saturn and some other SEGA controllers have this perfect) then you have the plastic separation making it uncomfortable.
- It's stiff.
- The middle gap is the biggest offender. When I use a d-pad, I like the rest my thumb on it, usually on the center. So with the DS d-pad, when your press it, you get an x-shape imprint and it does not sit on actual soft plastic. With Nintendo's and Xbox's d-pad there is something physical to put my thumb on and it will not wear as much.

Sony's D-pads are the best hands down! The separation makes it most accurate of use and the best for fighting games when using a controller.

I have the Switch Pro controller and it works fine, not the best compared to Sony's but I dont really have any complaints with it.

Sony's dpad is awful. The dpda on the SNES controllers is the best. WiiU pro controller has a very good dpad as well.

I was partially joking with that statement, the ds4 is definitely an improvement over there past controllers but it still feels dated in design and its battery life is just not acceptable. It's weird because Sony Tends to be up to date or ahead of competitors with a lot of things but there controllers feel so far behind.

I'm gonna have to check but I think the last couple of Tetris games I purchased (Tetris Splash on 360 and Tetris for Vita) had the option to turn off the "hard drop". I could be wrong, though.

maybe I am getting old, but the controllers all play fine. They do have their minor differences but 20mins in, you don't really notice lol.

Yeah. Not saying there are no issues whatsoever but I've owned tons and tons of consoles including every single Nintendo and Sony console ever. The only time I've had dpad issues were the N64, 360 and the Ouya. Every other first party controller ranged from good to great.

The battery life of the ds4 isnt that bad. I usually get at least 20 hours of play per charge

Nintendo has had issue with direction controls since the N64 era (while having a fantastic d-pad, the durability issue on the analog stick was unforgivable). The Gamecube controller, while better durability, had a toyish analog stick on the left which actually lacked the general accuracy of the N64 one (play Zelda: Ocarina of Time, for a comparison)... and unfortunately similarly crappy quality carried through on other controllers - although, while feeling toyish, the accuracy seems to have improved a lot from the Cube controller. Speaking of the cube controller, the right analog stick was even MORE toyish; looked like something from fisher price. One of their handhelds (forget which one) and the cube controller also had very crappy d-pads, they were very small, almost mere decorations.

While a lot of the Wii and later stuff has been sufficient (not all of the Wii stuff was), I wish Nintendo would make all of their directional controls look and feel high quality. I'd pay extra for that.