eXtremeRate Face Clicky Kit for Steam Deck OLED Handheld Console, Custom Dpad View A B X Y Menu Keys Face Buttons Mouse Clicky Kit for Steam Deck OLED Console - Without Console

First, I only installed the dpad tactile button mod, which is the critical one. Not that much of a fan of ABXY button mods as no controllers afaik have clicky (tactile) buttons, but it's there if I need it.The dpad mod makes the dpad feel much better, mushiness is gone and the diagonals respond perfectly. The dpad does require more pressure to activate than before and this will take some getting used to.What is really special about this kit is what they give you. They give you a huge assortment of replacement torx screws, and a few extra springs (I believe bumper and trigger) which is a very nice touch, since it is very easy to lose a spring since if a spring hits a hard floor, it can bounce deceptively anywhere. And they even give you *two* membrane pads for each side (dpad and buttons), so you have one pad and a spare replacement. I never knew those would ever wear out but it's really nice to have an extra. You also get an extra dpad protective layer as well.Really pleased and happy with the attention to detail here, and most kits you buy only give you what you purchased and absolutely nothing else.As for longevity, we'll see. The one thing about the 'stock' capacitive layer is that those things basically last forever (until the contacts wear out, if they ever do). Note that you do have to peel off the stock capacitive layer from the original button board(s), and it's not clear whether (even if you protect the adhesive) the original can be re-used after being bent (you can see bends in the pads after removal), so it's recommended that you buy a spare button and dpad board from ifixit just in case you need something to go back to.*Edit*After seeing some of the posts here and in the extremerate subreddit, I decided to take apart my dpad section (3 months later) and checked the membrane, and the membrane looked flawless. There was no damage that I could see. Maybe the cover for the dpad has something to do with that, but I went ahead and put on another membrane that I had already applied tiny cutout squares of kapton tape to, inside of the dimples, just for good measure. I have not done the button mod at all, as I find clicky buttons a bit strange (only the menu button, which is part of the dpad set itself, is a clicker), but I can see the ABXY long button travel combining with the small hard clicky microswitches causing issues for anyone there. I am rather sure that applying kapton tape inside the button membrane dimples would help preserve the membranes-kapton tape is very resilient (it's used for high temp solder applications). But the dpad part of this kit is flawless and is a must do for anyone who hates the stock dpad. But the button section needs extra attention. Extremerate mentioned on their reddit that they were looking into a fix for this, so you can ask there for any redesigned membranes for the button section.

I really disliked the original gummy feeling of the steam deck’s buttons so this kit was wonderful. The difference is amazing. Yes, they’re quite loud, but you can do the tape mod which helps a lot with the volume while not affecting the press too much. I had a lot of issues with the Dpad originally and this made them a delight to use.

Update 1.23.25 - After giving this a 1 star and writing the review below the seller was nice and reached out to understand my issue better. They provided me with a handful of replacement membranes and were very professional about it. Updating my rating to a 4/5, I think the membrane issue is still a very large issue (3 out of 5 stars) but I gave a 4th star because I think it says a lot about a company based on how they respond to feedback like this.Similar to another review on here, at first after I installed the new buttons I was very pleased. They felt great, responded great, everything that I was looking for. However, within a few days I noticed the A button feeling very squishy and requiring quite a bit of force to click. Once I took it apart again I noticed the membrane/rubber button for the A button had actually torn. Initially I chalked this up to just an unfortunate happenstance and went ahead and replaced it with the extra one that came in the box. The A button was back to working like the rest of them. However, again just a few days later it happened again and this time I didn't have a replacement membrane and the factory ones that come with the SD are not compatible with the clicky kit. I looked online for replacement membranes to no success. At this point I'm pretty disappointed and stuck with a squishy A button.

I had to take a bit to adjust to the shorter travel distance, but once I did, I can spam buttons in 2d games and menus almost as fast as a keyboard.

Let's start off with WHY I got this kit: my Steam Deck OLED had a D-Pad that would not register down-left diagonals consistently and the face buttons felt squishy when pressing (the button would not bounce back as well as I liked).Enter this kit. Doing the modification requires some teardown of the Steam Deck. I would strongly suggest to watch the guide that Extremerate has before attempting to see if this is in your skill set. It does not involve any soldering, but does involve some small ribbon cables and undoing the triggers. This mod took me about an hour with testing and some tinkering to make work well.Be warned that this will not make the older PCB for your buttons usable any more, but you can order new kits on iFixit's website.When I initially installed the kit, the down direction on the D-Pad would only go down and to the right. I panicked initially, but this was fixed by loosening one screw by the shoulder button assembly (which does not affect the button but rather how tight the PCB is to the D-Pad). It now works like a champ.The buttons and D-Pad now feel great. I wish the membranes were just a tad softer and the kit came with face buttons that were now just a tad shorter, but that's nitpicking at this point. My buttons don't stick and feel great, and the D-Pad is reliable and feels great.Overall, if you like to do some tinkering and you don't like the stock Steam Deck experience, I'd say go for this. It really is transformative!