PS5 DualSense Haptic Feedback Test — Advanced Haptics in Your Browser
Test your DualSense's linear resonant actuators with game-effect haptic patterns, confirm both sides respond cleanly, and understand exactly what the browser API can and cannot reach. This haptic feedback test is built specifically for DualSense hardware on PS5 and PC.
Honest upfront: the Gamepad Vibration API exposes only the basic dual-rumble channel, not Sony's full DualSenseSDK with its direct waveform control and texture playback. What the browser can do is drive the two LRAs with rapid magnitude changes the API supports — which is enough to feel the difference between LRAs and ERM rumble, run approximations of common game effects (rain, footsteps, weapon fire, heartbeats), and verify both actuators are working after a drop or warranty incident. Connect a DualSense, run the hardware verification check first, then try the game-effect library. If your DualSense haptics broke in a Returnal session, this is where you'll confirm it.
Connect your DualSense to begin
Plug your DualSense in via USB or pair over Bluetooth, then press any button so the browser detects it. Use a Chromium-based browser (Chrome, Edge, Opera) for full vibration API support.
Run these three tests on each side independently. Each one isolates a different characteristic of the LRA hardware. If any test produces no felt response on its side, that actuator has failed.
Eight approximations of real game haptic effects, designed to work within the dual-rumble API the browser allows. Each effect is tuned for LRA hardware — the fast attack and sharp release the DualSense can produce. On ERM controllers they'll feel like muddy rumble.
The same haptic pattern, twice — first tuned for LRA's instant response, then with the longer ramp typical of ERM motors. Feel the difference directly even if you only own one controller. On a real DualSense the two will feel meaningfully different; on an ERM pad both will feel similar because the hardware can't deliver the fast version cleanly.
What this tool cannot do: drive the DualSense's full haptic capabilities. Sony's native SDK exposes direct waveform control, individual actuator addressing, and the adaptive trigger motors — none of which are accessible through the browser's Gamepad API. PS5 games like Returnal, Astro's Playroom, and Ratchet & Clank reach features this tool cannot. What this tool can do is confirm both LRAs are alive and responsive, and demonstrate the LRA-vs-ERM difference clearly enough to use as warranty evidence if one side has died.
Understanding the hardware in your hands
The DualSense isn't a normal controller wearing a new shell. The haptic system inside it is a different class of device from anything Sony shipped before the PS5 — and from almost everything else on the market today. This is what's going on underneath the plastic, why it matters, and what to do when it stops working the way it should.
The DualSense's grip actuators can do almost everything Sony built them to do, but the browser API limits us to a small slice of that capability. Verifying the hardware is alive is well within reach. Reproducing what Astro's Playroom does isn't, and isn't going to be.
Most controllers use eccentric rotating mass motors — a weighted shaft that spins to produce rumble. Spin it faster, feel more rumble. The DualSense uses voice coil actuators instead, the same fundamental technology that drives speakers. A magnet sits on a spring suspension, and an electrical signal moves it back and forth at whatever frequency and amplitude the signal specifies. That's the entire mechanical change, and it changes nearly everything about what the hardware can do.
A spinning weight has to physically reach its target speed before you feel the requested magnitude. A voice coil snaps to position in roughly five to fifteen milliseconds — an order of magnitude faster. That speed is what makes DualSense haptics feel different from Xbox or DualShock 4 rumble. It's not that the DualSense vibrates harder; it's that it can start and stop fast enough to convey discrete events rather than a continuous shake. A drop of rain. A single footstep on metal. A bow string releasing. Effects that smear into mush on an ERM controller stay sharp and individual on a DualSense, because the actuator can actually deliver a clean ten-millisecond pulse without the mechanical lag.
The trade-off is peak amplitude. A spinning weight at 100% magnitude throws a lot of mass around inside the controller — chest-rattling explosion rumble, in a way LRAs can't quite match. Sony's design philosophy with the DualSense was to lean into precision over force. Most players never notice the missing low-end thump because the broadband response — the ability to convey high and low frequencies cleanly within a single effect — more than makes up for it. Returnal's rain is louder in the hand than any rumble the PS4 generation could produce, even though peak amplitude is technically lower.
What the browser cannot reach is custom waveforms. PS5 games drive the LRAs with audio-style waveform data through Sony's native SDK, which means the controller can effectively replay short audio clips as haptic textures. That's why footsteps in The Last of Us Part II Remastered feel different on every surface — the game is sending different waveforms to the actuators, not just different magnitudes. The browser's dual-rumble API only accepts a single magnitude value for each side, so the tool above can approximate textures through rapid magnitude changes but cannot send actual waveform data.
How DualSense haptics compare to other controllers
| DualSense | Xbox Wireless | Joy-Con / Switch Pro | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Actuator type | Voice coil (LRA) | Eccentric rotating mass (ERM) | HD Rumble (LRA, slightly older spec) |
| Response time | 5–15 ms | 50–100 ms | 10–25 ms |
| Peak amplitude | Moderate | High | Moderate |
| Waveform control | Full (native SDK) | Magnitude only | Limited (Nintendo-only) |
| Browser API reach | ~25% of capability | ~90% of capability | ~40% of capability |
| Adaptive trigger haptics | Yes | No (Impulse triggers only, no haptics) | No |
Browser API reach is the percentage of total haptic capability the Gamepad Vibration API can drive. ERM controllers score high because the API matches their hardware closely; LRA controllers score lower because the API can't access waveform features the hardware supports.
Three situations this test actually helps with
You dropped your DualSense and one side feels weak
Voice coil actuators are mechanically simpler than spinning motors but they're not indestructible — a hard drop can knock the magnet out of alignment with its coil, or crack the spring suspension entirely. The hardware verification step at the top of the tool will tell you within thirty seconds. Run all three tests on both sides. If the affected side produces noticeably less response on any of the three tests, the actuator has been damaged. The PS5 controller warranty (12 months from Sony in most regions) covers actuator failure even from drops in some jurisdictions — worth filing the claim before assuming it's not covered.
Haptics feel fine in some games but missing in others
Almost certainly a game-side choice rather than a hardware fault. Not every PS5 game uses the full DualSense haptic SDK — many cross-platform titles use only the dual-rumble channel for portability, which means they're driving the LRAs with standard ERM-style magnitude commands rather than waveform data. That makes the DualSense feel like an Xbox pad in those games specifically, which is jarring after playing something like Astro's Playroom. The Game Effect Library in the tool confirms your actuators can do the precise stuff — if the rain droplets effect feels sharp and distinct, the hardware is fine and the game just isn't asking for it.
You just bought a used DualSense and the refund window is short
Used DualSense pads carry meaningful risk because LRA failures are often invisible to the seller — the controller works perfectly for buttons, sticks, and basic rumble, but precision haptics on one side might be dead and the seller may not have noticed. Run the hardware verification step first, then the LRA-vs-ERM comparison. If the two patterns feel similar rather than dramatically different, the LRAs aren't performing as they should and the pad has hidden damage. This is the strongest case for a refund or replacement before the window closes — screenshot the test results as supporting evidence.
The questions section below covers the practical follow-on issues — what to do when haptics seem fine on this page but disappointing in actual games, how to handle the warranty conversation when Sony's first-line support has never heard of LRA failure, and why your friend's DualSense might feel different from yours even when both pass every test on this page.