This will be an in-depth review of the Fusion Pro in comparison to the Elite Series 2. I used the Fusion Pro for about 2 weeks. (I never had the series 1 elite, so I can't compare to that, but I would honestly say that the Fusion Pro competes directly with the Elite s1 and not the s2 in terms of features and customization).
As for the Fusion Pro. I can honestly say that @ $80, you are getting a premium feeling product, as far as 3rd party controllers go.
Right out of the box, you are greeted with this big carrying case. I like the material it is made out of compared to the Elite case. You get a nice weight to the controller. Almost as, if not as heavy as the elite s2.
-The feel and texture of the controller is nice. (feels almost similar to the PowerA Enhanced controller). So if you held any PowerA controller before, then the shape is not very different from that. Nice soft finish in the front and a textured grip on the back, though doesn't feel as grippy as the elite s2.
-The sticks are made of qulality plastic and I wish it came with more swappable sticks. The ones with extra height are not that tall. They do add height for better precision, but if you were expecting to get kontrol freek height, then you will be disappointed. Kontrol freeks somewhat fit. I had plenty of times where the kontrol freeks came off the stick during heated battles in Apex. I guess to fix this problem, the stock xbox one controller sticks do fit on the Fusion pro since they are the same shape and have the same oval shape hole on the bottom (I tried it myself). Swapping the sticks and tension rings are not as easy as the elite controller, but easy enough. Just don't try to do it in minimal lighting.
-Stick tension is tighter than the stock xbox one controller. Feels more like the tension you get on the xbox 360 controller. (if you want to compare it to the elite s2 tension, then it will be like if the s2 was set to the first tension setting). The tension rings do a great job making the sticks feel smooth, just like on the s2.
-D Pad is clicky, but not as clicky as the elite s2, but is responsive.
-Buttons are the same, not as clicky, but responsive as well. Never got stuck.
-Bumpers sat a little higher than the elite s2, but was still comfy during gaming.
-Triggers were responsive and had no problems with it.
-As for the trigger stops, they do work as intended, BUT the setting difference between T1 (full press) and T2 (Half press) is very minimal and can't really tell the difference. I don't really see a use for having half press on any trigger stop. People either want full press or very minimal press. The T3 stop honestly feels like the half press when compared to the elite s2. That was one of the cons I had with this controller. I wish they did a better job of making T1 and T2 feel different and T3 having a very short press like on the elite s2 (where it becomes more like a button than a trigger, that's how minimal it is on the elite).
-The paddles are very clicky and are easy to press and work as intended. They are pretty long especially the bottom paddles (from the pics, the bottom paddles are visible in comparison to the elite s2. I think the placement of the paddles compares more to the elite s1, just because of their lengnth. Accidental presses with the top two paddles will be rare or will not happen at all, but my experience with the two bottom paddles, accidental presses will happen.
I'm what you call a "gripper" when holding the controller (using my ring and pinky fingers to hold the controller). So when I had the bottom paddles on, I couldn't hold the controller like I wanted, so I only played with two paddles. Mapping them to any button is easy and can be done while in-game which is nice. You cannot use the xbox controller app to remap/unmap the buttons and paddles. Another con, I wish PowerA sold the mappable pro pack seperately on their site. So in case you need extra paddles or need a replacement pro pack, you can just buy that seperately. On a side note, to combat the problem of long bottom paddles, I would have bought an extra pro pack and used the top paddles as bottom paddles. That way I can hold the controller comfortably w/o having accidental presses.
-Removing and putting paddles back on was not hard, but not as easy as one would like. If you can see on picture 6 (where the paddles are off the pro pack), the pro pack has white markings where you would put the paddles back. Since the pro pack is plastic and the paddles are metal, the repeated on and off of the paddles will bend the plastic surrounding the holes. So be careful when putting them back on.
-The included USB cable (mirco usb, wish they went with type-c), has a locking mechanism when plugged into the controller. I found it very hard to remove once in there. Had to really squeeze the side release buttons to get it off. This could either be a good thing or a bad thing, depends on how you see it. I always unplugged my controller after use, so the difficulty of removing the USB cable was a con for me. I just used the USB cable that came with my old PowerA Enhanced controller.
-3.5mm headphone jack gave me no problems after I updated the firmware. Volume was loud coming out of my headset, mic was clear to others.
To me, was the PowerA Fusion Pro worth $80? I would say yes IF I didn't have my modded xbox controller. What I mean modded is that I had the Collective Minds Mod pack (which made my controller wired and gave me 2 paddles in the back), and 3rd party trigger stops (which was mediocre @ best). Since I only used two paddles on the Fusion Pro, I felt like I already had the same features I was using in my modded xbox controller except the Fusion Pro had better build quality, tension rings, and somewhat better trigger stops. I did end up returning the Fusion Pro and kept my Elite s2.
Now for others who are just coming from a stock xbox controller, I say YES, the Fusion Pro is worth the $80 if you don't want to shell out $100+ for the elite s1 (that's probably out of warranty and is used). I don't want to say Elite s2 because like I said before, IMO the Fusion Pro competes more with the Elite s1 in terms of features and design.