XBOX One controller

[ncxcstud]

I've been able to sneakily get my hands on a XBOX One controller at my local Meijer. They have the controllers at the store, and they didn't put the 4-way lock on it (they did on the controller with charger though), someone else (not me I swear) managed to pry the box open a little bit so you can mess with the buttons, the right analog stick, and the right surface of the controller. Felt nice, much nicer than the 360 one. Seems to have a finish on it that won't lead to so many sweat gunk on the controller like the 360s do (though the DS3 was worse at this, thankfully it seems the DS4 improves on that too).

 

[Coreldan]

This sort of went offtopic in the PS4 thread, so I thought I'd post it here if someone wants to talk about it more. So the discussion was about using rechargeable batteries for the Xbox One controller:

Which ones do you have? I was going to get the Eneloops, since everyone online recommends them, but the normal ones are 2000 mAh, but they can be charged up to 1800 times, while they said that the 2500-mAh ones only lasted for 500 charges.

Sorry, 2700 mAh! Sony BCG34HLD4F/BCG34HH4FN laturi ja 4kpl*AA -akut,*2700 mAh. | Akkuparistolaturit | Paristot, akut ja laturit | Verkkokauppa.com The stuff is in finnish but you can probably figure out the important things from there.

I also read Eneloops were very popular where-ever there was discussion especially about the Xbox One controller, but I went with mAh/price/reviews from that website. It's well possible that the Eneloops might last more recharges, but I didn't find any bad reviews regarding these batteries about not lasting enough recharges or anything so I just went with them cos they were high capacity, came with a charger and was still very affordable.

So far I have nothing bad to say about them, they last 2-3 weeks in the controller, depends how much I play. 2 weeks maybe now that Titanfall has been making me play quite a bit (almost at 50h played of Titanfall since launch here, but I've also played other things). The Xbox One battery indicator mostly works with them, but only shows 3 stages (not sure if something else give you more precise info) being sort of "almost full", "nearly empty" and "very low" (also shows red color). That's enough for me anyways.

I also thought the Play&Charge wasn't worth it for me, cos for less price I got 4x batteries that are higher capacity. Also I dont want to plug in the controller ever, I rather change the batteries whenever needed. And since I have 4 batteries but just one controller, I always have another pair charged ready in the drawer, takes me 5s to have full batteries again

EDIT: With that charger and batteries the charg?ng time is like 10 hours or so. Someone might see that as a negative, but it doesn't really matter to me since the batteries last weeks when used in the controller, so that's plenty of time to have them charge for 10h

 

[Keith Wallace]

I'm going to take a quick look tomorrow to see if anywhere in-town sells Eneloops. If not, I'll order them tomorrow (need to go get a flash drive and compressed air tomorrow, to back up my 360 saves and make sure it's pretty-much dust-free).

Also, two things about the controller (one's a question):

1. I love the sticks, they require a lot less force to move, it seems, which is good for precision aiming. The triggers and face buttons are fine. The bumpers are a little annoying. The D-Pad doesn't really strike me as improved, though I never played games heavily dependent on the D-Pad.

2. So you have to plug the controller in to update it. What do they expect you to do if you don't get the Play & Charge? I can use my phone cable, but expecting folks to have those is not too bright.

 

[Coreldan]

1) The bumpers are fine to me, just different from 360. It's more about pressing them with the first joint of the finger-area rather than from the top of the button. The only thing that annoys me is the plastic they used for it. I don't think it's gonna be much of a problem or anything, but it does feel a bit cheap. I think the DPad is superior in every way to 360, but as said, it pretty much requires a dpad-heavy game to notice. Fighting games are typically a good example. I don't play such games much either, but I do much prefer the dpad of One.

2) Well, I just used one of the bazillion micro USB cables I had around and didn't think about it more than that. If someone doesnt have such cable, they are practically free from almost any store. But sure, I guess it's a bit silly. But I guess it's no different than the One having an ethernet port but no cable included and same goes for a lot of things, I guess.

 

[minus365]

I am using Eneloop AA R06 2000mAh that lasts 1800 power cycles and they are perfectly fine.

 

[ncxcstud]

Occasionally I'll go back to my 360 to play something - right now that is just the new DLC for Bioshock Infinite, and the TellTale games on The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us.

I'm tired of the 360 controller - mainly because of the thumbsticks and the triggers. It feels soooo good on the XBOX One controller, that the 360 version (which isn't bad at all) just doesn't feel quite as nice as it used too. I wish there was a way to use my XBOX One controller on the 360....

I use the play and charge kit and while I don't think those batteries last as long as regular rechargeable batteries, they last long enough (at least 1-2 weeks). So I'm fine with that.

The d-pad is A LOT better than the any of the versions of the 360 d-pad...

 

[Keith Wallace]

I'm just mad that they won't sell the battery packs by themselves, without the cable. If they did that, I'd buy a Play & Charge. However, I'm going to eventually get a second controller, and there's 0 excuse to make people buy a second charger, especially when the port is a dang smartphone micro-USB, meaning every non-iPhone household probably has 2-4 of them. I don't need the 9-foot cable, as I could easily just use my phone charger, since my desktop (and its front USB ports) are about a foot from my bed.

For now, it's the included Duracells.

 

[Coreldan]

Well I think it's a nice thing that the Play&Charge kit comes with the cable. While you might not mind it, but I would hate having to charge it on a 30cm long phone cable or smth It wouldn't be a biggy if you arnt using it at the time but I dont want to be glued to the TV if I have to charge in the middle of gaming.

That said, they could shave off a few dollars and sell the battery without the cable.

 

[Keith Wallace]

Yeah, definitely not saying that they should dump the cable or anything. It's just that with the 360, they had the Play & Charge for $20, but they had the batteries for $12 on their own as well. They should have just the battery for $15 or something. Of course, I'd have a hard time convincing myself to buy a battery pack for $15 when the Eneloops are $3 more for the charger and 4 batteries, but I could maybe do it. Having to spend $25 for each controller? PASS. It's bad enough that the controllers themselves are $10 more this generation. I think that's one of the biggest complaints I have about consoles, that the controllers never decrease in price, even though they're probably dirt cheap to make for the 360 now.

 

[Coreldan]

Yeah, definitely not saying that they should dump the cable or anything. It's just that with the 360, they had the Play & Charge for $20, but they had the batteries for $12 on their own as well. They should have just the battery for $15 or something. Of course, I'd have a hard time convincing myself to buy a battery pack for $15 when the Eneloops are $3 more for the charger and 4 batteries, but I could maybe do it. Having to spend $25 for each controller? PASS. It's bad enough that the controllers themselves are $10 more this generation. I think that's one of the biggest complaints I have about consoles, that the controllers never decrease in price, even though they're probably dirt cheap to make for the 360 now.

Well, that's one thing the consoles were actually making money off of last gen (and most previous gens). The consoles themselves rarely sell for profit, this gen sorta being an exception. Money is typically made from games, services and accessories.