Xbox Series X Rechargeable Battery Gamestop
Xbox Series Ten rechargeable battery is a huge footstep back
I've generally had very complimentary things to say about the Xbox Series X controller, which I actually prefer to the PS5's DualSense. Information technology may be a very conservative upgrade, but it's a very bourgeois upgrade of one of the best controllers always made.
The Xbox Series X controller is comfy, intuitive and versatile. The merely negative issue is that it uses wasteful, expensive AA batteries — and Microsoft's official rechargeable battery pack, sold separately for $25, doesn't address this problem nearly as well every bit it should.
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Similar the Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers, the Xbox Series X/Due south controller uses disposable AA batteries by default rather than internal, rechargeable battery packs, such as those found in the PS3, PS4 and PS5 controllers.
Without belaboring the issue, AA batteries are both wasteful and inefficient, and I'm generally not thrilled that Microsoft has passed what is essentially an additional cost onto the consumer rather than just building it into the cost of the controller.
The low-cal of my battery life
The one consolation is that Microsoft's rechargeable battery packs accept by and large been pretty good in the past. My Xbox 360 bombardment pack lasted for about 7 years before it started losing significant amounts of charge; my Xbox I battery pack is however going strong. Both of those bombardment packs also included a charging cable with an indicator low-cal.
Unlike most gaming peripherals, Xbox controllers practice not take a light that indicates charge. (The illuminated power push button would work just fine for this application, but I digress.) The merely mode to bank check how much power you have left is to boot up your Xbox and check the peak of the home screen — or install a dedicated app on your PC.
Older Xbox battery-pack charging cables partly alleviated this problem. The LEDs on the cables would glow orange while the controller was charging, and either dark-green or white once the accuse was complete.
While Xbox One bombardment packs are compatible with Xbox Series X controllers, the charging cables are not, since newer controllers use USB-C rather than microUSB plugs. However, the Xbox Rechargeable Bombardment + USB-C Cable for Xbox Series X (rolls correct off the natural language, doesn't it?) is a huge stride backward for one unproblematic reason: At that place'due south no indicator calorie-free.
This may not seem like a big deal. After all, yous become a battery pack and charging cable, and they work well; what more could you want? Merely a charging light is an invaluable thing, especially if you have only 1 controller.
It lets you know when you tin detach your controller and spring back into a game; it could as well save you some coin on electricity, since Xbox consoles will provide a small trickle of power to charging gear even when the arrangement is turned off.
More than anything else, though, a charging indicator saves you frustration. Is the light orangish? Your controller is charging. Is the low-cal white? Your controller is charged.
With this new charging cable, you lot accept to turn on your TV and your Xbox (once again — this wastes both time and power), and examine a tiny icon at the top of the screen. If your controller is charging, you'll run into a battery with a plug icon and a slowly moving white bar. If your controller is charged, yous'll encounter a well-nigh identical battery with a plug icon, simply this time, the bar is static.
If Microsoft couldn't give united states of america an LED on the cablevision itself, the very least it could have done is make the "charged" symbol on the Xbox home screen a little more than distinctive.
Because that the rechargeable battery is more or less a necessary expense, the to the lowest degree Microsoft could have done was provide a cablevision equally as good as its last-gen model. Instead, we got a much less useful product for the exact same price.
Xbox play and charge kit alternatives
Had I known that I was essentially just paying for a very long USB-C cable, I probably would have avoided buying Microsoft'due south rechargeable battery kit. (Again: Xbox One rechargeable battery packs still work fine, and I have two of them. Your mileage may vary on this, of course.) After the fact, though, I discovered that Microsoft fans are not without options when it comes to charging solutions with indicators.
Get-go, at that place'southward something similar the Numskull Xbox Series Ten LED USB-C Charge Cable (some other product name that leaves nothing to the imagination). Very simply, it'south a USB-C charging cable that lights up as a controller charges.
This is exactly what Microsoft should have included with its rechargeable battery pack. On the other manus, a v-human foot-long cablevision is non useful for playing games while a controller charges, and it doesn't come with a battery pack.
Then there's something like the HyperX ChargePlay Duo, but announced at CES 2021, which uses proprietary battery packs and a physical dock to accuse controllers. Information technology's a petty cumbersome, and at $forty, it's more expensive than buying a unmarried battery pack from Microsoft. (You go two batteries, so the math makes sense if you ain two controllers.) It's not quite as simple every bit just plugging in a cable, simply at least y'all know when your batteries are done charging.
The best solution, though, would be for Microsoft to simply include an LED charging light on the next batch of Xbox Series X rechargeable bombardment cables. Information technology'southward an extremely inconvenient oversight, merely likewise one that seems relatively piece of cake to fix.
The company could also start manufacturing controllers with built-in rechargeable batteries, just that seems like a bigger inquire.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/opinion/xbox-series-x-rechargeable-battery
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