User Experience

I was not sure how much I would miss the various customization options from the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller, but as it turns out, there is not much to miss. The replaceable joysticks are nice to have, and some of the options indeed allow for an in between even to the Xbox Adaptive controller as far as accommodating hand and finger positioning and sizes go. The faceted direction pad that comes installed by default now is one I really like, and I am not the only one based on user feedback. It is not as sheer a faceted surface as on the Xbox Elite Series 2 and adopts the more traditional four-way pad design, but with an indent to allow diagonal movement, which is easily done now, rather than trying to hold two of the extending arms together as before. It is quite clicky and tactile, more so than the Xbox One/360 controllers, so this might be a point of annoyance for some. Adding to this is that the face buttons are also louder than before, so if you are planning to broadcast your gameplay via a headset, the clicks may be picked up by the microphone.

I do like that the face buttons are colored to match the color of the controller, which is the case for the shock blue, pulse red, and electric volt colors at least. If you find yourself missing the four colors used before, perhaps the carbon black or robot white options are for you. But there are those colors marked via small dots in the middle of the face buttons themselves even so, which is a cool Easter egg for me who could not care less about the colors. The other buttons are similarly color-coordinated, although the LED under the Xbox button remains white, so the actual internals are the same. I was not confident about taking the controller apart in a non-destructive manner, which is a good thing since it means the shell is put together well. The only other new item to talk about here is the dedicated share button, which comes in handy coupled with Xbox Game Bar for saving footage, but is best used on the consoles with a dedicated platform for it.


The left and right triggers are probably where Xbox is lacking still compared to the competition, especially with the excellent feedback given to the same on the Sony DualSense controllers. We don't even get customizable travel, which is still reserved for the Elite Series 2, but the default full travel is a safe option to go with. The gripped surfaces are also more dotted and cover a smaller surface area than I'd like, which does force you to place your fingers exactly in that sweet spot and will help once muscle memory kicks in. The 3.5 mm jack makes adding a microphone or headset to the controller an option, as does the Xbox expansion port alongside. As expected, the Bluetooth-pairing button is on the back, with the actual transceiver right behind it facing the source. I am also glad, but not surprised, to see USB Type-C rather than the microUSB from before. This means the lack of an included cable is not as bad since most people probably already have a spare cable, and it isn't really needed for functionality if you do not.


The Xbox wireless controller is called such because it supports multiple modes of connectivity, including Bluetooth 5.0 and Xbox Wireless, a 2.4 GHz network using a separately available adapter that is needed for Windows 10. The average user will not care much about latency on console gaming, or even PC gaming with a controller. It is critical for some game genres, however, including fighting ones. But at that point, you might as well go wired, or even with fighting sticks—one of which we will take a look at soon! I used the controller in Bluetooth mode, which worked flawlessly with Windows 10 recognizing it natively, as did Steam itself. There is also a built-in tester that is handy for gauging the full range of motion of the various sticks and buttons here.


In addition to the testing, and especially if you spot a smaller range or even non-symmetric responses in different directions, Windows 10 has a native calibration tool for the Xbox wireless controller. Seen above are the involved steps, which I certainly recommend doing in the absence of finer control over dead zones in the Xbox accessory app, and the end result is one that should help resolve any issues. I only had one case where the mid-point was set more to ~49% than 50%, but needless to say, I would not have really noticed it in practice even before calibration.

So yes, pairing it with a PC as a Bluetooth device is straightforward as it is natively recognized as an Xbox controller by Windows 10, and there are drivers if it does not. This means all games that support a game pad will support it natively on Windows, which is the biggest advantage of the Xbox controller for PC gaming over the DualSense or DualShock 4. Battery life is excellent compared to the DualShock 4 at least, but that is again more of a Microsoft vs. Sony thing, with my testing using the stock batteries giving me 35 hours compared to the rated battery life of up to 40 hours. It goes without saying that battery life is contingent on the batteries used, and it will get quite expensive if you keep buying standard AA non-rechargeable batteries. Bluetooth connectivity was absolutely fine on two PCs I've tried. The controller weighs ~280 g as it comes out of the box, which is quite comfortable for long use cases coupled with the slightly smaller form factor. This includes the rumble motors for haptic feedback, which both worked perfectly fine.

People who have used analog controllers already know the advantage of analog control over movement. This is especially true in racing games—gone are the jerky on/off inputs for acceleration in particular, with much smoother input as well as finer control with turning. While controllers are also more typically used in third-person games purely because of the mouse advantage in first-person games, there are situations where having analog control over movement in FPS games can be useful, a typical example being stealth sections where AI behavior is often tied to the character's movement speed, which is translated into "noise." There is not a whole lot more to say here since you either already want a controller for the PC or not, and only for the former set is the Xbox wireless controller relevant.