XBOX One Elite Controller Thoughts

[BadTB25]

I'm really pleased with NewEgg. I ordered Friday morning, selected the normal nonbudget shipping option and the new controller just arrived Today on Saturday. I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but just from holding it and doing a really quick toying with the controls you can tell its a solid and extremely well built product. It feels very solid.

Saving $20 helps to take some of the sting off the sticker price.

I think they could definitely sell a metric ton more if they offered a middle ground product, with the solid feel of the elite controller but without the extra customizations and buttons, for around $90. The consumers should want them to incorporate the solid feeling and engineering into the standard controller, eventually for no additional costs.

I was hoping the new controller with the Bluetooth had a built in mic and trigger stops ala the Elite. As it is, I will probably wait until Elite version 2 comes out.

The extra paddles would probably help from me having to remove my thumb from the right stick in Halo, but only by a marginal bit.

Also, PSA: Firefight is the bomb in Halo 5....jump in!

 

[BRiT]

It seems Toys'R Us has the Xbox One Elite on sale for $120, but only for today The 4th of July. For me, once you add in taxes, the price comes out to what NewEgg deal was, but for some others it might be better or if you didn't get in on that deal. SlickDeals Link: http://slickdeals.net/f/8895323-mic...ireless-controller-black-119-99-free-shipping

 

[gb25]

Amazon currently has it for $119.99. I wasn't really interested, but it's tempting now that amazon's matched the price.

 

[gb25]

Well, that didn't last very long. Amazon back to $149.

 

[Rangers]

Been buying lots of crap lately but this has stayed un-bought. I'm sure it's nice but owners justification seems to be "it feels really good". Not any transformative gameplay improvements. I'm sure it feels great, but that's not enough for $150 when the $60 controller works fine.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Been buying lots of crap lately but this has stayed un-bought. I'm sure it's nice but owners justification seems to be "it feels really good". Not any transformative gameplay improvements. I'm sure it feels great, but that's not enough for $150 when the $60 controller works fine.

At least for me it's massively "transformative." Analog sticks and fine control (IE - driving or flying) has always been rubbish for me. With the long sticks and a modified analog stick curve, it's actually pretty good for fine analog positioning. The short sticks also allow for almost digital like on/off controller response from the analog sticks.

And just being able to remap the button presses of the analog sticks to a dedicated button (either remapped to a flapper on the bottom or to a shoulder button or face button) is of immeasurable worth for me. I absolutely hate having to push down on the analog sticks to activate a button. This is most noticeable for me in Dark Souls 3 where jumping requires pushing in on the analog stick while you are moving with the stick. But with the Elite controller I don't have to do that.

Other than that. The D-pad is just superb. Especially the D-pad "shield." I absolutely love that over the traditional D-pad cross or buttons.

And the proof of just how much it has improved my experiences when using a controller is whenever I use a standard controller. At that point driving a car or piloting a plane, for example, becomes significantly more erratic. Dark Souls 3 becomes rage inducing whenever I have to jump with a standard controller.

Oh and the trigger stops. I'm so used to them now that I forget how good they are until I have to use a standard controller with games that use the triggers for binary input (shooting a gun for instance).

YMMV, of course. I generally have some degree of buyer's remorse with everything electronic I buy. I even had some buyer's remorse back when I got my Intel i5 2500k (fantastic CPU by everyone's accounts and in my experience as well). But I don't have any with this controller. Hell, I had some buyer's remorse with my PlayStation, PS2, Xbox, X360, and XBO. The only graphics cards I've ever bought and had not a smidge of buyer's remorse were the 3dfx Voodoo Graphics and Radeon 9700pro.

Regards,
SB

 

[Deleted member 11852]

It's needs to halve in price for me. I'm fine with the standard Dualshock 4 and Xbox One controllers.

 

[eastmen]

I want one but they need to do 2 things

1) I want an elite based on the new smaller controller with blue tooth

2) I want to be able to choose my colors on the thing @ 150 I should be able too.

 

[Rangers]

Yeah they need to update it to bluetooth for sure.

 

[Dave Baumann]

OK, so, while the out of box quality seems top-notch, the longevity quality is clearly shoddy, certainly on the initial units seemingly.

For me, I noticed after a gripping (literally) fire-fight in Mass Effect one of the rubber hand grips had bubbled and is now pealing away from the controlled. Additionally one of the thumstick now has a considerably "free" vertical travel that shouldn't be there. Some Googling indicates that the rubber grip pealing off is very common and there are lots of reports of various issues with buttons etc. Initially it seemed like those that were out of warranty had to pay for repairs (sometimes paying as much as the original, very high, cost of the controller), however some more recent reports indicated that if you contacted support MS were being more amenable to helping out given the high cost of the controller and the fact that "quality" is a big factor of its price.

Anyway, I contacted XBOX support via their online chat and they are honoring repairs on my controller out of warranty under a "make good" scheme, with seemingly the only cost being postage of the controller to the support center.

 

[BRiT]

Sorry to hear about your issues with your controller but it's good to see MS making good and fixing it. I'll have to keep this in mind if I ever have issues with mine.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Good to know. I haven't had any issues with mine, yet, but it's reassuring to know that I'll likely be taken care of if something like that arises.

Regards,
SB

 

[Grall]

the rubber hand grips had bubbled and is now pealing away

This is a reason why I never buy rubberized anything these days, because that coat is never ever going to be able to stand up to any level of wear and tear; it is so damn thin. It's literally just a fraction of a millimeter thick. Everything rubberized I've ever bought has become worn and crummy after a while; keyboard palmrests, mice and so on. I had a Razer x360 competition controller once but simply gave it away only a day or so after buying it for a lot of money because of similar rubberization - which wasn't mentioned on the packaging or in previews on the internet from what I recall. Couldn't stand the thought of the rubber wearing off on a fancy-schmancy controller - especially as the rubber also covered the surfaces where the controller rests on a table when not in use... That's where it would wear off the quickest.

The mechanical issues you're having is more concerning, because that's not something I would expect on a premium product - unlike the rubber wearing off.

 

[dobwal]

OK, so, while the out of box quality seems top-notch, the longevity quality is clearly shoddy, certainly on the initial units seemingly.

For me, I noticed after a gripping (literally) fire-fight in Mass Effect one of the rubber hand grips had bubbled and is now pealing away from the controlled. Additionally one of the thumstick now has a considerably "free" vertical travel that shouldn't be there. Some Googling indicates that the rubber grip pealing off is very common and there are lots of reports of various issues with buttons etc. Initially it seemed like those that were out of warranty had to pay for repairs (sometimes paying as much as the original, very high, cost of the controller), however some more recent reports indicated that if you contacted support MS were being more amenable to helping out given the high cost of the controller and the fact that "quality" is a big factor of its price.

Anyway, I contacted XBOX support via their online chat and they are honoring repairs on my controller out of warranty under a "make good" scheme, with seemingly the only cost being postage of the controller to the support center.

Same thing happened to me. Rubber grip bubbled and came loose at the seam. Thought I'd fix it with some gorilla glue but the rubber is actually stretched so the loose piece overlaps the top of the grip that's still tightly bound to the controller.

Was expecting better for a $150 controller but I'm so used to it now I have nothing but disdain for the regular controller. LOL. My son tears through the regular controllers (he knows not to ever touch the elite) so I keep my white S controller in the closet and unmolested strictly as a back up if the elite ever breaks.

Glad to hear MS has a remedy for issues because I was simply going to take a razor blade and shave a few millimeter off and crazy glue the grip back.

 

[Dave Baumann]

Little update on the support process.

So, they submitted a ticket and asked to send the controller unit, stripped of any parts (controller sticks, d-pads, etc,), to a fulfillment center in Toronto, stating I should get something returned within 10 working days. Now, presumably because it was the holiday period, it took longer and for my "troubles" of chasing support for a status update I get two free months of Live Gold. Anyway, I got a UPS tracking number on Friday and received the controller today - pretty sure that it is not a refurbished/repaired unit but rather a straight replacement with a new controller (without the parts).

Lets hope this is more robust than the original.

Note, MS's support services via their web chat is very effective. Always polite (to the point I'm not convinced I'm not talking to an AI) but actually effective in both being sable to get things done and following up.

 

[Safetomatic Isaac]

First, the D-pad in XBOX One Elite is so much better compared to D-pad in the original Xbox one. As you noted, the 2 D-Pad cross and circular concave options are excellent. However, consider to invest in an excellent input output system.
Also, the sticks will come with smooth center and rasped edge. Great customizability in Elite!