Wireless Xbox One controllers out for Windows 10 only

Microsoft has announced in the past that the wireless controller of their recent generation console, Xbox One, can now be used for the PC. It comes packing with interchangeable buttons, paddles, hair-triggers, the lot. That brings up another of my favorite things about this controller.

Jumping straight in, let’s talk about the hardware.

Also available is the $79.95 Xbox One Controller + Wireless Adapter for Windows 10, which adds a controller into the mix. You’re even already about halfway to an Xbox One bundle this holiday season.

When you open up the box, the feeling of premium is immediately present. It actually feels like you’re holding something in your hand. The make is sturdy, the rubber grips are comfortable, and the entire build all the way down to each individual pad and button is higher in quality than any other competitor on the market. But at $150, I’m not willing to drop that much cash for a game controller.

Once you get it hooked up, load up the app to remap anything on the controller besides the menu and option buttons. More often than not, I found myself accidently activating them when concentrating on a game, simply because I was griping my controller tightly. The Elite Controller’s triggers and bumpers are a silver-colored plastic rather than metal, but they also feel more substantial than the original verisons. When you finally turn the controller on, you’ll also be pleasantly surprised by the solid vibration engine. Let’s talk about the D-Pad first though. It also throws in a hard carrying case and a braided micro-USB cord for connecting to your Xbox or PC. There is also the standard D-pad, and the octagonal one mentioned above. You get a taller, non-grip kind, a taller, grip kind and a standard set of thumb sticks with grips. Here, they’re a little easier to press at their outermost edges, but even at the opposite end (where the actuators reside) it takes dramatically less effort and is more even all the way across.

That heft likely comes from the Elite’s revamped innards.

The advantage within first-person shooters is great, it allows for faster shooting with guns that require multiple pulls on the trigger.

An adapter will be used to receive the signals from the wireless Xbox One controller. These paddles can be mapped to function like any other button on the controller, including pressing the digital pad, clicking the analog sticks, and pulling the pressure-sensitive triggers (but not pulling the analog stick in any given direction). The included USB cable is a lengthy nine feet, so you can easily use it as a wired controller from your couch. It’s a small annoyance, but one I ran into every single time I played and always slowed me down. I haven’t had any of them pop off while playing during the week I’ve been testing the controller. Perhaps I play the wrong kind of ganes, but I really don’t see a benefit of using the paddles as a normal gamer. If you want to jump right into a game without customizing the button maps, you can download community-created configurations. That’s all up to you, but we think the cheaper routes may be more beneficial especially to your pocket. The taller sticks though do offer a different level of accuracy, but only for certain types of games, like racing perhaps. Yes, absolutely. It gives you a very competitive advantage over gamers with a standard controller.

$150? What is this, the controller for the original Steel Battalion? I’m not so sure. The standard controller does everything you probably need. With the Elite, I had the option of choosing among three different sets (standard, tall and a pair of convex heads) and changing them on the fly, but most of the time I was perfectly happy with the standard set.