Gadgetory

one of Microsoft's big announcements at this year's e3 was the unveiling of the new elite controller which is Christ at 150 bucks now some people were like oh wow that's really cool a new controller while other people are going holy 150 bucks for controller that's it for twice the price of the regular Xbox one controller why would you spend that much well thankfully I did get the chance of trying this out at the e3 show floor so let's talk about what this one does differently and whether or not it's really worth dumping that much money now to begin with here's some of the obvious differences right away this one does have a rubberized grip unlike the Xbox one controller a lot of people are saying that this makes it so that it's not going to slip at your hands if you're squeezing really tight but honestly that doesn't really happen that often with Xbox one controller unless you have really really sweaty hands what's more important is the fact that when you're squeezing it it will give just a little bit so when you're playing for a long period of time it's going to be more comfortable for your hands the other big noticeable difference is that if you look at the bottom of the controller this one has a 3.5 millimeter audio jack so you don't have to use just the standard Xbox one chat headset or one of those pro headsets that plugs directly into the system this gives you a few more options to use the headset you'd like now those two changes are nice but the real big deal about this controller is just how customizable it is most noticeably the fact that it has a modular design there's a lot of bits and pieces that you can switch in and out first off there are three different sets of control sticks you can choose from you've got the standard concave design like you'd see on a regular Xbox one controller there's another concave one that's taller which is a little awkward feeling to use at first but it does offer a greater amount of precision with movement so especially in games like FPS is where you want to be very careful about where you look and how quickly that's a huge deal and third off there is a dome-shaped head which is very reminiscent of a ps3 or ps2 controller now there are a lot of debates out which of these is actually better to use some will say that concave design gives you a better grip other people say that you have more precise control with a dome top in the end for me at least it really just comes down to personal preference which this does give the option of using that one or concave or once again that taller one now along with those different joysticks you can also switch out one of two different d-pads now one of them just looks like the standard Xbox one controller one which personally I've never been a huge fan of it does offer precise control if you just want to press up down left or right which really only comes up mostly in fps or some tactical games the other option they've added though is a faceted design which emulates a directional input which is a lot more use and way more comfortable in situations like let's say for fighting games because rolling it's a lot more comfortable this was actually my favorite changes controller when I was trying it out I absolutely loved the feel of that design compared to the regular plus symbol now those just the changes you'll see on the front on the back side you'll notice there are also four slots you can add these little back paddle things these are meant to give you additional control options the main idea being that it gives you a way to press buttons without having to resort to your thumbs for instance let's say there's a game you're playing where you have to keep your thumb on the right stick for some reason but then something comes up where you need to hit the a button well instead of having to quickly move your thumb over press a then go back to the stick you can keep your thumb on the stick and then press one of those back paddles which you've mapped to the same thing as the a button so it's a really useful way of having a shortcut in alternate ways of controlling your favorite games now in addition to all the modular pieces there are some other ways you can customize this controller right on it if you look at the back side you'll notice these little switches which allow you to change the triggers from either standard mode or hair-trigger mode in hair-trigger mode it's going to stop the trigger from going down at about the halfway point which is where actually the button is actually already being pressed it's just letting you know so it's a lot easier to rapid-fire pull a trigger as opposed to just having it in standard mode and repeatedly hitting it thinking you're timing it just right there's also a switch on the front side which allows you to switch between two different pre-designed profiles which you can customize in the downloadable app now this software is really where the controller gets even more ridiculously customizable one of the first things is that you can remap all the buttons if you want to switch a and B you can do that if you want to have the left trigger and right trigger switch you can do that if you want to have clicking down on the right stick be the same thing as pressing Y you can do that and you can save to different profiles immediately on the controller like I said you can switch between so let's say you're playing a first-person shooter like Star Wars Battlefront well you can have profile 1 for that but then you want to switch over to say Killer Instinct a fighting game you can switch into mode 2 where the controls are designed for that along with remapping buttons the software is going to offer a few other little things you can change for instance you can adjust the sensitivity on sticks when you're moving them and you can just how powerful the haptic feedback is in each corner of the controller so those are the features that it says it adds but as far as how it goes into actual hands-on experience I gotta say I really like the controller I think the faceted d-pad is a great design I like the hair triggers one of the things I think they did a great job though was him a perfect balance when it came to how easy it is to remove all the different modular pieces you know there are some gaming accessories where there's something that you can remove but it always feels like you're going to break it or snap it off if you're being not careful enough with these ones they always snapped off with just enough force so it always felt not too hard to do but it also didn't come off too easily so when you're using it there's never that fear that something's going to pop out when it's not supposed to now that being said I do think the asking price of $150 is still a little ridiculous you know like I said earlier that's over twice the price of a standard controller that's almost half the price of the whole system which includes a controller and if you compare it to third-party pro controllers those not only go for about 8090 maybe a hundred bucks so 150 is definitely up there you know I think for having the ability to say is a first party brand controller 120 would have been fine that's twice the price controller totally worth paying for the customization but 150 just feels a little bit too steep so it really comes down to what you think it's personally worth to get this much customization really useful but really really pricey so those are my thoughts on the new Xbox one elite controller it's going to be available in October at an MSRP of $150 like I said they will work on not only Xbox one but also on PCs that are running Windows 10 now as always if you enjoyed this video hit that thumbs up button to let me know subscribe and follow me on twitter I'll be see you guys soon with more content but until then I'm Kevin Kenson and I'll see you guys later