Xbox Series S/X Controller Battery Life

Foxhound21 · Apr 10, 2023

I have seen this come up multiple times but I am yet to see an official response from Microsoft regarding the issue. It seems that the Xbox Series S/X Controllers battery life is extremely bad. At first, I thought maybe it was my controller or battery or some fluke disconnect but after 3 different controllers and 3 different official rechargeable packs I can now say without a doubt the battery life in these new controllers are abysmal.

I would like to preface this with the fact that I have this connected to a PC via Bluetooth, but I seem to have the issue if I am connected to the Xbox as well. In fact, if I'm off one day and start playing around noon, it won't even make it to 7pm, and that's with plenty of breaks in-between where the controller is off. Overall, they seem to die within just about 4-5 hours of actual play. I have resorted to having my controller plugged in at all times, yet still somehow it is capable of dying, albeit much slower. I can't imagine the addition of Bluetooth really consumes this much energy. Although some have said they believe that Bluetooth may still be consuming energy with the controller off. I have made sure the controller firmware is up to date as well.

It's frustrating since these controllers and battery packs are not exactly cheap, and I pay for wireless, when wired controllers are much cheaper and these have essentially become wired controllers anyways. Not to mention I assume the battery packs are being quickly destroyed themselves with the constant charging cycles.

Is anything even being looked into with these controllers?

:)

StuartATrueRed

The Series X controllers available now uses the same official battery packs as the Xbox One and Series S controllers.

Nursemorph

But then if it;s the wrong battery pack, it shoudn't work with either controller ...the fact it works in one but not the other points to an issue with the second controller

The Xbox One Venom battery pack won't even fit in the Series X controller (or at least not without trimming bits off it)..as the OP can fit the pack with no issue, it suggests it's the right battery pack. Unless Venom have released more than one battery pack for the Series X?

Foxhound21

I appreciate the reply. However, some AA's, especially when using 2, have more mAh than the official play and charge kit. Therefore, it would last longer. Though there are two issues. 1. This did not happen on older controllers before the X/S controllers with USB-C were released and 2. that creates the issue of making it not rechargeable while in the controller, requiring me to open them up each time the batteries die, which is not exactly intuitive, especially when there's really no warning on windows. Also, I noticed something today, I'm not sure how accurate the battery indicator is on Windows game bar, but I have had my controller connected all day (while playing games), yet the indicator shows it almost dead, which is very concerning. This would explain why my controller dies quickly after unplugging, since it can't charge itself fully when playing over bluetooth.

I should note that I do in fact feel the vibration when plugging them in, and its a fairly new controller so the port is not obstructed.

SwordofWhedon

I've never had that kind of issue with the controller. I'd usually get five or six hours out of it driving a pair of headphones and chat, which you can't do over BT

Try it with a pair of AAs and see how long it lasts. I always recommend just using rechargeable AAs over battery packs, they're cheaper and super fast to change and just keep a bucket of thrm handy.

Foxhound21

Yes, as stated I have updated the controller firmware

Xbox Series S/X Controller Battery Life