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[VGC] Xbox controllers are still using AA batteries ‘because of long-term Duracell deal’, spokesperson claims [Update: Eurogamer debunks]
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"...but what are Ladda batteries?"
Oh, they're just rebranded Eneloops that you buy from Ikea.
Amazonloops, Fujiloops, Laddaloops, Eneloops etc etc are all basically the same thing.
almost 100% positive that you can just use the Xbox One charge and play kit if you've got your own USB C cord laying around but you might wanna verify this online
at which point it becomes a question of whether you prefer the convenience of being able to charge by plugging in a cord, or the efficiency of being able to swap out your drained batteries instantly with fully-charged higher-capacity batteries than what comes in the charge and play kit
Amazon Basics are very comparable and like half the cost (unless you're like a super picky electrical engineer). If you're in the US, Amazon has a charger + 4 AA pack for like $15 or something last I checked.
Indeed, but I haven't chimneyed up any consoles lately.
That's actually about the same price as a 4 pack of eneloops with a charger. They're all basically the same manufacturing methods and chemistry but there is some variance in quality control so I went with eneloops when I was shopping recently.
No people, there's no agreement. Were just really cheap and want you to buy an expensive pad separately.
I'm not sure of the current state of low-self-discharge NiMH batteries, but from what I recall Panasonic's "Eneloop" brand was the first on the market and made all the in-roads with the gamer population, and then Ray-O-Vac made their own version of the LSD NiMH which was about equal to Panasonic's batteries, and then Duracell started selling LSD NiMHs, and people figured out that Duracell's batteries were literally just rebranded Panasonic Eneloop. Panasonic was literally making Eneloop batteries for Duracell, who was selling them as Duracell batteries. Ray-O-Vac was also selling their batteries to other manufacturers.
And then, as I recall, the IKEA Ladda batteries were also literally just rebranded Panasonic Eneloops. I don't know if IKEA Ladda batteries are still Panasonic Eneloop, or if they switched to Ray-O-Vac as their provider, or if they're working with someone else entirely, but I'm pretty sure that contributed to people just calling everything Eneloop.
My Eneloops are all IKEA Ladda. They're the cheapest. Although I suspect that Costco could beat IKEA in this area if they tried. Kirkland brand Eneloops. That'd be nice.
LOL. Duracell is certainly making bank (and waste) off people's ignorance of rechargeable AAs with this deal, that's for sure.
That's interesting to know and a good thing to keep in mind, will browse around. Thank you!
Huh, very interesting. The way I'd heard them discussed I'd thought them like the second coming of christ for rechargeables. Will have a nose at what the basics options are like here (UK). Thank you!
You bet!
One thing that may help with choosing is the mAh value of these cells. Go for higher (something ~2500) but make sure the stat is actually real and not some lie from a sketchy Amazon seller.
Brill. That's useful to have in mind to look out for, appreciate that, thanks again!
I have probably 30 eneloops interspersed all throughout my household and am delighted when I have to change out batteries to discover that device was using eneloops for who knows how long
Oh yeah the pain of walking 4-5 steps with a controller that is already in your hands and plugging it on the console. Such an inconvenience!
Having to plug the controller in at all is less convenient than just swapping batteries. Eneloops, and their cheaper but equivalent Amazon Basics counterparts, are very cost efficient. I have some in rotation from 2014 and they still work great. I've purchased 4 AAs with a charger for as little as $15 on Amazon
Yeah this is exactly what I am advocating. I was replying to someone suggesting plugging the controller in to something other than the console. Plugging in the controller at all is less convenient than swapping batteries.
The best solution is like what Microsoft and 8bitdo have done. Offer a rechargeable battery pack that is user replaceable, and let people use AAs if we want. I don't want to throw out a controller after 5 years of heavy use because the internal battery is shot. Nor do I want to risk ordering a knock off from Amazon or eBay.
That's a good question. I've always wondered the same. My hunch is that there's some slightly more complex stuff going on across AA chargers that introduces some health/safety risk if Microsoft enabled/recommended using the controller as a charger (especially if people just put regular AAs in). But I'm also not an electrical engineer.
May AAs never go away.
This. Don't sleep on LADDA. Better bang-for-buck than Eneloops. Some even speculate that they're rebadged Eneloops, but I doubt that.
A cell phone can last several days to several weeks on a single charge. A PS4 controller would last maybe 6 hours tops for me. When I had a PS4, I left the controller permanently plugged in, otherwise it would often be out of charge when I needed it because you really had to micromanage the thing.
AA is still the most widely adopted consumer battery form factor we have. Your TV remote likely uses these, so why not a console controller?
NiMH AA batteries charge slower than your typical Li-ion, so it's going to be more tedious than a built-in battery. And it would add cost to the controller. Play-and-charge is functionally a much better alternative.
EDIT: oh yeah, and the safety concerns due to chemistry mixups.
This. Don't sleep on LADDA. Better bang-for-buck than Eneloops. Some even speculate that they're rebadged Eneloops, but I doubt that.
A cell phone can last several days to several weeks on a single charge. A PS4 controller would last maybe 6 hours tops for me. When I had a PS4, I left the controller permanently plugged in, otherwise it would often be out of charge when I needed it because you really had to micromanage the thing.
AA is still the most widely adopted consumer battery form factor we have. Your TV remote likely uses these, so why not a console controller?
NiMH AA batteries charge slower than your typical Li-ion, so it's going to be more tedious than a built-in battery. And it would add cost to the controller. Play-and-charge is functionally a much better alternative.
EDIT: oh yeah, and the safety concerns due to chemistry mixups.
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AA batteries were originally just disposable Alkaline batteries, and then they made "rechargable AA" batteries, which were NiCd (nickel cadmium). After a while they made a new type of rechargable battery which had more power, NiMH (nickel metal hydride). There were a lot of warnings about how rechargable NiCd and rechargable NiMH were not compatible, and you shouldn't mix up their chargers, or the batteries might explode.
Then they made low-self-discharge NiMH (because both previous types of rechargable would drain themselves whether you used them or not), and they're really good, and they work with basic NiMH chargers, but you should really use a smart charger with them.
And now apparently we've got things like rechargeable Alkaline. Do you know what happens if you try to charge an old-fashioned non-rechargable disposable Alkaline? It blows up.
Microsoft doesn't want to deal with any of these format issues. The Xbox controller will accept anything in a AA form factor, because that's easy. Making sure that it's charged properly is your responsibility, because Microsoft has pretty much no way of knowing what your battery is made of.
No it is not. My Elite Series 2 controller is far more convenient that mucking around with a battery charger and regularly swapping batteries the way I had to for the first two years of owning the X1X.
You don't even have to do that. I literally reach my arm out and put the Elite Series 2 down on its charger.
And the internal battery on the Elite Series 2 lasts four times as long as the standard controller used to before needing a battery swap.
From what I've read from the battery fanatic types on the web, there's only one factory that produces low-self-discharge NiMH batteries in Japan:
Review: IKEA Rechargeable Batteries
UPDATE: This article has been updated to include a second test performed by Jason Porter on Sept 18th, 2017. The additional test has been added to the bottom of this post. A year ago IKEA came out …
wavreport.com
Reddit - Dive into anything
www.reddit.com
Are the Ikea Ladda batteries just as good as Eneloops?
My Eneloop batteries are getting old and I was planning on buying the Eneloop kits from Costco but for some reason they discontinued them. I found the IKEA Ladda batteries and they are supposed to be about the same MAH rating. Are they just as good as Eneloops? I figured I would try them out...
www.candlepowerforums.com
IKEA LADDA: Open Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review
Expert news, reviews and videos of the latest digital cameras, lenses, accessories, and phones. Get answers to your questions in our photography forums.
www.dpreview.com
Not info I have on hand usually, but I was just doing a bit of research the other day because my local Ikea was out and I was trying to decide whether to pay for shipping, buy AmazonBasics (apparently a bit of a crapshoot as to whether you get Chinese/Japanese-produced batteries these days) or actual Eneloops.
In the end I went with the Laddas, because they were still quite a bit cheaper, with shipping, than the Eneloops and I know what to expect from them. All in all, I'm just happy that there are plenty of good options these days. I am old enough to have experienced the fun of NiCad rechargeables and the more memory/self-drain-prone NiMH batteries of yesteryear.
The only issue I've ever had with Microsoft's solution, is that I think all controllers should include the play and charge kit (or they should be cheaper).
Beyond that, I've always preferred the flexibility over being forced to watch a controller slowly get worse over the years,and being able to swap batteries instead of entire controllers or plugging them in.
Beyond that, I've always preferred the flexibility over being forced to watch a controller slowly get worse over the years,and being able to swap batteries instead of entire controllers or plugging them in.
It wouldn't be safe to do so. You can't really detect what a AA battery is or what kind of chemical makeup it has (NiCad, NIMH, etc) or if its even rechargeable, voltage alone wouldn't cut it, so using the same pins that powers the device to charge it would be an engineering nightmare, if it's even possible without making it a hazard (attempting to recharge an alkaline battery is dangerous!).
That's why the Xbox battery packs have the 4 pins on the single side* rather than using the AA terminals as the two extra pins supply extra info about the state of the li-po cell, thus allowing the controller to charge that safely.
*These pins:
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Ah we're really splitting hairs here. What is convenient for you is inconvenient for me, and vice versa. What we can all agree on is the fact that replacing something like the DualShock 4's internal rechargeable battery is a lot less convenient than buying a new set of Eneloops when yours burn out.
I can see both sides of this. There is a convenience of never having to swap out anything. That convenience improves if you get a nice dock.
But for me, I hate when I am about to play and find out my controller is almost dead and I have to plug it in. I am so picky about it that I might just decide to do something else. I use rechargeable and there are always extra ready to go.
But for me, I hate when I am about to play and find out my controller is almost dead and I have to plug it in. I am so picky about it that I might just decide to do something else. I use rechargeable and there are always extra ready to go.
At least in Canada the Series X controller is $15 cheaper than the Dual sense.
If you are referring to Ladda vs Eneloop, from I can tell the big difference is the Laddas are rated to last a significantly shorter period than the regular Eneloops. I have Eneloops that I have been using (and charging) for more than 10 years, while Ikea themselves only rates Ladda AAs as 500 charges and approximately 5 years. That is similar life expectancy as the Eneloop Pro AAs, which I can attest do die much quicker than the regular Eneloop AA batteries.
To me, that would justify the price difference.
Rechargeables >>>>> internal.
if my choice is EVER only "stop playing" or "plug in" or "have multiple expensive controllers at the ready" — that's an absolute fail on the part of the platform.
Edit: now that I think about it, happened this weekend. DualSense died playing GoW. I switched to Xbox because I only have one DS and never left Xbox platform for the weekend. That's a PS fail. They let me leave.
if my choice is EVER only "stop playing" or "plug in" or "have multiple expensive controllers at the ready" — that's an absolute fail on the part of the platform.
Edit: now that I think about it, happened this weekend. DualSense died playing GoW. I switched to Xbox because I only have one DS and never left Xbox platform for the weekend. That's a PS fail. They let me leave.
One correction here. Eneloops were developed by Sanyo and Panasonic acquired it from them. I know I have Sanyo Eneloops (and charger) as well as the more recent Panasonic brand.
This works with the official batteries that come with the play and charge kit.
Considering the increased capacity on the Pros and the Laddas, it seems it's a bit of a toss up, imo.
Also, and this may be a regional thing, but I can buy 20 Laddas for the same cost of 4 regular Eneloops. Eneloops would have to last 5 times more to justify even considering them.
The Pro has never made sense to me with Eneloops. The standard is 2000 mAh with 2100 recharges while the pro is 2550 mAh and only 500 recharges. The increase in capacity isn't nearly as significant as the decrease in the number of charges. On top of that, you pay significantly more for the pro over the standard. It's like $13 for 4, or $18 for 8 from Panasonic while the Pro is like $18 for a pack of 4, or $32 for a pack of 8 from Panasonic. Sure they last a bit longer, but the overall amount of usage is significantly less for more money. Now even factoring in the Laddas in at $7 for 4, the standard from Panasonic will last you way longer and give you better bang for the buck over the Laddas too. So aren't the standard Panasonic Eneloops a better deal than the Laddas in the US?
I didn't find the Pros lasted that much longer than the regular Eneloops, but I'm still using my regular Eneloops years later so I wouldn't bother with the extra capacity. They are designed for higher draw devices like camera flashes.
Regional pricing could be in play then, because a 4 pack of Laddas is $10 here (Canada) and an 8 pack of Eneloops is around $35.
Yes, but the DS also has more technology in it (not to mention the new R&D costs). Last gen when they were more broadly similar tech-wise, there was no difference in price.
I don't mind Microsoft refining their already-great controller instead of reinventing the wheel, and I like that they give you choice with batteries - but offering that choice also "happens to be" cheaper for Microsoft too, and it's not like they were charging less money commensurate with that lack of a built-in rechargeable lithium battery.
Including a Play & Charge pack in the box would eliminate that complaint, while still offering the choice - but it would eat slightly into the no-doubt gigantic margins they make on those controllers.
People acting like its not an annoyance to have to plug in their controller assume everyone sits a couple feet from their console. They also assume people dont have pets, kids ect who would walk in front of and knock out the wire or pull down the console. It's a pain in the ass compared to just swapping the battery, I don't want a wire dangling from my hands, I dont need to buy an extra long cable so it can reach my couch, I don't want to have to have a wire moving around when Im using motion controls.
Honestly if we're going to charge the controllers and have to have them plugged in to play when they die why even bother with the battery. Let's just go back to wired controllers because having an internal battery means you'll have to play wired sometimes anyway.
There's absolutely nothing about using a cable to charge the controller that makes it easier than swapping a battery. There's also not an advantage to having a play and charge kit, theyre available go get one, it still is a more expensive solution even if included (assuming you'll be replacing that pack again). AAs are cheaper, faster and easier to deal with and you can get amazon basic rechargeable ones for very cheap.
Honestly if we're going to charge the controllers and have to have them plugged in to play when they die why even bother with the battery. Let's just go back to wired controllers because having an internal battery means you'll have to play wired sometimes anyway.
There's absolutely nothing about using a cable to charge the controller that makes it easier than swapping a battery. There's also not an advantage to having a play and charge kit, theyre available go get one, it still is a more expensive solution even if included (assuming you'll be replacing that pack again). AAs are cheaper, faster and easier to deal with and you can get amazon basic rechargeable ones for very cheap.
yup you can. I am using my old XBox one battery with new USB C cable and it works just fine
I bought my Eneloops about 7-8 years ago as well, still work like a charm.
This would be a great addition. Keep the replaceable batteries but include their play and charge kit with the console.
Thats true, but i do think that basically all controllers have a battery thats changeable :) Its some more hassle to change batteries in controllers like the PS5 and Switch of course, but at least its possible to change it, and one doesnt necessarily have to buy another controller :)
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The simple white one (used to be Sanyo, now Panasonic) that comes included in a pack of AAA + AA batteries is good enough. I have two of those and they've been working for a decade without any problems.
I have been using my two pairs of eneloops for almost 6 months now and they are absolutely superb.
Doesn't get any better than this.
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