It’s a bit hard to believe but the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller is now three months old. While I don’t always review every product throughout its first year of availability, I do like to look at certain products, like the Surface Go during their lifetime to see how well, (or poorly) they are constructed.

The Elite controller will be especially interesting to follow as the first generation fell apart after heavy usage. While Microsoft has promised that the Elite series 2 has been made more durable, only time will truly tell.

The controller continues to delight in nearly every way and I use it for about an hour a day or more; during this brief time, it has held up well. There are no signs of the grips peeling off and candidly, I haven’t thought about its durability at all, up until writing this post.

The one minor complaint that I do have is that the handles are cumbersome to clean. If you get dirt or anything else in the handgrips, it’s more involved to get them back to looking like new. I do wipe my controller down with a microfiber cloth frequently but this doesn’t do a great job at removing dirt from the rubber grips.

One thing that I still do not like about the controller is that the battery is sealed. But, I will say that it has yet to be an issue. The claimed 40 hours of battery life feels about right and I put the controller on the charger once a week and have yet to have it die on me while playing a game.

While I have not had any issues with my controller, it’s worth pointing out that there are some who have had a number of issues. Thankfully, it would appear that these issues occur out of the box and mostly relate to buttons not being registered when pushed which means if it works well on day one, you should be ok for the foreseeable future.

At $179.99, it’s still hard to recommend the controller as it is not cheap but if you put the cash down, you will be happy with the hardware. At around the six-month mark, I’ll follow-up again to see how the hardware continues to fare after more usage.

Tagged with Elite Controller, Xbox