Xbox One Hardware Review

System Inputs and Outputs

While there are no longer any USB ports on the front of the system, the Xbox One still retains the three ports that the Xbox 360 had. Two are found in the back alongside the rest of the systems inputs and outputs. The third USB port is actually found on the left side of the system, which allows for easy access. However, at this point there are only three accessories that can be plugged into the system with USB, according to the official Xbox One website: the Xbox One Play and Charge Kit, the Mad Catz Arcade FightStick Tournament Edition 2, and the Thrustmaster TX Racing Wheel Ferrari 458 Italia Edition.

The Xbox One offers both an HDMI output and an HDMI input. The output is obviously for you to connect your system to an HDTV, as the Xbox One can only be connected through HDMI. This is kind of bad for people that may not have a TV with an HDMI input, but at this point, most everyone should have one by now. My only wish is that it did offer component output, considering I have a projection TV beyond my LCD that is a good bit larger and it always is fun to hook up when playing with many friends locally to make up for the smaller splitscreen experience.

There is also the HDMI input that I will go into further detail later on its best use, but for now I’ll discuss it a little. You can choose to plug in your old Xbox 360 or perhaps even something as blasphemous as the Wii U, PlayStation 3, or PlayStation 4 into the input and play things through the TV app on your Xbox One. This is quite neat just to be able to say that you are playing another system technically through the Xbox One. There may be a little bit of expected lag by doing this, but it is very minimal in my experience.

Xbox One Controller

Microsoft doesn’t venture too far off this time around with the new Xbox One controller. The Xbox 360 controller is one of the most well respected controllers in the gaming community and Microsoft knew that it would be idiotic to move too far from the already great controller. As a result, we got essentially an upgraded and improved Xbox 360 controller, which is exactly what we wanted. The new matte finish feels fantastic in your hands while you play. Compared to my Xbox 360 Elite controller that could get kind of slippery when sweating at all, the Xbox One’s allows for much better grip thanks to this new matte finish.

While the triggers on the Xbox 360’s controller were fine, the Xbox One’s controller improves on the triggers even further. The 360 triggers were quite thin, while the Xbox One has larger triggers that fill out to their respective sides, to where it is a breeze to hit quickly. The highest point on the trigger of the 360’s controller was at most level with the bumper, but the Xbox One actually raises it above the bumper’s level, which makes it even easier to hit while playing.

The size and location of the triggers is very important, but probably the biggest addition to the triggers is the addition of rumble. The controller has different rumble locations inside the controller and are activated based upon what is going on in the game, instead of just a giant rumble across the whole controller every time. This allows for a very immersive experience in games that utilize it well, such as the right trigger rumbling when shooting a gun in a number of games or when hitting the left trigger to brake in Forza Motorsport 5.

The biggest complaint of the Xbox 360 controller was the D-pad, though it was fixed a little with later releases. As a result, Microsoft made a big point to better the D-pad on the new controller, and they did a pretty good job at this. While the original controller had a circle with four direction locations on it that you could hit, the Xbox One D-pad has four distinct directional buttons to hit, while being able to do the inbetween directions by hitting two of the buttons.

My biggest complaint with the Xbox One controller is how it is not rechargeable right out of the box, like both the PlayStation 4 controller and Wii U GamePad. I never did give in and buy a Play & Charge kit for the original 360, as I had some rechargeable batteries that I mostly used. However, in this day and age, there is really no reason for a wireless game controller not to come with some sort of built in rechargeable battery. For those that are looking to pickup a second controller, I do highly recommend the $74.99 controller that comes with a Play & Charge included, which is normally $24.99 on its own, but with this it’s only an extra $14.99. If not, prepare to run through a lot of batteries pretty quickly while playing this system.