All about that controller
Aiming to be the Rolls Royce of Xbox Ones in a sea of Ford and Chevy bundles and deals, the Xbox One Elite Console offers a premium alternative at a premium $499 price: a 1TB Xbox One – complete with a solid state hybrid drive (SSHD) – paired with Microsoft’s upscale Elite controller. But thanks mostly to optimizations and efficiencies gained from the New Xbox One Experience dashboard, the Elite’s minimal hardware benefits aren’t enough to make it an easy recommendation.
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Microsoft definitely earns points for presentation when you open the Elite’s box. The beautiful, brilliant Elite controller sits nestled in a cardboard recess on the right side, with the high-performance gamepad’s Xbox nexus-branded neoprene case just below it. A cardboard-sheathed compartment containing the power brick, power and HDMI cables, Xbox Live chat headset, and braided 8-foot USB cable for the controller is on the left half of the tray. The console, meanwhile, sits lovingly wrapped in a black sheath underneath, like a birthday present.
While the controller and its high-quality braided cable match the premium vibe of the Elite, the console itself and especially the chat headset decidedly do not. The former is just a standard black Xbox One; it has no badging or other custom look or color to signify that it’s an Elite (the original Xbox 360 Elite, for reference, was the first black 360). Meanwhile, the chat headset is the standard, flimsy unit included in every Xbox One. It’s unimpressive in any context, but it’s especially out of place here.
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Of course, it’s what’s inside the box that counts, and the Elite’s 1TB drive makes a big difference in a console generation where modern games are regularly 40+ gigabytes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t discern any measurable speed bonuses with the SSHD compared to the 500GB launch Xbox One I tested it against, whether I was booting up, launching a game or app, or navigating the dashboard. To be fair, Microsoft doesn’t make any lofty claims with the Elite’s unique hard drive. The only advertised benefit is a boot-up time that can be up to 20% faster which, in practical terms, is only a couple of seconds. The primary culprit here would seem to be the just-launched New Xbox One Experience operating system, aka Xbox One’s version of Windows 10. The new dash is so lean, mean, and efficient – both in a vacuum and particularly when stacked against the Metro OS it replaces – that whatever boost the SSHD provides is minimized.
Still, there’s a reasonably appealing value proposition in this $499 bundle. Factor out the $150 value of the Elite controller, and you’re left with a 1TB hard drive for $349 – a $50 savings off of MSRP. The Elite, however, isn’t bundled with any games, as most $399 1TB Xbox One packages are. And then there’s the Elite controller. Since I’ve started using it, I have zero desire to ever go back. Its build quality, feel, and performance are second-to-none, and it tangibly impacts my gaming time in a positive way. Its value in this bundle cannot be understated.
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The Xbox One has evolved from a very good system into a fantastic one. Compared to when it launched two years ago, it’s almost a night-and-day difference, inside and, in certain cases, out. But with so many bundles and deals to be had, the Elite is not an obvious recommendation for those looking to add Microsoft’s latest to their console collection. Instead, it is no more and no less than another strong option for a potential Xbox One buyer who faces no shortage of them.
