InCharge Xbox 360 (Hardware Review)

The battery port on the Xbox 360 wireless controller does a good job of keeping the batteries in. Perhaps too good; it’s hard to get them back out if you’re using certain brands. This is a minor issue, but entirely avoidable. That’s part of what TeknoCreations is solving with the 360 version of their InCharge product, though there are plenty of other benefits. For $35, you get two lithium polymer batteries and an inductive charger. The charger is even shaped such that you can just leave the controller on it without removing the battery, making this even more convenient.

This works much like the Wii version; you remove the old battery cover and batteries, replacing them with the lithium polymer pack. It fits exactly like the old cover did and is appreciably lighter, so you won’t have any problems there. Once you’ve placed a charged battery pack in there, you’re all set and can play like you always do. If it sounds like I’m not saying much here, that’s a good thing. They’re batteries... they shouldn’t be noticeable, they should just power your controller while you play, and that’s it. Fortunately, these do just that.

There are a few minor snags, though most of them aren’t TeknoCreations’ fault and are inherent to the technology. First, you will need to charge the batteries when you open the product. This will take around six to eight hours, so you may as well keep your AAs around while you do that. Second, the Xbox 360 has no way of telling how much power is left in a lithium polymer battery. This is normal, since the controller reporting its power level was built to do so on the assumption that only AA batteries would be in there. The only real downside to this is that it means your controller will eventually and suddenly turn itself off when the charge runs out, though there are ways to avoid that.

The box claims you can get up to twenty-five hours of play on a single charge. I think that’s possible, but a little optimistic. I found I tended to get around twelve to fourteen hours per charge, which is decent on its own. But that’s going from a full charge to no charge, when you don’t have to do that. Since they’re lithium batteries, you can just leave them on the charger whenever you’re not playing, and you’ll ’top off’ the charge without any battery memory issues. In other words, you should find yourself almost never running out of power. Same as the Wii version, you can buy extra battery packs for $13 each. Whether this is useful or not mostly relies on whether you have more than two controllers, but the option is there if you need it and $13 is a fair price.

All in all, $35 is a good price for this. The inductive charger works just fine, and the batteries likewise do what they’re supposed to. There are a few minor problems, but they’re nowhere near bad enough to actually matter. The reduced controller weight, the ability to top off the charge, and the sheer convenience all make these an attractive buy. The InCharge has completely replaced the use of rechargeable AAs for my 360 controllers, a change I’m all too happy to make.

(Plus it’s very environmentall-conscious if you’re using traditional batteries -Ed.)