Steam Controller vs. Xbox One Elite

[Raskolnikov]

Before I order an elite controller or buy a steam controller at gamestop.... Does anyone out there have both and if so which one's better?

[Alexander Prime]

Frankly, that's kind of like asking whether a car or a truck is better. It's meaningless to answer without knowing what you need, and a little lazy to ask without doing some research.

[Prairie Boy]

According to reviews, the xbox one elite controller is barely configurable on pc compared to the steam controller. You can't configure the back paddles to be keyboard buttons for extra function, so they're pretty much pointless. Plus you're still using analog stick to aim. Plus a game that doesn't have any controller support at all works well with the steam controller.

Recently I tried minecraft after a year, and I realized how deep the configurability for the steam controller was. I found the analog stick had an option so it still acted like an analog stick even though It was technically only putting wasd inputs in. Though mc has that stupid double tap to run feature so it basically didn't work. But I could still smake it an 8 directional stick that would input shift if I only pressed it halfway, thus walking like the actual thing.

[Raskolnikov]

Originally posted by Smirking Wolf:

According to reviews, the xbox one elite controller is barely configurable on pc compared to the steam controller. You can't configure the back paddles to be keyboard buttons for extra function, so they're pretty much pointless. Plus you're still using analog stick to aim. Plus a game that doesn't have any controller support at all works well with the steam controller.

Recently I tried minecraft after a year, and I realized how deep the configurability for the steam controller was. I found the analog stick had an option so it still acted like an analog stick even though It was technically only putting wasd inputs in. Though mc has that stupid double tap to run feature so it basically didn't work. But I could still smake it an 8 directional stick that would input shift if I only pressed it halfway, thus walking like the actual thing.

thanx!

[DiamondPugs]

The Xbone Elite is basically a glorified Xbone controller. The materials are a bit more premium. It has better grips, you can change some pieces and you have 3 types of analog sticks, and 2 types of d-pads, and the 4 back buttons that can only be binded to other Xbone buttons so you can just access them easier. It is ok if you like the Xbone controller and you want a more premium product, but in my opinion most of it's features are more gimmicky and not really useful. If you have an Xbone it is a good option since you can use it there. Also if you want to use it wireless on PC you have to buy separately the wireless dongle which only works on Windows 10.

The Steam Controller is intended to be the PC controller. It was designed to play all PC games including strategy games, and games without gamepad support. The strength of the right trackpad is it's trackball emulation because you can be more precise with it than an analog stick, but if you are not used to trackballs it will have it's learning curve. It also is the most customizable controller in the market. You can set any button to be any key of the keyboard. You can set one button to be a mode shift and pressing it will change the bindings of the other buttons, you can set the trackpad to activate touch buttons that you can see on the screen, and the list goes on. It also has motion controls which are really cool.

If you want to mainly play PC games and you are willing to go through the learning curve of a new peripheral go for the Steam controller. If you want to use it with your PC and Xbone, and you don't want to leave your comfort zone, but you want a more premium product than the standard Xbone controller go for the Elite.

[Nostril]

I have both and like others have said, the Xbox Elite controller is pretty much just a nicer Xbox controller and will be better for games designed for controller in mind. The Steam controller will be nicer for mouse and keyboard focused games, and is nice since the customization options are much nicer. The Xbox Accessories app doesn't let you map any buttons to keyboard/mouse inputs or do turbo or many options at all really.

I think another relevant thing to consider is where you do your gaming. While I do think the Steam controller is much more versatile, I am getting much more use out of my Xbox Elite controller and find it has been more worthwhile for me. This is because I mostly do gaming at my desk - not at the couch or anything, so wherever I would use the Steam controller I usually just use my mouse and keyboard, since it is just much better than the Steam controller overall besides comfort/ergonomics. I do prefer the Xbox controller to keyboard and mouse on some games designed for controller, but I can't really think of a game that I would prefer a Steam controller over the keyboard and mouse. However, I would imagine I would get a lot more use out of my Steam controller if I had an HTPC or was doing couch PC gaming.

Good luck with your decision!

[Mountain Man]

Steam Controller is far more flexible and versatile than any console gamepad.

[Thanatos]

I also use both and think that the xbox one elite and the steam controller both are working fine for different games in their own way.

For slower, perhaps turn based games that rely more on a mouse based UI, I use the steam controller.

For fast games that are more leaning towards an arcade or console UI, I use the xbox one elite. A lot of games just feel weird to play with the trackpad for me.

What gave the xbox one elite a huge boost in my book, is that I recently found out that the DAEMON tools guys created a small tool that let's you remap the paddles on the back of the elite to which ever keyboard or mouse keys you like. So the statement above, that you cannot remap the paddles on the xbox one elite is not true anymore.

You can find the tool here:
http://www.rewasd.com/