Based on the description on their site, the controller includes a built-in battery: "8.39 Wh Li-ion battery, 35+ hours of gameplay… "
That was disappointing for me. Specially condidering the Steam Frame’s controllers make use of AA batteries: “One replaceable AA battery per controller, 40hr battery life”
AA Batteries might not be as convenient to use, but being able to replace them is a great advantage. All my Xbox360 controllers still work fine, but none of my PS3’ Dualshock 3s.
The official docking station could be used to recharge (rechargables) AA batteries so the functionality could remain the same.
Hard pass on AA, but having a 21700 would be great: Epic battery life but it’s still standardized and swappable. I’d even take 18650s.
A single 18650 would have more capacity than the existing battery. That’d be dope. It is interesting how AAs and AAAs have a super common rechargeable standard, but the average person is not familiar with the lithium rechargeable standard.
This is where this all needs to go, swappable standard batteries like the 18650s being used and recharged in the device and replaced when the inevitable happens and they stop storing much charge. Batteries are consumable currently and devices without swappable ones are designed to fail within a few years.
My favorite controller is actually just a cheap 8bitDo 2c hall effect wired controller. Paid $20 but it works reliably and has a third shoulder button.
Wired connection is great for desktop, but the Steam controller is being advertised for use with the GabeCube, and nobody wants a 10 meter cable across the living room where the dog trips on it and yoinks your new $700 console from its desk
I guess it’s not a huge issue for controllers if you use them regularly, but the energy density on lithium-ion batteries is great, but the self-discharge isn’t ideal. AA rechargeables are usually NiMH, and those do better on that front.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-discharge
Lithium-ion: 2–3% per month;[3] ca. 4% p.m.[5]
Low self-discharge NiMH: As low as 0.25% per monthI have lithium-ion 18650s in my high-power flashlight, but for devices that I leave around the house that don’t really need a lot of energy density — think TV remotes or something — I think that it’s probably sensible to use NiMH batteries.
I mean even at 5% a month you’d still have about half your after a year so pretty good really
Yeah. AA batteries suck though! I’d be happy if they used 14500 cells or something. but the form factor was probably the issue, the controller is a chonk in the middle already with the flat battery pack
18650 is awesome, a good balance of weight to capacity. They are the standard cells used in laptops, vapes, small powerbanks, power tool batteries, and so on. They can also go into a fairly standard charger for AA and AAA batteries and give a lovely nominal 3.7V.
That said, pouches are better for inside a device like a controller. The weight of a battery is significantly influenced by the casing. A pouch is almost entirely capacity, a cell like an 18650 or AA is largely the metal of the casing. If you have the pouch inside the plastic of the device you can save that weight.
I think laptop batteries are usually thinner than 18650s? All the ones I’ve seen are, anyway
Perhaps more modern ones, but the ones in my last and current laptops are both 18650s. 6 cells, 9 cells, you stack in series to increase voltage, parallel to get more capacity, so a 3s2p would have ~14V which is more than the required 12V for internal components, no boost converters needed. That said, now they do a lot of pouch batteries which are actually multiple internal pouches run in series to get the same sort of voltage but made with the chassis fitting them perfectly, no wasted space.
Yeah I’ve only seen the pouch type.
Pouch cells suck, there are no standard sizes and they like to puff up and break open the case of whatever they are inside of.
People forget we had hot-swappable li-ion batteries decades ago in phones and DSLRs. They absolutely could’ve done that with no to minimal form-factor changes.
Hot-swappable battery meaning without turning off the device?! Lol I’ve never seen that 😉 I get what you’re saying though, but from what I’ve seen the battery is replaceable! It’s retained with a screw but that’s not a deal breaker imo. Using a standardized form factor would have been even cooler, but I think that would’ve been very difficult for space reasons
Some laptops used to have that. They would have two batteries, one internal one and one hot-swappable external one.
Ahem, my x250 Thinkpad is still chugging along with its two batteries .
Yeah, if memory serves, the last ThinkPad to do it was the T480, which was in 2018. Maybe there’s some P-series that did it afterwards too. Hello from an X2100!
Hot-swappable maybe not the right word. I mean those which you can swap without hardware. Like this https://youtu.be/KKUvHL6Pyes
I think you might be onto something. Probably the reason why they went for a built-in battery is space limitations
Did anyone see the MASSIVE rumble/haptic motors in the grip area? Yeah. This is the answer. They packed a lot of stuff in there.
Nowadays you can get AA-shaped lithium cells. Anyways I hope free battery is easy to replace after 2 years.
According to reports it is. Not as easy as a hot-swapable one, but close. You just have to remove the back panel, pop it out and put the new one. No adhesive involved.
Amazing. This should become industry standard.
Week one, somebody’s going to release a CAD file for a 3D-printable shell with a removable battery cover.
If JSAUX or ExtremeRate did not already made one. Hell, DBrand already announced a companion cube skin for the Steam Machine. 😂
Disagree. I bought the rechargeable replacement for all my xbox controllers. When those wore out, after years, I just replaced them with another rechargeable. Too Easy. I think you are making a mountain out of a mole hill.
ive preferred rechargeable batteries on all my controllers as they last quite a while.
only absolute shit one is the ps5 controller which last a couple hours and has atrocious standby time. i don’t know how it can be so bad.
Yes but you could easily replace the battery. Going by the description, it sounds like the battery is going to be internal. Now of course video game controllers have been historically easy to open, but it’s not going to be as easy as simply popping out the battery and popping in a new one like the XBOX.
I absolutely would have preferred to use my existing rechargeable AA collection. I have them in a tray next to a charger on my desk, the charger shows the condition of the battery and swaps are fast, no need for disassembly and risking breaking plastic clips on the shell like happens every time I have opened a ps4 controller to replace not the battery but the charging board.
No, AAs are crap. Charge your stuff when you go to sleep and you’ll never have problems.
All my Xbox360 controllers still work fine, but none of my PS3’ Dualshock 3s
Batteries for PS3 Dualshock are still available on ebay in my country. You just unplug a cable and remove a couple of screws. AA are not worth it.
AA should only used for flashlights (emergency), kids toys (safety) or when you are far away from an electricity network for much time (days, weeks).
Rechargeable AA work just fine and are easy to acquire. What exactly makes them “not worth it”.
Your controller stays mostly in your house and can be charged with a cable. No need for recharging devices, thinking if you have stored charged batteries, it can play while charging.
And if 20 years later you can find a replace battery for a ps3 controller that means your device probably can live for 30 years or more.
What benefits bring the rechargeable AA batteries for that particular device?
Warms me heart to see the next generation of idiots supporting planned obsolescence.
I bought a Dualshock because of the trackpad, didn’t realize it didn’t have replaceable batteries.
Battery life is bad and it really annoys me.
I think I’ll try again to fix the stick drift on my Xbox controller…You can put a higher capacity battery in, at least on the DS4 and probably older models. Same is true for the newer DualSense controllers.
Oh interesting, thanks. I meant a Dualsense indeed, not Dualshock
That’s so funny, never been around playstation much but I could’ve also sworn they were called dualshock. Bernstein bears or whatever 😅
I see how my phrasing lead to the misunderstanding: I didn’t mean Dualshock don’t exist. They are the older versions, Dualsense are the newer ones
I was disappointed too. I have a handful of eneloops I use with my Steam Controllers, that last me a few months each charge.
For my partners Switch, we have 3 wireless controllers with rechargeable AAs as well. Meanwhile the Switch Pro Controller is dead as shit.
I get it, people want blocks of lithium around their house. But if you’re used to how good eneloops are this is a huge disappointment.
Ikea Laddas are made in the same factory I think, btw
That’s what I heard, but it’s a 2 hour trip for me to get to IKEA.
All my Xbox360 controllers still work fine, but none of my PS3’ Dualshock 3s.
The Steam Controller battery is user replaceable. It’s not AA “pop it out and throw a new one in from the charger” like a Logitech F710, but you can open the back cover and replace the battery.
The Dual shock 3 batteries are also really easy to replace. Maybe pushing the boundaries of what you’d reasonably call “user replaceable” but certainly something that I think anyone capable of usin g the controller and a PS3 would be capable of.
Valve have not provided any details around sourcing the batteries. All they’ve said is that the controller is able to be serviced by opening via the screws and clips - ie it’s not glued closed like many user-hostile companies, eg Google Stadia.
The PS3 Dualschock 3 controllers are also exactly as user-serviceable - clips and screws, no glue. So I agree with OP. Batteries that are built for user replacement to a standard format are far superior.
The thing with “easily serviceable” is that no matter the actual difficulty, once you need to involve a screwdriver to take apart a controller (anything other than a door you can easily open with your hands) you’ve lost like 85% of people. Most average people are not comfortable taking apart electronics to do ANYTHING and will just buy a new one and toss the old one in the trash when it stops holding a charge. But AA batteries? everyone is comfortable with replacing rechargeable AAs.
They’ve provided batteries for the Steam Deck, and the specifications of the battery will be public and available for outside manufacturers. I presume they’ll provide batteries through iFixit after release as well.
Just have replaceable Li-ion batteries.
I disagree so much. I never want another AA device.
Same!
The idea of using disposable AA batteries seems nice… Until the day you go to open the compartment and find they’ve leaked and corroded the contacts (or worse) in the controller. Regular lithium are ok, they do last a good long while, but not exactly the most eco-conscious choice either. Rechargeable AA take forever to recharge. Like seriously, we are talking all night for the higher capacity ones.
Rechargeable AA take forever to recharge.
So have some extra ones ready to go. They’re cheap.
I’m not sure what kind of black magic they employ, but I can charge three sets of 4 enloop pros in a day with the official charger, more if they weren’t completely dead. I’d been using an older charger before and it would take 10+ hours for a single set with that thing.
Even cheap Ladda from IKEA recharge in mere hours now.
Reading these comments, I have to say that a number of users of this community have very strong views on batteries.
Like, I would not have expected as many people to get upset as did in a discussion over batteries.
Yep. This is why I still only use XBOX controllers.
AA Batteries might not be as convenient to use, but being able to replace them is a great advantage
it could still have a charging port so it doesn’t need to be any inconvenient
