Does The Xbox One Controller Have Bluetooth

The Xbox One controller is, for my coin, one of the nearly comfy gamepads around, so why not employ it on other platforms? The skillful news: you can. The bad news: if you have an older version, you might take a significantly harder fourth dimension of it. The key question – and the one asked by many around the globe – is which Xbox 1 controller is Bluetooth? (I know information technology's more correct to say "has Bluetooth", but people don't seem to enquire that.)

Microsoft rightly got a lot of stick for the 2013 launch of the Xbox Ane with its £425 price and enforced bundling of Kinect, just the gamepad also had weaknesses. Non only was it missing a 3.5mm headphone jack, but it too didn't have Bluetooth. Both of these issues have been fixed in more contempo models – the erstwhile point fifty-fifty means you tin use a PlayStation Golden headset on Xbox 1 if you lot like.

Only back to the latter…

And so, which Xbox One controller has Bluetooth?

There are iii revisions of the regular Xbox One controller: 1537, 1697 and 1708. Only the terminal of these has Bluetooth built-in, meaning it tin can exist easily used with laptops, smart TVs and phones.

The 1537 model is easy plenty to spot – it has the words "DAY ONE 2013" embossed on the front – merely at a glance 1697 and 1708 look remarkably like. This motion-picture show, via Reddit, shows the key difference.

In short, if the section with the Xbox Guide button is the same material as the shoulder triggers, you lot're using an older 1697 pad. If it's the same plastic as the front end of the controller, then – happy days! – you lot've got a 1708 model, and can pair it with pretty much anything using the Bluetooth standard.

If you're withal not sure which model you're holding, then crack open the battery compartment and yous'll find the model number inside. Hither'due south my non-Bluetooth 1697 model:

Non-Bluetooth Xbox controller — Hello to you, likewise. (From London)

While that closes the door on using this Xbox One pad with my phone, I can even so apply it with a PC.

How can I connect the Xbox One controller to my PC?

If information technology's Bluetooth, the same way you'd connect anything. Navigate to your PC settings, and click devices, then Bluetooth settings. Meanwhile, hold down the pad's Guide push to switch it on, and and so printing the tiny sync button on the top to make the Xbox logo glimmer. At this betoken it should announced as an available Bluetooth device for your PC to connect to.

If you lot own a 1537, 1697 or first-generation Elite pad (1698), and then y'all'll demand to buy an accessory. The Xbox Wireless Adapter for Windows ten replicates the Xbox One's radio frequency module, allowing y'all to wirelessly connect upwardly to eight Xbox One gamepads to a PC, headsets and all. Just plug it in, press the sync button on the dongle and then the sync push button on your pad and you should be away.

In one case connected, if you lot have the Xbox PC app installed – essential for the rather excellent Xbox Game Pass Ultimate – pressing the Guide push brings upwards settings, your Xbox friend list, the ability to capture footage or screenshots and a basic functioning counter, tracking CPU, GPU and RAM usage