Insignia Play + Charge Kit for Xbox Series X | S (White) Expired

Ok, it is important to learn the relationship between between:

Voltage: the ability for power to move
Amperage: the part of electricity that is called 'current'
Wattage: the total package we call 'power'

Think of voltage as a pipe with current as the water and wattage is work -- the work could be using the water to push something or to turn a water wheel to grind wheat into flour.

The equation to find power or wattage is volts multiplied by amps. Say you are in the US, so your wall outlets provide 120volts, and your circuit breaker will trip at 15amps. That means the maximum amount of power you can pull from that outlet before tripping the breaker is 15 * 120 = 1800watts. For reference, a decent sized microwave uses 1000watts, and the old energy-hogging lightbulbs use 100watts. A stovetop with all 4 of the burners on would use around 3200watts, which is why you can't plug it into a normal outlet.

With me so far? Good.

What is a mAh, then? Well, since electricity uses science units, the m is a metric m and stands for milli or 1/1000th of something, so 1mA is 0.001 amps. The h is for hours, because battery capacity is measured on a time scale.

To explain, say that you are hiring someone to help you move. You can ask them, 'how much weight can you lift at once'? That is kind of useful, because if they can't lift your heaviest thing they can't do the job. You ask them 'how far can you walk' with that thing? Also useful, since you need at least the heaviest thing moved a certain distance. Then ask 'can you move the combined weight of everything in that moving truck instantly?'. Nope.

What is more useful? 'How much stuff can you carry over a period of time over a certain distance before you are too tired to move anymore and need to sleep and eat before you can do it again'. This is why batteries are rated the way they are! If the moving guy does it quickly or slowly, the same amount of stuff gets moved the same distance before he needs a 'recharge'.

But, you are talking about watt-hours! What is going on? There are volts and amps! Yes, there are. Batteries are rated in amp-hours because battery voltage is (relatively) fixed. Just as your wall outlet stays 120V, a lithium-ion cell stays around 3.6V and a NiMH cell stays around 1.2V. So, voltage is a given with them and is not necessary to specify. 3.6V * XAh = 3.6 * X watt-hours.

What difference does this make?

Batteries are composed of 'cells' and can be arranged in series or parallel. They can combine volts or combine amps, the watts end up being the same total over time.

2 NiMH cells at 1.2V each at 1200mAh each in are run in series to get 2.4V for the Xbox controller. That is 2.4V * 1200mAh = 2880watt hours. The other pack linked earlier is 2600mAh (definitely not, that rating is surely exaggerated) with a 3.6V nominal rating (it is knocked down to 2.4V or so with a circuit inside the housing) is 3.6V * 2600 = 9360 watt-hours.

That is a HUGE difference? What gives? Aren't NiMH more energy dense than li-ions?

Yes. Two things:

the Insignia NiMH pack incorporates the charging circuit inside of it (the linked amazon one has a bulky charger you have to use with a separate power brick)
The linked amazon one is lying. The lithium cell in there is being rated at 2.4V or whatever not its 3.6V nominal. They have taken the amp hour rating voltage and make wattage then divided again to make amp hours again. 3.6 * X = Y watt-hours divided by 2.4 = amp-hours. To find out the original rating take the power in watt hours, at 2.4V which is 2.4 * 2600 = 6240 and divide by nominal li-ion voltage of 3.6 which is 1733Ah. That is what that battery would be rated as if it were sold as a lithium cell
Since they are giving you amp-hour ratings instead of watt-hours, they are hiding something -- that something is the power loss of the voltage conversion circuit inside of the pack. How much is lost here? No idea. If it was rated in watt-hours it would be at least a bit more honest though

Why care about this?


Rating batteries with different voltages or in different configurations in amp-hours is deceptive and useless
Batteries with voltage regulators inside of them will never give you the real battery capacity as rated by the naked cell inside of it if the ratings are in amp-hours
Battery brands almost always lie

If you care enough to compare the ratings of batteries, it is probably a good idea to understand battery technologies and ratings.

All that said, this battery pack is terrible. It is most likely two crappy regular NiMH cells inside with a simple dumb charger (or the xbox controller has a charger in? No idea) -- you are better off getting a GOOD smart charger and some enerloops or other low-self-discharge cells and swapping them yourself.

The lithium-ion pack with associated charger linked to is garbage and should not be trusted. Don't use crappy unknown lithium battery packs with weirdo proprietary chargers advertised with pictures made out of CGI. You will eventually end up burning your house down. Don't do it.

Yes, I know that maybe 2 people will read and care about this, and if so, then that's fine. Sorry about any typos. Corrections welcome from people who know what they are talking about and corrections not welcome from people who have to google in order to come up with them.

Man, you literally described the one thing I hate about my PS5 controller. As soon as it's dead, I have to grab another one because it's useless. Yet with my Xbox controller, I can swap in a fresh rechargeable battery while the old one charges back up.

Fewer options is never a good thing.

To be fair, they provide options with traditional or rechargeable batteries. Pluses and minuses I guess.

Yes, it would be cool if they included a rechargable with the controllers.