Before you decide to buy that next 360 battery pack, or worse, the quick charger kit, allow me to share what I’ve discovered. After buying my first 360, I eventually opted to pick up the quick charger kit and an extra battery pack. That way, I had two battery packs to use for when I’d play a game with a friend or if the one in my main controller ran out I could just swap in the other one. As time went on, these battery packs degraded, taking less and less time to charge and holding their charge for even less. After a couple of years, each of them took about 5 minutes to charge, and after only about 30 minutes of playing, they were spent. A couple years may be adequate for some of you, but this is completely unlike my Nintendo DS Lite’s battery, which has been going strong ever since I bought it back in 2006.
After being disappointed that the battery packs don’t last very long compared to practically every other rechargeable electronic device I own, I was disappointed to discover that the inside of these 360 battery packs are just 2 rechargeable AA batteries. I initially thought that buying the official Microsoft branded rechargeable battery pack would mean buying into some sort of proprietary Microsoft battery device. I was wrong. Why bother buying a battery pack for $12 when you can get a pair of rechargeable batteries for less than half that?
Had I known that the battery packs were just AA batteries in plastic covers, I could have just skipped out on buying the battery packs altogether and stuck with rechargeable batteries. And on top of that, there are certain rechargeable batteries now like the Sanyo Eneloops (which I’m currently using), that have very low discharge rates. You can recharge this type of battery and it can sit for a year only losing 15% of its charge. Compare that with my 360 battery pack, which currently loses all of its charge (whether it’s being used or not) in 30 minutes.
My recommendation is to just skip the Microsoft battery packs altogether and grab a set of Eneloops or any other battery type that has a low discharge rate. Why buy 2 inferior AA batteries wrapped in a plastic shell that is limited to use only with the 360 controller for a high markup when the rechargeable batteries can be used in your remotes, your wireless musical instruments, and many other things? And definitely never buy a used 360 battery pack, since those things could be pretty much depleted by the time you get your hands on them.
