The best Xbox Series X accessories for your new console

Speaking of headsets, there are plenty of brand new options for Series X accessories and we’d like to remind you a good gaming headset isn’t just for online gaming; we love using them to get the best immersive experiences with virtual surround sound features that elevate single-player experiences to the next level. This is an area that warrants a whole guide of its own though, so for the best audio experience, head on over to our bespoke best Xbox Series X headsets guide.

As time goes by, especially if you’ve taken advantage of the excellent Xbox Game Pass selection of downloadable games, you’ll find you might need some extra storage capacity, this guide can help you out there too. If you are just window shopping today as you’re still trying to track down the new console, take a look at our guide to the latest Xbox Series X stock situation on where you might be able to buy one next.

The new official Microsoft Xbox Wireless Headset has really disrupted the Xbox headset scene by being one of the very best ones out there at a price ($99/£89) significantly cheaper than rival headsets of a similar quality. It’s reviewed very well and has been incredibly popular since launch, so this also means it’s generally been sold out since launch.

If you can find it though you’re getting a very comfortable headset that has excellent audio performance with a clear audio soundscape, incredibly powerful bass and solid surround sound too. The mic quality is great and we love how the mic itself tucks away neatly when not in use. The wireless bluetooth connection is one of the best we’ve tested on the Xbox Series X too.

This is the same Xbox Series X controller that you get with the console (black with the Series X and white with the Series S). It’s a refinement more than an upgrade on the last-gen controller, with improved grip, a more compact design, and (finally!) a proper share button for captures.

The Xbox Series X controller runs on batteries, so there’s not an immediate need to pick up an extra one to make sure you always have one charged and good to go, but there’s still plenty of reason to pick one up.

Local multiplayer being the most obvious excuse, but Microsoft has been smart early on and has released the new console’s controller in a variety of different colors. Sure you could pick up a black or white one, but we’re very much taken with the new Robot Blue and Pulse Red options. We often see them go for a slightly higher price, but we think the cool effect is worth it. The price comparison chart above is for the black one, but we’ve listed prices for the other colors below too. 

There are fancier controllers out there (see below), but the official standard option is the best all-rounder for the price and one best suited for most players.

Razer’s follow-up to the entry-level Wolverine controller (The Wolverine Ultimate Edition is still the brand’s best controller) has been given a makeover for the release of the Xbox Series X and might be just right for you if you’re after some extra customization as there are extra remappable buttons up top and you can switch to hair triggers to reduce the actuation depth for a quicker response.

It’s cheaper than the Elite Series 2, but still a fair bit more than the standard controller. For you’re money though you’re getting an exceptional grip on the front side as well as rear. The tactile buttons aren’t quite as responsive as the more expensive controllers but are a notable step up over the regular model. The controller’s chunky build is a lot more comfortable in the hand than the images might suggest and would suit anyone finding the new Series  X controller a bit too small.

There’s no wireless option sadly, but this will at least mean zero lag on inputs and you don’t have to worry about batteries either. The cable is nearly 10ft/3m long so should be fine for most players. We were very disappointed with the build of the bumpers and triggers though as when you press or hold both at the same time on one side (suffering Red Dead 2’s weapon wheel for example) they actually wobble and grind against each other. However, to be fair, there aren’t many other games where you’d need to press them together, so most users won’t be affected by this.

You might be skeptical about third-party Xbox peripherals, but the Fosmon Dual 2 Xbox Charging Dock is here to banish that skepticism. At just $30, this charging dock can charge two controllers at once, and considering the official Microsoft single controller charging dock is $40, this is quite the steal. Plus the Fosmon Dual 2 comes with two sets of battery plates for both the Xbox Series X/S and the Xbox One controllers, so you’ll be able to use it across console generations.

You can get the Fosmon Dual 2 Xbox Charging Dock in either black or white, so you can match to your Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, or Xbox One – an important feature of peripherals for gamers who like to look good. Once you swap out your pesky AA batteries for the Fosman Dual 2’s rechargeable battery packs, you can easily slide your controllers onto the dock – there’s no locking mechanism that requires you to fiddle with the controller, you just need to place it in the dock and the contact points line up.

The Fosmon Dual 2 has a USB to micro-USB cable, so you can plug it directly into the front of your console and since it’s a flat-lying dock, you could easily put it in front of your television and not obscure your vision. There are two problems with the charger: the lack of a wall plug for it and the charging cord’s relatively short length. However, you could easily swap in any longer-length phone charger – and at this price point, it’s worth the minor inconvenience. Note: this product is generally only available in the USA.

Tired of forking out for batteries and prefer your gaming setup to be a bit lighter on clutter, then this is a great option as it comes with two battery packs and a three-metre cable (so play and charge at the same time if needed) that splits into two USB-C connections. The cable can also be used to charge up any other Xbox Series X accessories (like headsets) that have a USB-C port.

The one downside is that the battery packs themselves are a really snug fit. Go in at anything other than the perfect angle and you might find it takes a while to get it right and requires a bit of force to get them in and out. Note: this product is generally only available in the UK and might be much more expensive elsewhere due to shipping costs.

This is the best charging dock solution we’ve tested over in the UK for the Series X controllers. There is a slightly cheaper single-controller version, but you’re probably better off with this double option for the sake of the difference in price.

You get two battery packs with this dual charging dock and an hour of charging fills the 850 mAh batteries for around 15 hours of play. When charging the packs they need to be in the controller as pictured, which isn’t as much of an issue if you have two controllers as you can always make sure you have one juiced and good to go. We wouldn’t recommend trying to remove the packs and placing them on the charging connections as they don’t attach well without the controller.

To be fair, with such a short charging time, not to mention this also charges even if the console is just in standby mode you could leave this charging when you’re not gaming too. Note: this product is generally only available in the UK.

If you’re finding your Xbox Series X’s internal SSD is full already and you’re regularly playing a wide range of games, then the official Seagate Storage Expansion Card will let you store even more and not have to worry about losing out on the fastest loading speeds or next-gen performance enhancements.

Look at that $220/£220 price though, that’s pretty wild – especially if you’ve recently paid for the Series X itself. This 1TB card comes with 920GB of usable space and to be fair, runs your games with all the same speeds and enhancements as if they were running on the bespoke internal SSD.

We did see a brief discount of $15 around launch, but in reality, given how expensive it is to produce a cutting-edge SSD card like this, we wouldn’t bank on prices dropping much further anytime soon. If you’re mainly looking for some extra space to play older Game Pass titles, you can save a lot of money and get even more GBs by opting for a standard external HDD like the one below. If you want the ultimate in performance though, this is the best option and will run older games much faster too as we halved Red Dead Redemption 2’s lengthy load times in half on this (and the internal SSD) compared to an external HDD.

Nowadays we use it to store new Xbox Series X titles when our internal SSD storage is a bit full, which means we don’t have to go through the fuss of redownloading titles. Get a 5TB version and you’ll be able to download almost every single Xbox Game Pass game. 

The speeds are just the standard for an external HDD, so we’d still move over big last-gen titles like Red Dead 2 to the internal SSD as you’ll cut those loading times in half. For most last-gen titles though, we’re more than content to run them from this HDD. For Series X exclusive games or games with specific graphical enhancements patched in for the new console, you will have to run them from the SSD or the memory card above to get those benefits, but we think this is a smart buy for your last-gen titles, or benching Series X games you’re not playing much at the moment but don’t want to redownload (gluttonous beasts like Warzone and GTAV come to mind).

If you’d like to see a few other storage options, be sure to check out our full guide to the best Xbox Series X external hard drives and memory cards.

Stay tuned as we’ll be adding a bunch more the best Xbox Series X accessories to this page very soon including more storage options, controllers, headsets, and more.