Guide · Latency

Bluetooth vs wired: what actually changes

Polling & jitter

Wired USB polls more often and more regularly. Bluetooth adds HID interval delay plus OS scheduling jitter, visible in our tester as lower Hz and higher jitter ms. For competitive play, wired wins essentially always.

Rumble support

Windows Bluetooth drivers for Xbox pads commonly drop the rumble output report entirely. If vibration fails wirelessly but works wired, that is a driver limit, not a broken motor.

Battery & dropouts

Low battery increases Bluetooth retransmits and input spikes. Retest at full charge before blaming the stick. USB sidesteps all of this.

Test your own setup (2 minutes)

In the full tester, wiggle one stick for 10 seconds over Bluetooth and note Hz + jitter. Plug in USB, repeat identically, keep the connection with higher Hz and lower jitter.

Compare my connections