A gamepad with a light show
The PowerA Spectra Infinity gamepad feels just like a standard Xbox controller, but it trades wireless connectivity for a three-zone RGB light show and programmable rear buttons.
RGB lighting is a common sight for gaming gear, such as mice, keyboards, and computers. They’re rare among controllers, though, and that makes the PowerA Spectra Infinity Enhanced Wired Controller for Xbox X/S unique. This $44.99 gamepad features three, Tron-like lighting zones that enable hundreds of color combinations. Physically, it feels nearly the same as the standard Xbox controller, and works with PCs and current- and last-gen Xbox consoles. It also has programmable rear buttons, which is always nice to find in a third-party gamepad. That said, it's a bit awkward to customize without an app.
The Spectra feels almost identical to the standard Xbox Wireless Controller, and it shares the same contours. The front panel is smooth, matte black plastic, while the back panel is textured, slightly glossier black plastic. The control layout, of course, is standard Xbox: dual analog sticks offset from each other; four face buttons; a direction pad; Menu, View, and Capture buttons; bumper/trigger pairs along the top; and a 3.5mm headset jack on the bottom. The direction pad is plus-shaped like on the Xbox One gamepad rather than the directional disc on the Xbox Series X/Series S gamepad. Still, it feels familiar. It’s a comfortable gamepad that you could easily mistake for the first-party Xbox controller, until you feel the two, flat Advanced Gaming Buttons on the back, right where your middle fingers naturally rest.
Further exploration of the gamepad reveals the significant differences between the Spectra and the Xbox Wireless Controller. To start, there’s a backlit volume rocker for the headset jack between the direction pad and the right analog stick. Besides the Advanced Gaming Buttons, the gamepad's back holds three-way trigger lock levers with Program and LED buttons between them. There’s also no battery compartment door, because this is a purely wired controller; a recessed, micro-USB port on the top edge connects to a 10-foot fabric-covered cable with a breakaway joint and a USB-A plug at the end.
Then there’s the Spectra’s main gimmick, visible only as translucent gray borders around the analog sticks, direction pad, and face buttons, along with a similar translucent band that runs along the edge of the gamepad itself. Plug the controller in and these borders light up with a Tron-like effect. This effect is customizable with three zones and four colors, each with five shades and multiple levels of brightness.
The light effect is eye-catching, and the color variety lets you personalize the gamepad's look. The light piping around the controller's edge is a bit dimmer than the lights around the analog sticks, direction pad, and face buttons, but it still looks nice. Customizing those lights is a bit awkward, however.
PowerA doesn’t offer an app for programming the Advanced Gaming Buttons or customizing the lights. Programming the buttons is easy enough: Press and hold the Program button on the back until the status light flashes, press the input you want to assign to a rear button, then press your rear button of choice. That’s it.
The light show is a different story. First, you press and hold the LED button until the lights blink on the controller's top. Press right on the direction pad to select one of the three zones (the light strip around the gamepad, the left analog stick and face buttons, or the right analog stick and direction pad). Press one of the face buttons to choose red, green, blue, or yellow, then keep pressing the button to select one of five different shades of that color. Press left on the direction pad to switch between solid lighting or a breathing effect, and press up or down on the direction pad to adjust brightness. Finally, you press and hold the LED button until all the colored lights flash to indicate that you've exited programming mode.
The process offers numerous options, but it’s not at all intuitive. You practically need to keep the instructions around for reference. An app for setting and uploading gamepad configurations would have been a much better option.
The Spectra works with Windows 10 PCs, any Xbox One, and the Xbox Series X/S. Because it’s a wired gamepad, just plug it into a USB port and start playing. I tested the Spectra primarily with an Xbox Series X.
The Spectra’s controls feel close to the Xbox Wireless Gamepad’s, and I noticed little if any difference in analog stick tension, face button stiffness, or direction pad accuracy (though the plus-shaped pad is different from the eight-direction disc on the current Xbox gamepad). It simply feels like an Xbox controller, which is a good start. The triggers also work well, though the trigger stops are a bit more subtle than the trigger stops I’ve felt on other gamepads; the pull distance with the stops at the shallowest setting isn’t that much more shallow than the pull distance without the stops. The motion is still a bit shorter, but it isn’t very significant.
Hollow Knight felt very responsive with the Spectra. Although the glossy direction pad feels slightly slippery compared with the matte direction pad on the first-party Xbox controller, the directional inputs all worked perfectly, and I had no problems bouncing on spikes with timed attacks or beating some of the game’s early bosses.
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 also felt good on the Spectra. The analog sticks were just as responsive as the direction pad when playing Hollow Knight, and the springy face buttons and triggers let me nail fairly complex combos with manuals, reverts, wall rides, and wall kicks.
The PowerA Spectra Infinity is a reliable, wired PC and Xbox gamepad with an attractive light show gimmick. If you don’t mind dealing with a cable, that’s pretty appealing. It’s a bit pricey at $45 considering it's wired, especially since it lacks any sort of app-based control and requires you to manually program the rear buttons and lighting effects. Still, it feels about as good as a standard the $59.99 Xbox Wireless Controller, and that’s high praise for any third-party gamepad.
If you want to stay wireless, the Xbox Wireless Controller is still a reliable standard even without programmable rear buttons. If you’re willing to splurge, the $179 Xbox Elite Wireless Controller is one of the best gamepads for Xbox and PC. Meanwhile, if you have smaller hands, the $49.99 Nacon Pro Compact might be the best fit for you, though it's also wired and lacks rear buttons.
The PowerA Spectra Infinity gamepad feels just like a standard Xbox controller, but it trades wireless connectivity for a three-zone RGB light show and programmable rear buttons.
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Will Greenwald has been PCMag's home entertainment expert for over a decade, specializing in TVs, media streaming devices, headphones, game consoles, game accessories, and virtual reality. He's reviewed well over 1,000 consumer electronics products and has written dozens of extensive guides to products in his fields.
His particular expertise is in TV and home entertainment technology. Will is a certified ISF Level III TV calibrator and THX Level I home theater installer, which ensures the thoroughness and accuracy of his TV reviews. In addition, he has also tested and reviewed every major game console and consumer VR headset of the last three system generations.
Will has been covering consumer technology for over 15 years. In addition to PCMag, his work and analysis has been seen in CNET, GamePro, Geek.com, Maximum PC, Sound & Vision, and other publications. He also enjoys fiction writing, photography, and building Gunpla model kits.
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