Xbox Series S review
Our Verdict
The Xbox Series South has a lot to offer, with gorgeous graphics and an enormous game selection. Simply it's not the most time to come-proof gadget you can buy.
For
- Fantastic game selection
- Smooth performance
- Sleek, quiet blueprint
- Relatively inexpensive
Against
- Not very future-proof
- Graphics and storage limitations
Tom'southward Guide Verdict
The Xbox Series S has a lot to offering, with gorgeous graphics and an enormous game selection. Simply it's non the most future-proof gadget you can purchase.
Pros
- +
Fantastic game selection
- +
Smooth operation
- +
Sleek, quiet pattern
- +
Relatively inexpensive
Cons
- -
Not very future-proof
- -
Graphics and storage limitations
This Xbox Series S review was originally published on November 5, 2020.
The Xbox Serial Southward is one of the most unusual consoles I've seen in years. It's a less expensive, less powerful version of Microsoft's flagship Xbox Serial Ten — the kind of thing you'd expect to see a few years into a console's lifespan, like a Wii Mini or a PS2 Slim. And still, here it is: a sleek, white box launching on the exact same twenty-four hours as its bigger, beefier counterpart.
At $300, the Xbox Serial S is much easier on the wallet than the $500 Xbox Series X, but toll is never the same thing equally value. Is the Xbox Series S worth your coin — and, more importantly, will information technology keep to be worth your money for the entire lifespan of the electric current panel generation?
- Xbox Series X: 10 essential tips for getting started
While information technology's incommunicable to say what might happen in the futurity, having put the Serial S through its paces, I find myself cautiously optimistic nigh the device. No, it'south not as powerful as the Xbox Serial 10. Its hardware limits what information technology tin can exercise, from performance, storage, backwards compatibility and media perspectives. And yet one time you get past that, it's still a powerful console with a staggering amount of games on offering — not to mention that information technology plays streaming media with ease, and won't accept up all that much room in your house.
Arroyo the Xbox Serial Due south as the be-all, stop-all of next-gen gaming at your own peril — but approach it as a starter or companion device, and you may be pleasantly surprised. It volition never be the most powerful game machine on the market place (for that you might demand to look into one of the all-time gaming PCs) only this charming fiddling gadget has a lot to offer, if you lot know what to await going in. Read our Xbox Series S review below for the full story.
Xbox Serial Due south review: Price and availability
Xbox Series Due south is bachelor to buy now for $299. And unlike tracking downwards an Xbox Series X restock, this less powerful console is more readily available. In the U.K. the Xbox Series S volition set up you back £249.
Yous tin can also lease an Xbox Series S directly from Microsoft through its Xbox All Access program. This costs $25 per month for 24 months, and gives you admission to an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription on top of the panel itself. There are pros and cons to leasing a console, but if you cost it out, it's slightly less expensive than buying an Xbox Serial S and 24 months of Game Laissez passer Ultimate by themselves.
- PS5 Digital Edition vs. Xbox Serial S: Which affordable console is for yous?
Xbox Series S review: Design
When I first took the Xbox Series S out of its box, I could hardly believe how pocket-sized it was. The console measures 10.viii x five.nine 10 ii.vi inches, making information technology significantly smaller than the PS5, PS4, Xbox Serial X or Xbox One. (It's about the same size every bit a Wii U, but you lot can play a lot more games on it.)
Well-nigh of the console is white, save for a circular black vent on acme, which contrasts pleasantly with the rest of the frame. It has safety feet on one of the horizontal surfaces and one of the vertical ones, and there's plenty of ventilation, no affair which way y'all orient it.
While "the console is very small" may not seem like much of a selling point, I was surprised how much of a difference the Serial Due south' size made. My entertainment center is already overburdened with gadgetry, only I had no problem finding a niggling nook for the Series S.
When I was done with testing, I moved information technology into my sleeping accommodation, and slipped it right betwixt a big Television set stand and the border of a crowded dresser. Even my domestic partner, who objects to consoles in the sleeping room due to their monstrous size, grudgingly accustomed this device.
Xbox Series S specs
Processor: viii-core, 3.6 GHz Custom Zen two
GPU: Custom RDNA 2, 4 teraflops
Memory: x GB
Storage: 512 GB SSD
Max Resolution: 1440p
Max Framerate: 120 fps
Ports: HDMI, USB-A, Ethernet
Size: ten.8 ten 5.9 ten ii.6 inches
Weight: 4.3 pounds
Xbox Series South review: Ports
Like the Xbox Series X, the Xbox Series South keeps its ports unproblematic. There's a USB-A port in the forepart, along with a power button and a pairing push. Since the Series Southward has no disc drive, the residue of the front end panel is just empty space. On the back, at that place are two more USB-A ports, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port and a power port. I one-half-expected the Ethernet port to be missing, since that'due south ordinarily the kickoff affair to go in cheaper gadget variations, but I'm glad that it'due south still here.
My complaint here is the same as my complaint nigh the Xbox Serial Ten: in that location are no USB-C ports. For consoles that are ostensibly supposed to last the adjacent v to seven years, this seems like a tremendous oversight. USB-C provides faster charging and information transfer, to say cipher of new gaming accessories that rely on USB-C dongles. While USB-A is still fine for the moment, the lack of USB-C ports is a big missed opportunity.
Xbox Series Due south review: Interface
If you've used the Xbox Ane interface, and so you've used the Xbox Series S interface. That'due south non me playing coy; information technology'due south simply an observation. While Microsoft has updated the Xbox storefront over the past few months, the actual interface hasn't changed significantly in years.
When y'all boot up the console, yous'll withal encounter a Home screen with all of your most recent games and activities. When you lot scroll down, y'all'll still see Store, Media and Game Laissez passer options. Hitting the Xbox push button on the controller, and you'll be able to navigate through your games and apps, run across your full library, see arrangement notifications, manage your friends list, view your Achievements, admission settings and then along.
There's non much point in describing the Xbox Series Southward interface in exhaustive detail, since you lot've almost certainly seen information technology (or something like it) before. It's non an peculiarly pretty interface, but it does accept you lot where you need to go with relatively niggling friction, especially once you lot learn your way around. If you've used the Xbox Ane within the by few years, you'll be able to dive correct in, which is a plus.
In fact, the all-time thing most the Series S interface is arguably its consistency. Over the past few months, Microsoft has revamped its shop, too as its PC and Android Xbox apps. There'southward now a great deal of consistency between the Xbox Serial Ten, Xbox Series Due south, Xbox One, Xbox PC app and Xbox Android app. The bulletin is clear: Microsoft is building an Xbox ecosystem, and you'll be able to access that feel from almost anywhere.
What the Xbox Serial South interface lacks in aesthetics, it makes up for in utility — especially when you consider just how many games you can access via Xbox Game Pass on two unlike console generations, besides as PCs and mobile devices.
Xbox Series S review: Operation
At the risk of stating the obvious, the Xbox Series Southward is non nearly as powerful as the Xbox Series X. If you're familiar with the two consoles' hardware specs, then you lot'll know why. Whereas the Series X boasts a GPU with upward to 12 teraflops of output, 16 GB RAM, ane TB SSD storage and a 4K Blu-ray disc drive, the Series Southward has a GPU with up to 4 teraflops of output, 10 GB RAM, 512 GB SSD storage and no disc drive at all.
Near Xbox Series X games will run at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, although certain titles will support resolutions upwardly to 8K and frame rates up to 120 frames per 2d. Xbox Series S, on the other manus, has a max resolution of 1440p for games — although the 120 fps frame rate is however technically possible.
Without getting besides granular, the lesser line is that the Xbox Series Due south is much less powerful than the Series X, which is why information technology costs so much less. However, the Serial S' pocket-size specs can be either a dealbreaker, an annoyance or a nonissue, depending on your setup and how you lot program to employ the console.
I ran three tests to evaluate how well the Xbox Series S performed. Showtime, I chose four games from Microsoft's "optimized for Xbox Series Ten/Southward" list: Gears five, Maneater, Ori and the Volition of the Wisps and Yakuza: Like a Dragon. These games all function simply fine on Xbox One, but Microsoft promises improve lighting, textures, frame rates and so forth on the Series S — and specially the Xbox Series X.
So, I played through segments of each game on an Xbox Series X on a 4K TV, an Xbox Series S on a 4K TV and an Xbox Serial S on a 1080p Tv. This way, I could compare not only how well the Serial S stacked up to the Series X, but also whether the Series Southward is a skillful selection for buyers with older TV sets.
(Call up: Not even half of American households currently own 4K TVs. While 1080p sets aren't exactly cutting-edge technology, they're a lot more mutual than y'all might call up — especially, mayhap, amidst a demographic that would pay $300 for a new game console, but not $500.)
The results of these qualitative tests came equally a pleasant surprise. It won't shock you to learn that the four games I tested looked best on the Xbox Series Ten. But the Xbox Series S didn't expect bad at all in comparison; in fact, most differences were very subtle, even when observed on a 4K OLED TV with HDR active.
Generally speaking, the Xbox Series X offered richer color palettes, ameliorate draw distances and slightly more detailed textures — but those were the only big differences that I noticed, even when I was specifically looking out for them. In Gears v, the Series S didn't capture details in a nighttime room the way that the Series Ten did. Just out in open levels, it withal rendered characters, backgrounds and items gorgeously. In Yakuza: Like a Dragon, the Xbox Series Ten displayed sharper, more colorful advertisements on the mean streets of Yokohama, merely character models were still rich and detailed on the Serial S — and, chiefly, the frame rate didn't suffer from any appreciable slowdown on either platform.
Perhaps the biggest divergence I noticed was in Maneater, where the Serial Ten had deeper, richer colors for its underwater mural. But even and then, information technology's the sort of thing that only stuck out to me because I played the two games on the ii different consoles dorsum-to-back. In general, the Series Due south upscales content to 4K beautifully — and if you lot accept a 1440p display, you lot won't need the upscaling at all.
The Xbox Series X also loaded content a little faster, merely non nearly as much as I'd expected. In all four games I tested, I measured load times in seconds rather than minutes, fifty-fifty going right from the main screen into a relieve file. Load times between levels were fast enough that I couldn't even whip out my telephone to fourth dimension them. Admittedly, it took a while to become through the title screens on Gears 5 on the Series Due south — but the Series X wasn't quite as fast as I expected on this, either.
The only real downside to the Series S performance is that on a 1080p Tv, it looks near identical to what you'd observe on an Xbox One. However, information technology still loads content much faster than the Xbox One did — and since the Xbox I even so costs $300, the Serial S is a much smarter buy from the showtime.
Xbox Serial Southward review: Quick Resume
The Xbox Series S has 1 feature that's worth discussing by itself: Quick Resume. This novel innovation, also present in the Serial X, lets you suspend a handful of games, then switch amidst them without having to restart each game and reload your save files.
A few caveats: It'south not instantaneous, it doesn't work with every game, and you lot can't do it with more than than about 4 or v games at a time. Merely it's withal a handy characteristic, particularly since information technology persists fifty-fifty after yous turn your console off.
Quick Resume isn't perfect. After restarting my console, my games crashed sometimes, which meant I had to offset the software from scratch anyway. But it's a handy feature if y'all like jumping amid multiple games in a single play session — and not really worth writing habitation about, if you don't.
Xbox Series S review: Backwards compatibility
Like the Xbox Serial X, the Xbox Series S is backwards uniform with just about every Xbox One title, plus dozens of Xbox 360 and original Xbox titles. Microsoft has discussed this characteristic at length for months, as has Tom'southward Guide, then I won't reiterate in great particular here. Suffice it to say that if you've always endemic an Xbox console before, yous tin striking the ground running on the Series S with your library intact.
Sort of.
As I tested the Xbox Series Southward, I noticed a backwards compatibility problem that I didn't have with the Xbox Serial X: in that location's no disc bulldoze. This seems about too obvious to bespeak out, except that it makes backwards compatibility a piddling thornier. While buying digital games has become extremely mutual over the concluding few years, it wasn't widespread at the first of the Xbox One generation — and it was even less attainable before that.
In other words, if you have a large concrete Xbox/Xbox 360 library, it won't exercise you a lick of skilful on the Xbox Series S. You'll have to either purchase those games again digitally, hope that they get added to Xbox Game Laissez passer, or simply bite the bullet and buy an Xbox Series X.
The good news is that for backwards-uniform digital games, the Xbox Series S works beautifully, often running titles with ameliorate resolutions and frame rates than before. (This varies from game to game; Microsoft doesn't accept a comprehensive list of enhancements available nevertheless, and then just effort your favorites and see how they practise.) It's a boon for early adopters in the digital games market, if nothing else.
Furthermore, the backward-compatible games roster keeps expanding with Microsoft adding another 76 original Xbox and Xbox 360 games to the library. 37 of those benefit from FPS Heave, a feature that boost game frame rates fifty-fifty without developer implementation.
Xbox Series S review: Controller
Some other Xbox Series S innovation that does more with less is its controller. For the most role, the Xbox Serial S' controller is identical to the Xbox One'south: two extended mitt grips, ii staggered analog sticks, a D-pad, four face buttons, four shoulder buttons, two options buttons and a ability button, all in the aforementioned place as before.
It'due south non until you get an Xbox Series S controller in your hand that you brainstorm to feel the departure. The surface is matte and a little more resistant to sweat than earlier. More than importantly, the grips are at present textured in the back, which makes the controller easier to concur and more comfy overall. There's also a "share" button in the center of the controller, which lets you take screenshots and video clips and whatnot — I never actually used it, but you might.
The controller's only major drawback is that it nonetheless relies on AA batteries out of the box, rather than a more than environmentally friendly (and, for the end-user, inexpensive) rechargeable battery. You can all the same purchase rechargeable battery packs separately, but it's only one more unnecessary cost that Microsoft could — and should — have borne, peculiarly since each set of AAs will net you only about 30 hours of life.
Xbox Series Southward review: Game library
If you lot desire to know what you'll be playing on the Xbox Series S, re-read the backwards compatibility department; for the moment, information technology'southward pretty much all you're going to get. Microsoft didn't have whatsoever Series S "launch titles," per se, instead falling back on its list of 30 optimized games. Some of them, like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Dirt 5 are, indeed, brand new. But every unmarried game on Microsoft's listing is also available on Xbox One, PC or, in many cases, the PS4.
This is role of Microsoft's bigger strategy of building an ecosystem rather than selling hardware, simply it however feels disappointing to showtime off a new panel generation without a flagship title that showcases everything you can expect from the organization. Information technology'southward even more disappointing that almost of the "optimized for Xbox Serial X/S" games accept been out for months (or years), and there's a good run a risk you've already played a lot of them.
On the other hand, where the Xbox Serial Due south excels is in its Xbox Game Pass connectivity. For those who aren't familiar with it, Xbox Game Pass lets you download more than 100 hitting games (including all of Microsoft'southward first-party titles) for one apartment monthly fee: between $5 and $fifteen, depending on how many bells and whistles you want. The Xbox Series South' interface integrates Game Laissez passer in a big way, which is surely obnoxious to people who adopt to buy their games outright, just very convenient to folks who are always on the lookout for something new and exciting to play.
Suppose y'all option up an Xbox Series S and accept absolutely nothing to play on it. For $15 per month, Xbox Game Laissez passer Ultimate volition give you access to the Halo and Gears of War series in their entirety, Minecraft, Ocean of Thieves, the classic LucasArts take chances games (remastered), The Outer Worlds, Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition, Golf with Friends, Alan Wake, Batman: Arkham Knight, Enter the Gungeon — and those are just a handful of titles that I can personally recommend. Do acquit in mind that some games volition chew through SSD space, including the upcoming Stalker 2: Heart of Chernobyl.
With the Ultimate tier of Game Pass, you can also download many of these games to PC, or stream many of them to Android, and your save data volition carry over across the lath. While there'south something to be said for buying games à la card and owning them outright, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is hands the next all-time thing. In fact, right at present I'd happily state that Xbox Game Pass is the best deal in gaming
Xbox Series S review: Verdict
In our Xbox Series S review, we discussed how this sleek, approachable console could be just the ticket for young, coincidental or budget-minded gamers who want the latest and greatest games, only aren't quite ready to accept a $500 plunge. On the other end of the spectrum, if you're planning to buy an Xbox Series Ten (or already accept a powerful gaming PC), the Series Due south makes a fantastic fill-in console for a bedroom or office, especially since your library and save files tin can come with yous anywhere.
The Xbox Series South is likewise niche to recommend to anybody. If yous take a loftier-finish 4K Idiot box, you lot're arguably better off with the Xbox Series 10 — specially since with lower specs, the Series South may be less equipped to handle adjacent-gen titles as they become more than enervating in the next few years. The lack of a disc drive limits its backwards compatibility, and its difficult drive will make full pretty fast. Nonetheless, if those factors aren't dealbreakers, y'all can purchase an atrocious lot of games with the $200 you lot'll save.
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Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/xbox-series-s
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