- At $299, the Xbox Series S is the cheapest way
to get into the next generation of consoles.
All right, with the seals off
let's open up the Xbox Series S.
Oh okay I like a little attention to detail
so first of all, as we power our dreams
we get the tiny tiny little Series S.
It's really hard to get the sort of scale of this
until you actually have it in your hands
but this has gotta be the smallest console we've had
since like the slim PS2.
It's not that much bigger than slim PS2
this is a very clean piece of hardware.
So up front, we have a USB-A port and power button
nothing but venting on the sides
and around back we have ethernet
two more USB for grand total of three
as well as we have HDMI 2.1, the storage expansion module
which is the same storage SSDs as the Series X
as well as the power cable.
Now just like with the Series X
you can set it up vertically so it has rubber feet there
or you can set it down horizontally.
It's nice because unlike on the Series X
which has that kind of built-in foot on the bottom
I think this looks equally good either way.
So that's what you get inside the box of an Xbox Series S
but what is this console all about.
When you look at the Xbox Series S
compared to its bigger brother the Series X
it doesn't look as good.
Now that makes sense at $200 less expensive
you would expect that there to be some compromises
and they go a lot farther than just not having a disc drive.
But I think it's a lot more complicated
than a few minutes with a console
would really lead you to believe.
So the top line is this, the Series S
has a very similar level of specs to the Series X
with one big exception, graphics.
So where the Series X has 12 teraflops of performance
the Series S has to get by with four teraflops
now to be clear, that is still significantly
better than the console it replaces, the Xbox One S
but it falls behind at least on paper, the Xbox One X
which for a next gen console
seems like a little bit of a bitter pill to swallow.
But that being said the Series S
has a very different goal in life
it is not trying to run games at 4k all the time.
Instead it is really targeting somewhere
between 1080P and 1440P
the way they're really setting it up
is just like with the original Xbox One
which was very much
not really meant to push sort of 4k resolutions
until you got up to the One X, same thing for the Series S
this is to be able to bring all those same features
of next gen, but at a lower resolution.
Now, if you compare that with the Series X
it is supposed to be the most powerful console
and of course it will take advantage of the power
in a big way.
So you're getting 4k 60 on most games compared
to that 1080P on the Series S
but regardless of what you hook it up to
the Series S will look good
and it is a major improvement over the One S
where it's not a clear improvement over though,
is the One X
which is again, where you have to temper your expectations.
But beyond that,
a lot of those same features are all shared
so for example, they both have SSDs.
Sure, the Series S has a 512 gig SSD
instead of one terabyte,
but hey, you're spending $200 less money.
Now they both do support 120 FPS, but odds are
if you're buying the Series S
you're probably a lot more more likely to have a 60 Hertz TV
instead of a brand new OLED or something.
Now when it comes to playing games
that are fully optimized, right?
We're not talking about backwards compatibility,
we're talking about games which have been designed
for the Series S and the Series X,
the X surprise surprise looks better.
So if you look at the Microsoft's specs
they're sort of recommended what they've designed
these consoles for.
The Series X is designed to run at 4k 60
and the Series is designed to run games at 1440P 60 right?
But these are simply recommendations
a game developer can do what ever they want pretty much.
If you've got a pixel based game
you could run it at 8K if you really wanted to
I don't think anyone's gonna stop you, but realistically
these numbers, aren't quite representative
of the kind of experiences
you're getting on each of these consoles.
So take the Series X, for example
pretty much every game that I've tried so far
has a pretty robust 4k 60 FPS mode, right?
That's pretty much standard
and some games have support for 120 FPS at 4k
or even maybe slightly lower like 1440P
but really solid performance.
Now, on the Series S there are a few games
that will support these higher frame rates, right?
So for example, Gears 5 multi-player
will run at 1080P 120 FPS, which is awesome.
But the thing is, if you do the math here on the differences
while 1440P at 60 sounds great, that would require
about half as many pixels as the Series X.
It only has about one third the GPU horsepower
which means that realistically most games really
are going to be running at closer to that 1080P number.
Of course, there's a thing called dynamic resolution
that's been around for a long time
which means that you're always gonna get on
at least a lot of games,
you're always going to get like the best resolution.
So it may be because dipping back and forth
between 1080P and 1440 or whatever the case is.
But regardless this is a little bit more
of a 1080P gaming box
and the Series X is a little bit more of a 4k gaming box
but the thing is, all the building blocks are still there.
You still have Ray tracing support,
you still have support for the spatial audio,
you still have all the same things
that will make these games look and run well
and because they have the same CPU's things like,
I don't know GTA 6 should be able to
have massive worlds with tons of NPCs,
there's a lot of CPU horsepower behind that.
It's just simply that the graphics settings
won't be quite so elaborate
and you simply won't see that same resolution.
So the Series S does support backwards compatible games
just like the Series X.
That means a lot of original Xbox games, 360 games,
as well as Xbox One games.
Although of course, without a disc drive
you are going to have to download these games
as opposed to using the physical disks
that you may already own.
Now, there is another level
which is a little bit more disappointing
if you were running an Xbox One game
which has been optimized for the One X
which means that supports things like 4k
that won't actually run on the Series S
because it defaults to running the standard Xbox
One builds of games
and there are a couple of reasons for that.
So while technically it would be very close
to being powerful enough, the GPU is not quite there
with what the One X did
and you actually need a little bit above that
to be able to accurately run it
to make sure you're not losing any performance
which is why they've opted to keep those games running
in these standard modes.
So essentially, if you're running a game on your Xbox One
or your One S it's got a pretty much look
and perform the exact same way on the Series S.
You'll have a little bit more overhead
so some games may run at a slightly higher frame rate
but you're not going to get the added visual benefit
of something like 4k,
that a lot of games like "Red Dead 2", for example offer.
So just like with the Xbox One you can install older games
so Xbox One and earlier onto a USB 3.0 hard drive
and plug it into your Series S.
This is absolutely what you should do
with both of these consoles realistically
if you're playing a lot of older games
because even one terabyte on the Series X
isn't that much storage space
and you look at games like "Red Dead"
which can be nearly 100 gigs
that eats up a ton of that really quickly.
There's something that I think
is actually really worth considering
are the sizes of these consoles.
Everyone knows that the PS5
is about as large as Linus's ego
but the PS5 is sort of a different school of thought
when it comes to designing a console
the Series X has that dual motherboard approach
which means that it actually is a relatively compact
sort of chassis.
It's a little bit bigger than something
like the One or the One X, but still relatively small.
However, both of these consoles
pale in comparison to the Series S
which is by far the smallest Xbox they've ever made.
I'll be real, this thing is tiny where I actually can't fit
I have a fairly small TV cabinet at home
I actually can't fit the one X in the cabinet.
I actually, I have to put it onto the side
beside the TV, but the Series S
will slide right in there no problem.
Now that's a really nice thing, right?
Not everyone has a ton of space
when you're looking at a console
which is closer to something like a Wii than an Xbox One
that is a nice sort of benefit.
Now, is that enough of a reason to buy a brand new console?
Just because it's less powerful and therefore smaller?
No, and of course you do lose the disc drive
but it's something worth considering.
I think the elephant in the room
when you're talking about the Series S
is the PS5 digital edition.
So the $400 price tag of that console
means the Series S
does look a little bit questionable, right?
So unlike what Xbox have done
which is essentially build two consoles
one of which is the full-fat Series X
and one of which is the digital only less powerful Series S
Sony have gone with a completely different approach.
Both the PS5 and the PS5 digital edition
had the exact same specs games will run the exact same way.
There's no difference whatsoever
between those two consoles,
besides the fact that one of them lacks an optical drive.
Now, obviously I'm not out here trying
to tell you to buy a PlayStation
if you're watching your Series S video
and you're about to click the buy button on Amazon.
What I do think it is something to consider
the price to performance on that Series S
compared to the price to performance
on the PS5 digital edition
is pretty off the charts.
Now it's a little bit weird because we've never really had
a console generation like this.
Generally speaking, you get the new console,
it's great and then, especially with the last generation
you get an enhanced model later, right?
But this time around, we're starting right out the gate
with the PS5 and the Series X
which are really very powerful very clearly
on par with a lot of gaming PCs
and then you have the Series S which is certainly no slouch.
It has all the base features, you have the CPU,
you have the SSD, but it is significantly less powerful
and it is certainly an outlier going into this generation
because while of course
games will be supporting the Series S
and the Series X and the PS5 for five, six, seven years.
I don't think the Series S can get dropped
or anything like that
but your expectations have to be a little bit lower.
I do think Microsoft made a lot of smart decisions
with the S in sort of designing a console
which can pretty much run all the same games
just at lower resolution which I think
is a reasonable trade-off
but it depends on what kind of gamer you are.
If you want to know about the 4k 120 experience
and you wanna really crank everything to the max
the Series S isn't for you.
But if you were someone
who maybe wants a secondary console maybe you game on PC
and you wanna be able to play in the living room.
Maybe you have a PS4, PS5
you want to try out Xbox Game Pass.
Maybe you're just someone who wants to take a look
at next gen and play all these new games
but you don't necessarily care about 4k max out settings
that I think is where the Series S makes a ton of sense.
It is certainly not as good of a console
in raw power as something like the Series X
but ultimately, I wouldn't be surprised if the Series S
comes very close if not outsells the X.
$300 I think is a really easy number to go
cool, yeah, yeah whatever
but that's a really compelling price point.
So recently on Twitter,
I actually did a little bit of a calculation
on like looking at inflation
and kind of the price of previous consoles
compared to today
and the Series S and the, even the X and PS5
but specifically the Series S is downright cheap
compared to a lot of previous console
which is a great thing.
Usually you have to wait a few years to get like a slim model
for prices to come down, but right out the gate
looking at a $300 next gen console, it is not for everyone
but I think a lot of people will be happy with the Series S
as long as you have your expectations in check.
This is really an evolution of the Xbox One
not a replacement for the One X,
thank you very much for watching,
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for lots more Xbox and PS5 content
until next time I'm going to go fit the Series S
in my cabinet because it actually fits.