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Is the $299 XBOX Series S REALLY worth it? | MVG - Xbox Series S review

sircaw

Banned
If your dead set on getting a Microsoft console, i would say no its not, try and save for the bigger one, its just so much better in every metric, yes it costs a hell of a lot more but what you get in it will future proof you till the end of the generation, i am very unsure about this little box.
 
$300 for a weak console with no launch exclusives. Gonna go with no

It's not a controversial opinion, even for its bigger brother. I think it's a catastrophe for MS to have so many reviews out there say, in some form or another, "hold off, wait etc". When was the last time that happened for a console that's launching? I mean you could land a couple of reviews like that but several beating the same drum? Yeah....

"But but.... exclusives don't matter. It's all about multiplats" .... perhaps in a world of no competition where Nintendo and specifically Sony don't exist maybe? Kinda funny the platform that depends most on multiplats sells less. No correlation there at all.
 
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M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
It's not a controversial opinion, even for its bigger brother. I think it's a catastrophe for MS to have so many reviews out there say, in some form or another, "hold off, wait etc". When was the last time that happened for a console that's launching? I mean you could land a couple of reviews like that but several beating the same drum? Yeah....

"But but.... exclusives don't matter. It's all about multiplats" .... perhaps in a world of no competition where Nintendo and specifically Sony don't exist maybe? Kinda funny the platform that depends most on multiplats sells less. No correlation there at all.
It's definitely issue for people just used to consoles, but for us going from PC (me in X360) era is defnitely enough, better performance even in current games = win for me. But I do recognize that it's an obvious issue. Can't wait for my XSX.
 
While it might be not as powerful as XSX/PS5, hence won't support 4K TVs as well as the two, it's certainly a waaay better console than XB1, PS4, 1X and Pro combined.

I’m sure the Series S is pretty cool and all, but I’m really failing to see how it is way better than a PS4 Pro and especially an One X. XBox One even has Gamepass with presumably the same games and the One X can even do 4K. Did I mention the lack of memory on the Series S as well? I think “way” better would be reserved for the PS5 and the XSX.
 
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MrFunSocks

Banned
I’m sure the Series S is pretty cool and all, but I’m really failing to see how it is way better than a PS4 Pro and especially an One X. XBox One even has Gamepass with presumably the same games and the One X can even do 4K. Did I mention the lack of memory on the Series S as well? I think “way” better would be reserved for the PS5 and the XSX.
It’s a next gen console. It plays next gen games. How isn’t it way better?
 
It’s a next gen console. It plays next gen games. How isn’t it way better?

From what I am seeing and hearing, the XSS doesn’t look much better than current generation games so far. Yes, it will play new next generation games and it’s technically next generation, but I’m not seeing and wondering how its “vastly superior” as quoted to the One X or even the PS4 Pro at this point. Again, the One X has 4K, Gamepass and even backwards compatibility.

It even seems like developers are struggling already with it. 900p in Yakuza and PUBG’s questionable performance for example and games are only going to get more demanding as the generation progresses.
 
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Azurro

Banned
While it might be not as powerful as XSX/PS5, hence won't support 4K TVs as well as the two, it's certainly a waaay better console than XB1, PS4, 1X and Pro combined.

Not really, it's full of compromises and it's not clearly better than the 1X. It has a faster I/O, bit it's tiny. It has a better cpu, but the GPU has worse performance, even if it has better features. It can't do backwards compatibility like the 1X can, which is the only reason to get a new Xbox at the moment as it launches with no next gen games.

It's a weird machine, almost cross gen if that was a thing.
 
It's not a controversial opinion, even for its bigger brother. I think it's a catastrophe for MS to have so many reviews out there say, in some form or another, "hold off, wait etc". When was the last time that happened for a console that's launching? I mean you could land a couple of reviews like that but several beating the same drum? Yeah....

"But but.... exclusives don't matter. It's all about multiplats" .... perhaps in a world of no competition where Nintendo and specifically Sony don't exist maybe? Kinda funny the platform that depends most on multiplats sells less. No correlation there at all.

already sold out everywhere. The moment the waves are not sold out anymore the games will be there.
2/3rds of a next gen console for 300 bucks with no launch exclusives or a true next gen console for 400 with at least something in their library already.....

the bang for buck ratio is pretty shitty compared to the competition in my optinion. So I´m gonna go with "no".

because casual games care so much about exclusive games. You know nothing, Phrixotrichus.
They can play thousands of games across 4 generations. What are you talking about with nothing to play?
 
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While it might be not as powerful as XSX/PS5, hence won't support 4K TVs as well as the two, it's certainly a waaay better console than XB1, PS4, 1X and Pro combined.

If it is way better console, why can't it run disc based games or one x enchanted games? :messenger_savoring:

One x is better than series s, it runs disc games so it have BC unlike series s, and because used xbox games are super cheap (1-10€ mostly) then it is also cheaper system in a long run.

If casual gamer wants to play xbox games, one x is much better option as they are super cheap used, around 100-150e in good condition. So why spend +300€ to new system or something like 200-280€ to used series s in few months, and still lose ability to play disc games?

MS fucked up series s by removing disc drive, and real casual dont care about game pass because they play only 1-10 games in a whole gen
 

Poop!

Member
I am a very happy Series S pre-order owner. I'm a gaming dad on a budget. I have three kids 7 and under so they don't care about any of the bells and whistles. I am very happy to spend $300 with $60 games. With gamepass my kids will be in hog heaven. Added bonus of it being small and all digital I can shove it back behind the TV and not have to worry about my kids gumming up or breaking the discs.

Again, I'm a VERY happy gamer right now with my Series S.
 

FMX

Member
OP we are hardcore gamers. Most gamers only buy 2-3 games a year COD, Madden, Nba 2k. This system is for them. The S is not for us.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
From what I am seeing and hearing, the XSS doesn’t look much better than current generation games so far. Yes, it will play new next generation games and it’s technically next generation, but I’m not seeing and wondering how its “vastly superior” as quoted to the One X or even the PS4 Pro at this point. Again, the One X has 4K, Gamepass and even backwards compatibility.

It even seems like developers are struggling already with it. 900p in Yakuza and PUBG’s questionable port for example and games are only going to get more demanding as the generation progresses.
There’s no pubg port, it’s simply pubg playing in backwards compatibility.

what next gen games have you seen so far on the series S? Cross gen games. You haven’t seen next gen exclusives on it, and you won’t be able to play them on the One X or PS4 Pro, so there’s not even a comparison. The hardware blows the One X and PS4 Pro away in every aspect. I don’t really know what you are expecting.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
I don't see the same potential on the XSS.

The thing is, it's not a 4K console. No sane person would connect the base PS4/XB1 to a 4K TV, so I don't get why people would try that with XSS? I think while initially it'll be able to hold up the marketed 1440p quite often, but the longer into the generation the more it will indeed turn into a FullHD-only machine, with some games potentially dropping to 900p somewhere down the line, or even 720p, due to dynamic scaling. But if we look at it from 1080p perspective, the console actually starts the gen with quite a nice headroom, as oppose to PS5/XSX that are already starting to use "dynamic 4K" before they even launched, so if anything, I'd say the XSS has a chance to actually hold up better in the longer run, unless someone is really dumb enough to treat it as a next-gen 4K machine.

I’m sure the Series S is pretty cool and all, but I’m really failing to see how it is way better than a PS4 Pro and especially an One X. XBox One even has Gamepass with presumably the same games and the One X can even do 4K. Did I mention the lack of memory on the Series S as well? I think “way” better would be reserved for the PS5 and the XSX.

Not really, it's full of compromises and it's not clearly better than the 1X. It has a faster I/O, bit it's tiny. It has a better cpu, but the GPU has worse performance, even if it has better features. It can't do backwards compatibility like the 1X can, which is the only reason to get a new Xbox at the moment as it launches with no next gen games.

It's a weird machine, almost cross gen if that was a thing.


No Jaguar and HDD already make the console leaps and bound beyond what current-gen consoles can do. Just operating the dashboard and game menus will be so much better experience to begin with. The games will load super fast, and once they do they'll run at 60 or even 120FPS, that's what people always asked for, right? XSS will basically do what people always wanted PS4/XB1 to do, 1080p60, but they never delivered, nor did their mid-gen refreshes. So for the people with FullHD TVs there's no reason to not to upgrade, especially for that price tag, it will provide a much better gaming experience than entire current-gen ever did.
 
I was actually looking forward to the Series S at first when the rumours started, had it pegged as the replacement to the One S in my setup (UHD Bluray player that plays EDF Games), but then it was revealed to be digital only. It's a shame they'll likely never release a disk version as I'm not invested in the Xbox ecosystem enough to warrant spending the extra green on a Series X. It could be a good pickup in a year or two so long as it doesn't get left behind with regards to performance like we saw with the Xbox One during the generation.
 

ROMhack

Member
The Series S is for people that only play FIFA/COD/Madden/2k. Its not for anyone on this forum or any hardcore gamer in general

I get what you mean but I don't think it applies to all. Personally, I'm buying one as a way into the next-gen at a lower cost and the chance of me playing those games is zero. It'll basically be a gamepass machine as I'd like to play certain retro games (Lost Odyssey and Rare Replay) and some newer games I never got around to this gen (Quantum Break).

I don't think there's an easy divider between hardcore/casual these days. Arguably all consoles are 'casual' given that they really need to appeal to the widest audience as possible, which is why Sony are leading with Spider-man (can you get more casual than Marvel?) as one of their two biggest launch titles.
 
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Azurro

Banned
No Jaguar and HDD already make the console leaps and bound beyond what current-gen consoles can do. Just operating the dashboard and game menus will be so much better experience to begin with. The games will load super fast, and once they do they'll run at 60 or even 120FPS, that's what people always asked for, right? XSS will basically do what people always wanted PS4/XB1 to do, 1080p60, but they never delivered, nor did their mid-gen refreshes. So for the people with FullHD TVs there's no reason to not to upgrade, especially for that price tag, it will provide a much better gaming experience than entire current-gen ever did.

Yes, no Jaguar and HDD are a significant improvement, but the compromises in GPU, storage size and lack of BR drive make it not a clear upgrade. The 60 FPS or 120 FPS depends a lot, if the title already ran pretty close to 60 FPS on X1X, then sure, it will probably run at 60 FPS on XSS, or if the CPU was a significant bottleneck, then sure. However, 120 FPS on XSS is going to be...let's say a bit of a challenge, as to reach framerate on XSX already means a lot of compromises, I fear what that means for a machine with such a teeny, tiny GPU. Also, it can't do BC to the level that X1X can do it, and has less memory as well, which is weird given that BC is the best feature the new Xbox consoles offer since they have no next gen games.

X1X to XSS is not much of an upgrade.
 
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Warnen

Don't pass gaas, it is your Destiny!
my brother was considering it as a 2nd to play on a small tv in his room so wife doesn’t get annoyed form him using the big tv. Big Xbox would be in the family room.

still would prob go with another x if he had the choice.
 
Yes, no Jaguar and HDD are a significant improvement, but the compromises in GPU, storage size and lack of BR drive make it not a clear upgrade. The 60 FPS or 120 FPS depends a lot, if the title already ran pretty close to 60 FPS on X1X, then sure, it will probably run at 60 FPS on XSS, or if the CPU was a significant bottleneck, then sure. However, 120 FPS on XSS is going to be...let's say a bit of a challenge, as to reach framerate on XSX already means a lot of compromises, I fear what that means for a machine with such a teeny, tiny GPU. Also, it can't do BC to the level that X1X can do it, and has less memory as well, which is weird given that BC is the best feature the new Xbox consoles offer since they have no next gen games.

X1X to XSS is not much of an upgrade.
I still do not understand why people keep comparing the XSS to the X1X. Do you realize that it is NOT an upgrade to the X1X? How does the XSS compare to the X1? Does the X1 play ANY games better than the XSS? If the X1 played games better than the XSS you would have a point.
 

JimboJones

Member
I get what you mean but I don't think it applies to all. Personally, I'm buying one as a way into the next-gen at a lower cost and the chance of me playing those games is zero. It'll basically be a gamepass machine as I'd like to play certain retro games (Lost Odyssey and Rare Replay) and some newer games I never got around to this gen (Quantum Break).

I don't think there's an easy divider between hardcore/casual these days. Arguably all consoles are 'casual' given that they really need to appeal to the widest audience as possible, which is why Sony are leading with Spider-man (can you get more casual than Marvel?) as one of their two biggest launch titles.
Same boat as you, I don't need a Series X when my pc and a ps5 will do the same if not better but a series s lets me play a few retro games stuck in that ecosystem and some multiplayer games with friends not cross play on pc.
 

Azurro

Banned
I still do not understand why people keep comparing the XSS to the X1X. Do you realize that it is NOT an upgrade to the X1X? How does the XSS compare to the X1? Does the X1 play ANY games better than the XSS? If the X1 played games better than the XSS you would have a point.

It's a new console generation, it's supposed to be a technological jump over the previous generation, that includes the X1X. What's the point in getting a new console if the old one is better in many ways?
 
I’m sure the Series S is pretty cool and all, but I’m really failing to see how it is way better than a PS4 Pro and especially an One X. XBox One even has Gamepass with presumably the same games and the One X can even do 4K. Did I mention the lack of memory on the Series S as well? I think “way” better would be reserved for the PS5 and the XSX.

Oh please. Shut the fuck up and inform yourself. You're an embarassment to this forum, and yourself. You make me sick.
 

Fbh

Member
Seems like a decent choice for people on a budget, casual players that only use their console occasionally or just want to be able to play the newer entries in some yearly franchise (Fifa, NBA, COD, Assasins Creed, etc), people who want a second console for some other room/place, young kids, etc.

I think more "core" gamers might be disappointed by it in a few years when most games target Ps5/Series X as I think over time differences will be bigger than just "exactly the same game at lower res"
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
Three kinds of people this is for:

1: I have never given a shit about visuals, or have an old TV. I just want to have fun
2: I want a cheap GamePass box
3: I want an Xbox extension in another room

I think all three will be fine with the cutbacks here. For the rest of us, we probably don’t even need to think about this for the entire rest of the generation, but it serves its purpose.
 

kevm3

Member
No. Just save for the real next gen experience and buy an x. I don't really understand the purpose of series s. I guess if you want 'next gen' but at a highly compromised experience.

Is the Series S even more powerful than the One X? I know it'll have a better processor, but the GPU is weaker right? I don't understand the purpose of this machine when they could just knock the One X back to 300 bucks and make that the cheap gamepass machine.
 

Neo_game

Member
They should have never made this console. 399$ SX like PS5 DE would have made more sense if they wanted a cheaper console without compromising specs
 

-Arcadia-

Banned
No. Just save for the real next gen experience and buy an x. I don't really understand the purpose of series s. I guess if you want 'next gen' but at a highly compromised experience.

Is the Series S even more powerful than the One X? I know it'll have a better processor, but the GPU is weaker right? I don't understand the purpose of this machine when they could just knock the One X back to 300 bucks and make that the cheap gamepass machine.

There will come a time when One X’s poor CPU and older general architecture fail it, and it will no longer be able to run new games without significant development effort. In that context, the Series S is a much, much better choice for a cheaper option.

On the whole, Series S is a next-gen console, at 1080p (with excursions into 1440p) and with a few visual cutbacks. One X is a last-gen console, that runs last-gen games, at 4K.
 
From what I am seeing and hearing, the XSS doesn’t look much better than current generation games so far. Yes, it will play new next generation games and it’s technically next generation, but I’m not seeing and wondering how its “vastly superior” as quoted to the One X or even the PS4 Pro at this point. Again, the One X has 4K, Gamepass and even backwards compatibility.

It even seems like developers are struggling already with it. 900p in Yakuza and PUBG’s questionable port for example and games are only going to get more demanding as the generation progresses.
If you don't see how its better then jesus christ, i don't think anyone could explain it to you. For a start, the CPU difference is vast. A Zen2 processor in the S vs the Jaguar in the One X or PS4 Pro isn't even a competition, the Series S will benefit from far more reliable and higher framerates in general as well as keeping the console itself fast and snappy all round. Old 7200rpm HDD vs NVME SSD? again, no competition, the S will demolish load times like the X by half or more. Xbox One X uses 12gb of GDDR5 RAM, the S uses 10GB GDDR6, and although a smaller amount, the GDDR6 is newer and faster. They'll only have 8gb to use after OS usage but it was designed that way on purpose for 1080/1440p instead of 4K.

Everything about it on a technical level is better. It's newer, has newer chips and design. It's just better. The One X will do 4K yes, but at a max of 30 at best and that's before analysis is done to show frame drops and resolution scaling down.

People are focusing too much on resolution while having little to no knoweledge in anything technical. Just because one can output at a higher res doesn't mean it's better, that's only one slice of the pie and not the main focus of a game dev. If you value gloating about resolution numbers then you will never be convinced, but anyone with a brain can tell you its hands down better, just scaled down in it's own playing field.

The problem is shitty developers who don't knuckle down on optimisation, it's as simple as that. 900p in Yakuza is down to the developers choices to focus on other parts of the game while neglecting to setting and hitting a target resolution of 1080p+. They could've, but chose not to, thats on them. Same goes with PUBG, from the very start it has been one of the most poorly optimised titles on the gaming market. It has N64 level textures for christ sake. Anyone using that as an example of poor performance on the S should be called out and laughed out of this forum for their stupidity or ingnorance. It's funny that people focus on the bad but then ignore games like Dirt 5 who are great at omptimising their game on the S. Many other devs have said good things about it, but that's ignored in favour of concern trolling.
 

cyberheater

PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 PS4 Xbone PS4 PS4
Lots of folks only have 1080p TVs or projectors. This would suit them fine.
 

Ar¢tos

Member
If you don't see how its better then jesus christ, i don't think anyone could explain it to you. For a start, the CPU difference is vast. A Zen2 processor in the S vs the Jaguar in the One X or PS4 Pro isn't even a competition, the Series S will benefit from far more reliable and higher framerates in general as well as keeping the console itself fast and snappy all round. Old 7200rpm HDD vs NVME SSD? again, no competition, the S will demolish load times like the X by half or more. Xbox One X uses 12gb of GDDR5 RAM, the S uses 10GB GDDR6, and although a smaller amount, the GDDR6 is newer and faster. They'll only have 8gb to use after OS usage but it was designed that way on purpose for 1080/1440p instead of 4K.

Everything about it on a technical level is better. It's newer, has newer chips and design. It's just better. The One X will do 4K yes, but at a max of 30 at best and that's before analysis is done to show frame drops and resolution scaling down.

People are focusing too much on resolution while having little to no knoweledge in anything technical. Just because one can output at a higher res doesn't mean it's better, that's only one slice of the pie and not the main focus of a game dev. If you value gloating about resolution numbers then you will never be convinced, but anyone with a brain can tell you its hands down better, just scaled down in it's own playing field.

The problem is shitty developers who don't knuckle down on optimisation, it's as simple as that. 900p in Yakuza is down to the developers choices to focus on other parts of the game while neglecting to setting and hitting a target resolution of 1080p+. They could've, but chose not to, thats on them. Same goes with PUBG, from the very start it has been one of the most poorly optimised titles on the gaming market. It has N64 level textures for christ sake. Anyone using that as an example of poor performance on the S should be called out and laughed out of this forum for their stupidity or ingnorance. It's funny that people focus on the bad but then ignore games like Dirt 5 who are great at omptimising their game on the S. Many other devs have said good things about it, but that's ignored in favour of concern trolling.
But think of later gen games. 4tf in 3-4 years is way to little even for 1080p games if they want to keep the same visual fidelity of the XSX version.
Games will either do dynamic res with drops to 900 (or even 720p) or devs have to lower effects/details of the XSS version.
I'm fine with res/details/effects drops, graphics aren't very important to me and I'll be playing at 1080p, I'm getting the XSS as a complement to the ps5 that will be my main console, for the games that I can't play on the ps5 (The Touryst, Fable, etc).
But I can see many people getting disappointed with the console at that stage. People should think of the future and do the effort to spend an extra 200 for the XSX if they aren't really casual gamers.
They need to be careful how they advertise the XSS in comparison to the XSX.
 
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Murdoch

Member
I don't think many people appreciate how many people have lower resolution TV sets. I will absolutely be 'side-grading' to this from my Xbox one X for my Panasonic Plasma TV for family use. I'll be on the Xbox Series X on my 4K monitor.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Unless you plan on never buying a Seagate SSD card and live with a modest base system for $300, I'd say not worth it.

A core gamer getting SeX will probably buy an external SSD at some point, but with double the SSD size of S, it gives gamers more leeway to just stick with what they got. Some gamers seem ok hot swapping games back and forth with their current external HDD.

- Series S gamer $300 (lives with it)

- Series S gamer needing to get additional storage $500 ($300 +$200 Seagate)
- So you pay about the same amount as X, but get 500 gb more space. Totally not worth it.

- Series X gamer $500 (lives with it)
 

web3x

Member
System was super easy to set up using the Xbox app. UI is a little "junky". This is my first x box so I got the game pass and was super blown away with the number of games I can just download

Bought Jade Empire and super excited to play that.

I feel good about the 300.

Now I'm just going Walmart ships my PS5 early too 😁
 

Kssio_Aug

Member
I get what you mean but I don't think it applies to all. Personally, I'm buying one as a way into the next-gen at a lower cost and the chance of me playing those games is zero. It'll basically be a gamepass machine as I'd like to play certain retro games (Lost Odyssey and Rare Replay) and some newer games I never got around to this gen (Quantum Break).

I don't think there's an easy divider between hardcore/casual these days. Arguably all consoles are 'casual' given that they really need to appeal to the widest audience as possible, which is why Sony are leading with Spider-man (can you get more casual than Marvel?) as one of their two biggest launch titles.
Same. I pre-ordered the Series S and am very excited for it! Chose it for the budget - specially in my country where 200 dollars of difference between SS and SX/PS5 is actually much more money and work hours.
 

ZywyPL

Banned
Yes, no Jaguar and HDD are a significant improvement, but the compromises in GPU, storage size and lack of BR drive make it not a clear upgrade. The 60 FPS or 120 FPS depends a lot, if the title already ran pretty close to 60 FPS on X1X, then sure, it will probably run at 60 FPS on XSS, or if the CPU was a significant bottleneck, then sure. However, 120 FPS on XSS is going to be...let's say a bit of a challenge, as to reach framerate on XSX already means a lot of compromises, I fear what that means for a machine with such a teeny, tiny GPU. Also, it can't do BC to the level that X1X can do it, and has less memory as well, which is weird given that BC is the best feature the new Xbox consoles offer since they have no next gen games.

X1X to XSS is not much of an upgrade.

Hard to tell the outcome TBH, about 70% games already are being bought through digital distribution, and that percentage obly grows each year, with such pace in 5-10 years from now one will even remember there was such a thing as optical discs.

As for the drive space, I kind of agree, ~365GB is not that much, but then again, if we take out CoD out of the picture, many games fall into 40/60/80GB territory, so technically playing multiple titles at once shouldn't be much of an issue.

Bottom line is, I think MS analyzed and calculated well all the data they have about the market, hence created exactly such a console, with such power, drive space, no disc reader etc., and it's targeted audience is simply not on the Internet.
 
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