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I just bought a Series S...and I don't regret it one bit

"1080p instead of 4K" can't work when the big consoles can't manage 4K. The Series S scales very well with whatever the big consoles are doing. It's just that the big consoles are too weak to push 4K.
Well whatever. 900p instead of 1440p. But there's so much more taken away than resolution, that's my issue.

Im not a resolution snob. While 4K is great, give me 1080p 60fps all day, any day. It's just very disconcerting to see problems on the S so early in the generation.
 
Well whatever. 900p instead of 1440p. But there's so much more taken away than resolution, that's my issue.

Im not a resolution snob. While 4K is great, give me 1080p 60fps all day, any day. It's just very disconcerting to see problems on the S so early in the generation.
That's the thing though. In order for the XSS to push 1080p60, the XSX needs to push at least 1800p60. It's just not happening for most games. That's why the XSS isn't for me. It seems only to be useful if you have a smaller FullHD TV.
 

KAL2006

Banned
It all depends on how much $200 is worth for someone. People come from different walks of life to many $200 is alot to many $200 isn't a big deal. For me personally $200 isn't a massive deal and the extra stuff you get for $200 is easily worth it. The extra power to make games look nicer even the extra storage alone is worth it. With Series S you only have 500GB and once you expand storage your basically close to Series X price. Even as a backup system for another room I wouldn't bother with Series S.
 

Riky

$MSFT
That's the thing though. In order for the XSS to push 1080p60, the XSX needs to push at least 1800p60. It's just not happening for most games. That's why the XSS isn't for me. It seems only to be useful if you have a smaller FullHD TV.

It's a great secondary console to a Series X, continuing your experience somewhere else in the house on a smaller TV is pretty nice and on a decent 1080p set you don't notice too much difference.
 
Series S seems like rip in comparison to PS5 Digital Edition. And even if you wanted a Xbox system Series X is way better value for money. The extra 500GB and better graphics goes a long way over a measly $200.
It does until you realize you don't need that at all.
I love the Series X and yes, it's by far the best value for money on next gen consoles, followed by the digital PS5, but for my bedroom and my GFs I don't need a big 4k console with 1TB.
Just a few games and the important apps are more than enough. And The Sims and Minecraft looks the same anyways.
 
I replaced the S with an X recently.
I started playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the old XBoneX then moved to the Series S in January and then to the X this past week.
The S works just as well as the X. It's the same darn experience.
As soon as the S becomes more widely available I hope Microsoft reduces the price another 50 or even 100. They might have a BONEafied hit.
 

royox

Member
Do you recommend it for somebody that doesn't have a 40' TV? I play on a normal TV (30 something) and nostly3rd party games.
 

fart town usa

Gold Member
Well, long story short. My Pro is still dead, its guts laying all over the TV cabinet and it's legs up in the air in an almighty spread to the Gods.
tom cruise laughing GIF
 

DESTROYA

Member
These things are minor and petty on my part but still prevent me from buying one:

1) The color, I hate White consoles ( not racist but it would look out of place in my setup this applies to the PS5 that would not fit size wise either ) and prefer a more subdued darker color.

2) The limited storage space , yeah, yeah you can get external storage options but the proprietary ones from Xbox are expensive and but I like having access to as many games as I can all the time without having to do the game shuffle . Should also be at least 1TB and would be willing to pay extra ( $50 more for double the internal storage doesn’t sound to unreasonable)

3) And the biggest reason lack of disc drive,I have a pretty decent collection of older Xbox games and BluRay Disc movies that I would love to replay from time to time with backwards compatibility and have a nice little multi media box capable of playing some of those movies.

Now people are going to say “why not just get a XsX ?”
Not looking to buy a console to be my go to place for all my gaming needs because that’s what I have a nice gaming PC set up for but a nice little box that can be sort of be a entertainment hub would of been nice.
Plus they are still almost impossible to come across but I have had a chance to buy an S.
 

Hip Hop

Member
The thing that I wouldn’t want out of the S is backwards compaitibilty.


Is there at least parity with Xbox Series X in that regard? Like are they capable of running Xbox 360 games the same way? Or will The Series X do better in that too?
 

Chessmate

Banned
First time I’ve heard of this GamePass thing , what is it ?

Throughout history civilizations all over the world created a lot of concepts around this idea, and there are just too many names for it to list them all. In Mesopotamian culture it was desribed in the Epic of Gilgamesh as "Duranki", the garden of gods. In Confucian China its name was "Tian", while early Buddhists referred to it as "Asura". Today, my friend, we call it heaven. 🥺
 
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THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
If the console offered what it set out to do, sure. 1080p instead of 4K, everything else the same. I knew that shit was a lie, and sure enough, even this early in the gen, were getting the cavalcade of caveats in every comparison. It's terribly underpowered. Best case scenario, it'll fade away. Worst case, it'll be a thorn in developer's sides that holds the X back to reach some kind of parity.

The console itself looks marvelous, though.

It's actually not terribly underpowered, it has what it needs. They could have easily released a box without ssd, no rdna2, slower ram,and a weaker cpu.

I sometimes feel like a good percentage of this board truly does not understand the hardware in the series s. You can bla bla bla about how it doesn't hit 1440p or 1080p all time, or doesn't always do rt, but neither do the other next gen machines hit 4k always, or always have rt. The fact is, it's doing very well for the majority of new games at or near 1080p.
 

DESTROYA

Member
Throughout history civilizations around the world created a lot of concepts around this idea, and there are just too many names for it to list them all. In Mesopotamian culture it was desribed in the Epic of Gilgamesh as "Duranki", the garden of gods. In Confucian China its name was "Tian", while early Buddhists referred to it as "Asura". Today, my friend, we call it heaven. 🥺
Really GamePass is a paid subscription service to heaven ? So you can save your soul for $10-$15 a month depending on how much of a cheap bastard you want to be.
 

pasterpl

Member
I know you mean og Xbox and 360 bc, but I wish it really was full bc, as in every game from those consoles, like Xbox one.
Don’t need to rub it in /s

i am getting another Xbox 360 console so that I can play my copy of pgr4
 
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TLZ

Banned
The thing that I wouldn’t want out of the S is backwards compaitibilty.


Is there at least parity with Xbox Series X in that regard? Like are they capable of running Xbox 360 games the same way? Or will The Series X do better in that too?
I think from what I've seen the X does better.

Check youtube.
 
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fart town usa

Gold Member
Series S seems cool. The backwards compatibility with Series X is what has me interested but compatibility isn't large enough to hook me quite yet.

Glad you like it OP! Ignore the haters, everyone has something to bitch about. Enjoying something is infinitely more enjoyable.
 

meanspartan

Member
I went with Series X myself, as I intend for my next TV to be a giant 4k at 120hz (my current is a 50 inch 4k 60hz). I will also get a Ps5 in a year or two after exclusives are out.

I can totally see the use case for Series S though. Let's say you have a 1080p TV that you are happy with and don't intend to replace for a few years, or that you have a 4KTV and are fine playing upscaled 1440p (on smaller TVs, it honestly still looks great to most people). If money is an issue, then that $300 Series S can make a lot of sense, especially if you do all access and pay $25 a month for it paired with Gamepass. Sure the SSD is smaller, but lots of people play 1-2 games at a time and then delete them and download the next. If that is you, then the 400gb or so of usable space is plenty. You could even have your CoD and 1-2 sports games on it always, then 1-2 singleplayer games at a time.

My layperson's understanding of the Series S (and correct me if I am wrong) is that outside of the disc drive and SSD space, it can do everything a Series X can do in terms of performance, except it does those things at 1080p (1440p?) instead of 4k. Maybe in some games you'll have to be fine with 30fps instead of 60fps (and a lot of people are).

Another great use case is for people who already have a Ps5 as their primary console and want the Xbox Series just for gamepass. In that case, the $300 box also makes sense. If money is no object, sure you could just buy the Series X, but the point of Series S is for people for whom money certainly is an object.

I'm fine with the Series S existing. It brings the quality of life benefits of Series X while letting a lot more people into next-gen gaming at a lower price. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, if it had a disc drive I may have been tempted to save the $200, but I am an old fashioned gamer who likes discs for games I buy.
 
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