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

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
I think it has an audience. I look at people like my Pops who has a 1080p setup and he's not bothered by the tech specs like some of the more hardcore gamers out there. Though, my Pops kinda only plays whatever i've gifted him. My sisters and I bought him a One S and he loved it, then when I realized I wasn't really playing the One X anymore I gave that to him and really didn't even notice a difference. Other than the occasional, "ooh, this isn't as choppy as the last time I played it." kind of comments.

I think it's audience is good for younger kids that won't really know the difference or older folks that just don't care as much.
 
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?
Tell me the ways the X1 is better than the XSS.
 
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CrustyBritches

Gold Member
I think it's audience is good for younger kids that won't really know the difference or older folks that just don't care as much.
It also makes perfect sense as a secondary system for a PC, XSX, or PS5 primary player. In my case, I have a decent PC already, will be upgrading beyond XSX, and XSS works great as the living room Game Pass Ultimate box.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Series S is very valuable to MS when you get xboxs in houses it gives people access to their online stores, game passes in particular and of course Halo.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
It also makes perfect sense as a secondary system for a PC, XSX, or PS5 primary player. In my case, I have a decent PC already, will be upgrading beyond XSX, and XSS works great as the living room Game Pass Ultimate box.
I dunno. I think you are mostly right. I felt the One X was a great companion piece to my PC. I intend on upgrading my PC as soon as Nvidia want's to let my give them $700, but I do know that when I eventually get a Series X I plan on getting whatever the best version of the system is out at the time. Same with PS5. But I tend to be on the more hardcore side of this kind of shit too so I'm almost assuredly the minority.

I think the Series S coupled with Gamepass is gonna sell gangbusters if MSFT market and bundle appropriately.
 
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cryptoadam

Banned
Said it before the series S is a PR console. Its just so MS can have a 299$ price point, and hope to convert those people into Series X buyers when they walk into the store and see no S or realize they have to pay 200$ for more memory.

MS will under ship and under produce the S, and discontinue it within 1 or 2 years. There are not many 1080P TV sets out there and 1 or 2 more boxing days and there won't be any except for a few small hold outs who probably are still playing PS3 at this point.

TBH I am the target audience for the S. I have a 1080P TV, don't plan on upgrading for a while. I buy maybe 1 or 2 games a year and actually would just prefer to have gamepass.

Even at that I am not really excited for the machine and see no reason to go out and buy something now when I can play Cyberpunk on my PS4 and finish up avengers.

Maybe when BF 6 launches and I get the itch to play it I will pick up the system to have the cheapest way to play on a 1080P system.
 

kikii

Member
WF0urhP.jpg



KVm7WgE.jpg
 

Kataploom

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)

This calculation only makes sense in the case the person can easily have free $500 money to spend at the moment they buy the console, the most of the times people prefer to spend on things on a pace that fits their affordability at the moment.

Believe me, the overwhelming majority of people in underdeveloped countries don't even have $300 to spend right away after paying essential stuff (food, rent, etc.), so they have to save money or finance the thing, maybe this is something you don't understand, but it's a reality, the most common reality in the world.

I remember when having a PS3 or 360 literally meant a person was rich in here... It actually didn't but it had that connotation around many people..
 

LordOfChaos

Member
As soon as you buy one storage expansion card, it's like you may as well have gone to the X.

I gueeessss some people might like it as the most compact 9th gen console, but if you want more storage you're not saving anything effectively for giving up 2/3rds of the GPU grunt of next gen
 

Sadfaceotter

Neo Member
I’ve preordered the S, I don’t have a 4K set yet and I have a massive backlog of current gen (and a few last gen) games yet to play.
I’m sure I’ll regret it later but right now the £200 is more useful.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
As soon as you buy one storage expansion card, it's like you may as well have gone to the X.

I gueeessss some people might like it as the most compact 9th gen console, but if you want more storage you're not saving anything effectively for giving up 2/3rds of the GPU grunt of next gen
But then you’ve got more storage than the X, so you have to buy the storage for the X too, and now you’re back at the start where the S is much cheaper lol.

You don’t need the expandable storage ssd with Xbox. You can use an external HDD and just transfer games back and forth.
 

Alebrije

Member
Again ,save money and get a PS5 digital is a generation of difference for only 100 extra bucks.....

If Series S is behaving pretty bad at the begining with cross gen games just imagine by 2022 on new games...
 

TheKratos

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.

Wait you already have one?
 
For one it can’t play with Xbox one x enhanced features so BC/current gen games that run at >1600p on the 1X will default to the original Xbox one resolution (which averages around 900-1080p)

secondly: 1tb vs 512gb
What? The X1 can't play games with X1X enhancements. The SSD is smaller than the X1 hard drive but it's also way, way slower. The XSS also has a better GPU and CPU than the X1. Do you guys even know what the XSS specs are?! Do you honestly believe the X1 is better than the XSS?
 

Codes 208

Member
What? The X1 can't play games with X1X enhancements. The SSD is smaller than the X1 hard drive but it's also way, way slower. The XSS also has a better GPU and CPU than the X1. Do you guys even know what the XSS specs are?! Do you honestly believe the X1 is better than the XSS?
Hmm, perhaps I misunderstood, when you said X1 I thought you had meant the one X (once again demonstrating how stupid their naming system is)
 
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.

I totally understand that the XSS has its place and I’m not expecting miracles from it and that’s fine, but what have we seen visually that shows that it’s superior in every category to the current generation? I just think it’s premature to say the XSS at this point annihilate the PS4 Pro and One X in every category without seeing some legitimate next generation games proving it.

Newer games does not equate to being way better, it’s just newer games for a new generation. When I see something on XSS look much better than Doom Eternal or RDR2 on the One X, then i feel it’s much better.
 

DavidGzz

Member
Definitely will be a hit and is totally worth it. Why would parents spend $500 on their kid if all they have is a 1080p small tv in their bedroom? I wouldn't. If/when my daughter wants one, the S will be perfect. At the moment she only really plays Fortnite and Minecraft so the One will do.
 
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Rickyiez

Member
You can easily buy a 27" 1440p monitor for $150 , and then pair it up with the S . I still see it as an incredible gaming entry console for anyone who're still on outdated PC or non-gaming laptop .

The biggest problem though , is I expected XSS to have more storage capacity then the current POS available 300+ GB . NVME SSD has became so cheap that it make no sense to have that little .
 
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StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
This calculation only makes sense in the case the person can easily have free $500 money to spend at the moment they buy the console, the most of the times people prefer to spend on things on a pace that fits their affordability at the moment.

Believe me, the overwhelming majority of people in underdeveloped countries don't even have $300 to spend right away after paying essential stuff (food, rent, etc.), so they have to save money or finance the thing, maybe this is something you don't understand, but it's a reality, the most common reality in the world.

I remember when having a PS3 or 360 literally meant a person was rich in here... It actually didn't but it had that connotation around many people..
I guess so.

I'd argue that if someone is having a hard time paying $300 for a game system that has a big storage liability (unless they can live with 500gb), don't buy a new game system to begin with.
 

Iced Arcade

Member
It isn't for me but you have to be a half wit not to see that this thing has a market and appeal.

Xbox always (more often than not) has sales on its lower tier consoles... That already cheap console will get eaten up by casuals on sales/promotions. Microsoft wants consumers to buy into gamepass more than it wants a number count of hardware sold.
 

Invalid GR

Member
No,at €299 the only console worth getting is the PS4 Pro. Great selection of games and you can find most of them cheap. Best price/games/performance ratio for 1080p gaming imo.
After that the only console with a better price/performance ratio has to be the PS5 DE.
 
I am getting an x but I also travel a lot so I will be getting an S that will basically just stay in my backpack. The system isn't for everyone. Its good for a second system, a system for kids, a system for another room, or like me a system for on the go. Its good its there but if xbox is going to be your main system for this generation buy an X
 

Kataploom

Gold Member
I guess so.

I'd argue that if someone is having a hard time paying $300 for a game system that has a big storage liability (unless they can live with 500gb), don't buy a new game system to begin with.

Most people buying the console will just delete finished games or get another cheaper SSD unit anyway... I feel basically alone regarding keeping downloaded games installed forever, everyone else I know just deletes games they don't play anymore
 

Mexen

Member
If it's nothing but a media box with the occasional xbox exclusive, I'd say it is. But as others have said, the moment you consider that expansion card, you're better off getting the X instead.
 

CrustyBritches

Gold Member
Again ,save money and get a PS5 digital is a generation of difference for only 100 extra bucks.....

If Series S is behaving pretty bad at the begining with cross gen games just imagine by 2022 on new games...

I have no problem with this, but on the other hand you could get a XSS, load up 2yrs of Ultimate for around $100, and not have to pay anything additional for online or games for that 2yrs. On top of that, you'd have access to Game Pass PC and xCloud. It's just a different value proposition since MS puts all their 1st-party games on there along with EA Play and soon the Zeni games they get in the deal.
 
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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.

I know from a technical standpoint it’s better, but I was saying we should save our celebrations for when we see some genuine next generation games pushing and displaying the architecture. For example, even with the MUCH hyped XSX 12 TLOPs, it seems like PS5 and XSX are very close visually. I’ll see what it can do before judging of course.

I’m not even sure the XSX and PS5 will truly blow away games like Forza Horizon 4, Gears 5, Doom: Eternal, Ghost of Tsushima and TLOU2 anytime soon despite their superior specifications. Hopefully, developers will properly optimize games for the next generation consoles including the XSS so we can truly see what their capabilities are.
 

longdi

Banned
i wanted to say yes, but the 512gb is a tough choice.

i hope Phil bundles in 1 year GPU with every SS.
 

Jon Neu

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 compromises are designed to play next gen games at lower resolutions and maybe some less bells & whistles.

However, 120 FPS on XSS is going to be...let's say a bit of a challenge,

Not at all. Most of the time, if the big consoles can run 120fps, so will the Series S. In fact, the Series S runs Star Wars Squadron at 120fps while the PS5 runs it at 60fps. The Series S has a CPU on the same level as the big consoles that is lightyears better than the one on the X1X. Comparing both is kind of weird.


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?

The Series S, for it's intented resolution, shits all over the X1X. There's not even a contest there.

That and the fact that one is going to run next gen games and the other isn't, makes the comparison of the two really, really stupid.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
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?
Guys, you gotta break out of this bubble, lol. There’s literally millions of people doing exactly the bolded, right now. People I know do, as well as connecting a Switch to a 4K TV. If you bought a new TV in the last 5 years or so, there was hardly a choice. Bang-for-buck, 1080p has been a poor choice for a while, so people flocked to 4K no matter the quality.

The irony is that we wouldn’t even be having this conversation if TV makers didn’t force 4K on everyone way before its time. Now we’re using it as a benchmark knowing full well that even PS5 won’t guarantee the best performance at 4K. We’re still going to make compromises one way or another for most games.

I’m not betting on Series S’s success, but I know for a fact that a lot of people playing games doesn’t give a single shit about input/screen resolution mismatch. Series S would be the perfect, perfect console for the FIFA crowd - except the FIFA crowd is mostly Euro-based and Europe is solidly in the hands of Sony.

If we want to make this about sanity, no sane person would have made 4K a standard knowing what 4K would imply for the market (broadcast TV still barely being HD in many cases, 4K BR being expensive as fuck and most people having bought their movies twice already on optical disc anyway, consoles struggling to get the best performance with most games not even striving to be 4K anyway). Yet here we are.
 
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.
So you just said NAVI RDNA 2 GPU is weaker than One X Polaris l gpu just coz it can run at higher resolution thanks to more gpu memory bandwidth?
 
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Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
Again ,save money and get a PS5 digital is a generation of difference for only 100 extra bucks.....

If Series S is behaving pretty bad at the begining with cross gen games just imagine by 2022 on new games...

Save money? The Series S is cheaper?

Where is the Series S behaving badly?

And from a business perspective, the Series S is almost certainly going to make MS a shit ton of money.
Its effectively the Galaxy A or iPhone XE/SE to the Series X being the iPhone Pro Max and Galaxy S20+

Ever wonder which phones sell the most?
Exhicit2_v2.jpg


Notice how no flagship phone is leading?
You ever wonder why people would buy the "gimped" weaker device when they know there is a much stronger version?
Because the flagship phone is just there for the enthusiasts........the mainstream real bread and butter is with the everyman.
And this is with devices you use literally everyday not just an entertainment piece.

In gaming terms the casual gamer is who makes MS the most money giving them something cheap to enter the ecosystem is perfect.....the everyman doesnt even know what 1440p is they dont pixel count or give a fuck what DF have to say, they just want to play their games.....MS have pounded BC into their heads so they know that HDD they got for their console will work on the new one and this console will be getting games the old one wont.

?But the Series S is weaker than One X you say?.....well no, it doenst play BC games at the same quality due to memory constraints, but in optimized for optimized the Series S will wipe the floor with the One X.

P.S The One X replacement is the Series X not the Series S, thats the One S replacement.....ida thunk people as intelligent as everyone on this board understood that?
 

Kumomeme

Member
imagine if new Switch launched next year with similliar price and noteworthy performance range and come with those nintendo's big exclusives like BOTW2. the console can even used as home or portable console.

not to mention DLSS as their secret souce.

i agree with lot of people here said about lack of exclusives. one of differences with nintendo is, despite they always release weaker console, game running at lower resolution etc, their exclusives play significant role.
 
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SirTerry-T

Member
No,at €299 the only console worth getting is the PS4 Pro. Great selection of games and you can find most of them cheap. Best price/games/performance ratio for 1080p gaming imo.
After that the only console with a better price/performance ratio has to be the PS5 DE.
But what if the buyer wants to play games only available on Microsoft's machine or wants a system with cheap access to a service with loads of games?
I realise this is a shocking and to some members of this forum a deeply worrying...and in some ways controversial viewpoint to have but I just thought I'd throw the thought in here to encourage interesting and healthy debate....
 
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M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
For those here who said that their are going to buy this console, please reort back of your experience, because we all others in Xbox ecosystem are getting XSX, but I would be still interested to hear from you guys.
 
imagine if new Switch launched next year with similliar price and noteworthy performance range and come with those nintendo's big exclusives like BOTW2. the console can even used as home or portable console.

not to mention DLSS as their secret souce.

i agree with lot of people here said about lack of exclusives. one of differences with nintendo is, despite they always release weaker console, game running at lower resolution etc, their exclusives play significant role.
No one would be making fun of Series S if Xbox first party output is anywhere close to Nintendo's. In fact that is basically ALL Xbox was ever made fun of. Their lack of critically acclaimed games is a consistent sticking point for a long time.

Hence all the "exclusives don't matter" threads that have existed in the last few years. A lie that we all know made no sense, but was parroted all the same.
 
Again ,save money and get a PS5 digital is a generation of difference for only 100 extra bucks.....

If Series S is behaving pretty bad at the begining with cross gen games just imagine by 2022 on new games...

"PS5 I'm a Sucker edition"

Have fun in that overpriced pos of a store
 

Three

Member
I was surprised too that MS launched without any compelling exclusive (or I missed it), I think they were all counting on Halo.

I ordered a Series S purely for Gamepass backlog. Never owned an Xbox so I got plenty old games to catch up.

The thing is that they absolutely would have released it in that state but it actually makes sense for them to delay becuase they don't need to count on it. the next gen consoles sold out regardless and they get your gamepass money and a boost to subs regardless without releasing games. They can delay without a definite date and this date will more than likely be when Xbox is back in stock and no longer selling out or when they need a boost in gamepass subs at some point.

"PS5 I'm a Sucker edition"

Have fun in that overpriced pos of a store
You say this like the XSS has a disc drive.
 
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bbeach123

Member
Its really great value for 299$ . But the image of having "next gen" games on a console with 10G total system ram and a gtx1060 equivalent in the next 7 years is frightening .
 

BlueHawk357

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
>Not for hardcore gamers/FIFA/Cod players.

That's a hot take. There are hardcore CoD and FIFA players too. Some spend 10+HR days on them, what gets the hardcore pass? Doom? Assassin's creed? Because the two games you mentioned could be harder/more frustrating than those at times.
 
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