The XBox Series X and S and the Playstation
5 herald the arrival of the next generation of gaming consoles, but with both the XBox
Series X and the Playstation 5 costing $499, for some that's too high a price to pay. Enter the XBox Series S. A next-gen
console that retails for only $299. That's $200 less than the others. Have Microsoft
made the right compromises though to reach that price point? Here I'll be going through the specs
and features of the XBox Series S and giving you my verdict on who I think the Series S is for.
Should you buy it? Should you upgrade to it? Should you buy the Series X instead? It's not
as cut and dry as you think and I'll go into why so that by the end of the video you'll know if
the XBox Series S is the right console for you. Welcome to my Tech Gear. Let's get into it! Now the first thing you're going
to notice here is its size. It is tiny! At only 10.8 by 5.9 by 2.6
inches, it is 60% smaller than the Series X and it's also over half as heavy at only
4.3 pounds. This is a tiny powerhouse of a console that is easily going to fit pretty
much wherever you want it to in your house. It's also small enough so you can easily shove
it in your bag and take it with you somewhere. The front of the console just
has a single USB 3.1 port. The most noticeable emission here is the lack
of a disk drive. This is a digital console only, so you can't play any game discs or watch
any DVDs that you might have with this console. On the back of the console we have two USB 3.1
ports. We have a storage expansion port which I'll get to later. There's an ethernet port
if you want to hardwire into your network, although it does also come
with WiFi5, or 802.11ac, dual band (that's 2.4 and 5 GHz) built into it.
There's also a power outlet and an HDMI 2.1 port. Now along with the new console also comes a
new controller. Now these are minor tweaks over previous generations. On the back you will see
texture added to the buttons on the front itself, and also underneath to allow for grip. The
D-pad has also seen a redesign so it looks a little bit more like the elite controller from
previous generations. This makes it a lot more responsive and comfortable to use overall. It
is slightly smaller than the previous generation which just makes it generally more comfortable,
in my hands at least, to hold and use. Now all of these changes signal an evolution, not
a revolution, compared to its predecessor, and why break what's already working so
well? The changes do add up though to a controller that's better than what came before
it, albeit only slightly. On the front you will see a share button which makes it really easy
to share your video clip gaming moments with your friends or social media. It is still
not rechargeable though so I'd recommend going out and buying some rechargeable
batteries if you don't have some already. Now both the Series S and X do run significantly
quieter than the previous generation. The S runs at about 38 decibels, which is
whisper quiet, and the Series X runs a few decibels louder. Compare that's the previous
generation like the XBox One X. That ran out over 60 decibels which was significantly louder. This
means that you can pretty much put the S or the X pretty much anywhere in your lounge
and you're not really gonna hear it. Now there are some obvious hardware
differences between the Series S and X, with slightly weaker tuned CPU and some noticeable
differences in the amount of RAM and the teraflops available. The Series S is a definite step
down from the capabilities of the Series X, but that's actually OK because the
Series S is targeting 1440p gaming, not 4k, so it doesn't need as high a
spec to achieve the same frame rates. So what is it actually like to play?
Well, the Series S runs games at 1440p, at a max of 120 frames per second, and it will
even do ray tracing, although at a lower level than that of the more expensive Series X.
Previous generation consoles ran games at 30 or 60 frames per second so jumping up to 120
is a noticeable, and welcome, change. We're now getting into the realms of refresh rates
that PC gamers have been enjoying for years. Whilst it is only a 1440p picture, the picture
quality, at a sensible viewing distance, is almost indistinguishable from its more expensive
4k sibling, the Series X. Yes ,if you get up close to a TV you can tell that the detail can get a
little fuzzy in places on some games, and you'll see plenty of other reviews talking about that.
The thing is you don't play your games with your face two inches away from the screen, although
I'm sure there's some people that do! You actually play at a further distance where small details
like this become less obvious. The frame rate has more of an impact on gaming here rather than
the differences between 1440 and 4k resolution. It is worth pointing out that how well games run
on the Series S, or any console for that matter, is entirely reliant on how well software houses
optimize for different consoles, or whether they bother at all! Games on any of the next-gen
consoles at the moment are all over the place. Some only support 60 frames per
second. Some 120 frames per second. Some lock the resolution to 1080p.
Some don't. It's a bit of a minefield. This isn't unexpected though. With any new
generation of consoles the games that first come out for it are never really making
the most of the hardware available to them and it typically takes about a year or so before
we start seeing what these consoles really can do. So, gameplay on this console can be varied.
It can be smooth. It can be choppy. It can have great visuals, or not so great ones. It
really depends on what game you play, and again that's the same for any console. For the
games that have been optimized for it well though you will notice smooth
gameplay at a high refresh rate. The Series S also supports 4k video out of
the box with the HDMI cable that's provided. So for all your 4k movies from the
likes of Netflix, Disney+ and others are fully supported. It also supports
DTS, Dolby Digital, and Dolby Atmos audio formats so watching a movie on this
console shouldn't provide any issues. Both the Series X and S use the same high
speed internal solid state drive for storing their games. This is a huge improvement over
previous generation XBoxes that use traditional hard drives. This results in significantly
quicker load times. The speed difference can literally mean the difference between a
game taking minutes versus seconds to load. Both the Series X and S also have
'Quick Resume' which allows you to jump straight back into a game
that you've recently been playing. This means that a game can typically start
up within a few seconds. That's crazy fast! Storage wise the Series S comes with 512GB of
storage but not all of that is usable. Only 364GB is usable because the rest is taken up by the
operating system. The Series X on the other hand, whilst it comes with a terabyte on the box, only
802GB of that is actually usable. Now you can't say that the Series X has twice the amount or
more of storage than the Series S. Well you can, but in real world usage it's complicated by the
fact that the size of games for each console can differ due to XBox's new Smart Delivery System.
This allows game developers to omit 4k textures when downloading for the Series S as
they're not needed for that console. So if you take a game take Gears 5 for instance.
On the Series S it takes up 55.1GB of storage. On the Series X it takes up 71.9GB. So, given these
sizes as a reference, the Series S is only able to store seven games before running out of space,
whilst the Series X will do likewise once about 10 games are installed. So, either way both consoles
are going to need more storage at some point. Now you can get the official
one terabyte expansion card which has the same spec as the internal drive,
but that's going to set you back $220. That's only one terabyte though and personally I
think that's going to fill up pretty fast. I think you're better off saving your money
and getting an external USB hard drive, preferably 4TB or higher. It's worth noting that
the quick load times and instant resume that I mentioned earlier won't work with games that are
stored on an external drive. However, you can move games from an external to an internal hard drive.
So, for games that you play often keep them on your internal drive, and for games that you play
less frequently keep them on your external drive. You then get the best of both worlds. Fast
start times for the games that you play often and mass storage for all your other games that
are just a click away. Here's hoping though that actually some higher capacity cheaper external
SSD options become available in the future. The biggest feather in Microsoft's cap, and the
ace up its sleeve compared to Sony as far as I'm concerned, is XBox Game Pass Ultimate. Nothing
else comes close to the variety of games available on this platform. For only $15 a month you
get access to hundreds of games for free. Access to Series X and S new games such as
Halo Infinite when it releases. Backwards compatibility with XBox One, XBox 360 and even
original XBox games. If that wasn't enough, they recently paired up with Electronic Arts to
include EA Play as part of the Game Pass bundle, for free! So, EA games such as
Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Madden NLF, FIFA, NHL, and others, are
now all available, at no extra cost. Microsoft also recently bought Zenimax
Media who own software house Bethesda. So, the likes of the Doom and Elder
Scrolls series of games that they created are now also available
on Game Pass for, no extra cost. This is where I think the Series S really
starts to make sense. A next-gen digital only console that has a cheaper entry level
price giving you access to all the games that a subscription to game pass provides. It is also
worth noting that the XBox Game Pass Ultimate also gives you access to a whole bunch of games
on the pc for, you guessed, it no extra cost. So at the end of the day do I recommend buying
the XBox Series S? Well it depends who you are. If you're after the best next-gen console.
Best graphics. 4k at 120 frames per second. Have a lot of physical media like DVDs or
previous generation XBox games on disk. Then the Series X is your obvious choice. However, before making your decision it
is worth considering what's it going to be plugged into. If you have a 1080p TV or
a 1440p monitor, well, then paying for a 4k console just doesn't make sense. It's overkill.
In that case, the Series S is more than enough. Regardless of whether you run a 4k or 1440p, check
that your TV can run at 120 frames per second. Most don't, even the 4k ones. I upgraded
my tv to a 4k 120 fps capable tv even though I only bought the Series S because I
wanted that high frame rate compatibility. I now have a 4k TV for my streaming media, and I
have 120 frames per second when I want to game. I brought the Sony X9000, or the X900H
as it's known in some other countries. If you're interested in a review of that let me
know in the comments down below. The difference between 1440p and 4k for me is minimal, at the
viewing distances that most people play at. So really, in summary, if the limitations of
the Series S don't impact you, then the Series S is a great entry into the next gen consoles.
It's super quiet, in a compact package that, when combined with Game Pass Ultimate,
provides a very compelling all-in-one package. You might never have to buy another game again.
It does take a small hit in visual clarity though, but at a $200 saving it's a compromise
I think most people will be OK with. If you've already got a previous generation XBox,
I had the XBox One S before getting the Series S, I'd say upgrade. The speed
increase in the internal SSD alone is justification enough and I considered it a
worthwhile upgrade I'm more than happy with. I do hope this video has helped you decide whether
the XBox Series S is the right console for you. If you've enjoyed the video then
please don't forget to like and share it. Consider subscribing using the button
down below if you're not, and as always... See you in the next one!
