Xbox Series S Review - One Month Later!

it's been one month since i unboxed the xbox series s so today i want to share with you my thoughts on what works and what doesn't welcome back to another episode of students reviews i'm sure by now that you've seen plenty of reviews of the xbox series s but in truth most of those will probably be with minimal testing maybe just a week of use whereas i've now used this for one month so i want to share my in-depth opinion and perhaps even cover a few points that other creators may have missed but as always before we begin let me take you through the specs graphics are becoming more and more elaborate every single year that passes and it's been nearly eight years since we've seen a new generation of console to say hello to the xbox series s it has an eight core custom zen 2 cpu and an rdna 2 gpu it has 10 gigabytes of gddr6 memory and an internal 512 gigabyte ssd it has three usb ports an ethernet port a hdmi port and an expansion slot for storage on the back not the most powerful machine on the block this time round but we'll get onto that in a little bit the controller hasn't changed that much it's got a slightly redesigned d-pad with a new grip texture on the underneath that also is apparent on the triggers it's not too dissimilar to the texture on the thumbsticks so say hello to your next generation of console from microsoft or is it let's get the elephant out of the room straight away and perhaps cover the biggest talking point about the series s and that is its power now xbox say that the series x has 12 teraflops of power available to it and this has just four four teraflops of power that's like a third of the power that's ridiculous that's like comparing a porsche 911 with a ford transit has this impacted my experience with the series s not necessarily because the series s has a bunch of different ways that it can compensate for the fact that this has a third of the power of its bigger sister and the first way it does this is through the resolution this then pushes now the series x can push a 4k resolution which is expected of next generation consoles both the series x and the ps5 can play in 4k this can't it can only do 1440p which is significantly lower the thing is though that a lot of people still use 1080p hd televisions they haven't yet moved to 4k and i'm gonna admit something here i've only just moved to 4k myself with the new set of consoles generally speaking that's something i do every time i upgrade a console is upgrade my television so does it matter that it doesn't push in 4k well if you do have a 4k tv i can tell you now you are going to notice that this doesn't do 4k but if you don't have a 4k television then really does it matter that much no it doesn't the lower resolution does mean that this console despite being significantly lower performance than the series x can still achieve 120 frames per second but although it can do that again this is another issue with televisions because most people don't own tvs that are capable of displaying 120 frames per second most people have a 60 hertz panel on their television and in fact you have to fork out big money before you can get 120 hertz refresh rate on a television to make use of the 120 frames per second that this thing is capable of so again is that a spec that matters for a lot of people no it doesn't another spec that doesn't matter again though for some people the hards the people that really love gaming and have the latest and greatest tech these little flaws are going to start to show but i don't think it matters for the majority of people and then again if you do have a display that's capable of 120 hertz it's very very likely that you're already a gamer and you already have a high-end pc or something equivalent but it's good that it can do it if you need it to there is a but because that 120 frames per second can come often at a significant cost let's look at assassin's creed valhalla for example now when that originally came out assassin's creed valhalla was locked at 30 frames per second for the series s that was so that it could maximize the amount of graphics and give you a comparable experience to the series x well a couple of weeks later about two weeks ago they've brought out a quality mode and a performance mode for assassin's creed valhalla that means that you can turn it onto performance mode and it will prioritize a higher frame rate so it's capable of running at 60 frames per second on the series s but that comes at a significant cost to the graphics the performance mode allows you to prioritize frame rate over the graphical capabilities so you might not get a beautiful looking game the resolution will be dropped in prioritizing that better and faster frame rate now in my eyes that's a fantastic option to give users of the series s because for me i prefer a faster frame rate i prefer that faster refresh rate because it gives a smoother nicer locking experience and if you've been playing games at 60fps and you drop down to 30 fps it's immediately noticeable and it feels like real life is glitching and lagging it's horrible absolutely disgusting but the fact that given that choice is good it just is a shame that it comes with a caveat you can either have one or the other but not both but then again that is what the series x is for not the series s now i'd like to know what your preference is do you prefer a more beautiful looking game with higher resolutions and more detailed textures or would you prefer the game to run super smooth at 60 frames per second i don't know what the popular opinion is seriously let me know because i really do want to know what the popular opinion is so popular probably preference in the comments below this sort of choice between performance and graphics i think we're going to see a lot more with the series s in the coming months and years because developers have already sort of said that it's going to be an absolute nightmare to program games that are optimized for both the series s and the series x and i can sympathize with them because it's going to mean a much greater workflow than they've ever had to do before in the past it's just been let's develop for this one console or maybe develop for the 4k version of that console but now it's right okay we've got this much power and this much power we've got to make essentially two separate games so i think giving users the optimization choice between performance and graphics is a great start at least into what developers can do with the series s and i'm genuinely looking forward to how they optimize it in future bizarrely the xbox series s really shines when looking into the past and not the future and what's next for it because this thing is capable of running games right the way back to the standard xbox the very very first xbox which is cool because that gives you a hell of a lot of games to play if it's on the online store you can get it i tried full spectrum warrior and it was terrible terrible terrible game but it runs absolutely fine with no issues i tried banjo kazooie that worked absolutely fine i mean that's an adaption from an old nintendo game put onto the 360 then playing through the series s i mean that's pretty impressive and i've tried assassin's creed 2. that worked absolutely fine as well no problems there i've even tried things from the previous generation such as battlefield five and fallen order both of which ran very very easily and i came into no real issues with them that's not the case in every single game it does feel like a few games have some issues i tried ryze for example and there seemed to be some stuttering in certain occasions maybe some frame rate drops i mean ryze was one of the most graphically advanced games at launch on the xbox one so this should really be capable of handling it because it's more powerful than the xbox one the standard one anyway so i don't know why maybe it doesn't quite optimize all of the games very well i mean microsoft said the series s runs the 1s version of the backward compatible games whilst it also applies improved texture filtering higher and more consistent frame rates and faster load times and it also does auto hdr i mean yeah i agree the rise does look very nice but obviously there's some kind of optimization issue there when looking at things like the frame rate other games as well such as warzone which is on the edge of the sort of next-gen current gen it doesn't run quite as well on the series s than it did on the xbox one x here's a screenshot from a video by another youtuber whose name i'm not even going to try and pronounce but on here it shows a good comparison between all of the previous gen and current gen xboxes for resolution and textures within warzone itself and you can see although the graphics are pretty good on the series s the one x because it can do 4k is a much better image than on the series s but if we ignore the resolution actually the graphical capabilities look very similar so again going back to my point about whether or not you use a 4k tv or a 1080p tv then i think if you had a 1080p then series s is a much better option to go for than the one x because you're just not going to make use of that higher resolution that the one x can do over the series s and actually while i'm saying one x series s series x who invented the name of this product because they need to be taken somewhere and locked away for a very long time it is the most ridiculous namings xbox one xbox one s xbox one x xbox series s xbox series x anyway gaming on this has been an utter pleasure and much better than i expected despite the lower resolution capabilities of the series s now there's one thing that's really impressed me about the gaming experience and that has been the quick resume function my lord this is incredible now this is me coming from the xbox one and ps4 where it takes at least seven days to load up one game the blinding speed that this can start up from nothing and load straight into a game exactly where you left off is utterly impressive it takes just 15 seconds to start with nothing on tv off soundbar off this off to turning everything on and i'm jumping into a game of fallen order immediately like i'm there where i left off that is utter witchcraft and something i've never experienced before and i must say microsoft had done a phenomenal job on that if you've not yet experienced anything any of the next-gen consoles if you're picking up the series s and turning it on or the series x and turning it on you're just gonna be blown away by that and for the most part it's worked pretty flawlessly i did have one issue which i'll come into in just a moment but the other issue of the game switching is you're not going to be doing much of it on the series s because the hard drive is very very small it's only 512 gigabytes it's an ssd so it's super fast but that's tiny that is so so small that means you'll be able to fit warzone and that's it because i think warzone is about 17 terabytes at the moment isn't it but it does mean that you're not going to be able to fit many games on here at all warzone cyberpunk 2077 that's it you're not gonna be able to fit anything else on there maybe some old xbox 360 games the smaller ones but that is a very limiting size you can however buy an expansion pack for this made by seagate and that comes out at 200 pounds for one terabyte not too bad but once you've spent that you've spent essentially the same amount of money you would have done buying series x which has a one terabyte hard drive to start with hmm but going back to the quick resume the error that i found was in certain games it worked absolutely fine but then other games i'd load it up and it would come up with this message it would then immediately kick me back out to the title screen and i'd have to load the game up again which was super super annoying and for the life of me i could not work out what was going wrong with this i tried everything automatic signing done was going to the internet done i tried everything i just could not work it out so i posted on the twitter machine and a viewer got in touch and he come up with the solution he mentioned that with the xbox one there was an issue when you were assigning profiles to sign in with controllers and that by turning that off it should solve the problem so i went to the settings and it was already turned off so i'm thinking ah what is going on here so i turned it on so that this controller is locked with my main profile and that solved the problem so tom thank you very much you've saved the day and if you are having the same issue while you're loading up quick resume and it's kicking you back to the title screen because it says it's changed profile all you need to do is play around with the automatic sign-in attributed to the controllers in the settings and it should solve your problem so that's quick resume a truly next-gen experience that has utterly wowed me seriously it made my jaw drop the first time i used it but that's not all of the things i need to talk about there are some things that make you feel very not next gen if we ignore obviously the resolution first thing is the lack of launch titles now i know it's not a criticism of the console itself but it does feel like there's a significant lack of meaningful launch titles for this console which is a bit disappointing and the main one which i was really looking forward to trying out was halo infinite and of course that's been delayed till 2020 what fall 2021 not just 2021 full 2021 i mean too rightly delayed it because no one in their right mind could turn around and say that game looked good let's move on from talking about the launch titles and talk about the swiss army knife that i think has saved the series s and that is xbox game pass now game pass is a fantastic service in my opinion and it just seems to be getting better and better and better with more and more top triple-a titles added to the whole repertoire of games in there now when you buy one of these you get one month for just one pound before it moves then to 10.99 but that's a steal because 1099 will give you access to over 100 games across an entire back catalog of xbox games it also comes with xbox live in that price as well and now because game pass has kind of merged with ea you get a ton of triple a titles from ea which i love to play things like fall and order in the battlefield range i just think it's a superb price that cannot be beaten by anything out there at the moment i honestly think the value of game pass is brilliant but and there's always a buck with this kind of thing it's a digital service which means you don't own any of the content that you're playing and this in turn means that like something such as google stadia those games can just be pulled at any time whenever they want and by they i mean the developers or microsoft so if you're halfway through things like the fallen order or you're really enjoying multiplayer in battlefield v and they pull it well that's it you're stuck you don't own that game you can't get it back so that's the downside of that service but then on the flip side having game pass often gives you the ability to purchase those games at a much discounted rate now as much as i've loved the whole experience and interface and everything like that to do with the xbox series s i do feel is more of a refinement than a revolutionary next generation change that in itself i guess isn't a bad thing because people do like to come from one machine to another and kind of have an ease of experience jumping from one to the other so it's not necessarily a bad thing and i guess actually i've always liked the xbox software the thing that i've always loved the most which i wish playstation would do is the clips on this the clips are just fantastic the way that you can clip something and it automatically goes straight into your app on your phone so that you can then download and share through twitter or by message or whatever method you want to send whatsapp it's just awesome it's a fantastic experience that is really really missing on the playstation but that's not new to this series s that has been available since the xbox one the controller is also something that kind of adds to this feeling that it doesn't feel very next-gen because the controller is very similar to the previous generations there are a couple of changes which i'll go into a second but do you know what again that is also not necessarily a bad thing because i've always liked the design of the xbox controllers they feel good in the hand they feel solid i like the thumbsticks way more than any other console the thumbsticks are brilliant on this which i'll get into in my playstation 5 review wait for that but i like the controller but this has some odd changes which i don't know if i like that much first of all you've got these new grippy bits which are okay but they're quite grippy like sandpaper grippy they're not very smooth they really do feel quite grippy in the hand and there are some sharp bits on the controller as well and the deep ingress is around the side i don't know in my eyes it doesn't feel that next-gen and i think the grip on the bottom and those huge indents on the side they are going to become stinking over time they're going to get so dirty seriously i'll revisit this in a year's time and i bet you only money they'll be absolutely stinking i really want to say that this is a refinement but you know what it's not it feels more like a sidestep an alternative a grippy alternative that feels a bit sharper the console on the other hand is a different story and i must commend them for the design of this it's cute it's blocky it's absolutely tiny and it's dense they've built this extremely well one design choice i am a bit concerned with for its longevity though is the great big fan holes on the top my house gets super dusty because i've got a wood burner and anyone with a wood burner will know that it kicks out a bit of ash every time you open up that door to put some more wood in you get this kind of very thin layer of dust and ash over literally everything in your house very very quickly with a wood burner my concern with this is although i can wipe the top it is falling in the little holes over here underneath this panel is the fan directly here and on top of basically all the heat sinks that are there to take the heat away from the console the xbox one had a similar design but from the pictures that i can see of this teardown it does look like the xbox series s has slightly bigger gaps i'll see you in a few years let you know if my house has been set on fire the price of this thing is awesome though because it's set at 249 pounds which is just ridiculous and i think is that the lowest one of these next-gen consoles has been for years and years i think the xbox one and the ps4 were both over 400 pounds before that the xbox 360 again i think 249 for one of these is just near unbeatable so a round of applause for that one that's incredible but again like most of the things with the series s it comes with a caveat because this thing is digital only and you know how i feel about digital purchases because i've said it in many reviews i hate it let's look at modern warfare for example the game that's been out now for a year i can waltz in to my local game shop and buy it secondhand for 25 quid do you know how much it costs in the microsoft store 60 pounds for a year old game and here is the biggest downside of the series s and is that you're going to be paying full price for major aaa titles for a long time i found that games rarely get discounted significantly for a good three years now i'm that sort of person generally i play games perhaps a year after they've been released so i can just pick them up and play them and i'm talking specifically now about single player games multiplayer a bit different because that is what i generally play consoles mostly for social gaming rather than single player but i still love games such as assassin's creed but i just don't want to pay 60 quid when they come out so i tend to wait for a few years pick it up for a tenner down the local game shop with this it's not possible to do that you have to wait for even longer to be able to get games at a discount and even then they are not going to be comparative to physical secondhand media they're going to be twice three times that price and that is the real true cost of the series s it might be 249 pounds now but in two years time if you are like me and play games that you tend to buy second hand you are going to pay a hell of a lot more for the series s as i said earlier game pass is really going to be the saving grace of this because it will give you access to more modern aaa titles at a fraction of the cost of buying it fully for a digital version but what i didn't say earlier is there is another service that you can use that gives you xbox game pass and the xbox and xbox live all in one monthly price and that's xbox all access and it costs for the series s 20.99 a month it's zero percent you're not paying any interest and you're getting a next gen console and over 100 games and xbox live for just 20 pounds and 99 pence per month over in the us it's 24.99 it's just unbeatable value that's so good and like i said nothing i've ever seen before from any console manufacturer comes even close to this sort of incredible service and i think microsoft deserve a round of applause when it comes to the xbox all access because it really does give a lot of people access to these consoles that might not have the funds to buy it outright just want access to pay it over two years i mean let's face it you're gonna have these next 10 consoles for years i have the ps4 and xbox one for what seven eight years why would i pay all in one go if i can get it monthly and get things like game pass next what's live included in the price in fact why did i buy this out right i think it's about time now to draw some conclusions about my entire experience over the past month with the xbox series s and after seeing so many people critique the performance and power of this console i want to answer the million dollar question that is this is the xbox series s truly a next-gen console i think it's super sad to see many people critiquing its performance and criticizing it compared to the series x so i think we truly need to look at the series s without the series x looming over our shoulder which let's face it it does 12 teraflops four it's not meant to be a powerhouse because what it is is a truly smart move by microsoft ultimately it's a super cheap access for next generation gaming for everybody and that in my eyes is a super smart move by microsoft maybe you haven't got the funds to buy a series x with all of the gubbins here's the series s at 249 pounds but i think it goes deeper than this i think this will appeal to people who might not necessarily be even into xbox i used to be an xbox lover i had xbox one i had the 360. i had the whatever the want first generation i was going to call it the xbox one but it is the first xbox i don't know anymore these bloody names seriously anyway i had xbox forever and in fact i even won the xbox one in a competition and all of the launch games i don't know some of you may even have been stuck around that long to remember that competition because i had to create a skit about bioshock but i moved over to the playstation because all of my friends moved over to playstation and like i said earlier i'm a social gamer not necessarily a single player so to me it's more like kind of playing with friends element rather than the individual games but i tell you what i missed some of the exclusive things like halo this was a price i just couldn't resist 249 pounds to give me access to those exclusives bargain and this is where the smart move is because i think plenty of playstation players are going to give this thing a little side glance a little side check on the on the side you know i mean people my age will have generally played playstation and xbox at some point over their entire history of owning consoles and if you are like me you will miss some of the exclusives this just gives you access to all of those exclusives that you wouldn't have had if you just go die hard playstation so well done i think this is incredible and if you are a playstation owner i do want to hear from you as well in the comments let me know if you are potentially tempted by the cheeky price that this is at and the fact it will sit next to your playstation 5 and not necessarily look out of place because it matches the color perfectly i do want to know from you are you like me do you give this a second glance i don't know but that's my theory anyway that this is a super smart move and matches perfectly with the playstation 5. but i do hear the concerns of developers and the concerns of people when it comes to the power of the series s and i think this is why my review is going to end a little bit open-ended here because it could either mature brilliantly like a fine bottle of wine or it could sour in the bottle and turn really horrible in the next couple of years i just don't know i'm really hoping that this thing can mature into a fine bottle of wine over the next few years and for that reason i'm gonna leave this review a bit open-ended at the moment 249 absolute steel bargain to just play those next gen games on xbox that you might not have access to already but will it last i think this will deserve a year later review so for now that's all from me on the series s i hope you've enjoyed today's episode and like i said if you are a ps5 owner and you are tempted by this i want to hear from you and i also like i said in the beginning want to know whether or not you prioritize frames per second or graphical capabilities or beauty of the actual games that you're playing because i'd be interested to see which one you prefer but i absolutely will catch back up with you on the series s after a year or so but if you have enjoyed today's video don't forget to hit that like and subscribe if you do want to see any more from me you do want to see my cat trip on this and i've got a playstation 5 review coming really soon hit that notification bell and you'll be notified as soon as those episodes land but other than that guys i'll see you back for another episode of student reviews soon

Channel: Stu’s Reviews

Views: 111,724

Rating: 4.8645515 out of 5

Keywords: xbox series s, xbox series s review, xbox series s 1 month later, xbox series s one month later, xbox series s gameplay, xbox series s specs, xbox series s controller, series s, xbox series s price, new xbox, xbox series, xbox series s console, xbox game pass ultimate, series s gameplay, xbox, xbox review, xbox series s unboxing, xbox series s honest opinion, series s review, series s test, series s one month, xbox series s one month, xbox series s one month review

Id: XTqq7A-0c0Y

Length: 30min 24sec (1824 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 14 2020