Xbox Series S vs Series X Console Review: Can The Cut-Down Console Cut It?

it's xbox series console review time and you might be wondering why have we taken so long to deliver our verdict well obviously the arrival of playstation 5 has complicated matters but it really starts with the fact that the series x preview period was essentially a review in orbit name so beyond a closer look at the dashboard a dashboard xbox one users already have where it was all about the games and software was thin on the ground only now at launch are things really starting to come together and that lack of available software was even more of a problem in reviewing xbox series s which has it all to prove as a next-gen console look i'm going to start by summing up what i think of series x which is to say it's a brilliant simply brilliant piece of hardware design you're getting a forward-looking silicon design with a huge amount of horsepower on tap modern cpu and gpu architectures a fast ssd and an extraordinary level of industrial design in keeping everything cool and ridiculously quiet all of the next generation machines are nyon silent but the acoustic profile of series x is barely discernable at all i like the controller too but like the ui it is not revolutionary in the way that sony's dual sense is and that's actually part of the plan by microsoft i reckon both of the platform holders have very different visions for the future of gaming both valid both exciting and i'll be talking about that in a bit so series x it's superb and it's phenomenal level of backwards compatibility across three prior generations of xbox consoles three and a half if you want to include one x well it's simply terrific but the true litmus test isn't just about hardware design though it's about the games and well assessing that is going to be an ongoing project all of which brings us onto the entry-level next-gen xbox the series s now some might say that this little machine is what you might call the anti-digital foundry console out of the gate its mission statement is specifically not to deliver the state of the art in its visual presentation instead the pitch is something very different to enable next generation gaming without having to shell out 500 to indulge your hobby combined with xbox all access or as a standalone purchase with the value rific xbox game pass it's a machine designed to enable access to the games of today and tomorrow without having to wait a couple of years for the latest and greatest console hardware to drop in price something that microsoft says may not happen anyway i interviewed xbox's system architect about this the link is in the video description below and let's just say it's required reading but yeah i'd say that series s delivers exactly what it sets out to achieve but it's not the anti-df machine far from it power alone as a metric of quality or appreciation is hardly a balanced outlook as it is series s is beautifully designed it's irresistible in the flesh and in a world of economic uncertainty and an increased drive towards sustainability it's the most affordable and efficient next generation machine now it certainly has its drawbacks but at the basic level it's job done from microsoft and well there's something else really cool about it it's just well how can i say it highly attractive piece of kit that starts with the packaging which is certainly attractive on the outside and does a nice job of presenting your new machine to you on the inside a neatly wrapped console sized parcel in the center there accessories at the top the same hdmi 2.1 spec display cable as series x and a white version of the newly refined controller unpack plug in carry out the rather laborious system software update and you're good to go and it's at this point that it's clear to see that series s has the same zip the same speed as its bigger brother which is not surprising bearing in mind that both features m2 cpu clusters and nvme solid-state storage rated at 2.4 gigabytes per second of sequential read bandwidth the quality of life improvements offered by xbox series s over its predecessors can't be understated pretty much all of the lag in the xbox one interface is gone and that's priceless especially when it comes to something as simple as button response anything less than instant feedback makes you doubt whether your input was effective it breaks the trust between the user and the machine the series consoles are such a huge improvement here this extends to all areas of the interface really let alone the loading times the 1080p dash is effectively identical in terms of look and feel to series x and that extends to display options this may well be a machine better suited to 1080p or 1440p gaming but you still get 4k 120hz hdr output options and the same 4k encoding media block as series x for your game dvr captures all of which leads us inevitably to the specs comparison and the question of economics series s features the same zen 2 cpu core as series x running with a 200 megahertz deficit which microsoft told us is mostly about product differentiation but it does feel like a kind of minor cut that need not have been made so why make it the gpu is also of the same class as series x simply smaller the premium products 52 amd rdna 2 compute units shrink down to just 20 with clocks reduced 2 giving us 4 teraflops of gpu compute up against the 12.15 of the bigger machine memory allocation drops from 16 gigabytes down to 10 with eight gigs available to titles versus 13 and a half gigs on series x memory bandwidth is also squeezed significantly with 560 gigabytes per second on x cut down to 224 gigabytes on the s that's for the graphics specific memory it's worth stressing that while these cutbacks seem severe and well they are severe all of the key features of series x are present the gpu is smaller as you can see in the die shot here but it is still using the full rdna 2 specification it does feature variable weight shading hardware accelerated raid facing mesh shaders and texture streaming optimizations via shader feedback sampling it's all there in terms of ui functionality too quick resume is supported for swift access to the exact point you left off in your last played games the problem i have at the moment is how inconsistent it all is what you're seeing here is a simple cycle through three games orie and the will of the wisps forza horizon 4 and gears 5. gears doesn't work the others do and gears isn't the exception here a ton of titles don't work now microsoft is racing to get all of those games working but a feature you can't rely on a hundred percent just isn't good enough and when it is working it's not entirely clear what games have been cached and which games haven't so yes this is a killer feature but it still feels like it's in beta it needs work superficially you won't notice any cutbacks to the series x experience to begin with by the resolution cut when you start your games but where the compromises and the cutbacks are visible series s's value proposition starts to lose some of its sheen and this starts with the ssd advertised as 512 gigabytes but it gives you just 364 of usable space in a world where the one terabyte expansion storage card costs almost as much as the console this presents a problem in an age where more and more games are breaking the 100 gig barrier undoubtedly an issue then but it is worth remembering that 40 to 50 gigs is more the average but the point is that well let's put it this way it's so easy to hit the 364 gigabyte limit and sooner or later probably sooner chances are you're going to be paying for more storage anyway the second major issue is the all digital nature of the product which severely limits where you can buy your games and therefore how much you pay for them of course this is offset to a certain degree by xbox game pass with its mind-bending value proposition it's been described as the best deal in gaming and well when you see what microsoft is delivering here consistently on a month-to-month basis with all of its first-party titles two that's difficult to argue with let's talk about thermals and efficiency next the xbox series s is the least powerful system in the next generation console lineup so it makes sense that it draws the least power from the mains the cut down series processor has 55 of the silicon area of the series x's chip but it's more efficient than that under load presumably owing to reduced frequencies of the cpu and gpu here's a quick look at how four skus across two xbox generations compare microsoft tells me that instant on standby power consumption will likely improve but it's still sufficiently high enough that i'll simply be powering down the console otherwise non-gaming functions show no real reduction in power gen on gen and for gaming power consumption actually goes up now i've chosen gears 5 for the gaming test as i have found this title to be far more demanding on power than anything else in the series lineup and these peak powered rule metrics account for the highest system load from the first chapter of the game here we see that series s requires 13 percent more power than 1s but bear in mind that gameplay there is limited to 30 fps not the 60 on series consoles and 1x anyway 1s versus series s the new system is delivering a three times increase to gpu performance and four times on the cpu really does seem like the junior series console is hitting the sweet spot in terms of overall performance per watt meanwhile series x requires 23 more juice over its predecessor one thing to bear in mind here is that gears 5 truly is demanding my other series s titles drew 10 watts less from the mains the thermal photography of the series s throws up some interesting results as usual testing methodology is to run the console at max power in this case using gears 5 and to do so for an hour before breaking out the thermal camera likely owing to its much smaller form factor xbox series s is actually the hottest next generation console in terms of skin temperature and peak heat output perhaps not surprising when considering that it is on par or more demanding on power than xbox one s which features a much larger form factor with that said the construction of xbox series s is simple but effective the cooling assembly sits directly on top of the main processor expelling air directly out of the large circular black fence that sits on top of that in my tests this hit a maximum of 67 celsius higher than both ps5 and series x max temperature points however the machine is just about as whisper quiet as series x now one thing to bear in mind here is that we are only analyzing the skin temperature of the console in terms of assessing the long-term health of the machine the heat level of the internal components is much more important but that would require a much more detailed analysis but the real test for series s is the gaming and this is the crucial factor obviously in principle i see nothing wrong with the notion of bringing two consoles to market separated by their overall gaming performance and microsoft's pre-release marketing material suggested that what series x delivers at native 4k series s will be able to match at 1440p the messaging suggests only good things as far as i'm concerned if you're on a 1080p screen 1440p rendering gives you a nice level of super sampling anti-aliasing improving image quality meanwhile four years of ps4 pro gaming has taught us that even if 1440p isn't exactly ideal it still looks a fair bit better than 1080p when delivered to a 4k display the problem with this marketing is straightforward enough games incur different rendering demands on different hardware configurations something i verified back in march when i put together an amd rdna 4 teraflop pc and stacked it up against higher spec equivalents closer to ps5 specification so on the one hand we have gears 5 which sees the coalition broadly achieving microsoft spec aims though even this is difficult to fully verify owing to the use of dynamic resolution scaling on both x and s consoles elsewhere though the claim holds less water forza horizon 4 hits native 4k on series x but only 1080p on series s and it's the same story with sea of thieves in effect then the output of microsoft's own first party studios isn't fully backing up the platform holders marketing claims but my problem isn't with the machine however but with the messaging because if there is indeed feature parity between series x and s at 4k and 1080p respectively i still think that's perfectly fine that's certainly what's happening with forza horizon 4 and there are actually some rather lovely surprises elsewhere ori and the will of the wisps one of the most beautiful games in the xbox library runs at 4k60 or alternatively at 1080p 120. in this sense its specification is higher than xbox one x and yeah those frame rates performance is flawless meanwhile the tourist runs at the same 4k 60 as xbox one x however on the flip side watchdog's legion may well retain hardware accelerated rate facing and a very stable 30 frames per second frame rate but the reductions in texture quality shadow quality and much more are clearly apparent it also highlights another issue if 4k series x equates to 1080p series s in some cases what happens when x uses dynamic resolution scaling or actually targets a sub native resolution in the case of watchdog's legion it seems that the drs range is 900p to 1080p up against 1440p to 2160p on series x and as the comparison may hint here that's going to result in a blurry image on a big living room tv attached to the series s and assassin's creed valhalla here fascinating one this series x is running it at 60 frames per second but it can drop frames there is a fair amount of tearing here series s has a 30 frames per second target it can deviate from it there is a touch of tearing but overall it's pretty solid resolution differentials series s can get up to 1620p x alex has measured a maximum of 1728p lowest resolution 1080p on series s 1440 on series x 60 versus 30 very different experience but often overall image quality looks pretty similar between the two comparing this one up against xbox one x could prove interesting we only have a limited number of titles to test so far but for the most part series s holds up as a cheap entry-level console that is capable of running next gen games and if you go in expecting a lower resolution version of the series x experience that's what you're gonna get but there is the sense that the long term prospects of the machine will be very much related to just how scalable it really turns out to be and how that situation evolves as the generation progresses there also appears to be some level of elasticity in which features translate between the two consoles watchdog's legion retains hardware accelerated ray tracing features while they are absent in devil may cry 5 special edition which suggests that the extent of the scalability between the two systems isn't quite so cut-and-dried on top of that a game launching with rt features on one console and not on the other at launch no less suggests that in terms of technical requirements from the platform holders microsoft is certainly okay with all of that ultimately i believe that the quality of series s releases will come down to developer buy-in and general enthusiasm for the system towards the end of the outgoing generation time and time again we heard from studios of the issues they had working with xbox one s and this was clearly reflected in the final quality of many of the games that we tested there are some comparisons here to draw with series s but only to a certain extent there's much more commonality between the two consoles here than there was between 1s and 1x and the conversion work should be easier again my key concern isn't really about the paired back gpu power of the series s more the seemingly savage five and a half gigabyte drop in available system memory for games now of course xbox isn't just about the games of tomorrow it's usually invested in legacy support and an aspect of the series s that cannot be overlooked is its backwards compatibility support it's good but it varies quite dramatically from series x and indeed playstation 5. because put simply it runs and enhances xbox one s versions of legacy games not xbox one x what this means is that most of the transformative improvements we showcased in previous back compact coverage will not translate onto series s as my previous tests were mostly based on 4k titles that offered the option of an unlocked frame rate fertile ground for unleashing extra cpu and gpu power and options that weren't usually available on xbox one s games with series s what you're getting then are more refined versions of 1s titles most of which did indeed target 30 frames per second unless microsoft or the developer intervenes nothing more can be done now we've seen a demo of fallout 4 running at 60 frames per second using a double fps technique the compatibility team has developed now i'd love to see more here but certainly during the review phase xbox one s ran the game at 30 frames per second sums up most of the improvements you'll see overall there's the same visual feature set as xbox one s the same resolution in fixed resolution games but with 16 times an isotopic filtering high-end drs limits and a dead-on lock to the developer's original performance target but to be clear what xbox series s cannot do is break the 900p resolution limit so many 1s games operated at but man i really hope something can be done here for 1s titles because in the rare instances where 1s games do have an unlocked fps feature there's such a huge improvement i mean here you're seeing hitman's classic paris scene at 1080p actually outperforming series x at 4k with a better lock at 60 frames per second such unlocked fps features are so rare on 1s though it's almost a tease really this is showing you what could be done if those 30fps caps were removed in other titles there are some more positives on the compatibility side though xbox one x enhanced versions of xbox 360 titles are still enhanced just with a 2x2 resolution multiplier as opposed to the 3x3 boost seen on 1x so a native 720p xbox 360 game scales up to 1440p instead of 4k then which is better than i expected also while xbox one x and even 1s could outperform the cpu limitations of original 360 hardware there were still some issues in select titles series s effortlessly sorts that out meanwhile there are promising signs on the og xbox side of things too star wars republic commando runs locked at 60 frames per second for example effortlessly outperforming xbox one x which would drop into the 40s really though for the best way to experience legacy titles especially from the xbox one x zero it's the series x that's the better choice meanwhile ps5 is similarly well equipped for boosting the experience of ps4 and ps4 pro games so in many ways a contentious product xbox series s is definitely a great idea and perhaps the right console at the right time if you're not a hardcore gamer and you're looking for a game pass machine simply brilliant there's enough space out of the box for handling a smaller selection of titles on the ssd and the lack of an optical drive isn't really an issue similarly if you've purchased ps5 but you're interested in game pass or microsoft's first party wares you could buy a series s knowing that the subs offering is still highly potent and that microsoft's first party games will be expertly handled in their transition to the lower powered s console and despite so many seemingly brutal cuts to the core specification well the bottom line is i had a great time playing games on it yes there are compromises but i think anyone buying the machine will go in knowing that they won't be getting the absolute state of the art here but yes for the more traditional core gamer perhaps less wedded to the idea of a game's subscription service xbox series s is less compelling if you want a decent array of titles instantly available for play you're going to need more storage and that's expensive enough to make the extra 110 pounds required to buy a ps5 digital edition seem like a pretty good deal not only do you effectively double the storage but you're getting a far more potent machine but this does assume that you'll be able to find a digital edition console for purchase of course now we can safely assume that sony loses money on the fully enabled ps5 and its losses will be even more considerable on the digital only model which strongly suggests that well logically far fewer of them will be made therefore it'd be more difficult to buy one so there we go i'd say that's the rational assessment of the xbox series s proposition but i'm going to end this video by talking about something that i just can't quite put my finger on i first saw the console in the flesh at the microsoft campus back in march and the machine was first revealed pulled out from a handbag and well instantly i loved it the form factor is brilliant simply irresistible the design is kind of nion perfect there's always been a certain degree of desirability attached to miniaturized consumer electronics and series s taps into that more than any other recent technology product i can think of perhaps it is indeed about how small the machine is or perhaps it's how series s is so reminiscent of how consoles used to be in terms of form factor and overall bang for the buck i i honestly just don't know but i love it xbox series s is charms grow even more effective when the machine is stacked up physically against the larger more powerful but definitely more inconvenient consoles it launches alongside the entry level xbox is a brilliant looking product that easily goes anywhere even on holiday with you if you want well when that's allowed again and hey it looks great doing it whichever way the next console generation goes one thing is clear microsoft knows how to design and build brilliant console hardware but the games are king and primarily i think that's what's separating the series sx and playstation 5 launches there's just no doubt that sony has brought more software to the launch party and the lack of halo for the series machines sorely felt but this will be a console war unlike any other because the platform holders have very different objectives to the point where head to heads on console sales game performance and whatnot going to be secondary to what's really going on so here's the thing sony wants to continue the success it enjoyed with ps4 and clearly based on what we've seen so far it's well positioned to do exactly that ps5 is brilliant and those hit first party games just keep on coming microsoft strategy well it's growing xbox to be more than just a console xbox can be played on pc it can be played on smartphones for microsoft it's about players it's about game pass subscribers and crucially it's about taking xbox to markets you can't sell a console in but where either pcs or smartphones are 10 a penny that's microsoft's end game but perhaps not something core gamers gonna be kind of interested in worth keeping that in mind though but for now that's all from me as usual liking subscribing that's all awesome as is ringing the bell for instant notifications whenever we post new digital foundry content please don't forget the df patreon which is there for those that love what we do and want to support the team more directly and that's where you'll get pristine quality video downloads of everything we do but that's all from me for now thanks for making it all the way to the end of this one if indeed you did and just generally thanks for watching and supporting and hopefully enjoying digital foundry

Channel: Digital Foundry

Views: 516,859

Rating: 4.89151 out of 5

Keywords: Xbox Series S review, Xbox Series X Review, XBox Series S vs Xbox Series X, XBox Series S, XBox Series S vs Series X, Series S vs Series X, Review, Digital FOundry

Id: 94O6o6yOGgA

Length: 26min 3sec (1563 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 16 2020

Reddit Comments

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[u/DarkfireVG]

As a mainly Sony gamer, I have been surprised and excited about how much power Microsoft was able to put in Series X. With Series S being pretty cheap it is an amazing deal to combine with game pass.

[u/Raidertck]

Friend of mine got an S. He's been mainly digital for years now & the majority of what he plays is on gamepass and his monitor is only 1080p. This is IDEAL for him.

Where as I like owning the disks, the ability to purchase games pre owned/on sale in stores would probably add up to more money saved in the long term. Also, I have a 65 inch, 4k 120hz TV. anything below 1080p looks very grainy on it in comparison to 1440p-2160p. So it's clearly the XSX for me.

[u/LeftyMode]

I thought the concerned trolling and downvotes would stop once the systems were out. I guess playing the actual consoles to take up your free time is out of the question.

[u/NoVirusNoGain]

Tldw?

[u/igotabadbrain]

My problem with the series S is the lack of a disk drive.I have 2 Xbox one's and an Xbox one x .The lack of a physical drive severely limits your options both for gaming and buying..Go price your favorite game in both physical,digital and used .My digital S can only do ONE . My "all digital" Xbox runs great and has a purpose but ,it is not my Go To console.When i want freedom of choice i always prefer Physical first....Blu Ray is Hardware. Borderlands 3 Xbox one eBay $16.67...Xbox store $59.99..Do the Math over Years....

[u/usetheforce_gaming]

343 really fucked Xbox over here by delaying Halo Infinite. They seriously need to restart that studio from the top.

On the same note though, I just cannot understand how you release a next gen console without a single game to go with it. This is a huge failure that Microsoft has had years to fix and couldn't do it. Yes the exclusives are coming. But in this regard it feels as though the Series consoles were rushed just to come out in a year where consoles are in high demand.

The PS5 has:

1. Spiderman Miles Morales

2. Demon Souls

3. Sackboy

4. Astros Playroom

Not only do they have 2 extremely highly rated games to purchase, the console comes with a free, high quality game. Add that to the PS5 outperforming the Series X in multiplats, and you get a console with no revolutionary features, no exclusives, and slightly worse performance on multiplats.

Don't get me wrong. I love my Series X and I'm playing the hell out of Valhalla (which runs better on PS5). But if it weren't for me wanting to play Assassins Creed on the console I've always played it on, I don't know if I'd even be playing my new Xbox. At the moment I'm splitting my time equally between Valhalla on Xbox, and Miles Morales, Demon Souls, and Astros Playroom on PS5. Thats really saying something.

[u/aimlessdrivel]

Also, there just aren't a lot of great games for release. Watch Dogs, Assassin's Creed, COD, and Dirt are all just more of the same. Demon Souls and Spiderman are good for PS5 but they aren't exactly fresh and new either.

There's just no new and exciting IPs to look forward to around release. Maybe Halo Infinite would have been cool, but it's a return to the series roots, not something new and different.

I want the same feeling we had when seeing Destiny for the first time before the last gen consoles came out. We need new IPs.

[u/[deleted]]

DF is great, although I don’t get why they criticise Series S for not always meeting 1440p and then you have PS5 with fake 4K and suddenly it is ok... PS5 is advertised as 8K and 4K120fps and none are true

Same with BC, PS5 only offers double FPS at fake 4K for only PS4 games, and it is described as better in many ways than XSX, which also double FPS (and 99% of the time is flawless) autoHDR, true 4K, better texture filtering and 3 generations supported... I mean, sometimes they cannot hide their PS preference and end up not being that objective