Talking Point: Xbox Series S Owners, Are You Happy You Skipped Series X?

I would be more tempted to buy the Series S if it had the same amount of storage as the X. It is just not enough to have multiple next-gen games.

I'm not a huge gamer these days, I only do about 5 hours a week. So the XSS was perfect for me. Not having to invest in an expensive system, but still able to play all the latest games at a reasonable quality.

Storage is an issue as mentioned above, I mainly get around it by having a 320GB USB 3.0 HDD that I had laying around, so I store all my XBO games on that, and keep the internal purely for next-gen and next-gen enhanced games.

Skipped?

I went with Series S bc that was readily available and got mine and my teen son’s feet in the door. I’d have taken a Series X any day

It's good to see that Series S owners (going on the poll results so far) aren't feeling hard done by. It shows that Microsoft did a good job on finding that delicate balance between power and affordability.

Luckily I also have both. I use my Series S solely as a Game Pass machine and any disc or digital games are stored on the HDD/SSD attached to my Series X. I wanted both and had to justify purchasing them to my wife.

I have both, S is a great travel console and for my bedroom TV. X is great on my LG CX.

Still...Series S has no 12 Teraflops and no 4K. So im good with my Series X. Series X is much way powerful then Series S. Even more powerful then PS4 Pro and PS5 together. So im here to ruin your poll 😎

It’s alright, although lack of storage and some game devs opting not to try and optimize for it as much as the series x is annoying.

Bought this instead of the switch oled , I already have a switch and gathered money for the switch successor when they revealed the oled I heard a series s calling me hey I am the perfect companion for your 1080p projector so I bought it and then my switch gathered dust until xenoblade chronicles 3 came out, it’s a good game but compared to what the series s is capable it’s hard on the eyes on a 100 inch screen, can’t wait to come back to my series s.

I think skipped is the wrong word. Very few people would have skipped the Series X

Not everyone obviously but I'll be willing to bet the majority of people who bought a Series S will have done it for 1 of 2 reasons

1. Availability
2. They couldn't afford a series X

I'm only a casual gamer and usually buy Nintendo, but as the Switch doesn't have either a realistic ice hockey or American football sim, the S made the most sense for me. Did contenplate a used PS4 or XBO, but in the end got a used XBS because it us next gen and it had Game pass, which I managed to get for 3 years for about £70. Really am very impressed, as a cost conscious casual gamer, with the XBS.

I'm happy enough with mine. I was struggling to justify the £450 on a series x. The biggest negative seems to be the storage but it's not an issue for me as I don't have loads of games on the go at once.

Series S has been perfect for me as a way to enjoy Game Pass and play my favorite 360 games with awesome enhancements. I already had a PS5 and couldn’t fit another chonk of a console in my TV stand. And Forza, the title I was most excited to play on it, looks great! I’ve gotten pretty sensitive to 30fps this gen, but somehow it seems smooth.

Even without the stock issues, the Series S was by far my best option due to the price and for occupying less space. I have some concerns regarding storage, but I don't think I'll have any real problems anytime soon.

If I didn’t have a big collection of Xbox one games, I wouldn’t mind an S at all. I might get one anyway for portability to play with friends…

Come on series x gang, vote for number 5
We are about 10% behind 😂

Im primarily a PlayStation guy, but my wife got me a Series S last Christmas. I really enjoy the system, but lack of storage and some performance niggles may push me to a Series X at some point

Who said I skipped the X?

I bought the Series X but didn't want to ruin the poll. 😺

I got an X very early owing to luck. The One S went upstairs into the bedroom but the difference was night and day. Then Game did a trade the one S in for a Series S for I think £90. I went for it and have to say the S is very good. As the Bedroom TV is alot smaller the difference is really hard to see. Though the smaller storage is a bit of a pain. Had that not happened and only a single console been available I would have picked the Series X.

Bought a Series S as I really wanted to play some FH5 and the stock for Series X was impossible to find.. I now have a Series X and passed the little guy on.

Got both of them. A sx for the living room and got the wife to agree on a ss for the bedroom to have a streaming machine mainly. But tbh, i played for a while with it in a full hd tv and really don’t feel much of a difference for a sx. Playing fh5 on the ss and the sx is obviously different, but i am thoroughly impressed each time i play it on the ss. I always expect much less from it but get consistently blown away by the quality, smoothness and steady performance from such a limited machine spec wise. The limited storage is annoying, but since i got an external ssd as a companion and it is really fast to store and transfer games back and forth between that and the internal storage. The chunk the os takes up from the external storage is very enraging, especially on the ss, it takes up almost half of the advertised capacity and that sucks. Manufacturers really need to stop doing that 😞 tldr, have both, love em both and I’m blown away by what the ss can pull off

Since I only have a 1080p 60hz TV I went for XSS but I'm going to get a XSX and a suitable TV later this year.

I bought a series s to supplement my Switch and pick up all the games either not on Nintendo Switch or not great versions. The price point and availability were huge factors. I couldn't justify the cost of a series x or ps5 disc edition. Backwards compatibility over the past two decades was also a major selling point. I'm old enough to have played through all console generations and having a machine that played SSX3, Timesplitters, Orange Box, Joe Danger, Dishonored, Outer Wilds, various Burnouts and many more as well as acceptable versions of new releases for £250 was a great proposition. Not regretted it at all. I'm sure series x is a step up but I've got a happy balance.

Not seen any real 'next gen' games for the Xbox yet so time will tell

I was honestly satisfied with using my OG Xbox One for Game Pass until things started taking too long to boot, and I found out the trade-in value would pay off half of a new Series S, so it was worth every penny in the end.

I’ve years worth of digital games to play and I’m a sucker for dinky consoles. This is half the reason I brought a GameCube and a Wii! Honestly if there is a game that doesn’t run on the thing I’ll just stream it and not notice the difference.

Protip: If you have space in your luggage it’s also great to take to hotels to play on.

I love it.

lack of clutter, lack of mess. all the games i want on gamepass and it fits nicely under my tv

I bought a series s, like most, because it was all that was available. I was skeptical, at first, even negative. But after quite some time with it, I'm happy to say I have eaten my words. Thoroughly surprised at what you get for $300. I did end up getting a series x, but I use the s quite frequently as my media player and gamepass machine. Especially if a game gives me 60fps on the s.

I love it, it does the same that the Series X does only at a quarter of the resolution (1080p vs 4K). It's awesome to think that this 350 dollars box is going to receive games for the next 6 years, I bought the expansion card and it's an awesome experience for just 550 dollars, the X is 1000 dollars or more on my country. Plus my Nintendo Switch and with my GF now we can play every game we want for the next years

The console itself is fantastic for the money. The lack of storage is what frustrates me the most. I have a 4TB external so moving stuff around takes significantly less time, but, it’s still a pain in the ass. I’m considering selling my Series S and shelling out for a Series X just for that little bit of extra storage. At least then I can stomach buying the half TB Seagate drive. With the Series S it doesn’t seem like that would be a smart investment.

I had to stop reading the comments, positivity overload haha. I have neither but it's nice to know that S owners are genuinely happy with them. I'm not completely up to date with performance outcomes of cloud gaming but would I be right in assuming that the Series S would deliver as good as good as Series X and that your TV and internet connection are now the bottlenecks?

Mine came today! Earlier than I expected. Very happy so far.

The X-screen kinda sold me on how great the Series S can be. Even tho legitimately, I only bought it for one game. (Microsoft Flight Simulator, totally worth it). But with X-screen and the comparitively low power draw to other 8th and 9th gens, it makes for a very viable off-grid solution. Still wish it had an attachable Blu-ray player. Seems terribly silly to keep it digital only.

Series S is a great gamepass machine have one in my bedroom and series X in the lounge

paid for via Microsoft rewards thank you Microsoft

I'm perfectly satisfied with my series s. When I bought the console it was the only one available. Since I don't play many games at the same time the disk space isn't an issue I'll delete games when I'm done anyways. There aren't many next gen games avaliable anyways so having an x isn't really worth it yet for me imo. Maybe later down the line when more next gen games will be avaliable I might get the x, but until now the series s perfectly suits my needs. It really is a small beast

Series x gang we only 8% behind now
Getting closer.

Last generation I really disliked the idea of everything going digital. But late last year I decided to sell off my xbox one s with all its games and just get a series s. The main reason for this was because I live in China (now Malaysia) and when I travel or need to move for work its so much easier if all my games are digital. So decided to order a series S. When it came I instantly fell in love with it. It's so small and easier to move around, does not take up a lot of space (which is a big issue on the. side. of the world. I live in. No idea if I will ever get an X but as of right now,, the S with two controllers is enough for me.

Didn't want to spend 500, ended up buying the S for 250 in a promotion, PS country. Good for portability has I move in the weekends. Only have 1080p monitor so fine by me.
The great downside until now is the space. Has I like Forza it goes fast.

I have both. Am very happy with both.

I have a Series X and my son a Series S and it amazes me how damn nice Series S is. So tiny yet so powerful. My son plays on a 1080p monitor and very very satisfied (he had a Xbox One before).

I bought a s but my wife was working abroad and got me a x for xmas. Still got the s and will probably keep it as it's good for indie gamepass games and as a media player in the living room. Plus it just looks cool

@Royalblues I earn the Rewards points and i spend them on the store I got my series X with reward points. I bought my series S second hand £120

I get £20 to £25 a month in reward points

Got both , love them both

I have an Xbox Series X and I'm here to ruin your poll.

Probably shouldn't have voted or commented but I had to! Anyway, I hope Series S owners love their console.

I think the Series S is great for some people, especially if the PS5 is your main console but you want to play the Xbox 1st party stuff, or you're a budget gamer.

I did consider the Series S very seriously but in the end I waited until I could get a Series X as it suits me better for a few reasons : I have a physical collection of Xbox games that I still want to play every now and again, I wanted more internal storage and I own a large 4k tv which is better suited to the Series X.

With so little that shows what the series x can do being available, its tough to point to anything major that series S owners have missed, other than storage.
If the X had some more killer titles that showed its horse power, maybe there would be more reasons to regret, but with the current software, series S owners are not missing much at all, and picking one up seems like a pretty smart move...

Originally bought an S purely for co-op play with my brother, as I have a high end PC. I quickly ended up liking it enough to justify upgrading to X after just 3 months. Now the X is my primary gaming platform and my PC is secondary (partly due to continued working from home ever since the pandemic struck, partly because Microsoft Rewards is such a good deal, partly because some games still don’t support cross-play co-op).

Even though I now have an X I do miss the smaller size and better portability of the S. It is a very attractive console, being so impressively compact.

I got a Series S after I had an accident with my One S. Absolutely love it. I did however get a Series X through the the Xbox All access scheme. I still use the Series S for playing on the big TV. Fantastic console

I've not bought a series yet, but it's the S I want. The only reasons I haven't bought one already is 1) I want a black S with a disc drive, 2) I want a series S2, which I expect to launch in the next couple of years.

The plan for me was; Get an S while it's in stock and to be honest there isn't much on the next gen front (even now). That way I have foot in door and I could get a good price for my old Xbox ONE X.

Then later down the line when the family Gamepass comes out and stock goes back to normal, get a Series X and give the S to my son.

That's still the plan, however as I said there isn't much next gen stuff out, it's been great and revisiting older, long load time games as it makes them new, Skyrim is a good example as well as Mass Effect.

Overall I'm very happy with the little box, quiet, runs everything super quickly. I have a 1tb external for all the games that don't require the SSD to run, however the storage constraints are still a bit of a pain.

The storage will become far less a pain once the family GP is out and the S is just for my son, whose games are typically smaller, and the X has my games on it.

Again, overall an amazing system, especially if teamed up with GP. The only gripe is the storage, but the same can be said for both the Series X and PS5 due to stupidly big installs of some games.

@trukme I have 500meg down 73 up on fibre coming into the house and I stream some Gamepass games without any problems at all. I also did that with the Xbox one X and had zero problems. However when I was with another company at still good speeds I did have problems.

I think it largely comes down to ISP speed throttling in the small print. Sadly.

I have both now. I use the series s for streaming and series x for gaming

I was able to purchase a Series S in November of 2021 from my local Gamestop. I really wanted to purchase the Series X, but I thought, if I can get the S now and then when the X becomes available, I'll get it later. So I put the the S in my home office and guess what 3 weeks later in the middle of December, I was able to snag the X from Walmart which was delivered on New Year's Eve. So as planned, I put it in my living room. I love these 2 consoles, I have the S hooked up in my home office to a 'regular' Samsung budget 4K TV w/HDR and I have the X in my living room hooked up to my LG B9 OLED 65".

The X is better as you can imagine, but the S is no slouch at all, trust me. Also, I'd like to add that both consoles don't have enough SSD space, so I purchased the 1TB Seagate add on drive for each console.

You will not be disappointed if you purchase the S, trust me.

I tried for months to get a PS5 and eventually bought a Series S as my first ever Xbox. Game pass has been great--I've played a lot of games I never had access to on PlayStation (all the Halo's, Forza Horizon, Fable, etc.). I really enjoy the system, and it looks great on my 4k TV. I may not get a PS5 at this point. The only (minor) downside to the Series S is storage--but I usually only play 2 or 3 games at a time, so it hasn't been a big problem.

Xbox need to drop a 1TB for the XSS and 2TB XSX already. I'd be happy to spend $400 for the XSS with a Terabyte. It essentially would be the price of a controller and the SSD memory card but I could carry that thing around really easily & my consumer brain would love owning another device to stare at.

They’re both great options. If you just wanna play games and don’t want to drop $500, the S is a great deal. But for those that want physical games and want the best visuals/performance possible, the X is awesome. Maybe it’s easier for me to say that since all I have is a Series X, but both seem like great options.

Got my Series S as a Gamepass machine to compliment my PS5. They even match color scheme. The Series S was a brilliant way for MS to bring me back. I had 360 and PS3, but never felt the need to buy a XB1. Now I'm even caught up on the XB1 exclusives I missed.

I got the series s due to x stock levels, I also brought the 1tb SSD expansion card as my thought was I will eventually get the X and the SSD expansion card will add nicely to the x. But now well over a year of series s I do not feel the need to buy the X, even with a high end 4k TV with Dolby vision and hdmi 2.1 the series x/s games look absolutely brilliant, proper Dolby vision HDR is amazing for gaming and as long as I get 60fps IAM happy. And with the storage expansion I have had as many as 30 games installed. Now I am going to wait and see if we get a mid gen refresh then maybe I will upgrade it but by that time I would have more then got my £249 worth out of the little beast. Oh and it's so much better looking and fits in my front room TV unit which a X wouldn't.

@TheDano79 I initially bought the S due to stock shortages (and also for its low power consumption). I did eventually manage to get an X and have both in the same room (but on different TVs). Looking at the X and the S side by side really makes you value the enhancements that the X provides. (and the X is only connected to a 1080p TV). The S is certainly a capable machine on its own, just make sure you stay in blissful ignorance of its shortcomings.

90% of people will always defend their purchase, so point im making is few who own just a Series S will say they arent happy with it, seen it before people will defend the decision to get the S as they wont admit the S is a crap system for this gen, lack of storage space, no disc drive, no 4k with 120fps no 4k gaming...its a gimped gaming system, and as a owner of both i can tell you the Series S isnt much better then a One X which i also have... outside of load times(which my one X is almost as fast upgraded drive to a SSD a while ago) the Series S isnt better then a One X for the most part... hell some games actually look and run better on a One X.. if the game isnt a x/s game they generally run better on One X then series S...

@Blessed_Koz Witcher 3 is a great example, runs on One X at 60fps 4k series S 30fps and 1080p; point is Series S is gimped and if the game isnt made for it, instead of running the enhanced One X version it will run the One S version... making the One x a better system IMO.... especially mine as i upgrade to SSD on my One X either way they are both my backup systems on other tvs in the house...series X since day 1......

I love it but I only really bought it to be a secondary console, mainly for gamepass

I have a Series X and S and I love them both. S is insanely powerful for what it is, sure it’s not as powerful as the X or PS5, but I don’t regret buying it at all.

@Member_the_game Well I didn't for either of those reasons. I haven't been in the Xbox eco system since the 360 days. And being honest I haven't missed it either with my PS4 catering for pretty much everything. I had a bad week at work and put one on my very account. At £250 it was worth the gamble. Thought it was a bit much buying a £450 system when I already have a PS5 too. I have to say I quite liked the idea of this smaller console though. Very much like American cars, can get the base model and have say 70% of the experience or so at a much more attractive price. Game pass was what attracted me for the most part. This system has pretty much converted me to more digital purchases too. Fast, easy and most games need massive updates these days anyway.

I haven't found the storage an issue... As I have exactly the same if not worse situation on my playstation. I tend to play a lot more indie titles on the Xbox so I have plenty of room. That being said I do understand it will only take two or 3 AAA / major tittles to fill it. ...but a lot of people will be fine playing a couple of titles and swapping them about.

Also an unexpected upside I didn't think of and others have mentioned it. It's a great portable console. I have a sweet like laptop bag designed for the console, leads and two controllers. I've taken it with me when I have been working away which I've never done with a console before. Also very easy taking it around friends etc.

Performance is great. Forza looks brilliant and so far from videos I really can't see a lot in it. Need to see it on my friends pc sometime soon. Other titles like gears I feel that next gen shine isn't quite there when seeing comparison videos. (spose it isn't next gen, but seems noticeable in this example).

It works as intended for me as I already have a high-end PC. I use the Series S essentially as a game pass machine and for those purposes it has delivered.

However, I must say that although having a PC that can play anything you throw at is great, its pretty hard to beat a Series X in terms of ease of use. If the stock shortages weren't a thing I think I would have opted for a Series X instead of sinking the money that I did into a high-end PC.

@James64

I guess if we're splitting hairs I'd still put you down as a number 2.

Saying people can't afford one was perhaps a bit harsh so perhaps my number 2 should have said "thought it was a bit too expensive/ couldn't justify the price"

I was in the same situation as yourself. I initially bought a Series S to compliment my PS5 and only ever used it for Game Pass.

The storage situation did quickly become an issue though so I sold it for £10 less than I paid for it and used to proceeds towards a Series X

I have both and the Series S is great to travel with and I also use it with a 1080p monitor to play on when the main TV is being used by another family member. I bought the 512GB storage expansion which was all I'll ever be inclined to pay for until the prices come down or Microsoft allows other companies besides Seagate to make them. That and the internal storage keep it nice and simple while most of my games are on the Series X. The S is fantastic so long as you don't use it with a high end 4K TV where it does show some rough edges (literally). Great little console overall!

i have a series x and i waited over a year and a half to finally get one. i understand to each their own but i knew i wanted the series x from the beginning and was willing to wait for it. i am not trying to ruin your poll but it was the only choice for me.

I choose S instead of X due to its small form, minimal design, low price and low power consumption.
Got a current gen console to experience the might of Cities Skylines
Have not been disappointed yet by its gaming performance.
The only nag is that the system won't pick up my Movie and Music server...

I love mine. SIZE is a big factor for many including me. I don't want a large console hanging around. The S disappears nicely. I'll not even consider the PS5 unless the slim model is around XSS size.

Not all of us want our consoles to be the visual centre-points of our (sometimes limited) home-spaces.

@NotoriousWhiz dont take it that just because I got an s and am happy with it that I haven't seen the X in action because I have, and on the exact same high end 4k TV that my s is currently hooked upto. And on X/s games only it did nothing but 100% CONFIRM my thoughts. IAM 100% happy with my choice to keep the s until midgen and see if we get a refresh.

I bought a series S as you couldn't find a series X for love nor money and I simply adored it. Then earlier this year I managed to snag a series X. The difference is notable but the series S will still have a place in my heart as it was a small box of delight. I did the honourable thing and gave it to my brother so he could step up to next Gen