The Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have officially been unleashed on the world, and loads of excited gamers are currently getting their hands on the new consoles for the very first time. Exciting stuff!
Of course, much of the first day is usually spent setting things up, downloading content and not really getting to do much actual gaming, but nevertheless we're interested to hear your first impressions!
Have you run into any issues while setting up? Had a chance to try any next-gen games yet? Any thoughts on backwards compatibility and Quick Resume? Give us your first impressions down in the comments below!
Feel free to ask any questions about your new purchase in the comments section as well.
Comments 89
Absolutely love it
The box looks great. Unfortunately still working so it’s downstairs all boxed up calling to me!!
As per Dealer and Fonz on RDX podcast don't forget to calibrate HDR in settings IF you have a TV that does proper HDR apparently makes a big difference. Currently waiting on my XSX via UPS courier and will calibrate on my LG B9 55'
@Rikdangerousxd
I second that. Calibrating HDR made a big difference for me too. On topic: loving my XSX to bits already 🙂 no issues whatsoever so far.
Been playing for a few hours and my Series X is really over heating badly and keeps crashing.
Joking, I'm just jealous of everyone playing on theirs and gutted I couldn't get one at launch so just going into angry mode
It might be my favourite looking console ever.
Setup was simple, and although there's a little disappointment that the UI is the same (I miss that 'new' feel a little), overall it's nice to have most things just work straight out the gate and already be familiar with the layout.
It's impressive how quickly games are available to start once plugging in an old external drive, and transferring a few over was fast too.
Looking at the Game Pass and EA Play libraries is somewhat overwhelming, but it's not a bad thing to have so much choice!
Neither are next gen optimised, but I'm gonna get stuck into either Hellblade or A Plague Tale later tonight.
I'll let you know if UPS every turn up!
Anyone got Series S? Impressions?
@Gipsons i got both an X and an S for my son. Set them both up. Both are super quiet and very quick. Operating the menus on both is super fast with no lag. I'll have to wait until some bigger games are finished downloading for gameplay comparisons.
Enjoying it so far....
@Mckilmer thanks for taking time to give Your insight. Would be nice to hear More. I have made an order and it should be available on 17th for pick up.
Still waiting my despatch notice from Game uk
Got packing item notice last night 😭 and seems to be stuck there all day. Money has been taken though.
@Gipsons the only problem i see right off the bat with the series S is that there is only like 386 gb of storage available on the drive and Next gen Call of Duty already takes over 100 gb.
Mine is in transit so i haven't received mine yet hopefully it will be here within the next few days.. I'm glad everyone seems to be enjoying their new console..
I haven't spent all that much time with it yet but so far a few things stand out about the Series X.
Overall I am impressed and it pretty much is what most of the reviewers said it would be.
@Medic_Alert For the smart delivery titles I had, like borderlands 3, I didn't have to transfer them. An "update" showed up and when I installed it, it automatically installed onto internal storage.
Coming from someone opting for the PS5 over it I do have to say I dig the minimalist designs of both consoles. They'll definitely blend in way better with current entertainment setups due to their simplistic physical appearances, and I can see Series S especially being a good shelf console due to how compact it is. The UI also looks massively improved.
I love the actual look of the console (Series X), it’s smaller than I imagined and I have it laying horizontal, it just fits right into my black tv stand. It’s utterly simplistic and I love it for that.
Setup was easy, I’ve not used my Xbox account since having the 360, downloaded Ori and it looks stunning, so crisp. Everything feels quick and snappy I’m very impressed so far. It’s also quiet I haven’t heard anything from it yet, but haven’t played anything too demanding.
It feels great to be back into the Xbox ecosystem with this and gamepass.
@TheFrenchiestFry The UI is almost identical to the Xone.
I am not sure when the last time you saw the Xone UI but it has been slowly evolving with each update.
Having yet to open it.....just the outer box....it's so small...and lightweight.....that's a thing of beauty right there. I'm nervous with the PS5 coming in how much bigger that box shall be. And heavier.
@TheFrenchiestFry The XB UI has been worlds different from launch XBone since mid-2018, and has improved a few times since. It easily became my favorite UI of the prior gen consoles. XSX has the same UI moving forward - it's more or less a Win10 custom theme. PS5's....I haven't seen enough of it yet to have too much opinion, but I'm not loving the whole "social gaming" focus from the videos I've see. We'll see come Thurs. how I get on with it.
Launch XBone the UI was an absolute dog. But they've made it pretty darn snappy these past few years, and once they added the best folder implementation I've seen on consoles, it really won me. (Are you listening, Nintendo ? )
@TheFrenchiestFry im dreading putting the PS5 into my setup it’s going to stand out and not in a good way, not only is the design ugly but it’s white urgh.
I will say the series X feels premium, no cheap plastic, it’s a heavy little bugger too lol.
@evan23 Ok well then clearly it was meant to be like that
Haven't been following Xbox in general nearly as often as Nintendo or PlayStation, I only heard about Microsoft planning to unify their UIs for the Xbox platform across all devices so it's probably intentional
@Mckilmer yes, that is well known, I think available storage is only 364 Gb
@Fenbops See I'd be cautious about that too but since the PS5 is practically going to be my only TV-tethered console I'm not losing sleep over it. I actually kinda dig the angular look of it as it reminds me a bit of the Xbox 360 S when stood up, which is how I'm planning on positioning it too.
I really like the console itself - compact, and sits beside my tv (vertically) quite discretely - it doesn’t shout “hey look at me!” like the PS5. Set-up was pretty easy. Only game I’ve played so far is Dirt 5, though hope to play Watch Dogs Legion tonight. Today has mostly been about downloads though. On some games that I’ve gone to play I was then prompted to download the “upgraded” version. Dirt 5 was a whopping 67gb download, even though I have the disc itself. I’m off work next week and by then everything should be installed/updated and I can get some proper gaming under way!
@TheFrenchiestFry it definitely looks better stood up, horizontal it looks bad, which is how it’s going to have to go for me. I think Xbox nailed the design of the series X, it just seems to fit in with any setup. It’s simple and effective.
Love it so far! It's smaller than I expected it to be, and standing it horizontally gives me much more space on the stand that it and my Switch are on. Setup was extremely easy, and I'm pleased all my saves were loaded immediately. Though right now I'm playing through the Assassins Creed games (almost done with the first), so I can't really be wowed yet by graphics. The load time ARE significantly faster though. Later on I'll try Forza Horizon 4 and see how that looks.
Edit: And I'm also very pleased by how quiet it is!
@Medic_Alert think that’s gonna be a problem for all consoles in the early stages, I’m eating through that 800gig pretty fast. Gears 4 117gig 😅.
At least with Xbox theres a couple of options to help out but man it’s gonna be rough on PS5 for space early days and the series S, oh boy.
Can anyone confirm the advert situation on the series X ui? Can they be deleted? As I hated the adverts for games I'm not interested in, music and films that littered the xbox one ui, I prefer the cleaner layout of the ps4 ui which the main ui home had no ads what so ever
Finally shipped at 17:00 today so should get it tomorrow or Thursday at the latest.
Feel calmer and good now ☺️
@UltimateOtaku91 It seems to be exactly the same as the Xone. I don't see any way to remove them.
@Medic_Alert That is what I did. I picked up a 2tb external SSD and put all my Xone games on it. It will be a while before I need more dedicated storage for X/S games.
Also, DF tests showed that the performance advantage between internal storage and external SSD for backwards compatible games was minimal.
@Thejameswhogames what's the download speed got to do with the xbox, that's determined by your Internet not the console
@Medic_Alert I don't have enough Xone, X360 and Xbox games that I need more than a 2TB SSD for all of them combined so no 3rd tier for me.
@roe Hellblade and A Plague Tale are both awesome and beautiful games. You can't go wrong with either of them... but they are both just a little different than your average video game. The stories make it worth while, though.
Not sure how “smart” this whole smart delivery thing is. All it seems to do (so far anyway) is download the whole game, even if you have the disc 🙄
@Nightcrawler71 The "smart" part is that it picks the right version for your console. Or, a more sarcastic view might be that the "smart" part is the marketing around it.
I don't think it actually uses any content from the Xone version.
It appears to me like it it just downloads the whole game even when you have the Xone version installed. It isn't very transparent though so I don't know that for sure.
@Thejameswhogames I figure the load on the Microsoft servers will be way more than usual for the next few days as thousands of people connect new consoles, potentially create new profiles, and start downloading new games and updates. I would give it some time.
I received both S and X at 11am ish, spent the day downloading games and updates.
Not the fault of the console, just modern digital life. Tomorrow will be when I get to really have a play around with it.
All that said, the X looks great next to my TV, it's quiet, the set up was easy, I just switched my external drive over and my collection was there... Albeit they need updates.
Loving how small the S is too, nice bedroom console.
@WillieFisterbut I have been pretty surprised at how fast the download servers have been. I was expecting them to be buried but I have been getting a consistent 400-600 Mbps.
Loving my SX so far. It even eliminates the lag in menus and vendors on Fallout 76 so it's a beast.
Ordered from Argos here in the UK. Along with a. Play and charge kit. But they sent an extra controller instead. They said I can keep the pad for the trouble and sending out the charge kit next week. I can live without it till then. Happened to at least one other person who also bought same from Argos too.
Still waiting for delivery... it's marked as dispatched and delivery was due today, but nothing... hopefully tomorrow... pretty please with sugar on top
It's the same but a lot nicer. Pretty much what I wanted. Outer wilds I had to look up in the store as didn't appear in my owned games. Bit strange. Hopefully not any other games I've bought not showing.
Easy set up and the console looks great. Had an issue earlier where the digital standard version of assassins creed Valhalla didn’t have the option to purchase on the Xbox store, only the more expensive editions, but it was resolved and is downloading as I speak. Can’t wait to play it tonight.
@Medic_Alert I feel like Microsoft delivered an evolutionary experience without any single killer new features but a ton of performance and quality of life improvements in a polished package.
Sony seems to be trying some new things but it looks like there are going to be some gaps that are hopefully resolved sooner rather than later. Two very different approaches. For someone who is lucky enough to be able to have both, it will be interesting to see how it unfolds over the next couple of years.
Some background...
My history is Xbox, Xbox 360, PS4.
Let's get the negatives out the way...
I'm finding the UI horrible and unintuitive compared to the PS4 (and the Xbox 360). Hopefully I'll get used to it eventually.
EDIT: A day later, I'm getting a bit more used to the UI and have found some customisation settings that help... But it's still horribly unintuitive... I actually can't believe how messy it is!
The EA Play Hub app doesn't seem to be working for me, even though I'm a GPU ultimate subscriber. EDIT: This issue now seems too be resolved.
That's it for the negatives.
So, now for the "not sure"...
The controller:
I like some of these texturing on the controller, but not so keen of the smaller feeling it has compared to the old 360 controller... I feel I have to hold the new controller same way I did with the dual shock.
Quite like the thumbsticks.
Not sure about the vibration feedback yet (feels a bit weedy)... Need to test on more games.
EDIT: I'm getting used to the controller now, but still find the vibration a bit weedy... No deep rumbles, just a bit buzzy, like it's full of wasps.
The good:
Slots horizontally, nicely and discreetly into my (open ended and open sided) AV unit with my other black boxes. Thank God I don't have to put that huge white PlayStation monstrosity in there!
Forza Horizon 4 looks and plays great... Even the wife was impressed! Can't wait to try playing Gears and Halo on it.
Overall, I'm happy. Hopefully the UI will get tweaked (or overhauled) over time. But mostly I am a happy bunny... Not least because the second controller I ordered from Argos turned up in the wrong colour, so they are letting me keep it and sending me another one free
@Medic_Alert Yeah, I don't at all understand Sony's communication strategy. They are clearly doing it on purpose, I just don't really understand why.
@antstephenson Generally, I like the ps4 UI better than the xb UI as well but you will get used it. There are some things that are better about it but the ads and general clutter are annoying to me.
That being said, the x360 UI is quite terrible so I think if that is your point of comparison you will come to like it sooner rather than later.
@evan23 I have a gigabit connection and the series x on Ethernet is getting 12mbps 😭
@antstephenson I ordered a charge kit from Argos and they sent me a white controller instead. They said I can keep it and are sending me the charge kit next week.
@antstephenson I feel your pain with the UI.
Moving from PS4 took me a while to work out when setting up my son’s Xbox One and it was (and still is) messy and unintuitive compared to the PS4. And apparently the new XBox has the same UI.
I remember reading a comparison and someone said that Xbox’s UI showed how Microsoft was superior at software design compared to Sony... I’ve never felt so lied to in my life.
Having said all that, the good news is you get used to it! And I think it does have some better features once you understand it.
@Scenes Ouch. Must be regional. I am still seeing decent speeds.
Got the series s today. Great console, with the small internal ssd just got be wise on what you play and then transfer them around with an extern drive. Ita quick, 1080p looks lush, no stutters playing gears 5. (Don't have a 4ktv).For the money you can't beat it. Load times are quick, controller is good. Real difference from my Xbox one s.
I plugged my external HDD in. All games were ready to play immediately. Set-up was extremely easy, UI asked if I wanted to keep games updated or not. Console can update games in instant-on mode and while playing games. I noticed the free upgrades in last-gen (since yesterday) games such as Forza Horizon 4 and Sea of Thieves. Gears 5 is a free remaster. The new controller is great, I'm impressed by the D-pad and it can be used for cloud gaming unlike the first Xbox One controller and the first Xbox Elite controller. Snappy UI with tons of options and no advertisement window this far (the only thing I didn't like about the late Xbox One UI). The console itself is elegant and silent. The backwards compatibility with Auto HDR is awesome. The HDR setting is easy. Overall, Series X (and probably S) seems the best designed console we've ever seen.
The only issue is that I set it to 4K 120fps and the signal was lost again and again but that's because some TVs (LG C9) need a firmware update so not Microsoft's fault according to what I've read.
EDIT: The LG C9 firmware update is available now!
EDIT 2: Ori and the Will of Wisps is supersampled 6K60fps or 4K120fps.
I love it. I adore it. The loading times are so radically smaller they make for brand new games. My only big question mark: Quick Resume. I went to show my wife what this all meant and as she feigned interest, I couldn't get any game to quick resume. Going from Minecraft to Forza 4 and back again, had each game do a total load again. Albeit a much faster load, but still a full load. Is Quick Resume suspended right now for certain titles?
Got mine at noon today. Connected to a 1440p monitor and everything is smooth so far. Not a pixel to be seen in Gears 5. Gears 5, Halo 5, and Halo MCC downloaded really fast but the rest of the games hit server overload and went very slow. Those are the only games I've played so far. Dashboard is instant with controller actions, impressive. Remote play worked nicely. I was at Qdoba waiting for a burrito and played some Xbox on my old iPhone 8 Plus LOL. GREAT!
UPS delivered it at 4:58pm (so glad I didnt book the day off work!) and by the time I'd got home and had some tea it was pushing 7pm. Had problems logging into XBL with my existing One (in order to complete the daily Rewards Quests - they paid for my Series S so I'm not quitting them now lol!) but thankfully had no issues when setting up the new console. Downloaded Valhalla, Forza and Gears before calling it a night - I'll be carrying on downloading the games I want to play on Series S when I get home tonight (Tactics, Ori and SW Fallen Order are queued) and hopefully get some games started while I download others onto my external drive (for quick access storage)
@orionreplay I saw something earlier that said Quick Resume has been disabled for certain titles as they weren't working properly - and apparently this was mainly optimised titles (which would include Forza)
@Only1PJA Thank you much for that. I will continue to research.
Got mine yesterday, having previously owned an Xbox one S. In anticipation of this coming a month ago I upgraded my TV to 4k with HDR and 120HZ. To be fair, this upgrade in itself made a considerable difference to my gaming. I have not purchased any specific new Series X games. Instead, I chose to plug in my previous external HDD (not SSD) and play Project Cars 2 with my Logitech wheel and pedals (all worked fine by the way). Despite the game NOT being transferred to the internal storage of the Series X, the load times where considerably reduced and the graphics were even better, partly I suspect due to the fact I ran the HDR set up app with the new Xbox. If the old games look this good, I cannot wait for the new Forza offering!!!!!
@BlueOcean I have an LG C9 and setting 4K@120 didn't result in any signal drops for me. That being said, I doubt any of the games I was playing supported that.
I also had a firmware update come through the day before yesterday.
@orionreplay I noticed the same thing quick resume wasn't working in most of the X/S optimized games I played.
That being said, I am not sure for my usage it is a must have feature. It is cool to play with but in practical usage I don't switch games that often.
@AJDarkstar I definitely had it work on some titles. I think it has only been disabled in certain games for which it is broken.
I very briefly played a bunch of back compat games. It worked in AC: Syndicate for example.
Conversely, it didn't work in Gears 5 or Borderlands 3.
@AJDarkstar Here is the official word from Microsoft:
"While Quick Resume is fully operational with thousands of titles, we are aware a select number of Optimized titles may be experiencing issues with this feature. To ensure the best possible experience for our fans, we’ve disabled the feature for these titles and are working as quickly as possible to fix this at the platform level."
@Thretosix Are any of those titles backwards compatible games? I am using a less expensive external SSD to store all those titles on.
In the testing DF did. For backwards compatible games the advantages of internal storage were minimal.
I am trying to hold off on upgrading internal storage as long as possible in the hope that price decreases and/or capacity increases.
Looks like there is an update for Forza 7 as well
Fantastic impressions so far, which I left in yesterday's big thread, but everything is just so fast and snappy, and everything works the way you'd expect....it feels like an X1X, but just...better. And that's a compliment. It's all seamless. No need for "generations" if everything already worked great before and just works even faster with more convenient options now.
I did notice that download speeds are capped while a game is running. I have really fast internet and with the new SSD I can really saturate the line on the XSX with 400-500Mb/s downloads. I downloaded Planet Coaster in like 5 minutes or less. But when a game is running download speeds for the background seem capped at 40-45Mb/s. Makes sense, but worth knowing.
One other small thing I noticed was that the only way to actually close a game I saw so I could get full download speeds was to actually close it - thus not using quick resume and having to load it from scratch again, later. Not sure if there's a way to force it to quit a game and use quick resume without just launching another game. Just a little oddity of use for anyone with really fast internet that wants to let the machine saturate the line - you have to explicitly exit a running game, and doing that bypasses the quick resume snapshot being recorded.
Edit: I've also noticed some "crackle"/"static"/'Interference" in the audio at times when heavy IO seems to be going on. Not in gameplay but when interacting with the UI. It should be noted I'm using "headset" out using the Dolby Atmos Headphone plugin, so it could be a Dolby headphone compatibility issue, which is a third party module purchased on the store (the option shows up in the settings by default but it directs you to purchase the plugin to enable it. I'd already bought it on X1, and the license indeed carries over. )
@AJDarkstar I didn't test Quick Resume's functionality for FH4, but I did test it for Ori WotW and Planet Coaster - works like a charm. I'm not sure what the list of games that disabled it are, though.
@AJDarkstar Yeah, it seems like it's just a built in part of how everything works, which is nice. When you switch games, you don't see anything special indicating it's "working", but when you launch a game with a snapshot it shows a "Quick Resume" icon at the top right while it loads with the splash screen.
Other than the games it doesn't work for yet, the only quirk to it I've seen so far is that you cant exit a game so that none are running with a snapshot in place to quick resume it the next time you launch. Manually closing a game, closes it without a QR snapshot. And there's no way to force a close with a snaphot to exit all running games.
@AJDarkstar Yeah, that actually would work I think, at least for now. Though I don't see much of a benefit of not actually using it if it's so automatic. Unlike X1X it should work even with power saver mode if so inclined.
And for this kind of SSD the "limited writes" issue should be such a non-issue at this point. I remember when that was a big SSD issue, and on the cheap TLC stuff it still is, but on the high end SSDs, they sustain so many writes, a mechanical HDD would suffer a head-crash long before the SSDs give up. I write terabytes on and off higher end SSDs weekly and they run years and years and years - I upgrade them and replace them long before the things ever run out of writable sectors to spare. We don't have specs on these, but given the class of any NVMe drive, it's a sure bet we're not dealing with the cheap stuff.
What an absolute cock up of a launch. You basically have to be online all of the time to play games. If you go offline you play for ten minutes and then the games do not work! The power button goes off and the disc drive sounds like a lawnmower trying to work overtime.
Basically MS have travelled back to 2013 and put out a console that has so much wrong with it, it is criminal! These are issues that you deal with before you launch. Surely patches will sort this but its not the point. Watch Dogs Legions is worse than average and this is a shambles. I know of at least five people now that in less than 24 hours have re boxed their X Box and sent it back to where it came from. And no new games. What promised to be something special has started as something that isn’t even as good as last gen. Really poor Microsoft. Really poor,
@AJDarkstar Yeah, paranoia is good with these sorts of things. I imagine the drive has more than a lifetime worth of writes possible. To be that fast, we're looking at either MLC or SLC, and all premium versions. Almost certainly with a healthy amount of excess capacity (a 1.0TB drive may well have 1.5TB space for bad cell avoidance.) Remember....most high end database servers are serving writes to these things non-stop, all day, every day.
I agree with the paranoia....but I'll say as someone who does 100+GB writes to SSDs on a regular basis, I've not yet actually had one hit capacity loss or failure from writes before it was just replaced from being too small to be useful. The TLC stuff is a different story, but I don't touch that with a 100ft pole where failure could mean crisis
@jarvismp That's strange. I just played Fuser for two hours on my Series X without being connected to any network. I use a wired connection and it was unplugged as I'm in the middle of rewiring the lounge. No wi-fi networks stored on the console, either.
Power button hasn't randomly "gone off" unless pressed. Also installed Rock Band 4 from disc and the drive is silent. None of my friends are mentioning these issues, either.
And Watch Dogs Legion is just a shambles in general. It had current-gen systems overheating last week because it appears to have been optimised by an intern.
Amazon delayed delivery by a day, but I'm happy with the console. Setup was as smooth as expected. Games installed without a problem. No hardware issues. Played Dirt 5, Fuser, Bright Memory, Tetris Connected, Planet Coaster and a match of FIFA 21...no crashes or errors.
Can't fault it, really.
@jarvismp I have found this launch to be pretty smooth.
As for the network issue, you need to set the xbox as your home xbox or it thinks you are using someone else's xbox and requires a network connection. Of course, this limit doesn't apply to physical disks.
Describing it as "a console that has so much wrong with it, it is criminal!" certainly doesn't match my experience. It seems pretty clean with some minor issues they are working on.
I have been impressed so far.
I actually did a review of it over at http://retrogamingroundup.com/blog/?p=1675 but to shorten it I feel the system is more of an evolution than a revolution. That being said, I haven't really felt a console being revolutionary since the original X-Box or MAYBE the Wii.
@evan23 Obviously every persons experience will be different. I just feel that any errors really shouldn’t be there at day one. They should have been ironed out. Not have any new games is, again in my opinion, just not good enough. It just doesn’t feel next gen. It feels like a small step forward rather than a leap.
@SuperKMx Watch Dogs is a game that needs putting out to pasture. Never been a fan. Everyone will have good and bad experiences but have witnessed noisy disc drives. Teething problems maybe but in 2020 teething issues should be sorted before release in my view.
@evan23 So, my Series X download speeds were crap yesterday but they seem to have evened up today.
@jarvismp Other than the quick resume thing, I haven't seen any issues to speak of. When of the cleanest launches of a similar technology product I have seen.
The disc noise is momentary when you first insert a disc. I haven't seen any sustained issues with disc noise.
@WillieFisterbut Nice! Probably the result of millions of people trying to download at the same time.
I'll never understand why people blame download speeds on their console. Unless you tinkered with the settings, it's usually your internet, not the console. (Note, it will go super slow while playing games. Close your active game and it should jump in speed. If not, pause and restart the download.)
Overall, I'm loving it! It isn't as large as they made it seem but it does sort of look like a big black brick. Turned on it's side it still fits neatly in my entertainment center. It is very quiet too.
I tried to test as many promised features as I could and so far it 'effin delivers! I'd say it's their best console ever. The quick save feature is pretty automatic and really works. One game I paused in the middle of a cut screen and it picked up right where it left off when I came back. Games like Destiny, where you connect to game servers obviously can't quick save. I saved 5 games and it nailed each one on the resume. (If you play Control, the notoriously long load screens are easily cut to a third of the time.)
My TV doesn't support 120fps but it does support 4K and HDR at 60fps. Out of the box, the (dreaded) console update was small and didn't long at all. The calibration tool asked to run and I said yes as part of the setup. I downloaded D2 in about 20 mins and was off playing the new DLC. The smoothness was noticeable and the "in between worlds" load screens were super fast, like 15 seconds fast. lol Gone are my days of running off the the bathroom for a quick break between screen loads.
I think my favorite part is the ray tracing for old games. I loaded up Prototype and it made the game look and feel newer with all the extra definition. Hitman II looks stunning! I tend to replay some of my favorite games and they all worked flawlessly.
If you are on the fence, don't be. All of the small but noticeable upgrades are worth it IMO. AND, you get an actual terabyte of storage, not what's left over after the OS install.
Well I would let you know, but I wasn't able to get one yesterday
UPDATE: Day 2 thoughts
On the whole very positive. It’s a great piece of hardware let down by a few, relatively minor, software niggles.
Game loading speeds and general UI speeds alone are a HUGE upgrade even for back compat titles. I can’t overstate this and for the next gen games the load speeds will be insane.
4K 120fps is a nice bonus but to be honest I don’t notice a big difference between that and 4K 60fps. Personally In most games I would likely go with a locked 60fps with better graphics if that option was available. I don’t see HDMI 2.1 as a necessity for any of you worried, though your mileage, sensitivity and personal preferences may vary.
Quick resume is fantastic, I didn’t think I would use it much but literally being able to jump between a playable state in many games within 6-8 seconds is fantastic. Particurky works well with Game Pass!
However it doesn’t always work, even on some games that support it, and I lost a little progress as a result. Hopefully that will be patched and improved.
I’ve had a few crashes or controller registering double inputs and getting stuck in menus. I had these problems occasionally with Xbox one so nothing new but worth mentioning. Again software problems that should be able to be fixed.
It currently feels more if an evolution than a revolution and there’s good and bad with that. It’s like when you get a new iphone or Android and everything kinda feels the same just a bit faster, but there’s a bit of a lack of wow factor for something truly new and fresh. This is amplified by a lack of true next gen games at launch and you could be mistaken for thinking this was the Xbox One X2 rather than a brand new generation system. But I’m not concerned. The games that were designed for the system and really benefit from it will come - This is great console hardware and built for the next several years not just today.
Now very contentedly back to Ori in 4K and Jedi Fallen Order running as it was intended as opposed to XB One.
@themightyant Luckily, I haven't had any crashes yet. What is crashing for you?
I have seen some control issues in AC:Valhalla but I assumed those were bugs in the game. Hmm......
I agree with the lack of a wow factor. I am a little surprised Microsoft didn't time their UI updates with the release of the console. Not getting a new UI is a big part of what makes it feel so much the same for me.
Ori is not really the style of game I am most interested in right now but damn does it look nice on this console. Did you try the 6K@60 mode where it renders it at 6k and downscales it to 4K for display?
As a side note on HDMI 2.1, while gamers tend to equate it with 4K@120, there are actually a bunch of other beneficial parts to that. Some of these are specifically targeted at gaming as well.
VRR - It allows the TV to adjust its refresh rate to the frame rate output by the xbox. This should reduce or eliminate the tearing caused by frame rate drops. This one doesn't get enough press in my opinion.
ALLM - Allows the console to automatically move the TV in and out of game mode depending on if you are playing a game or watching media
e-ARC - Allows the TV to pass higher bandwidth audio back to a receiver or soundbar.
Now, would I advocate going and buying a new TV just to get those features? No.
However, if you are already planning on buying a new TV, I would definitely try to get one that supports hdmi 2.1. Especially if you are a gamer or audiophile.
@evan23 I've had it crash out of a game (Force Unleashed) it was also one of the games that failed to quick resume (the other being Half Life 2) they just sat on the quick resume screen for around 20 seconds before going back to the menu.
The other crash was while jumping between apps really quickly, (to complete daily rewards i.e. rewards, game pass, store and web browser) the system got stuck and started registering each analogue press as two but not registering button presses, this meant I couldn't shut down the console via the controller and had to press the button on the box. I've had this issue on Xbox one and it's been reported.
Agree re: the UI change. When it released a month or so ago I wondered why they didn't wait it would feel a lot fresher if it was a new experience. But it's a minor thing in the long run.
Yes I briefly tried Ori on 6K supersampling mode and it looked lovely, but it always does, but not enough to make any meaningful conclusions. Will have a longer look tonight.
@evan23 Re: TV's this is a highly misunderstood topic.
Although many of those features were officially introduced with HDMI 2.1 many of them like ALLM, VRR and eARC are also available through HDMI 2.0 depending on the TV model.
ALLM in particular is available on a large number of TV's that don't have an HDMI 2.1 port.
VRR is less common but still available on quite a few HDMI 2.0 TV's.
Case in point the Xbox One X (not series X) had VRR despite being a HDMI 2.0 port.
eARC is also availble on many HDMI 2.0 TV's.
more info at link below
https://blog.son-video.com/en/2020/03/guide-is-an-hdmi-2-1-connector-essential-for-gaming
Effectively I was just trying to say that if anyone is getting FOMO over not having a HDMI 2.1 TV I really wouldn't worry about it, there is a lot of noise online trying to push them right now but I don't think it's that crucial at all. (despite having one)
If you have a 4K tv with decent HDR and a low response time (ideally with ALLM, though you can do it manually if you have a Game Mode) you have a TV that will happily take you through this generation. The other features are nice bonuses but you are at the point of diminished returns.
@themightyant Certainly very true with e-arc.
With the others, part of the problem is determining which TVs do what. Most of the manufactures don't actually publish which of the features outside of e-arc they support so finding a TV like that can be a needle in a haystack.
Further, even if you get information from an independent source, because the manufacturer hasn't published/promised the specs sometimes they change them without an official model refresh. So my TV might have certain features and your TV of the same model might not. Or worse, the functionality may be removed with a firmware update. It is a complete quagmire.
Back to 650mbps+ download speeds on Series X now. Certainly made updating Gears 5 just now faster.
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