A few weeks ago, our own Paddy Hearn argued that the console war was effectively over. Patch claimed the three remaining players have each taken a different tack and no longer compete directly. Having spent a few weeks with Xbox Series X, I can definitely confirm this.
Xbox have moved to an ecosystem business rather than simply a console one. This comes with some major advantages and a few inescapable disadvantages. Backwards compatibility, all-in-one subscriptions with cross-platform multiplayer and game syncs, Play Anywhere offering great value – all of these will entice certain types of customer. That third party titles should play best on the more powerful of the two consoles will also swing some business.
But the lack of exclusive launch titles has is disappointing. Despite some incredible technical feats, amazing QoL improvements and a more streamlined user experience, the feeling of beholding something completely new is hard to maintain when the software that should make a console feel special (i.e. exclusive) is a couple of years old.
That being said, some of those old titles I just disparaged to make a cheap point do look amazing. We’ll be reviewing these and all subsequent X|S titles in the coming weeks as part of our 9th gen. coverage. But for now, here’s the hardware and user experience of Xbox Series X…
Hardware Design
The black obelisk design has been well-received. The public has warmed, in particular, to its minimalist aesthetic and hard rectangular lines. The large grille and soft green glow emanating from it were macro details that looked superb in renders.
However, I feel the Xbox Series X looked better in marketing material than it does in real life, not that it looks bad. But in person, the console’s minimalism is a little boring and the grille’s green glow looks a bit cheap. The oblong design and squared form still look great in person but it’s left looking uninspired when viewed in its natural habitat.
I feel that Xbox One X wore its minimalism much better. The stepped shape and mix of textures gave it enough visual intrigue to avoid being boring. There were no cheapening missteps like the green glow that seems like a later addition to the Series X unit. Subsequently, Xbox One X’s design seemed more unified.
The cuboid shape creates a little trouble. As it’s 6 inches at least in every axis, it’s more awkward to place into TV units or around a television. I also feel the console looks a little ugly in horizontal mode – others may disagree.
Hardware Function
Xbox’s provision of peripheral ports seems to have hit a standard layout. We get one USB 3.0 on the front and two USB 3.0 on the back – this is probably enough for any console. The use of higher-speed USB on the front is a nice touch; many of us will be using external storage and having the option of using an easy-access front port is helpful.
The lack of a USB 3.1 port is a small detail right now but may niggle more in the future when the standard becomes more established and we inevitably see more peripherals using it. The ports top out at 5Gbps which, again, might not bother many of you now but it may in future.
Xbox Series X sticks with WiFi5 which has a theoretical maximum throughput of 3.5Gbps, a huge figure for now with personal broadband speeds of 1Gbps being considered fast still. But again, those of you thinking long-term may be disappointed by the oversights in future-proofing.
The provision of SSD storage in both Sony and Xbox’s 9th gen. offerings has indeed revolutionised console gaming. It’s a huge leap from hard-disks and you are going to love it, no matter which console you choose. Below is a selection of loading times to illustrate the noticeable improvement.
Xbox Series X vs. One X Loading Time Comparison
| Game | Xbox Series X | Xbox One X |
| Call of Duty: Warzone | 16 seconds | 21 seconds |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 52 seconds | 1 min., 35 seconds |
| The Outer Worlds | 6 seconds | 27 seconds |
| Sea of Thieves | 20 seconds | 1 min., 21 seconds |
| Warframe | 25 seconds | 1 min., 31 seconds |
| No Man’s Sky | 1 min., 27 seconds | 2 mins., 13 seconds |
| Destiny 2 | 43 seconds | 1 min., 52 seconds |
Xbox’s ace up its sleeve when it comes to storage is the NVMe slot. Allowing for extra SSD storage that behaves much like internal storage and is only 7% slower than loading from the insanely fast internal drive. With console games set to grow even larger as devs push the texture quality to fill all that extra RAM, the ability to add storage that is comparable to internal storage will be an even bigger boon in the near-future.
Quick Resume is Amazing but Currently Flawed
One question that I was asked repeatedly during the review phase but couldn’t answer until now was whether Quick Resume was a gimmick. Was it practically useful considering games are expected to load so quickly now. For the large number of games that it works with (and we tried A LOT of Xbox One games), it is a revelation.
Picking up from exactly where you were in exclusively single-player games is uncomplicated and works better than you could hope for; the game shows the title card with a ‘Quick Resume’ badge letting you know it has worked its magic, get ready. However, when games need to say hello to a server, it takes an order of magnitude longer.
Games like Battlefield I and V, Rainbow Six: Siege, FIFA and many more will leave you staring at a signing-in window or unable to navigate a menu while EA, Ubi et al. eye up your I.D. It’s probably because loading is so much less noticeable everywhere else that it stands out so much in these instances.
If It Ain’t Broke, You Still Have to Upgrade It Every Once in a While
Casual observers could hardly tell the Xbox One and Series X controllers apart. The differences, however small, are mostly welcome. The textured grips of the Xbox One Elite controller are borrowed for the stock Series X pad sans the rubber. The addition of a sharing button allows players to capture without interruption – something that was missing on Xbox One.
Xbox Series X’s controller features a new D-Pad that resembles the circular pad module for the Xbox One Elite Controller. It’s much better for games that use the D-Pad as a main input but can be easy to mishandle when swiftly moving a thumb from the L-Stick. The texturing of the triggers is a little pointless but it adds to the look.
The continued use of disposable batteries is baffling. While the plausible deniability of offering players choice remains, it’s between the longer play-time of a pair of AAs vs. buying a rechargeable battery to avoid being bankrupted.
Microsoft claim ergonomic changes to the design will allow the average eight-year-old to easily manipulate the controller. I have no way of testing thing since I am a bit older that. Microsoft also claim that the device’s input comes with less latency by sending data more often and by matching its frequency to the game’s framerate.
A tangible upgrade from the Xbox One controller is its speed in connecting with the console. Whereas the X1 pad would take 2-3 seconds to let a player control proceedings, it’s now less than a second. Possibly to avoid drawing attention to the slow connection of the previous pads to those of PS4’s, Microsoft haven’t advertised this point.
The Xbox 360 controller is a classic. Its spawn, the Xbox One controller was an iterative design as its parent didn’t need much refinement to make it one of the best controllers ever made at that time. With Sony introducing a more advanced force feedback and a thorough redesign in their new controller, the Xbox Series X controller now seems lacking.
It’s nice that Microsoft allow users to use Xbox One controllers on Series X but obviously with that ecosystem to maintain, they had to.
A New-ish Ecosystem UI
The new UI is more of a refinement than a whole new experience. It’s a more game-centric interface with the Game Hub being more central to the home page.
It also incorporates more of their other ecosystem-mate’s features and design cues. Hitting the Big X button will give you déjà vu of tapping ‘notifications’ on a Windows 10 machine in tablet mode. Five buttons along the bottom of the slide-out menu are evocative of PC and just plain handy. Notifications and MS store being the two buttons most of you will use most.
The six tabs of the slide-out menu can be swapped to the user’s preference. This adds even more customisation options to the customisable ‘home’ page and folders. Once again, the ecosystem goals of Xbox mean Xbox One gets the same new UI. To its credit, Series X is swifter while using this new UI than One.
Series X Hardware Held Back by the Concept
The controller, the UI and, for now, the software are aligned closely to those of Xbox One. This does indeed foster the continuity and unity that Microsoft are aiming but it also highlights the flaws in their approach – the ecosystem concept undermines the feeling of holding and beholding something entirely new. The six ‘Optimised for Series X’ games available as of today are all over one year old. The fifteen such games available at or near launch are strange mix that won’t inspire many.
Microsoft aiming not to abandon Xbox One owners may be noble and may help them in the long run but it seems to have held the launch of Series X back. That feeling of ‘new’ that should come with a new console generation has been dulled by clinging to the past.
Being the best way to play certain games does not have the same power as being the ONLY place to play certain games and Xbox should have realised that. By the time their brand exclusives land, it may be too late for a comeback.
