The Xbox Series X sneaks up on you. It’s a minimalist block with precisely one curve on the entire thing. And when you turn it on, the dashboard looks almost identical to the one that Xbox One gamers have been using for years. Even the power button makes the same beeps, and the packed-in controller is barely changed. It’s not until you fire up a game and are launched into smooth, native 4K amazingly quickly that the Series X justifies spending $500 to upgrade. This console makes few compromises and, even though there’s no killer app out of the box that immediately screams “This is next gen!” after just a short while with it, going back to even an Xbox One X would be agonizing.
From the moment you open the Xbox Series X box, it makes a great first impression with a presentation reminiscent of an Apple product. It’s clear that every aspect of that process has been carefully considered, including the console’s central, isolated placement in the box, making it feel like you’re opening a present. It’s befitting of a premium $500 device. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/xbox-series-x-console-unboxing"] [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=xbox-series-s-and-series-x-comparison-photos&captions=true"] That customer-first thinking continues with an easy initial setup when you plug the Series X in and turn it on. You can even use your smartphone to log into your account and toggle your settings and preferences while the box itself downloads and installs a firmware update. Once you’re up and running, you’ve got multiple options for bringing your existing library to the Series X – the best of which don’t require you to redownload anything. For instance, if your current Xbox is still hooked up to your network when you bring home the Series X, simply plug in the Series X and transfer all of your games right over the network – which, provided your network is up to snuff, is pretty quick. It’s as painless as upgrading a smartphone.SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
Let’s talk about the console design itself. It’s minimalist, yes, but bold. To my eye, it’s easily the best in Xbox history – when it’s standing vertically at least. On its side, it looks like a giant misplaced LEGO piece, and you can’t remove the vertical stand on the left side, which is awkward. But when stood tall, it’s big enough to confidently tower in your entertainment center while compact and subtle enough that it doesn’t dominate it. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=It%E2%80%99s%20minimalist%2C%20yes%2C%20but%20bold."]The top of the Series X is something of an industrial designer’s magic trick; the concave ventilation screen gives an appealing look of both depth and premium quality when viewed at eye level or higher, and the green coloring on the inside half of those ventilation holes pops with a much-needed accent that makes the inside of the Series X appear to be illuminated even when it’s turned off. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/04/xbox-series-x-performance-test-how-gears-5-proves-its-a-beast"] On the front you have the power button, a single USB 3.2 port, a 4K Blu-ray drive with an eject button, and a controller pairing button. On the back, there’s an HDMI 2.1 out, two more USB ports, the power plug, an ethernet port, and the internal storage expansion slot. RIP, HDMI in and optical ports. I know those weren’t the Xbox One’s most popular features, but I’ll miss them, especially since it means I can no longer use my trusty old Astro A40 headphones. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Kudos%20to%20Microsoft%E2%80%99s%20engineers%20for%20making%20the%20Series%20X%20almost%20inaudibly%20quiet."]I won’t miss fan noise, however, because there really isn’t any. Kudos to Microsoft’s engineers for making the Series X almost inaudibly quiet. Even playing games in 4K at 60 frames per second, this stoic ebony obelisk barely whispers. We measured just 40 decibels while playing Dirt 5, which sounds great next to 60db for the same game on the One X. In the thermal department, the Series X also does very well. It’s a bit cooler than the Xbox One X, registering 42.5 degrees Celsius in Dirt 5 versus 56 degrees in the same game on the One X.OLD AND NEW
If you’ve owned an Xbox One, navigating your new Series X will be instantly familiar. I do realize that’s anticlimactic for a lot of folks; until now, when we’ve bought an expensive new-generation console we’ve gotten a totally new experience. Microsoft has not done that here, opting instead for continuity across generations and sticking with an interface that, after seven years of tweaking, works pretty well. It may not be shiny or new but it is time-tested: it has every feature and third-party media app we’ve come to expect from a current console, with no obvious gaps or downgrades like we saw when the Xbox One first launched. On the Series X it’s snappier and more responsive, and a lot of functionality is easily accessed via a press of the Guide button on the controller. Some occasionally needed settings are still cumbersome to find, but at least there’s a system-level search functionality, similar to Windows and iPhone, that lets you search for things like “HDR setting.”When it comes to power, this generation is no repeat of the previous one, which saw the Xbox One outgunned by Sony’s PlayStation 4 on both power and price. This time, the Xbox Series X’s main selling point is that it has 12.1 teraflops of computational power on tap for games to play with. It’s not a perfect measurement of speed, but on paper that’s twice as powerful as the Xbox One X and about 20% better than the PlayStation 5 – for the same $499 price that Sony’s charging.