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As you can see from the specs comparison above, the main difference between the Xbox Series S and the Xbox Series X is the dramatic reduction of GPU power. At four teraflops, it's actually less powerful than the Xbox One X, which sits at six teraflops. It can still support 1440p at 120fps—more than enough for many—but no matter how you slice it, the Xbox Series S is still markedly less powerful Xbox Series X, and that difference in power is apt to become increasingly apparent as the generation wears on.
So what does the Xbox Series X's additional power mean in a practical sense? Well, look at this way: waking the Xbox Series X and jumping into a game can be accomplished in about 15 seconds, give or take whether or not you enter a pass code. A full restart can be completed in less than a minute. As Eurogamer's Tom Phillips joked on Twitter , the Xbox Series X's load times are so fast that it basically cuts out doomscrolling entirely.
These load times extend to basically every game in the Xbox Series X's library, not just the ones that have been optimized for the platform. Forza Horizon 4, which takes ages to get going on the Xbox One X, fairly zips along on the Xbox Series X. So does the Witcher 3. It's not precisely instant, but it's still a huge improvement on the previous generation. In short, it's a lot like upgrading from an iPhone 7 to an iPhone 12 and suddenly realizing how fast everything runs.
Whether the games themselves will look better depends a lot on your TV. I reviewed the Xbox Series X on a Samsung KS7000, a decent, if somewhat old 4K LCD television, and I was still struck by how much faster and smoother Forza Horizon 4 ran with the backward compatibility optimization. Those who own 120hz monitors will likely notice even bigger differences.
As always, the real differences will become apparent as developers get to grips with the technology and start properly taking advantage of it. I've argued in the past that graphics don't really matter anymore , but if you look at the difference between, say, Assassin's Creed Valhalla and a game released back in 2013, the gap is apparent. Suffice it to say, the differences may seem minimal now, but give it a year or two—technology has a way of changing rapidly.
The updated Xbox Series X dashboard largely sticks to the fundamentals established on the Xbox One | Microsoft
The User Experience: A Quick and Painless Setup
Staying with Xbox's "faster is better" theme, setup is quick and fairly painless. Much of the process is handled through the Xbox mobile app, which quickly runs you through a series of initial options, at the end of which you're encouraged to give it a name. Not feeling particularly creative, I went with "The Fridge," though part of me wanted to name it "William Perry" (please enjoy your random reference to the 1985 Super Bowl, Bears fans).
The Xbox smartphone app makes setup a breeze | Kat Bailey/USG
As part of the initial setup, the Xbox Series X imported all of my Xbox One settings, including all of my saved games. I found all of my past games and apps readily available in the games folder, and quickly got to downloading them. As it turned out, this would take several hours, as I don't have a single physical Xbox Series X game to my name, and modern games still take a while to download. I'd recommend starting with a couple smaller games so you have something to play while you wait.
The Xbox Series X dashboard is simple but functional, ensuring that all of your games, apps, and features are at most a few clicks away. Pressing the glowing Xbox button on your controller will call up a quick access menu where you can find basically everything you need: a quick rundown of your most recent apps, Game Pass, the store, and recording options. Capturing and sharing and media has been streamlined thanks to a new button on the controller, and if you plug in an external drive, you can capture up to an hour of gameplay in 4K HDR.
The Xbox Series X's biggest question mark is the touted Quick Resume feature, which has been hyped as a way to rapidly jump between multiple games. Closing a game on Xbox Series X will create a save state in the system's memory, after which it can be accessed by pressing the Start button at the game's loading screen, even if you open up another game. It's a great idea, but Quick Resume is basically disabled at the moment for Xbox Series X|S optimized games, as Microsoft has identified an issue it hopes to address with a post-launch patch. Quick Resume is available for all standard backward compatible games, but it's still kind of a rough blow for what should be one of the Xbox Series X's showcase features.
Another question mark is "Smart Delivery," which is currently supported at the whim of the publisher (the initial lineup below shows which games feature Smart Delivery). The basic idea is that if you buy a game on Xbox One, you will get the upgraded "next-gen" version for free. All of Microsoft's games support this feature, as do major upcoming releases like Cyberpunk 2077. Madden 21 and FIFA 21, however, will feature a time limited system, and NBA 2K21 won't support Smart Delivery at all .
One final complaint, and this is mostly a matter of personal opinion, is that the Xbox Series X really is practical to a fault. Microsoft's push to fully integrate it with the Xbox One makes it feel like an extension of the previous console generation rather than a fresh start—convenient, but also kind of boring. Swapping between the Xbox Series X and the Xbox One X—they barely even changed the name—is an exercise in deja vu. They even have the same dashboard.
This won't matter as much once the games start to arrive, but it does underscore the Xbox Series X's weaknesses elsewhere, especially in the area of the launch lineup (more on that in a moment). On more than one occasion I've found myself wondering, "Is this really it?" I'll grant that not every console needs to be a weird art mural , but if I'm going to spend $500 on a new device in the middle of a major recession, it helps to feel more excited about it.
The Launch Lineup: Losing Halo Infinite Hurts
This brings me to the launch lineup, maybe the least inspiring launch lineup in recent memory. Halo Infinite was supposed to anchor the Xbox Series X's library to start , but with its release being pushed to 2021, the platform is left with a smattering of third-party releases and enhanced backward compatible games. It says something that my most played game on the Xbox Series X outside of Yakuza: Like a Dragon is Forza Horizon 4—a game first released in 2018 .
All told, Microsoft touts some 30 optimized games for the Xbox Series X|S on Day 1. Here's the full list:
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (Smart Delivery)
Borderlands 3 (Smart Delivery)