Xbox Series X | S

[Boothjan]

I'd recommend Doom Eternal for proper jaw dropping visuals. No idea how it consistently sustains the frame rate.

 

Plays very well too - it's ace.

[Captain Kelsten]

Obligatory “Sea of Thieves” post. 

[Isaac]

Series X is in stock on Microsoft.com for the first time in ages:

 

https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/configure/8wj714n3rbtl

 

It's one per account, so if you have ordered one previously you can't get one through them.

 

If you use CDKeys.com for codes (buy 9) then you can get a brand new Series X direct from Microsoft for £413.91. CDKeys are perfectly reputable. 

[StumpyJohn]

1 hour ago, Isaac said:

Series X is in stock on Microsoft.com for the first time in ages:

 

https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/configure/8wj714n3rbtl

 

It's one per account, so if you have ordered one previously you can't get one through them.

 

If you use CDKeys.com for codes (buy 9) then you can get a brand new Series X direct from Microsoft for £413.91. CDKeys are perfectly reputable. 

It was in stock last week too on the 9th, I saw a message that was a couple of hours old and managed to get one.

[Tony]

2 hours ago, StumpyJohn said:

It was in stock last week too on the 9th, I saw a message that was a couple of hours old and managed to get one.

 

I think it's been in stock most of March. I got one at the beginning of the month. Purchased in a rush incase there wasn't another opportunity for a while and checked a few times (to try and convince myself it was the right decision) and it's been in stock everytime. Stockinformer has shown it in stock too during that period.

[Mallet]

Funny story. 

 

I got my series x delivered but I never got the chance to play on it before it was gone again. 

 

I mentioned to my sister that I had ordered one and, unknown to me, she had been searching high and low for series x for her son's birthday. She didn't know that the Microsoft store sold them and was only checking places like Amazon and argos. 

 

Anyway she asked me to pass it on to her as my nephew's birthday was Sunday which wouldn't be time to get it delivered to Northern Ireland. Apparently my sister and nephew had made an agreement that if he saved half of the money my sister would add the rest for his birthday present. My nephew had saved his Christmas money and pocket money for the last 2 months which impressed me so I passed it over. I also got him a year of game pass as my present to him. Needless to say the kid was over the moon. 

 

I did get my TV though and hooked my Series S up instead. 4k is nice, a few games are supported on the Series S, but the real game changer is HDR I think. It makes such a huge difference when implemented well, the colours pop off the screen. Ori is breath taking and even an old game like Panzer Dragoon Orta looks amazing with auto HDR

 

I think I may actually just stick with the Series S for a couple of weeks and see if I'm happy with 1080p HDR scaled up. So far I have been very impressed by my new TV's scaling, even Switch games like Breath of the Wild look fantastic scaled up to 4k. *sigh* can you imagine how beautiful Nintendo games would be if they had HDR? 

 

It may be old news to a lot of people here but this was my first time experiencing HDR and it simply blew my mind the difference it makes. 

 

Auto HDR has amazing potential to spruce up older games. 

[metallicfrodo]

The advantage is that 1080p to 4k is a very simple scale as every 1080p pixel is 4 pixels at 4k, so you shouldn't see any scaling artifacts.

[idiwa]

Series S acquired this morning and Gamepass Ultimate fully weaponised till March 2025. YASS! Just need some time off work to bloody enjoy it now.

[Hideous Kojima]

Surprisingly tricky to find an answer to this: Thinking of getting an SS (heil) but since I've already got a bone I'm wondering if it's worth it. Are there any games exclusively for S/X that aren't at all available on the one?

[Garwoofoo]

2 minutes ago, Hideous Kojima said:

Surprisingly tricky to find an answer to this: Thinking of getting an SS (heil) but since I've already got a bone I'm wondering if it's worth it. Are there any games exclusively for S/X that aren't at all available on the one?

 

Flight Simulator and The Medium are the only ones I can think of, but you can play the first of those at least through cloud streaming now if you really want to.

 

The Series S is a massive upgrade from the One S though, loading times alone are transformative but you'll be playing a lot more games at 60fps too. If you've got a One X it's slightly less clear-cut (the One X still has the edge sometimes for older games) but it's still a worthwhile upgrade.

[earlymodernsteve]

22 hours ago, Mallet said:

Funny story. 

 

I got my series x delivered but I never got the chance to play on it before it was gone again. 

 

I mentioned to my sister that I had ordered one and, unknown to me, she had been searching high and low for series x for her son's birthday. She didn't know that the Microsoft store sold them and was only checking places like Amazon and argos. 

 

Anyway she asked me to pass it on to her as my nephew's birthday was Sunday which wouldn't be time to get it delivered to Northern Ireland. Apparently my sister and nephew had made an agreement that if he saved half of the money my sister would add the rest for his birthday present. My nephew had saved his Christmas money and pocket money for the last 2 months which impressed me so I passed it over. I also got him a year of game pass as my present to him. Needless to say the kid was over the moon. 

 

I did get my TV though and hooked my Series S up instead. 4k is nice, a few games are supported on the Series S, but the real game changer is HDR I think. It makes such a huge difference when implemented well, the colours pop off the screen. Ori is breath taking and even an old game like Panzer Dragoon Orta looks amazing with auto HDR

 

I think I may actually just stick with the Series S for a couple of weeks and see if I'm happy with 1080p HDR scaled up. So far I have been very impressed by my new TV's scaling, even Switch games like Breath of the Wild look fantastic scaled up to 4k. *sigh* can you imagine how beautiful Nintendo games would be if they had HDR? 

 

It may be old news to a lot of people here but this was my first time experiencing HDR and it simply blew my mind the difference it makes. 

 

Auto HDR has amazing potential to spruce up older games. 

Coolest uncle ever  

[Transient Curse]

 

 

Pretty cool.  This is Quick resume, controller remapping and "open pinned game" working together. 

[StumpyJohn]

2 hours ago, Hideous Kojima said:

Surprisingly tricky to find an answer to this: Thinking of getting an SS (heil) but since I've already got a bone I'm wondering if it's worth it. Are there any games exclusively for S/X that aren't at all available on the one?

I just upgraded from a 1X to a SeriesX and wouldn't have considered the potato spec SeriesS.  I do have a LG CX so wanted to make the most out of that with the 4K, HDR, VRR etc of the SX.

There's not much exclusive at the moment but that's only going to increase over time and later in the cycle we'll see stuff struggling on the S just like we have with the bone.

[moosegrinder]

I cancelled my S preorder back on release because I realised it wasn't worth the smaller SSD and the lack of One X enhanced support so went for a series X. It depends what you want from the console, really. If you play big AAA games 500gb really isn't enough.

[Fry Crayola]

It also depends on your habits as well. I play big AAA games on my S, but I only focus on one at a time and delete when I'm done. 500 GB is fine for that.

 

If you've got a couple of big games you like to dip in and out of, or have regular online play across a spread of titles, you could easily need the larger space of the X which is a better proposition than adding more storage space.

[MattyP]

1 hour ago, StumpyJohn said:

I just upgraded from a 1X to a SeriesX and wouldn't have considered the potato spec SeriesS.  I do have a LG CX so wanted to make the most out of that with the 4K, HDR, VRR etc of the SX.

There's not much exclusive at the moment but that's only going to increase over time and later in the cycle we'll see stuff struggling on the S just like we have with the bone.

The processor in both is the same - think the X runs at slightly higher clock rate. So "potato spec" would apply to both consoles TBH. Series X being a 4K focussed machine and Series S being a 1080p focussed machine. Sure the X is better value if you need the storage etc. But its £200 more. 

 

I don't expect the series S will get left behind or hold back any development of the Series X TBH. Only if the move onto a new processor more powerful than the Series X. 

[Lorfarius]

1 hour ago, moosegrinder said:

I cancelled my S preorder back on release because I realised it wasn't worth the smaller SSD and the lack of One X enhanced support so went for a series X. It depends what you want from the console, really. If you play big AAA games 500gb really isn't enough.

 

Buy one of the internal SSD cards? Then top it off with a USB drive if you want to go that extra step. Its plenty for most games.

[MattyP]

4 minutes ago, Lorfarius said:

 

Buy one of the internal SSD cards? Then top it off with a USB drive if you want to go that extra step. Its plenty for most games.

Think they have a cheaper 512GB SSD option now too which will bring a Series S upto the storage of the Series X. And still be £100 cheaper (512GB SSD upgrades are ~£100 IIRC). 

[Mallet]

I've said it before but as long as you understand the limitations of the Series S, no not even limitations, if you understand what it was designed to be you will have a great time with it. 

 

Go in expecting 4k 60 and you will be disappointed. 

[moosegrinder]

41 minutes ago, Lorfarius said:

 

Buy one of the internal SSD cards? Then top it off with a USB drive if you want to go that extra step. Its plenty for most games.

 

It really isn't for me, and the cost of the external cards means you may as well get the Series X.

[rafaqat]

I thought I'd struggle with the hard drive space but so far have been fine.  The cloud gaming features have meant I've just streamed some games rather than install.

[Lorfarius]

1 hour ago, moosegrinder said:

 

It really isn't for me, and the cost of the external cards means you may as well get the Series X.

 

You can pick up a secondhand series S for £140 these days and not much for a the external cards. Way below the X if money is your worry.

[JoeK]

Honestly, I was enormously surprised with how quick games transfer from a standard mechanical HD to my Series X SDD. It's by far the nippiest of all the consoles, and I just juggle things as and when I need to. I keep the Halo games on the main SDD for obvious reasons of course .

 

For the £50 I paid for a 2tb drive, it's been a good move. 

[moosegrinder]

26 minutes ago, Lorfarius said:

 

You can pick up a secondhand series S for £140 these days and not much for a the external cards. Way below the X if money is your worry.

 

Where are you seeing them for £140? Also it's not just the space but I'm not going over it again. Long and short if you don't care too much about SSD size, 4k and One X enhanced games a Series S is great. Loads of people one here are well pleased with theirs. 'course, a load of people bought S's and then upgraded to X's. Take from that what you will.

[Hitcher]

Sure it's not One S?

[Lorfarius]

2 hours ago, moosegrinder said:

 

Where are you seeing them for £140? Also it's not just the space but I'm not going over it again. Long and short if you don't care too much about SSD size, 4k and One X enhanced games a Series S is great. Loads of people one here are well pleased with theirs. 'course, a load of people bought S's and then upgraded to X's. Take from that what you will.

 

Facebook Marketplace and eBay. I was responding to your comment about 500GB not being enough, the S is the smaller system but space isn't an issue. If money is and you don't care about 4K then its the perfect entry point especially if you can't find the X.

[Kryptonian]

6 hours ago, StumpyJohn said:

I just upgraded from a 1X to a SeriesX and wouldn't have considered the potato spec SeriesS.  I do have a LG CX so wanted to make the most out of that with the 4K, HDR, VRR etc of the SX.

There's not much exclusive at the moment but that's only going to increase over time and later in the cycle we'll see stuff struggling on the S just like we have with the bone.

I have both (series S & X) and reckon that due to the targeted resolution and how things have been so far it’ll be fine. I have the S on a 1440p HDR/120Hz/VRR monitor and the X on a LG CX. Both have been great so far.

[StumpyJohn]

15 minutes ago, Kryptonian said:

I have both (series S & X) and reckon that due to the targeted resolution and how things have been so far it’ll be fine. I have the S on a 1440p HDR/120Hz/VRR monitor and the X on a LG CX. Both have been great so far.

No way I wanted to waste my nice 4K screen with a 1080 console! 

[JPL]

Series S is perfect for the kids or as a second console. If you’re going to be using it as your primary, a Series X is the way to go.

[SeanR]

It’s a balancing act. My PS5, which I justified as primarily a better psvr engine, wouldn’t get as much use if I had a series x as well

 

as it is my series s gets all the gamepass action, and obvious 1st party titles.

 

not sea of thieves though. Fuck that.