The Xbox Series X Review: Ushering In The Next Generation of Game Consoles
by Brett Howse on November 5, 2020 9:00 AM ESTMedia Playback
Although Microsoft has dropped the HDMI input, the Xbox Series X is still a potent media device. Whether it is overkill or not is likely unique to your situation, but, as with previous Xbox devices, it is not a perfect media machine.
For those that are curious, even though Microsoft no longer sells the Xbox One media remote, the Xbox Series X still has full IR remote capabilities, and swapping it in where the Xbox One X used to live required absolutely no changes to the Logitech Harmony Elite to control it.
On the positive side, the Xbox has full support for 4K and upcoming 8K via the HDMI 2.1 connection. This also provides both HDR10 and Dolby Vision support for streaming media, although Dolby Vision support will be coming for games in 2021. If you choose the Series X over the Series S, you also get a UHD Blu-Ray player, including lossless audio bitstreamed to your receiver, or decoded and sent as 7.1 LPCM uncompressed audio. Microsoft's statement on Dolby Vision support clearly states that it is for streaming media only, so, at least for the moment, UHD Blu-Ray would be "limited" to HDR10. That may change when the Dolby Vision update is added for gaming, but we have no confirmation on this.
As an app platform, the Xbox supports all the major streaming services, including the just-announced-for-Xbox Apple TV app.
Although the Xbox has lost its TV integration for controlling a cable box and the associated TV guide info required for that setup with this generation, you can of course roll your own solution with Plex and other products if you are into that.
Does this make it the perfect media streaming device? Sadly, the answer is no. When the Xbox One launched back in 2013, a powerful platform helped with app responsiveness and features, but in 2020, a Roku, or even the integrated Smart TV offerings can offer the same or better support. Plus, the very high idle power draw of the Xbox Series X of around 50 Watts is a lot of power just to be streaming video. A Roku or integrated Smart TV application is going to use far less power for the same task. Keeping 16 GB of GDDR6 running so you can stream an episode of Sherlock, as good a show as it is, might be overkill.
When we reviewed the Xbox One X back in 2017, we also criticized the Netflix application on Xbox because the developers have hard-locked the app to forcing HDR, or in the case of the setup for the review unit, Dolby Vision. Almost none of the content on Netflix, nor the menus, are HDR content, so this completely breaks the colors for almost every show you watch. The only solution is to disable HDR on the Xbox and re-launch the app, which is not a very convenient way to utilize the most popular streaming service. It is amazing this bug still exists when it is so detrimental to the experience.
Amazon Prime, as an example, handles the scenario correctly, where only content that is capable of HDR is switched to using HDR, so it is not an Xbox issue, but a Netflix issue, which sadly, means the most popular streaming service is a very sub-par experience on the Xbox platform when connected to a HDR display.
But maybe you do not have a smart TV, or maybe your streaming service is not available on the platform you use. The Xbox can certainly stand in. In most cases, it is an excellent media device, and if it saves buying another device like a Roku, then it may as well get used, even if the power draw is an order of magnitude higher than some of the other streaming devices.
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Kangal - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
I haven't seen any TV, Radio, or Billboard ads. Even the buzz online has been quite mute.Despite that, 2020 is a bad time for console release. Not only is the pandemic risk a real problem, but the component supply issues are tough, the people having a lot less spending money is massive, and on top of that software and game developers have also been hit.
Now every disadvantage has it's advantage!
1) I think this was the perfect opportunity for MS to one-up and beat the console race, by pulling a "pro move". And what I mean about that is that MS should have trolled Sony, by developing a next-gen console that is launching in December, priced much higher, have worse specs, be much hotter, be much louder, look uglier, have a confusing name, and have gimmicky launch titles. So it's basically a 4K-checkerboard console with NO RayTracing. Yep, even going as far as sending lots of units to game publishers to work on, some individual units to online reviewers, and even limited supply to retailers. This would've meant Sony develops a PS5 that's even worse than now in terms of features (No RayTracing) and specs (20%-60% slower), and at a higher $600 price, to help the company profit-margin.
2) Then at the last minute, bam, MS apologises and cancels the product just before launch. Then cite the covid restrictions, supply issues, etc etc as the culprit. But promise to release the system very soon when they are ready. A slimy business move indeed. It will have the half-baked PS5 competing with itself, which doesn't matter, as PS4 had won the current-gen console race.
3) Then "re-develop" the next-gen console to actually release a year later, in Oct 2021. By this period, they would have stopped Xbox One/S/X production and ended stock. And released the "Xbox Two" as a better named, beautiful console, that runs cold, runs silent, ships with the Elite2 controller, and has a couple awesome exclusive games. It would run all enhanced "XB1X" games, and it supports next-gen games with an output of 4K-HDR-RayTracing with 120fps, but all games are actually rendered in 1080p. So because of the questionable 4TF RDNA +2 GPU its only a slight upgrade (modest upgrade to Base Xbox One), and priced equal to the discounted Xbox OneX at $300. Even worse it lacks a Disc tray, so it is Digital Only which gives a monopoly to MS for game sales and streaming. However, thanks to the much faster 4.0GHz Zen3 CPU, 16GB GDDR6 memory, and the Soldered 512GB nVme SSD, it does support all next-gen titles. So this rounds out the Xbox One era, with no reviewers sent any units, with all retailers having full stock already, it is ready for sale right away, shocks the industry and defeats the 1 year old $600 PS5 on a strict value proposition.
4) But wait, there's more!
Upon release of the Xbox Two, one week later MS holds a press release/announcement. This is their true fifth-gen console aptly named "The Xbox V". It's even better named, more beautiful design, runs silent, runs cool, released cheaper and better than expected. The next day and following, there are ads for it everywhere on TV, Radio, Billboards, and everywhere online. Whilst pre-orders start the next week, for a sweet $500 price, with heaps of stock in MS's warehouses boxed and ready. They would also have a new 5th-gen controller dubbed "XP5" for Xbox Pad 5 with an updated design. It also uses upgraded parts like 4.0GHz Zen3 CPU, a more modern 12TF RDNA2+ GPU, ample 32GB GDDR6 memory, and a 1TB nVme SSD that is user replaceable. Not to mention a much more polished API, Software, and launch titles/exclusives (not gimmicky). Overall there's a huge and noticeable (30%-90%) performance difference between the "half-baked PS5" versus the "enhanced Xbox V". This means PS5 suffers immensely with all third-party releases for the entire generation (not enough RAM, worse APIs, and slower CPU and GPU), and this new console package with such an instant reveal and launch puts Sony at a difficult position. Hence, having an early victory in 2020 for Sony proves useless in terms of profit and market share, and the console race really heats up.
PS: ....with all this hypothetical yet possible scenario laid out, I should note Nintendo lost a similar opportunity with the Switch console. Which could have retailed more/less price, and launched same/earlier period, YET using the new technologies it could have been much more advanced and even more powerful than the PS4, thus supporting all third-party games from the current-gen consoles. It would've extended its effective lifetime, not be obsolete so quickly. Perhaps remain relevant in the next-gen console era as well, instead of relying on gimmicks, fans, and nostalgia.
persondb - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
That would require Microsoft to know ahead about the current situation. Because you know, hardware takes a long time to develop and it was likely finalized just before the start of this pandemic. Same for playstation really.Tams80 - Sunday, November 8, 2020 - link
This is what an uninhibited stream of fanboi fantasy looks like.Utterly clueless, impractical, unrealistic, and silly. Move along; nothing to see here.
TesseractOrion - Sunday, November 8, 2020 - link
Total drivel.Kangal - Sunday, November 8, 2020 - link
I concur.Still fun thought exercise. Besides fact is stranger than fiction.
cmdrdredd - Monday, November 9, 2020 - link
People without disposable income have made the PS4 Pro and Nintendo switch disappear from retail supply though. Seems people have more money than you thinkFloridaMan - Friday, November 20, 2020 - link
Sir,Corporate espionage is a real thing. Nearly all tech companies engage in an array of both soft and hard spying to know what the competition is bringing to the table.
AMD would be point entropy in this situation. Not only is a third party designing for both Sony and MS, but their using the same architecture as well. One has less room to differentiate their product within those lines. However, this is beneficial to the consumer as developers are working between a framework rather than having to code for separate entities.
Gone are the days where one might wait a year for game to port. (At least for consoles. The PCMASTERACE still locked behind this constraint on many titles, but we are patient, and mighty! What cannot be unlocked will be emulated, modded or synthesized!)
Yojimbo - Thursday, November 5, 2020 - link
I don't know if that's true or not, as I don't watch any TV. But maybe they feel it would be counterproductive in this environment. Hyping something up that will be in short supply for a while might make people frustrated. And by short supply I don't mean the supply will be low, I mean that demand will already outstrip supply without any advertising.The console market as a whole is probably pretty stable without any advertising, but Sony and Microsoft would want to gain an edge against each other in enthusiasm. So I would expect campaigns to try to influence people. Perhaps at first they will be a bit more subtle? (such as to get their product talked about on gamer youtuber channels, etc...) Then it's out there in people's minds without the direct, implicit promises of availability that come with direct advertising.
MonkeyPaw - Thursday, November 5, 2020 - link
Maybe they know they're facing supply shortages and there's no point in paying for advertising to sell a product that might already be sold out through the end of the year. I think enough gamers knew about PS5 and XSX that a tv commercial wouldn't move the needle.HarryVoyager - Saturday, November 7, 2020 - link
That would be my suspicion. As I understand it, the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S have all, already, completely sold out in most markets, and it will be a while until they've got enough hardware on hand to make more.At that point a big ad blitz is just going to cost you money.