n spite of how depressing last year was, the 10th of November was a day to look forward to for the gaming community. With the promise of new generations of gaming consoles from gaming giant Xbox, the countless lockdown hours during the quarantine would be even more bearable.
Launch day then came.
Xbox unveiled the Xbox series X and Xbox series S consoles – the former a higher-end full disk-drive compatible version and the latter a more affordable digital-only version.
The hopes of many gamers, however, were suddenly dashed as Xbox’s parent company Microsoft quickly ran out of consoles to sell. In fact, many pre-orders that were placed had to be canceled.
Demand for the Xbox Series X, in particular, is still very high but with the market now a little stabilized, you can get it with some luck on your side. If you are wondering whether it is worth it to get "the fastest Xbox ever yet", then we have all the answers for you.
The Xbox Series X; All You Need to Know
The Xbox Series X comes with the best specs yet in any Xbox gaming console and still sits around a $500 price tag that’s very reasonable when compared to other competitor consoles like the PS5 and the Nintendo. Its simple monolith-esque design emphasizes raw power and fewer aesthetics.
If the Xbox Series X is great for just one thing, that will be its operating speed. Microsoft calls it "the fastest, most powerful Xbox ever", and for good reason. Featuring the company’s patented ‘Xbox Velocity Architecture’, the Xbox Series X packs 12 teraflops of processing power backed by a 1 terabyte SSD drive and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory to give a powerful true 4K gaming experience and even up to 8K with HDR at up to 120 frames per second rates.
Its powerful core makes for near-zero load times and makes it truly plug and play. However, this also makes it a warm beast. To keep the console cool, it is built with a top-mounted suction fan that draws air in a parallel flow over the cooling sink and through the split motherboard, and with the help of a built-in chamber, cools most efficiently and runs quietly.
On the outside, this console comes with a low-profile monolithic design that’s can stand upright or lay horizontally. Non-slip feet on the bottom and side ensure that your console stays grounded and doesn’t fall or slip off. Housing all its internal components is an injection-molded polyethylene shell that makes it lightweight and yet durable.
Connectivity-wise, the Xbox Series X is surely not lacking. On the back, it features an expansion port that supports up to 1 TB hard drives for extra storage, two USB output ports that can double as charging ports for the controller, an HDMI port, an Ethernet port, and a power input port.
The Xbox Series X console sounds even better. Featuring 3D spatial sound, you can harness hyper-realistic immersive sounds with the right audio kit to complete the action.
Another great feature you can enjoy with the Xbox Series X is the Xbox Game Pass subscription. This monthly subscription allows you access to a library of games, some old and some new, and optimized to harness the full power of the Xbox Series X console.
Included with the console are a free controller, an HDMI cable, and a power cord.
The Controller
The Xbox Series X wireless controller hasn’t changed much from its predecessors. It sports a similar design, but comes with a little extra, while still staying compatible with Xbox One’s, Windows 10 PCs, and other cloud gaming units.
On the left side of the controller are a left thumbstick, a ‘view’ button, a directional control pad (D-pad), a central ‘Xbox’ button, the all-new ‘button’, and a ‘Menu’ button. On the right, you’ll find another thumbstick and A, B, X, and Y buttons.
At the top of the controller are left and right bumpers that sit above left and right trigger buttons respectively. In between both bumpers is the ‘Pair’ button for Bluetooth wireless connectivity. You’ll also find an expansion port and USB Type-C charging port at the bottom.
The Xbox Series X controller retains all the features of previous Xbox controllers but includes the new ‘Share’ button. This allows you to take screenshots and recordings of game action and share them with friends and family.
Its D-pad is also more responsive with a more audible click that may or may not tickle most gamers’ fancies.
One last significant addition is the textured grips around the handles and top buttons. These keep the controller in your hands and won’t slip even when your palms are sweaty.
The controller still runs on regular AA batteries like its predecessors. While many fans and gamers expected Microsoft to finally adopt built-in rechargeable batteries on this new controller like with other competitors, they didn’t. You can keep the controller juiced up by simply replacing the batteries, putting in rechargeable AA batteries, or getting customized Xbox-compatible battery packs.
Our Verdict
While Microsoft stays conservative at naming the Xbox Series X as the most powerful Xbox yet, many gamers believe it is the most powerful gaming console in 2021 available today.
It comes as a gadget with powerful insides that sit in a rather ‘okay’ shell. However, we think that the Xbox Series X gaming console is totally worth it. As we were lucky enough to land our hands on the first batch, it has met up to our expectations so far.
If you want to enjoy the in-vogue Xbox but are wary of its $500 price tag, the Xbox Series S was made just for you. A tuned-down digital-only version of the Series X, the Xbox Series S still packs a punch but features lesser storage, no disk drive, slower processing speed, and previous-generation graphics for a $300 price tag - $200 less. However, for its weight and size, it still rivals the larger Series X.
Whichever your choice may be, there is no doubt that Microsoft has proven once again that it is here to stay in the gaming industry. Purchase an Xbox controller which can be used for the new Xbox console today from Amazon!
