Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsSmall, Stylish, Yet Powerful, But With Flaws
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 December 2020
Got mine on launch week. The console itself perforns well, with the SSD providing the nost noticeable upgrade. Despite it's lower amount of available space, I haven't so far been having much issue with it's size. It loads games FAST and loading screens, while not completely eliminated, are nowhere near as much of a hassle.
The console looks stylish despite it's simplistic shape. I like that a lot about it. Each morning waking up I have to look at it, it looks so good with my setup. The white with black undertones contrasts in a way that is attractive.
I have Gamepass Ultimate with it and so far I really like how good of a deal it really is. Getting more of the latest games and access to EA games (though admittedly I don't play many of them) is great. I may try out Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order in the future. I am currently on my way through Fable II & III, as well as The Outer Worlds, Fallout 76 and Need for Speed Heat. I also played the remaster of the original Gears Of War, called Gears of War: Ultimate Edition, and Gears Tactics, of which I decided that they weren't for me. I haven't played the Halo games, but I currently plan on doing so in the future. And all of this for a low monthly price that I got as a discount for ordering from Amazon in the form of 3 Months Gampass Ultimate. Xbox are also giving me a free month of it on top, making it four months at a significantly discounted price.
The reason for only 4 stars is that the controller that came with my console has some partially unresponsive buttons. I can use the controller just fine but it is annoying that it sometimes doesn't register my button presses. Other than that the controller is as stylish as the console, is very comfortable, and with the official xbox rechargeable battery pack called Xbox Play & Charge Kit with USB-C (that you buy separately) it lasts days on a single charge (each day that I play I play for several hours at a time, so it is impressive). Officially it lasts somewhere around 30 hours, and it does feel like it. As has already been said elsewhere, the controller has very little lag wirelessly, pretty much identical to a wired connection.
As a bonus, the console uses a surprisingly low amount of electricity (around 100 Watts or less) despite how good the hardware is, helping to preserve the atmosphere of the Earth as well as your bank.
As a side note, I've been with PlayStation since the original PlayStation, though I would play PC and I had also played all the Xbox consoles. This generation Xbox are going strong despite the launch, unlike previous gen which was a disaster. I've chosen Xbox this time as around as I prefer the exclusives on offer and the future games coming to Xbox. As well as being, in my opinion, the better deal with Gamepass Ultimate. I originally thought PlayStation was going to dominate this gen, but now I'm not so sure. I am looking forward to games like Avowed and The Elder Scrolls and potentially Starfield, as well as the new Fable game that is currently in development.
All in all the Xbox Series S is a very good offering despite not being able to do native 4K resolution (though it can upscale to 4K from 1440p, it's maximum resolution, to 4K TV/Monitors), which is not an isssue for me as I don't currently own a 4K TV/Monitor but a 1080p one. Obviously if you have a 4K TV/Monitor and want to take full advantage of it then choose the Series X model. The Series S is for those of us who either don't yet have a 4K TV/Monitor or have a 4K TV/Monitor and don't yet want to make the full investment. We will wait until the prices go down and then upgrade, unless of course our TV/Monitors give in before then. I expect there to be mid-cycle refresh versions of the consoles that'll be cheaper, come in bundles, and be more power efficient.
Edit:
This was a 4 star review but I've now reduced it to 3. Many of the points I made are still valid. However, despite my initial assumptions with Gamepass, I can say that it is slightly over exaggerated in how good it is. Many of its games I am simply not interested in, and the ones I have tried got boring within a few minutes, with very few exxceptions. Also games with Gold kept dishing out unexciting games that are many years old, somewhat like Gamepass.
The other thing I don't like is the fact that this is a digital only console. I, of course, already knew that but I thought that digital gaming on console had improved. But to this day, it is generally better to have physical copies of games; They are cheaper on average, have resale value and don't take as long to install on the consoles, at least with a download speed of 30 Mbps. Yep, in the UK, boradband can be as slow as that.
Anyway, even with the disadvantages of physical copies in mind, they are still better overall. But if you don't mind buying digital and not knowing if you'll like the game or not and then knowing you can't get any of the money you spent on the game back, go right ahead. I personally am not happy about that, seeing as digital games are more expensive on average and they don't go on sale as often as they should.
To conclude, I would recommend you stay away from the digital-only consoles of this generation, that is the Xbox Series S and PS5 Digital Edition. What seems like you're saving money in the short term ends up being more expensive in the long run. Now I'm back to playing my PS4 Pro until I buy the PS5 (NOT DIGITAL EDITION). This is hilarious as I thought I wouldn't go back to my old console and back to PlayStation. I'm not a fanboy of course, I just prefer PlaysStation (I have flip-flopped a bit LOL!). I have played every Playstation console and every Xbox console. Xbox, no matter how hard I tried to like the platform, just never got me. And BTW, good luck with waiting for decent exclusives. They (nearly all) are a few years off on Series X/S. Just my opinion, you shouldn't have to wait that long! By the time you get anything like that, it is already into the middle of the console generation, and it is for that reason that Xbox might lose yet another console generation. Even with exclusives down the line, it is a little too late. PlayStation by then will have sold so many consoles that it might not matter much as people will then buy the most popular console of the generation so they can play with their friends.
Anyway. Enough of the talking LOL! This review has gone on long enough.
