Xbox Series X - Review

Whenever there's a new console there's always a desire to have the best be at the best graphics the best games everyone wants the best this generation is slightly different we already have HD gaming but now rather than going just to the next graphical extreme everyone’s doing something slightly different and they're focusing on the rest of the gaming landscape. Xbox is the 1st of this new generation but does the first mean the best?

Main Unit

Let's start off with looks, it's hard to look at the Xbox Series X and not think that it is a big box literally in shape and design, because it is a giant black box. When it set up in your unit, or whatever your setup might be it will stand out, I have a 55 inch television and it stands out next to that, but at the same time it never jumped out to the point where I'm playing a game and all I could see was the box, it managed to slip into the shadows, as it were. Initially I did set it up where I had my Xbox One X, however that required it to be laying down on the side and for some reason when the series X is lying down, it looks stupid.

Now I don't mean stupid as in it somehow looks very different, it just doesn't look right, we have seen the Xbox Series X for months being shown vertically, you know in in the way that Xbox want it to be and it does work there. There's also something about it being vertical that feels right and that again ties back to how often we've seen it upright, once I laid it down even before I connected any cabling, my mind didn't like the way it looked. Now Xbox have taken it into account that some folks will want to lay it down and they have put some rubber feet on the side where it lies down, the problem is they aren’t optional, they're always there, so even when you have it standing up you're going to see them. That is not a big deal, but it is something to be aware of and it does highlight the fact that if I could remove those feet I would, because laying it down, just doesn’t feel right.

The top of the console has that unique Swiss cheese looking top, now it is concaved meaning that it does recess in to the top of the unit so if you're worried about it being a bit of a bubble and you can't set things on top of it that's not an issue. Obviously though you won't want to cover that because it is a vent and air does flow out of it so keeping things off the top is preferred. The one thing that I do like about the top, is that it does have a colour-shift to it, so when you have if you're looking at it straight on you don't see any colour but the more you look at it from above the more green you see. It's very much like pearlescent paint on a car, if you look at it one way it looks 1 colour and as you move around it looks a different colour same effect just you know different colouring here. Obviously if you going to let down or going to hide it away in the back of entertainment unit or something you won't see that and it's not really an issue it's not the major design draw of the console but it is a nice little addition that they've put in there.

In terms of actual things on the front you have your Xbox power button which again lights up; you have your disc drive; you have a USB port and you have the sync button for the controller. That's it in terms of front-facing options, I would have liked to have seen the inclusion of USB-C port on the front just to allow for you know future proofing it a little. Sadly there's no type C on it at all and given that most of the accessories will be USB-A, I can understand why that was included, but I do wish they would have put a USB-C on it, even if it was on the back. Speaking of the back of the console this is where things become a little more fun, but maybe fun isn't the right word, but for me it's exciting because this is where you have your power and your HDMI, your USB ports for your external hard drives, your Rock Band controller adapter, or whatever the case may be. Each of the ports contains a number of dots, or if you are HDMI a dash, these are so when you are reaching behind it, without being able to see it, you can work out which hole is what type. It is also where you will plug in your Ethernet cable if you're going for a physical connection to your Internet but it's also where the proprietary memory card goes, and I'm aware it's not actually a memory card but it looks like a memory card and it stores things so it's technically a memory card.

Well I haven't had one of those yet to play with, but there's no denying that it's been fun to mess around with the hard drives that I have and just like Xbox promised I plugged my hard drives in and all my games appeared. In terms of the box there's nothing more to be said it's very straightforward, unlike the Xbox One S or One X, there are no protruding edges that hang over other bits of the box it is four completely flat sides with one teeny tiny small button for syncing a controller that's it.

Controller

Speaking of the controller let's talk about that now it seems only right that we address what most people will assume is the least amount of effort when it comes to the new design. The thing is while the controller looks a lot like the one from the Xbox one, it's actually more in line with the elite series rather and that was a bit surprising. The moment you pick up the controller it looks exactly like the standard controller the triggers are very similar in shape the bumpers are almost the same shape the charge port is in the same position though it is USB-C now and just above it and to the left is the sync button so everything appears to be the same, but it's not and the biggest difference is the weight. The standard Xbox One controller is light, not so light that you will pick it up and it doesn't feel like you're holding anything but there's a sense of emptiness inside the shell that gives it that that weightlessness, the Elite series was one where they corrected that and made the controller heavier to give people a sense that they were holding something. Excluding the other features of the Elite, the replaceable sticks and the paddles on the back though, the addition of weight and the rubberized backing made it very popular, the Elite 2 even more so, but it just refined the standard controller the one for the Series X is pretty much a cheaper version of the Elite series.

When I say cheap I don't mean it feels cheap, I just mean if you compare an Elite and the regular Series X controller, they both have textured backs where your hands would wrap around the controller, but on the Elite controller they are actual rubber with the grooves on it, but on the Series X it is moulded hard plastic. It feels very similar but there is a difference where it doesn't hold as well as the Elite series and while it's still good at what it's trying to do, for me going from an Elite to standard controller I've noticed the downgrade in feel. The other thing to consider as well, is that the triggers are a little shorter in length, they still have the same travel distance, but they're just not as long for your finger to sit on. This may not be a big thing for most people but if you're somebody who has bigger hands that is something you really need to think about. Of course the other big change to the standard controller is the D-pad on the original Xbox One controller it was shit, there is no way of saying it nicely, on the redesign of the controller when they added Bluetooth they tweaked it a bit to make it more functional and better but it was still not the best .

With the Elite series they completely rebuilt the mechanism underneath the D-pad and provided a much more tactile and responsive piece of hardware, to the point when you use it you can hear it clicking in place when you've pressed it down. One of the big additions obviously with the Elite is that you could modify the D-pad sensitivity and the cover that goes over it, on the new Series X controller the cover looks very similar but is not removable and while you can tweak things in the settings, it is just not to the same extreme on you can on the Elite. It does have that same click feel as the Elite D-pad which is very welcome and even when you're rolling from one side of the deep head to the other it feels solid. Obviously though we can't talk about the new controller without talking about the only knew button that's been added, and that is the share button.

Much like how it works on the PlayStation 4 or the Nintendo Switch, a tap of the button will take a screenshot press and hold will record some gameplay. Thankfully this works a lot more like the Switch in terms of responsiveness than it does the PlayStation 4, which has been a concern for people there, due to it taking so long. Here you just tap the button, screenshots done it uploads in the background tells you when it's on Xbox Live and once it's there you can then use your phone to share it out to any of your social medias directly from your phone, so you don't have to go into any app on the Xbox and use the D-pad or the stick to use virtual keyboard, you just do it straight from your phone and it works. If you are playing a game offline, or your Internet is not working when you take the screenshot or record the video, it will do it but it won't upload until everything is back online again and it knows that which is actually pretty clever.

With the new controller if you have an Elite the only reason you might choose to go with the standard Series X controller is for that share button. The lack of paddles on the back, the lack of a proper rubberized grip and the shorter triggers, make it a bit of a hard sell to downgrade from one of the best controllers around. Personally I don't use all of the paddles on the back of the Elite so I did try and re-map one of them to be the share button, but that functionality doesn't exist at this time if it did I would stick with the elite 100% as of now I'm staying with the Series X controller purely for that share functionality.

System

 For those thinking that the Series X was going to have a brand new OS, brand new look and feel to accommodate the new hardware and the new controller, stop, it doesn't, but it does offer basically the exact same that you got on the Xbox One and that's OK.

I said basically the same because your dashboard is the same if you log in with your Xbox Live account or an import your settings then you can enjoy your pins in the same order they are in so you don't have to reset everything up. Managing games is the same, seeing what's being downloaded is the same and what updates are available are identical, there is no change on how you manage the content you have. Now the big change comes from the store that has been overhauled to the point where apart from the fact that it's the Xbox game store there's no relation to the one from the Xbox One X and that is a good thing.

The new store is fast and when I say fast I don't mean it loads up and then things start up here I mean within 3 seconds you're in and viewing content and this wasn't one of those things where because I've got good Internet it was going to be that way, I deliberately slowed my network connexion down to ADSL speeds and it took 4 1/2 seconds, the new store is just faster. By default once you load into the store you get couple of tiles to indicate you know knew games or promotions and sadly that annoying sponsored thing is still showing up down there but it also gives you quick access to being able to search what games are on sale or what subscriptions you might have, so there's no need to go in for settings they're just on the front screen right when you load in. As you scroll down you get more things categories of games for you to play top sellers standard sort of digital storefront stuff the left-hand side navigation is where things are different and it is leagues above where it was previously. If you have any of the Xbox One family of consoles still connected you will remember the store required you to use the bumpers to move across to go into categories it was clunky and something that honestly was appalling for a company that has created some pretty spectacular software and I'm glad to see it gone here.

The left hand navigation contains an access point to your profile, so if you need to update credit card information and things like that that's where you would go for that below that is search; again there is a giant search button on the front screen as well. Below that you start seeing categories the first one is a shopping bag and it is home, it is where you see when you load in and that's where you can see sort of the top of everything. Below that you'll have a controller which is where you see games, below that you have the movie icon or the thing they snap when they are ready to start recording film in there that's when you can rent movies. For those that are looking for apps where you can have Netflix, Disney+ or Apple TV+, those are located on the one below, it's kind of four cubes stacked on top of each other with one not looking right and finally below that is hardware, if you have the need to order a new controller via your Xbox.

What is pretty cool is when you move over to the left hand navigation it expands out giving you that information but it also then gives you shortcuts within those categories so on the home you'll see a quick access back to the home page or to current deals or to your subscriptions. The games one will bring out quick links to add-ons or games that you can pre order rather than you having to fight it to find content and that was the thing that I really enjoyed about it. Further down below on the left hand menu, there is a divider between the categories we've already talked about and the other options those options are wish list basket redeem where you can enter in one of those exceptionally long 25 digit codes or go into settings wish list is where if you put things in there you can keep track when they go on sale things like that basket if you now want to purchase multiple items at once you can do so you don't have to buy one piece of DLC then come back and by the second you can group them together.

In terms of additions that's pretty much it, the main operating system is still the same still functions the same when you're looking at your games and apps, you can go into games and say look only show me Xbox One games only show me Xbox series X Games that are optimised for the platform so rather being able to play everything if you only want to play optimised you can apply that filter.  Everything is about your choice I like that is they removing the restriction between you and your content by making your content front and centre as I said earlier in the hardware plugging in a hard drive my games just started loading up it's pretty quick, copying them from the hard drive to the internal or vice versa was pretty fast obviously if you're rocking an old hard drive it may be bit slower but that's an incentive to upgrade I think. Overall the software is just amazing, it's smooth and responsive, but best of all it got out of my way let me do what I wanted to do.

As far as Xbox Series X goes as a physical device it honestly feels like more of an extension of the Xbox one then an entirely new device. This is not a bad thing I really like the box it has power inside to make the games look great, but perhaps even more importantly it's quiet. Everyone knows that with the Xbox 360, Microsoft encountered some heating problems, so when they created the Xbox One, the original look they over developed a new cooling system and it required a fair bit of space when they shrunk it down for the redesign of the Xbox One and then later the One X it still kept things pretty quiet but you could occasionally hear the fans kicking in, so far in all my testing I haven't encountered any instance where the fans have required to speed up but games are still new who knows how that will play out in the long run.

If you're a PlayStation 4 owner and you looking forward to PlayStation 5, congratulations that should probably be a great box, but if you're coming across to Xbox for the first time in a while or first time ever you're going to find a unit that is quiet, fast and most importantly lets you get on with gaming. That's probably the best thing that I can say about the Xbox Series X, it removes restrictions to let you game pretty instantly and how you want and that is exactly what I want from a games console

The Score

8.5

Review unit provided by Xbox

The Pros

+It let's you get on with your gaming

+All old accessories and hard drives worked, without issue

+The new store is leagues above the old one

The Cons

-The unit is big and finding a space for it, will be a challenge

-Not being able to map share to the Elite controller

-No games at launch to prove it is next gen