The gaming market has been taken by storm by the now current-gen consoles, the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. And while these juggernauts dominate the sales charts, it might be easy to forget the Xbox Series S, the Series X’s little brother.
For those who are unaware, the Series S is the other next-gen console option on offer from Microsoft. Coming in at the surprisingly low price of $299, the Series S provides an in-between from the last generation and the new one. It provides many of the benefits of next-gen without breaking the bank.
So let’s first start with the design of the Series S. Its innocuous, minimalist design is wonderful. While the Series X and PS5 were seemingly built to draw attention themselves, the Series S blends in perfectly with your living room. It takes on the appearance of an advanced stereo system with its stark white appearance and vented ports. It’s also a surprisingly small console, with its length and width that is comparable to a very thick book.
The discreetness of the Series S doesn’t end with its appearance either. Even while running more graphic intensive games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Black Ops: Cold War, the Series S remains shockingly quiet.
The key difference between the Series S and X comes down largely to power and design. Unlike Series X, the Series S is an all-digital console, meaning it does not have a disc drive. If you are a person who prefers to keep a physical library, the Series S is simply not for you.
In terms of power, this becomes a tricky question. While the Series X aims for 4K graphics, the Series S instead aims for 1440p resolution for its games. Initially, this may seem like a mark against the Series S, but this could actually be seen as a bonus. The truth is, many players don’t have access to a 4K television or monitor, so we wouldn’t be capable of taking advantage of the full power of the Series X anyways.
The games optimized for Series S and X still look great on the Series S. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is a great example of this. Yes, there is a discrepancy between the S and X. Not only does the Series X version of Valhalla have 4K, but it also runs at 60fps. Meanwhile, the Series S runs at 1440p with 30fps.
However, even knowing this, Valhalla still looked gorgeous and it maintained a consistent framerate with no stuttering or framerate drops. Simply put, the game runs like a dream and truly feels like a next-gen experience.
What really shines about the Series S is just how fast everything feels and loads in. Navigating the UI feels seamless, and load times are lightning quick. Thanks to the internal SSD on the Series S, load times have been reduced to seconds.
Even the large open-world of Valhalla only took mere seconds to load in, and even multiplayer matches in Black Ops: Cold War loaded insanely fast. Because of the SSD, you are ultimately going to find yourself playing more and waiting less.
This is also true for backwards compatibility. Nearly every backwards compatible game benefits from the SSD. Both The Outer Worlds and Doom: Eternal were tested on the internal SSD for this review, and both games exhibited load times that were halved and smooth gameplay. Even Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, a game that suffered from stuttering and framerate issues, ran consistently smoother on the Series S.
Of course, the greatest strength of the Series S is also its weakness. If you want to take advantage of the Series S and its power, you have to have games loaded on the internal SSD. The storage is just too small for the system. 512gb on the SSD is what you get, but actual usable space comes down to around 360gb which is really small.
Black Ops: Cold War alone takes up nearly 120gb of space. Players should bring some sort of external storage for their games so they can transfer in and out the games they want to use on the SSD.
Unfortunately, backwards compatible games don’t look better on Series S like the Series X. You might have heard by now that the Series X has provided a general boost to visuals even to games not optimized for the Series X. This is not the case for the Series S.
Coming from an Xbox One X to a Series S, Xbox One games had blurrier visuals, muddied textures and aliasing. This is because the Series S runs the One S version of games rather than the One X. Still, while backwards compatible games may not look better on Series S, they undoubtedly run better on it.
The best thing for the Series S is how it finds its niche audience. It bridges the gap between the last generation and the new one.
The Series S appeals to the PlayStation fans who want to dabble in the Xbox ecosystem. It’s for the people who simply don’t have the budget right now to make the full leap to 4K gaming, and its for the casual gamer who just wants a solid gaming system without spending too much.
The Series S is the little console that could, and for what it does, it does astoundingly.
4/5 Torches
