The Xbox Series X and Series S have been out for 4 months now, and having used the Series X almost daily since launch, I thought it was time to do a follow up review. Is it really worth upgrading from the Xbox One?
So this is my 4 months later review where I’ll cover what I like, dislike, what I’d improve and what issues I’ve had.
Controller
So starting with the controller, the new Xbox controller still feels great, and as you’d expect after only a few months of use, there’s nothing wrong with them at all. The thumbsticks feel firm, with no stick drift, and the triggers feel solid too. The more I’ve used it, the more I like the grippy texture on the triggers.
I’ve also picked up two additional controllers since launch, I’ve gone for the Shock Blue and the Pulse Red. Obviously these don’t differ from the original black controller in terms of functionality, but they look really nice.
I’ve not got one yet, but there’s also the option to use an Xbox Elite Series 2 controller. It might be something I pick up in the future, but right now I’m happy with the normal style. The only thing I might do is order a custom colour from ColorWare, I had a video about this last week too.
Unfortunately the Xbox controllers don’t come with built in batteries, I know you can buy play and charge kits, but I prefer using a dock. So I bought one of these PowerA docks that also comes with 2 battery packs and 4 rear covers. This means it works on both the new and old Xbox controllers. I also think this dock is one of the nicest looking docks out there actually.
Accessories
As for other accessories, I’m just using some Astro A10s. I also have the new Xbox wireless headset on order too, which launches later this month. These cost around $100 or £90 on the Xbox website and look pretty nice. I might do a video about these if anyone is interested.
I also have a Sandisk Extreme SSD plugged in, which I’ll explain later what I use this for.
Are there any other accessories I should pick up for the Xbox? Anything you’re using?
Games
Now if you’ve followed my channel for a while, you’ll know that I primarily play on PlayStation, but during the last few months I’ve played a lot of games on the Xbox too. Mainly the exclusives that I can’t play on the PS5 or anything on Gamepass that I’d not normally buy.
The backwards compatibility of the Xbox is incredible. I mean the fact you can play almost all of your old favourite Xbox games on one console is just awesome. There are so many games on here that I want to replay again which I used to play back on the Xbox 360. This alone is a huge selling point of the Xbox, but if you’re not interested in playing old games, the new games look incredible.
It’s probably no surprise that one of my favourite games is Forza, Forza Horizon 4. This game, without any doubt, is one of the best racing games out there. It runs incredibly smoothly too at 4K 60, almost faultless.
The cars, the sounds, the views. Even the weather and time of day transitions blows me away. I’ve definitely spent more time driving around than actually racing on this, but it’s awesome.
Another game that I recently picked up again was Gears 5. This game looks absolutely awesome on the Series X. It’s running at 4K 120, and it’s silky smooth. Obviously the TV is helping here, but the black levels and detail in the dark scenes is really impressive.
So if you’ve ever played Gears before or you like 3rd person co-op games, definitely give this one ago.
Another racing game that runs at 4K 120, and only came to game pass a couple of weeks ago is DIRT 5. I’ve had this since launch on the PS5, and it was full of bugs originally, but since then it’s improved and it’s a lot of fun. It’s an arcade racing game, but it runs smooth and it’s an easy one to pick up and play when you have a spare 30 minutes.
The fact it’s now included on gamepass, I’d recommend getting this too, and the achievements for this are pretty easy as well.
And next up is Warzone. I’ve played a few games on this over the last few months, and I don’t know what it is, but I’m absolutely terrible on the Xbox. I mean I’m no pro on the PS5, but on the Xbox I’m so bad. But I’ve enjoyed the games I’ve played.
There are loads of games that have been optimised for the Xbox Series X and S already, and some of these include:
- Ori and the will of the whisps
- Assassins Creed
- Cold War
- Grounded
- Watch Dogs
- WRC 9
Game Pass
I’ve mentioned GamePass already, but this is a massive part of the Xbox. So all of the games I’ve been playing, apart from WarZone, have been part of Gamepass.
So for £11 / $15 a month you can get GamePass ultimate which gets you hundreds of games and includes Xbox Gold too. You’ll keep these games until you stop paying or they are removed from the library in the future.
Also part of gamepass is the EA Play library, so games like Need for Speed Heat, Madden, Plants vs Zombies and Battlefield are all included.
That’s huge and it’s well worth the monthly fee. In fact I’ve not bought a single game outside of this pass.
UI
The dashboard and overall UI of the Xbox Series X has left me feeling pretty bored though. I mean it looks fine and it’s extremely easy to use, but as I’ve mentioned before it’s no different to the previous gen. Yes it’s evolved over time, and it’ll probably change again in the future, but it still leaves me wanting more from it.
One cool feature though, is depending on the last game or current game you’re playing, the background image changes on the dashboard. So here you can see the entire background has changed.
I do like the pop up menu, the quick navigation while playing games. Being able to jump into party chats, view settings, or even swap games.
Game Recording / SSD
So if you follow my other gaming channel, SpawnPoiint Gaming you’ll know I regularly upload gameplay footage of games I’m playing on both the PS5 and Xbox. So being able to record games and easily upload them is important to me.
Now the Xbox does support the option to record in 4K, which is awesome. However it’s not as easy as I’d hoped. So firstly, if you want to record any more than 30 seconds of 4K gameplay, you’ll need a compatible 3.0 external SSD drive, you can’t just record onto the internal drive unfortunately.
I’m using the Sandisk Extreme SSD, I’ve only got the 500 GB version as I’ll never need more than that.
It needs formatting to NTFS by plugging it into a laptop, I’ve called the drive Xbox Series X. Once formatted just plug it into the Xbox ready to set it up. Go to the capture settings screen, and select the new drive, and set as capture location.
Now on the Capture window you’ll have the option to change between the internal memory and whatever you’ve called the SSD, in my case it’s called Xbox Series X.
To capture games it’s really easy, just press and hold the new share button on the controller, and it’ll start recording to the SSD. Then press and hold to stop recording.
The issue is when it comes to taking that footage and uploading it to say YouTube, you can’t just upload straight from the Xbox, you have to remove the drive and plug it back into a laptop and upload manually. This all seems unnecessary to me, when on the PS5 I can just capture the footage straight to the console, I don’t need an SSD, and then upload straight to YouTube there and then.
Hopefully Xbox offer this in the future via an update. Or if you know of an easier way around this, let me know too.
Quick resume
Another awesome feature that I’ve enjoyed using when I’m alternating my gameplay between myself and my children, is quick resume.
So not all games are compatible with this unfortunately, at least not yet anyway, but you can essentially close one game and open another up, without losing the position you’re in.
So here I started on Gears 5, and without actually closing the game down or returning to the home screen, I was able to jump into Forza. Then after playing forza for a little bit I can jump back into Gears 5. Now the time it takes to jump between games is quite quick, it’s not rapid, but it’s quicker than manually closing one game, opening another, choosing a game save and loading that up. As it jumps back to the exact point you were at before.
This is a really cool feature that is truly next gen. I love this.
Speed
When it comes to the speed of the Xbox, it’s rapid. I mean that’s kind of expected for a next gen console, and over time you get used to it. But it only takes going back to an old console, like I did the other week when I played on the PS4, and you realise how fast the new consoles are again.
So whether I’m jumping into games, navigating the dashboard or just booting it up, it’s great. It has that always-on speed to it which I like.
Sound
I mentioned this during my Xbox vs PS5 video last year, but the Xbox Series X is still absolutely silent. It’s actually quieter than the PS5 too. So whether it’s on or off you can’t hear it at all, other than the beep during start up.
Even after hours and hours of gameplay, I’ve never heard the fans kick in. I literally don’t know what they sound like.
As for the disc drive, I don’t have any discs at all so I haven’t been able to test the sound of this, but I imagine it to be quiet too.
Storage
We know the internal storage of the Series X is a 1TB SSD, of which just over 800 GB is usable. So although 800 GB is probably enough for most, there’s also the option to expand this using the Seagate Storage cards.
So for about £220 or $220 on the Xbox website, you can buy these official cards which will add 1TB of storage and keep the same performance as the internal memory. Plus they look pretty neat!
You can store and play games which are optimised for the Series X ans S on one of these.
Now you can also use a normal SSD Drive, like I have one of these Sandisk extreme drives, but this will not work with playing Series X or S optimised games, only back compatible games.
Looks
I still really like the look of the Xbox, I think it looks pretty stylish and minimal looking. I have it stored on my shelves here which makes it look understated. I know there are wraps and skins you can buy for it, but right now I have no intention of changing this. I quite like it as it is.
Issues
So when it comes to issues or faults with the Xbox, I’ve only experienced one so far, although it has happened a few times. And this is something to do with the connectivity between the console and the controller.
For some reason the console will just stop working with all controllers, not just one, but all 3 at the same time. Even if I turn it off and back on, it won’t fix it. The only workaround I’ve found is to power it off by pulling the plug out, then turning it back on.
It’s only happened about 5 or 6 times, and it’s usually after one controller turns off due to inactivity. It’s just weird that it stops all controllers from working too.
Improvements
So what improvements would I make to the Xbox.
I’d want the gameplay capturing and uploading to YouTube improved. It makes no sense that I have to remove the SSD from the console and upload via a laptop, it seems counter productive.
I’d quite like the UI to be updated, something cleaner, maybe make the tiles smaller so the wallpaper takes up more of the screen.
I also think the controllers should come with inbuilt batteries. I know Xbox have never done this, and I know a lot will argue that they’d rather replace the batteries than an entire controller when it dies. But I’ve never had a controller die on me.
I think that’s about it for improvements I’d make.
Recommend?
So would I recommend picking up an Xbox Series X over the previous Xbox One X. Yes I would. I mean you’re not really getting any new games to play on it, but the games that are optimised for the Series X and S look incredible. On top of that everything runs very fast and very smoothly. Oh and it’s so quiet.
So if you’ve got a TV or monitor that supports the console’s full capabilities, which is 4K 120 and VRR, I’d recommend going for the Series X.
Now a few months ago I did do a comparison against the PS5 too, where I basically compared the pros and cons of both, so if you’re not sure which one to go for, you can check that out.
Well that was my 4 month follow up review of the Xbox Series X. It’s been awesome so far, and I’m already looking forward to seeing games like Halo, although we don’t know when that is going to be, Outriders, Back 4 Blood and Far Cry 6.
Are there any games you’re looking forward to this year?