“Thank goodness you’re finally getting rid of that”, my flatmate said as I hunched over our TV cabinet, mid-way through the ceremonial process of changing out my Xbox One for the Series S. A little harsh on the poor old Xbox One, perhaps, but I could understand the sentiment. Demanding a large amount of horizontal space – and by this point in the generation struggling to keep up with more demanding titles – I’d begun to neglect it in favour of the bright RGB lights of PC gaming.
In its place now rests a compact white box, and an altogether different vision to what Microsoft presented at the start of the previous generation. The digital-only Xbox Series S is the smallest console Microsoft has ever produced, and probably the most affordable. Coming in at £249, it’s even undercut the Nintendo Switch by £30. It’s a staggeringly accessible gateway to next-gen gaming, all for £200 less than a Series X: but the question is whether you’re willing to pay for it in a lower max resolution, reliance on digital downloads, and – crucially – only 364GB of usable space for games and apps. Perhaps more than anything, the Series S requires a shift in the way we consume our games, encouraging a high turnover of a few titles at a time rather than storing dozens away for a rainy day.
I’m by no means a hardware specialist (and I’ll leave the in-depth performance analysis in the very capable hands of Digital Foundry), so like our Xbox Series X impressions written by Chris Tapsell, consider this more an account of what it’s like to live with a Series S. And despite some concerns about storage, I will say this: the Series S has made me more excited for console gaming than I have been in a very long time.
As the saying goes, you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, but in the case of the Series S that cover looks extremely good. It’s about the size of a large hardback – probably one of those dense university law books you weren’t allowed to borrow – and can be slotted either vertically or horizontally in a TV cabinet, with the reduced size opening up more room for ventilation. Yet it would be a shame to hide it away, as the monochrome design is sleek enough to make the console eye-catching without being overwhelming. The matching controller hasn’t undergone massive design changes (the main additions being quality of life improvements like a share button and revamped d-pad, along with reduced latency), but I really like the new textured grip, which just reminds me where the controller is, particularly if my fingers have moved after watching a cutscene.
1 of 4 Caption Attribution I should mention that I had an issue with my controller where the battery cover didn’t slide normally, and instead had to be prised open with a ruler. It seems this is likely a one-off problem, as only one of our new controllers had the issue.
I needed a smaller game to get things started while I waited for larger downloads, so strangely enough, the first title I played was the 10-year-old Fallout: New Vegas. The impact of next-gen tech on Series S is perhaps most noticeable with backwards compatibility, with stable frame rates and crisp visuals bringing it closer to the quality of my PC version. I mostly played on a Panasonic Plasma that didn’t support 4K or HDR (unlike the Series X the S doesn’t support native 4K resolution for games at 120fps, and instead mainly targets 1440p with up to 120fps), but even without these it’s a much-improved console experience – particularly with newer titles running at 60fps.