Xbox Series X review

Our Verdict

The Xbox Series X is the pinnacle of Microsoft'south gaming efforts, blending the promise of powerful next-generation operation with superfast loading times and a huge library of games spanning multiple Xbox generations.

For

• The only Xbox yous need
• Lots of ability
• Games load very fast
• Clean and cool design
• Stellar backwards compatibility

Against

• Few next-gen launch games
• Large and heavy

Tom's Guide Verdict

The Xbox Series X is the tiptop of Microsoft's gaming efforts, blending the promise of powerful adjacent-generation performance with superfast loading times and a huge library of games spanning multiple Xbox generations.

Pros

• +

  The just Xbox you need

• +

  Lots of power

• +

  Games load very fast

• +

  Clean and cool design

• +

  Stellar backwards compatibility

Cons

• -

  Few next-gen launch games

• -

  Big and heavy

Microsoft's Xbox Series X is the ultimate Xbox, just because it'due south the best console on which to play Xbox games new and onetime.

It's still far from easy to buy only is well worth the endeavor. Having been out for more a year now, the Xbox Series X has a better roster of games for lucky owners to try out, including a scattering of new titles equally well as enhanced versions of some of the best Xbox Ane games.

• PS5 vs Xbox Serial X: Which console should yous purchase?
• On a budget? Check out our Xbox Series S review
• The best gaming PCs still outperform the latest Xbox

People expecting a new console generation to blow their minds from the previous ane might be a bit disappointed, every bit the graphics leap from the Xbox 1 10 to Series X isn't mind-blowing. But it does means a lot of games that may have chugged on older hardware volition run much more smoothly and at 4K resolution.

Furthermore, there's just a lot of other stuff to adore about the Xbox Series 10. So read on for our full Xbox Series X review to see whether the new console has been worth the wait.

Xbox Series X specs

	Xbox Series X	Xbox Series South
Price	$500, £449	$300, £249
Processor	Custom AMD Zen two, 8-cadre, three.8GHz	Custom AMD Zen 2, 8-core, 3.8GHz
GPU	AMD RDNA 2, 12 teraflops, i.viii GHz	AMD RDNA 2, 4 teraflops, 1.6 GHz
RAM	16GB	10GB
Storage	1TB	512GB
Display (Targeted)	4K, threescore fps	1440p, 60 fps
Display (Max)	8K, 120 fps	1440p, 120 fps

Xbox Series 10 review: Price and availability

Released worldwide on November x, 2020, the Xbox Serial X is nearing its first birthday, at the time of writing. And it'due south still stupidly hard to buy.

We've been tracking Xbox Series X restocks for calendar month upon months, and still nigh retailers are out of stock. When they practise get new stock in, it sells out in moments. Sadly, with semiconductor shortages ongoing and likely to proceed into 2023.

If y'all do find an Xbox Serial X in stock, so expect prices to showtime at $499 in the U.S. and £449 in the U.Yard. On paper at least, the Xbox Series 10 matches the price of the PS5 in those corresponding nations.

However, it'southward more expensive than the PS5 Digital Edition, which costs $399, or £349. But these consoles are oft found in bundles that come with a higher ticket price.

Xbox Series 10: Buy now or wait?

Have you lot managed to rail down an Xbox Series X restock, which seem to be lasting little longer now we're more than a yr later the console's launch? Or are you wondering if all the console searching is worth it?  Then you may besides be request if the Xbox Series X is worth buying right at present?

Before the stop of 2021, I may have suggested you waited. Merely now with the likes of Halo Space out and running very nicely on the Serial X, I tin thoroughly recommend it.

The Xbox Series X may not exist cheap and it's non perfect, but information technology's got a much healthier game library and superb backward compatibility (more on both afterwards), which justifies its price.

Xbox Series X: Design

You'd exist forgiven for saying that the Xbox Series X looks like a small-scale-form-gene PC, because information technology does; at least when information technology's standing upright. Its monolithic design could be seen equally uninspired. Merely I rather similar the arrangement's make clean and unfussy advent. It's big, however.

(Epitome credit: Tom'due south Guide)

Measuring xv.1 x 15.ane x 30.1 centimeters (5.nine x v.nine ten 11.9 inches) and weighing 9.8 pounds, the Serial X is a rather beefy machine, though not as large equally the PS5. This means yous'll struggle to fit it into an amusement unit, unless you place the device on its side. At that place's a quartet of soft pads on one side of the console to show yous which manner it should exist positioned when lying sideways. These as well forestall the console from slipping around.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

I think the Xbox Series X looks a little clunky and clumsy on its side, a chip like the lovechild of an audio amplifier and a brick. I keep mine upright and sitting partially behind my Idiot box, and it looks rather prissy in that space, particularly as you lot can peer into the top vent of the console, which has some green accents around the holes towards the heart.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Given that the Serial X sucks in absurd air through the lesser of the console and vents information technology out the peak, I think orienting the console vertically is probably amend for its cooling system. Speaking of which, that system runs very quietly and coolly, though yous tin can feel a waft of oestrus if you touch the top vent. It'south a testament to the engineering Microsoft has put into the Series X, given its powerful hardware in a rather meaty course. You'd struggle to make a gaming PC this small with equivalent capabilities.

In fact, while it might look a picayune clunky peeking out from behind my TV, I think the Series X looks rather good sitting on a desktop. If you plan to plug the organization into a 4K or loftier-refresh-charge per unit monitor, you lot could be pleasantly surprised.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

While I wasn't a fan of the VCR-like await of the original Xbox, the Series 10 appears to be borrowing from the make clean design of the Xbox I X, but making it bigger. There's no light bar here or spinning LED rings. Rather the only illumination comes courtesy of a jewel Xbox power button that glows a clean white when the Series X is turned on.

I don't think the Xbox Series X will go downward in console history as a loftier point in tech design. But the simple artful isn't likely to historic period rapidly, and I reckon information technology'll easily go something that melds into your entertainment setup.

Xbox Series 10 review: Ports

Keeping with the clean expect, the Xbox Series X has only a USB iii.1 Type-A port and a Blu-ray disc drive on the console'southward front. There'southward as well a wireless controller pairing push button. That makes it very like shooting fish in a barrel to quickly plug in a controller to charge, or an external hard drive to transfer games and saves to and from the Serial X.

(Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

Around the back of the Series X, in that location's a much wider port selection. You'll notice one HDMI ii.1 port: crucial for gaming at 8K, and allowing TVs with 120 Hz panels to take advantage of the 120 frames per second frame rate for certain games. (Come across the best gaming TVs for recommended models with HDMI 2.i.) There are likewise two more USB 3.1 ports - handy for external storage that you plan to keep connected to your console - as well as an Ethernet port and Kensington lock.

There's no optical audio connectedness or HDMI-in port, similar there were on the Xbox 1 and Ane X. All the same, dropping optical audio is likely to be a pain for but people with powerful audio systems, and the HDMI connection can still acquit Dolby Atmos and surroundings audio signals. We're not really certain if many people used the HDMI-in, so dropping it from the Series X isn't a big deal. It too avoids whatever run a risk of plugging an HDMI cablevision into the wrong port, then wondering why your TV isn't getting a point: something that'south happened to me before.

The well-nigh noteworthy port however, is the expansion slot. This is for the proprietary external PCIe four.0 SSD that volition let you lot expand the Series X with an extra 1 TB of speedy storage.

Xbox Serial Ten: Interface and Quick Resume

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

Yous'll be disappointed if you lot were expecting a big user interface alter with the Xbox Series X, equally its UI is pretty much identical to that of the Xbox One. That'south non a bad affair, every bit that UI was pretty comprehensive, with a whole suite of options from managing games and apps, to transfer data between drives, to finely calibrating HDR displays and sound kit.

At that place are all mode of interesting options that carry over from the Xbox One to the Series X, such every bit the ability to remotely access your panel and stream games over a local Wi-Fi connectedness. Eventually, nosotros expect to be able to stream games from the Series 10 over cellular broadband. But that was part of Microsoft's Projection xCloud game steaming initiative, and has yet to be integrated into any Xbox console.

However, if you have an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription, you can stream a range of Xbox games to an Android device, and those will sync with the progress you've made on the Series Ten or Xbox One. In fact, cross-platform syncing is one of the joys of the Series X. As before long as I installed Xbox I games on the Serial Ten, the interface pulled my saves from the deject and allowed me to conduct on from where I left off.

Speaking of Xbox Game Laissez passer, a lot of the Series 10's UI is geared around highlighting what's new on the subscription service, which is pretty handy if yous're after a new game to play. This Xbox Game laissez passer focus, plus the overall tile menu format tin make it a niggling fussy, and occasionally catchy, to observe what y'all're looking for, unlike the very clean PS4 interface. Merely anyone familiar with the Xbox One UI will exist completely at home on the Series 10. It further stands to highlight how the Serial X is less of a next-gen panel, and is instead the flagship for an Xbox ecosystem.

If time is money, and then the Xbox Series X is going to save you a lot.

Ane of the best new UI features is Quick Resume. In a nutshell, this allows you to take multiple games loaded up at the same time, and lets you lot bound out of the activeness in one title, then get-go another game, then spring dorsum into the first game exactly where you left off, most every bit if you lot'd merely paused.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

This doesn't happen instantly, but it's much faster than loading games from scratch. And there are now a good deal more optimized games for Xbox Serial X and Series S that tin can have reward of Quick Resume, not that both consoles accept been out for a few months.

Quick Resume is a joy to use also. Simply hit the Xbox push button on the controller when y'all're in 1 game, navigate to another championship and it'll load up. Then, hop dorsum to the game you lot were playing beginning, and you'll exist able to keep from exactly where you left off.

It feels similar a true game-changer and is a feature that the PS5 doesn't have an equivalent of, though PS5 games do load very rapidly. I found that Quick Resume is fantastic when you desire a quick outburst of gaming or desire to hop from a unmarried-player game into a multiplayer one when your friends come online.

Xbox Serial X review: Performance

There are now more Xbox Serial Ten optimized games than there were at launch, showcasing what the 12 teraflops of graphics power can practise when it's applied to patched games, both onetime and new.

One of the standout titles is Assassin'due south Creed Valhalla. While not a Xbox Series Ten exclusive it'south a game with impressive visuals and graphics setting, and is all-time played on new games console hardware. When it first launched on the Xbox Series 10 its performance left something to be desired as there were frame rate drops, some screen tearing and an overall functioning profile that didn't stand up up to the PS5 version.

But after a major patch, the game runs a lot more smoothly on the Xbox Series Ten. Information technology targets sixty frames per 2nd, and in my feel by and large reaches that. But information technology uses a dynamic resolution, which tin can scale from 4K downwards to 1440p when there's a lot of action on the screen. So information technology's not delivering a truthful 100% native 4K feel.

Peradventure it's a testament to the quality of the upscaler in my 4K TV, just I can't actually tell when there was a resolution drop. And for a game that looks as skilful as Assassin'due south Creed  Valhalla, it'due south impressive that a $500 box is pumping out well-baked visuals and a steady frame rate; similar performance on a PC would require an investment of at least $1,000.

(Image credit: Future)

Gears 5 is one championship that has been given the full Xbox Series X optimization treatment. That ways it can run at 4K resolution and 60 frames per 2d, or 120 fps if you accept a uniform Tv.

If y'all own an Xbox One X, then you may have already played Gears 5 at 4K and 60 fps, equally the panel supports that. However, that'due south a best-case scenario, and the One X will downscale resolution in favor of frame rate when there's a lot going on in the game. This can still happen on the Series X-optimized version of Gears 5, only the 12 teraflops of graphics power means that the system usually maintains a 4K presentation and a reasonably steady sixty fps.

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Once again, that might not sound too impressive until you realise at that place's quite a bit going on to upgrade Gears 5's visuals over the One X version. It's basically using the Ultra settings institute in the PC version, which improves texture item - though you'll need to expect pretty closely to notice huge differences - as well every bit better lighting and improved shadow details.

The game also uses something called "screen space global illumination," which could be all-time explained every bit a "ray-tracing lite." This has the result of illuminating areas that might otherwise be a lot darker, also equally showing muzzle flashes reflected in the chunky Gears armor.

I'1000 non going to say these upgrades represent a pace into next-gen gaming, merely they certainly wait impressive and show off Gears 5 in its best light (quite literally). The game looks utterly fantastic and runs smoothly.

Interestingly, Gears v doesn't run on the Xbox Series X'south Velocity Architecture, which promises to deliver super-fast loading times. But it near doesn't need to, as it loads games in nether 10 seconds. On an Xbox One X, you're looking at loading times of 40 seconds or more.

(Paradigm credit: Rockstar Games)

But the most noticeable difference was in Reddish Expressionless Redemption 2. Given the size of the game'due south open up-world, it'southward no surprise that on the One Ten, a save file takes well over a minute to load up. In i test, it took 1 minute 28 seconds to load from the primary menu into my nigh recent game save. On the Serial X, the aforementioned save took only 38 seconds to load, which is a huge comeback. If time is coin, and then the Series X is going to relieve you a lot.

As RDR2 hasn't been optimized for Series X, it volition run at 4K, just won't run beyond xxx fps. All the same, it seems to stick rather firmly to the thirty fps mark, whereas on the One X, I'd occasionally see frame charge per unit drops. I hope Rockstar releases an update that enhances Red Dead Redemption 2 for the Series X, as I have a feeling the new panel would be able to run the game at sixty fps and 4K, helping add an extra layer of smooth to a game that's already spectacular to behold.

Xbox Series X review: Games

Halo Infinite is coming to Xbox Series 10 (Image credit: Xbox)

On the whole, there aren't a huge corporeality of brand-new Xbox Series X games that are sectional for the console. And neither will there be, as games will likewise need to be playable on the Xbox Serial S, as well as come to Windows ten and Windows eleven PCs.

Bounding main of Thieves has been optimized for Xbox Series 10 (Image credit: Microsoft)

However, the Xbox Series X and Serial S will have upcoming panel exclusives in the from of Fable 4 and Starfield, besides as a bevy of other titles.

Just while you await for those games there's a bevy of Xbox Series Ten and Serial S enhanced games to play. The likes of Cyberpunk 2077, Forza Horizon v, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, and Destiny 2: Beyond Light and Ocean of Thieves will all run better on the Xbox Series X than other Xbox hardware.

Xbox Series X review: Xbox Game Laissez passer

(Paradigm credit: Shutterstock)

Xbox Game Pass has been effectually for a while at present, offering an easy way to get access to a suite of games for a rather affordable monthly price of $nine.99 or £7.99. This has long made it ane of the best bargains in the gaming globe.

Just I'd fence that Game Laissez passer is an essential partner for the Xbox Series X. While the aforementioned launch line upward of Xbox Series 10 games might exist a little lacking, Game Pass provides a huge range of new and old games to play on the flagship console. Furthermore, many of these come with Xbox Series Ten and Series S enhancements, meaning the Xbox Series X is the best identify to play such games you may have missed on the Xbox Ane.

Fork out $14.99 or £10.99 a month and yous'll become access to Xbox Game Laissez passer Ultimate, which provides access to Xbox and PC games, equally well as cloud streaming and save syncing between all three platforms. It's simply a fantastic deal — in fact, right now I'd go as far equally to say that Xbox Game Laissez passer is the best bargain in gaming.

What's more a whole suite of upcoming Xbox One and Series Ten games will be released solar day-one on Game Pass, significant its 1 of the nearly affordable means to become new games.

Xbox Serial Ten review: Backwards compatibility

In the run-up to the release of the Xbox Series X, backwards compatibility was touted a lot by Microsoft, as well as keen Xbox gamers. Such was the hype, I had steeled myself for disappointment. But I needn't have worried as backwards compatibility on the Xbox Series X is superb.

Simply put, getting an Xbox game from any generation to run on the Xbox Series X is just a case of getting the disc and popping it into the panel. If the game is backwards compatible, and many should be, then it'll brainstorm an installation procedure. If y'all accept access to Xbox Game Pass, then you can merely download any game that's listed on the service that dates back every bit far as the original Xbox.

These games won't immediately be able to put the graphical horsepower of the Series Ten to utilize, if ever. But the fact they can be installed directly to the panel'due south SSD ways they'll load upwards in seconds. And any games that used to run badly on older hardware, should at least be a little smoothed out.

At that place are limits in that a game locked at thirty frames per second won't suddenly run at sixty fps or more than unless it gets optimized. I found that to exist the case with Blood-red Expressionless Redemption, which runs at 4K/xxx fps on the Serial Ten, much like it did on the 1 X. Throwing Assassinator's Creed 2 in the Series 10 results in a game that loads a lot faster and feels smoother than it e'er did on the Xbox 360.

As Digital Foundry explains, Xbox One games with loftier-performance targets, performance modes, or dynamic resolution scaling, tend to run at the best settings available to them on the Series X, cheers to the console's raw graphical power. It's important to point out that the Series X runs these games in a backwards compatibility mode, which means they won't actually be able to benefit from the GPU improvements AMD's RDNA 2 architecture brings to the tabular array, unless they are optimized at a later date.

I'yard really hoping Microsoft encourages developers to patch older games to take reward of the Series X's ability. Microsoft could besides create a system that allows the Series 10 to bring its total might to carry on older games. Just in the meantime, the backward-compatible games roster keeps expanding with Microsoft adding another 76 original Xbox and Xbox 360 games to the library, including 37 that can benefit from FPS Boost, a feature that heave game frame rates even without developer implementation.

One backward compatibility feature I'k rather impressed by is Automobile HDR, which uses motorcar-learning to effectively use high dynamic range to games that were never mastered for HDR. In Red Expressionless Redemption and Gears of War Ultimate Edition, I call up the effect works rather well.

Every bit with a lot of AI-based tech, this has the potential to become wrong, and oversaturate or overexpose some scenes. But I didn't encounter any issues, and even Assassin's Creed two looked rather prissy, though the effect wasn't hugely pronounced.

Combine this feature with the Xbox Series X'southward power to basically bulldoze over unoptimized older games, and the Series X is arguably the all-time console on which to play Xbox games, from the latest Xbox One titles back to original Xbox games. And I feel there's a lot more potential for backward compatibility to be improved once the Series X is out in the wild.

Xbox Serial X review: Controller

Always since Microsoft came upwards with the Xbox 360 controller, I've been a fan of the Xbox controllers, and the new Xbox Wireless Controller is a bully evolution of its predecessor. Though glance at the peripheral, and you'd exist hard-pressed to spot any major differences from the Xbox One controller.

Just that'southward non a bad thing, as information technology'due south a fantastic controller. Small improvements similar textured triggers and an improved D-pad take a familiar controller and only make it better.

(Prototype credit: Tom'due south Guide)

The Xbox Wireless Controller has long been 1 of the most comfortable controllers I've used, taking the Xbox 360 controller and building upon it. And the same is true with the new controller, though it does take a few extra features.

From a quick glance, the almost notable change is the addition of a share push button for sharing screenshots and recordings with a unproblematic tap. You'll then detect that the D-pad is a hybrid one: a concave disk that should deliver more precision, particularly if you play traditional beat-em-ups. The finish on the new controller has a more matte await, with the black appearing smokier. The Xbox button is also now all-blackness.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The new controller fits my hands nearly exactly like its predecessor. The triggers are slightly smaller and experience a little more tactile, as do the shoulder buttons. And the joysticks have a firmer, more satisfying click to them than those on the older controller.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

None of these changes are revolutionary — if yous desire that so check out the PS5'south DualSense controller — but they all add upwards to a nicely evolved Xbox Wireless Controller. The but existent hiccup is that the controller still gets its power from AA batteries. While they tin be replaced with a rechargeable battery pack that charges via USB-C, the use of element of group i batteres seems a bit archaic.

To go with the controller, after a manner, Microsoft has the Xbox Wireless headset. This $99 gaming headset sports a clean design and will connect to your Xbox via Bluetooth. And the over-ear headphones take support for premium audio formats like Dolby Atmos and DTS Headphone:X.

Xbox Serial X review: Verdict

(Paradigm credit: Tom'due south Guide)

The Xbox Series 10 is the one Xbox to dominion them all. It's a single machine that'll run generations of Xbox games, and run them well. Furthermore, information technology'll do so without looking fussy or making a racket.

Certain, $499 is still a expert wad of cash to driblet on a gaming motorcar that hasn't still shown any breathtaking next-gen capabilities. But I call back it'south a reasonable price to pay for the tech yous're getting. The latest AMD processor and graphics applied science promises a lot of power, and the joy of loading games up in mere seconds rather than minutes can't exist underestimated. While PCs have had SSDs for a while now, you'd struggle to build a gaming machine with this ability and avant-garde storage for $1,000, let alone half that toll.

I was originally expecting to experience a little disappointed with the Serial X, given that in that location's no ane killer app or game to really go far feel similar a adjacent-gen powerhouse. But as games now expect so adept, nosotros're not going to get the graphical leap nosotros've seen in previous generation consoles. Rather, the Series X is all nearly making the experience of gaming easier, faster and just better.

With that in listen, the Xbox Series X is a triumph in the here and now. Simply I can't await to see what it will exist able over the course of its lifetime.

• The best Xbox headsets for Microsoft consoles
• Xbox Series 10 vs. PC: Which is correct for you?
• How to connect an Xbox wireless controller to a PC

Roland Moore-Colyer is U.K. Editor at Tom'southward Guide with a focus on news, features and stance manufactures. He ofttimes writes nearly gaming, phones, laptops and other bits of hardware; he'due south also got an interest in cars. When not at his desk Roland can be found wandering effectually London, frequently with a look of curiosity on his face.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/xbox-series-x-release-date-price-pre-order-specs-games

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