Alright so I have extensively used Xbox series S over the past few months and I think it's a good opportunity to share with you guys my thoughts about it. I'll keep to brief
The system UI:
Underwhelming would be an under statement. Visually, it looks no different than the now 9 year old Xbox one. Sharp edged boxy tiles, barely any transparency effects, dated animations, adverts on home screen, clash of different colours, and to add insult to injury I hooked up my series S to my 1440p 144hz screen, but the poor thing only managed to run at 1440p/60 even tho my monitor was full 144hz supported. It was very visually jarring whenever I switched from my PC to Xbox and the 60fps animations in the UI were instantly noticable.
Aside from that, it wasn't a particularly snappy experience either, sometimes games would take a full 30 seconds (even a minute!) to launch. The Xbox store, gamepass menu will flat out refuse to load if not updated. In offline mode it's even more sluggish and unpredictable. Overall the GUI is very internet speed dependent which I found really odd.
Gaming prowess:
The "1440p/60fps" is a lie. In some games it even struggle to maintain 1080p at 60fps. The drop in resolution is very noticeable. The textures in a true console style are blurry 5 feet distance ( basic anisotropic filtering). It's a 1080p/60fps machine with medium settings. Keep your expectations in check when getting it.
Quick resume and low latency mode:
It comes with a new quick resume function and a low latency mode for the controller. The input response is actually not that bad compared to say, ps4 which is downright horrible. Don't even know if LLM is active, but controller response is good.
The quick resume, at this point, on a series S, IS A GIMMICK. It bugs out often and restarts the game, other times it's flat out not supported in some titles. Even when it works, it breaks multiplayer games. The console turns on fairly quickly from a cold boot so I don't really see a need for it, but it is okay when it actually works. I don't really use it.
Build quality:
Pretty well designed and well built. Both the controller and the console itself. Looks good on a table. Makes ps5 looks like a massive cheaply build router in comparison. Kudos to Microsoft here. Noiseless, practically silent. Good unboxing experience.
Who should buy this:
If you are a PC gamer, you won't like it here, keep away. If you are a console gamer looking for a true next gen experience, look away. If your last console was a ps3/360 and you have a 1080p monitor and doesn't mind having at most three AAA games and being digital only, this might just be for you. If you are a casual gamer with no knowledge of any gaming technology and terms this is the console for you.
What would I buy if I only had 300$?
I would get a used PC, sell the old GPU and put in a new one. The second hand market for old PC components have crazy good value.
Closing thoughts:
bohut lamba hogia, parh lena Bhai, bohut Kuch rehta hai, lekin phir aur lamba hojai ga, bas Yaha tak theek hai abhi
it's a lot more refined now. I currently have 5 games on the quick resume list and no issues in recent testing for me.
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