Xbox Series S Deep-Dive

 

 

The new Xbox Series X and Series S where recently announced with full specs, pricing, and launch date. Although both consoles are remarkably interesting this deep dive is only about one: Xbox Series S. The most astounding part of that console is the price; at 299$ the Series S offers a lot of power for the price. With that in mind this is the Xbox Series S deep-dive and analysis.  

 

Let's start with power, how much power will the series S be packing? Long story short 4 teraflops, if you need an explainer on what teraflops are here's a great article from Windows Central:https://www.windowscentral.com/what-teraflop-tflop-and-what-does-it-mean-xbox-series-x. Teraflops don't tell the whole story and that story goes deeper than the joint output. 

 

 

  The AMD APU inside the Series S is the same as the Series X just clocked slightly lower. Same with the graphics, both are baby versions of the Series X parent although the GPU is smaller with the Series S as seen on the Spec sheet. That GPU however is where things start to get interesting; that GPU will allow for 1440p gaming at 120 FPS and DirectX ray tracing. When you start to look back on Xbox One Vs PS4 you could see that the real reason the Xbox was slower was because the first two generations had a spinning disk drive, they didn't correct the mistake until the One X and that was a hybrid disk drive; it was too late for the Xbox One. 

Microsoft has learned its lesson, it's including a custom 512GB NVME SSD with Xbox Velocity Architecture, for an explainer check out this explainer from Windows central: https://www.windowscentral.com/xbox-velocity-architecture. The SSD makes an enormous difference, the SSD makes loading games and switching games way faster. When you look at the compete spec sheet below you can see the full value of the Series S, for 299$ it's just bonkers how much power you're getting for 299$. 

 

Xbox Series X	Xbox Series S
Processor	8x Cores @ 3.8 GHz (3.6 GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU	8x Cores @ 3.6 GHz (3.4 GHz w/ SMT) Custom Zen 2 CPU
Graphics	12.15 TFLOPS, 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU	4 TFLOPS, 20 CUs @ 1.565 GHz Custom RDNA 2 GPU
Memory	16 GB GDDR6	10 GB GDDR6
Memory Bandwidth	10 GB @ 560 GB/s, 6GB @ 336 GB/s	8 GB @ 224 GB/s, 2GB @ 56 GB/s
Internal Storage	1 TB Custom NVME SSD	512 GB Custom NVME SSD
I/O Throughput	2.4 GB/s uncompressed, 4.8 GB/s compressed	2.4 GB/s uncompressed, 4.8 GB/s compressed
Expandable Storage	1 TB Expansion Card (matches internal storage exactly)	1 TB Expansion Card (matches internal storage exactly)
External Storage	USB 3.2 External HDD Support	USB 3.2 External HDD Support
Optical Drive	4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive	None, digital-only
Performance Target	4K @ 60 FPS, up to 120 FPS	1440p @ 60 FPS, up to 120 FPS
Color	Matte Black	Robot White, Black
Size	301mm x 151mm x 151mm	Unknown
Price	$499, £449, €499	$299, £249, €299
Release date	November 10, 2020	November 10, 2020

The design of the Series S is defined by the size of the console, it's the smallest Xbox ever made. It's 60% smaller than the Series X meaning it has significantly less room for thermals but that's ok because unlike the Series X the Series S isn't made for raw performance it's made for convenience and price. It has a huge fan grill that isn't that bad, I like it; I also like the paint job that's reminiscent to the original Xbox One S. I also must lament that one of the ways the Series S saves money is by taking out the disk drive making the Series S an all-digital console. I really wished they would at least sell a dongle to have backwards-compatibility with other games but that's the price you pay for affordability and power of the Series S. 

Source: @_h0x0d_

So, when can you grab the Xbox series S? You can pre-order the Series S on September 22nd, 2020. The launch is November 10th, 2020 so you still must wait to get the console but it's well worth it. 

 

There is often a misunderstanding in the tech world that a cheap thing is terrible. That's just not true especially with the Series S, the Series S is amazing value in a small package. It has the specs to compete with the best of the last generation and is compatible with games optimized for the Series X. This console is not for the hardcore gamer that want's the best performance and the best games to push themselves and their consoles to the limit. This is for consumers and casual gamers who are ok with the choice of games on Xbox and really don't care about FPS or 4K or this, that, or anything else. I also have to mention that there is no way that the specs inside the Series S add up to 299$.

 This means that Microsoft is actively losing money on each console, selling the console for 299$ opens up new consumers and new consumers exposure to services such as Game Pass ultimate . Microsoft is taking a risky move betting the success of the business on services and letting console reel the costumers. They just might pull it off because most people just want a console, and the Xbox Series S is shaping up to be a great one.