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Microsoft XBox (Games)

Xbox One S is the Best Xbox You Might Not Want To Buy (cnet.com) 114

Posted by msmash from the shiny-but-unnecessary dept.
The Xbox One S, successor to Microsoft's Xbox One gaming console, has begun shipping today. Media outlets, which had received the review unit a week ahead of the launch date, have put out the review. In short, everyone loves the Xbox One S' compact design -- 40% slipper form-factor than the Xbox One -- and the 4K support has been widely praised as well. But perhaps, it's CNET's review that captures the sentiment of most people: "Xbox One S is the best Xbox you might not want to buy." From their review: THE GOOD The Xbox One S is a slick looking game console that's 40 percent smaller than the original and ditches the infamously gigantic power brick. It can display 4K video from streaming services and Ultra HD Blu-rays, and supports HDR contrast on video and games. The updated controller works with other Bluetooth devices, too.
THE BAD 4K, Ultra HD Blu-ray and HDR settings only work with newer TVs, and may require some trial and error. The updated controller feels cheaper than its predecessor. Project Scorpio, the more powerful Xbox One successor, arrives in late 2017.
THE BOTTOM LINE The Xbox One S is the console Microsoft should have delivered three years ago, but there's little reason to upgrade if you already own the original box.It's worth noting that the Xbox One S doesn't support game titles in 4K -- a capability that has been scheduled for the Project Scorpio, another new gaming console from Microsoft. It's set to launch next year.
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Xbox One S is the Best Xbox You Might Not Want To Buy More

Xbox One S is the Best Xbox You Might Not Want To Buy

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  • What does the "S" stand for in "XBox One S"?

    • Re:S? (Score:4, Funny)

      by Nyder ( 754090 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @11:21AM (#52628967) Journal

      What does the "S" stand for in "XBox One S"?

      Sucks?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tepples ( 727027 )

      What does S stand for in every other iPhone from the 3GS on?

      What does S stand for in the Xbox Controller S for the original Xbox? Or in the Xbox 360 S?

      • I don't know. What?

      • What does S stand for in every other iPhone from the 3GS on?

        The "S" stands for "Speed". It was even the first thing they said after announcing the name [youtube.com].

        Apple seems to generally try and offer up some sort of an explanation for new letters or modifiers that they attach to their products, such as Steve Jobs explaining back in 1997 that the "i" in the original iMac stood for "Internet", but after awhile, the letters seem to become brands unto themselves. After all, the original iPod had no way to get on the Internet, so what did the "i" stand for there? Or what does the

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sloppy ( 14984 )

        You forgot the S in my Galaxy S4: I don't know what that S means either. (Or the X in Nexus 5X, but everyone usually agrees that X and Z never mean anything, whereas S has just the hint of legitimacy, that it might mean something.)

        (The answer: Samsung doesn't know what it means either; they just copied it from Apple. ;-)

    • The S stands for "Slim", though likely not "officially".
      Hardware revisions of consoles that result in a smaller profile have generally been called "slim". Sometimes officially.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Aaden42 ( 198257 )

      I think it stands for "apple is cool and you Should think we're cool too."

      But I could be wrong...

      • Apple doesn't even make game consoles, go back to macrumors.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          Apple aren't stupid. They're not making a game console, they just make phones, pads and TV boxes that happen to be able to play games.

          If you don't present yourself as a competitor, the competition doesn't try to crush you down.

    • Re:S? (Score:5, Funny)

      by hamburger lady ( 218108 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @11:50AM (#52629167)

      it stands for "slipper form factor", apparently.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

        it stands for "slipper form factor", apparently.

        With the Xbox One S and it's patented ability to utilize slippers for warmth, Microsoft has finally brought gaming to remote, inhospitable locations such as Antarctica, Siberia, and Canada. Scientists, native peoples, and bearded individualists wearing beaver furs rejoice.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SeaFox ( 739806 )

        it stands for "slipper form factor", apparently.

        I'm sure it'll be a shoe-in for Product of the Year.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by guises ( 2423402 )
      I'd assume "small." If you remember the Xbox one and it's two controllers: there was the original "Duke" controller, which was quite large, and the Controller S, which was much smaller and designed originally for Japan.
  • They've lost the market to Sony already, so their answer is to try to support 3 platforms no one wants that are almost identical except you'll need to re-purchase 99% of your stuff... good luck with that. i'm just as pissed with Sony before you call me a fanboy, both companies can such a chode for shortening the console life cycle.
    • " both companies can such a chode for shortening the console life cycle."

      Actually this is a correction for the last console gen going on for way too long. IF they had launched new systems in 2014 like they should have, these new boxes would be just a regular next gen. Quite honestly, this new move is a good thing, it makes the consoles scalable and more like PC. You are less likely to lose your library now when consoles introduce a new gen. IN fact the idea of 'gens' might already be over with.
      • um no, I'm going to be playing low res ports of PS neo games once the SDK hits the devs desks. I agree, they waited to pull the trigger, but I do not call this a "good thing" they are going to try to support 2 different consoles at once, promising the same games on both (simply not going to happen.) so either the new console owners will enjoy crippled games so us ghetto console owners don't feel left out, or us ghetto console owners are getting shafted with ports, that's how this plays out. "IN fact the
        • Its going to scale just like PC does now, where we support dual core laptops and kilowatt gaming rigs. This is nothing new. Further, we arent going to see the vast gulf in abilities like we did between Xbox 360 and Xbox one, especially large geometry capability. The 360 was so hamstrung for memory that games designed for both this gen and last gen really suffered for it. That wont happen anymore, you wont have huge differences in geometry capability, the only thing that will change is resolution and post-pr

    • Xbox One and Xbox One S are functionally identical as far as games go. Maybe some arty, simple (not needing much horsepower) game down the line will support 4K on the Xbox One S. But every Xbox One game will run on the Xbox One and the Xbox One S.

      The new box, codenamed Scorpio for now, will likely run all the Xbox One (and thus Xbox One S) shit. Sony has allegedly decided to force developers to maintain compatibility with the existing PS4 when they launch their new hardware. It's not known if MS will do

      • but once they see people are buying the new hardware by the millions, the following E3 will result in big reveals for games that can only run on the newer consoles.

        PC makers have been making games that scale to different levels of hardware for decades. There's no reason console makers can't do the same thing. And it's a hell of a lot easier when you've got only TWO targets with precisely known specs, rather than the complete spectrum of devices PC makers always deal with.

        • ESPECIALLY especially when you consider that a lot of places will already be familiar with developing for multiple consoles, AND developing for multiple generations.

          If you can put AC4: Black Flag out for 360, XBONE, PS3, and PS4, you can make an XBONE-Scorpio disc that has a line of code that says 'if xbox.GetPlatform=Scorpio then UseBetterShadersAndBiggerTextures=1'.

      • Is there some hardware constraint that prevents Microsoft from enabling "4k UHD" on the original Xbox One at some framerate supported by its HDMI 1.4 port, or are they just using it as a selling point to try and get people who already own one to buy another one?

        As far as I can tell, there's no reason why it would take anything besides a software update to enable 2160p30 on the existing Xbox One.

        Then again, what I'd really LOVE to see is support for 720p100, 720p120, 1080p100, 1080p120. The difference betwee

        • HDR might real-time tonemapping with a LUT so it's possible it's not compatible. Also I don't believe the Original Xbox One shipped with an HEVC hardware decoder for 4k streaming.

    • Re:wtf are they thinking? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Nemyst ( 1383049 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @12:03PM (#52629253) Homepage
      Seems like you're missing a few elements here. The One S is basically the same as the 360 Slim, it plays the same games in the same way. It's just a small hardware upgrade for a few features. Project Scorpio is gonna be different, same as the PS4 Neo, but both will play the same games and both actually force developers to support both platforms. You cannot release a Scorpio/Neo-only game. Your concerns are born out of ignorance more than anything else.

      Oh, and, Scorpio's gonna drop late 2017, 4 years after the One. That's just one year shorter than the N64 generation, but you keep backwards and forward compatibility here. That's not "shortening the console life cycle" any way you cut it, and it's much better than the frustratingly long PS3/360 cycle.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      They've lost the market to Sony already, so their answer is to try to support 3 platforms no one wants that are almost identical except you'll need to re-purchase 99% of your stuff... good luck with that. i'm just as pissed with Sony before you call me a fanboy, both companies can such a chode for shortening the console life cycle.

      Wow. Just wow.

      In any other industry, if they sold as many units as Microsoft sold Xbones, they're be cheering.

      Sony has sold roughly 40M PS4s, and Microsoft, 20M Xbones. 20M units

    • no one wants that are almost identical except you'll need to re-purchase 99% of your stuff.

      If you have a 1080p:
      $199 XBox One Original

      If you have a 4k HDR TV want to watch movies in 4k but don't mind playing games in 1080p:
      $299 Xbox One S.

      If you want to play games in 4k or VR:
      $499 Xbox One Scorpio

      There is no "repurchasing 99% of your stuff". All of your controllers work. All of your games work. All of your saved games should be in the cloud. All of your movies and music is still there. If you are an enthusiast and want a slightly higher end experience for more money they are giving you the

  • (Posting again as myself and not accidentally AC)

    Honestly it comes down to what you end up using it for. I have an older 360 that I mainly use for media right now and occasionally gaming. The ability to upgrade to a XB1 which has backwards compatibility for most games I play, coupled with both a 4K video player and a UHD-BD drive for $299 is very tempting. Most new UHD drives cost way more than that (I know price will come down).

    That being said, as a casual gamer and more media consumer, this hits my sweet

  • On pc, you don't have to pay a fee to play games on the Internet. So I'll stick with PC. For a while, I thought PlayStation was better because they were free, but they started charging too. So I'll sit out this generation of console too.

    • Xbox Live is perhaps finally worth the $60 per year for Xbox one owners, as you get three free games each month (two Xbox one, plus one compatible Xbox 360 game). Some are crap, as you'd expect, but there have been some real gems in there as well.
         

    • It's kind of a silly business model. You should either pay for shrink-wrapped software and get free server access, or get the software for free and pay for server time. Paying for software, then having to pay a monthly fee to actually USE that software, seems kind of dishonest to me. People should just pay for server time to cover the recurring costs of running the servers, and software should be given away for free to leverage server time sales, just like software used to be given away for free to leverage
      • And its not like they don't advertise on xbox live either. They could advertise games, doritos, and even put up their own steamlike store if they wanted. But they also add a giant wall,"Pay us to play any game multiplayer online at all... Yes, we know you get it for free on PC, but you gotta understand, we're greedy. Pity our greedy hearts and pay up." Um no, I just won't buy console. There's not many games I like post 2000 anyway.

  • So... It's a bad thing for the Xbox that if you don't have a 4k TV set, you cannot enjoy 4k resolution... So bad for the Xbox... :/

    (Who wrote such review?)

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Calydor ( 739835 )

      Not necessarily bad for the box, but a reminder that if you don't have a 4K TV the box gives nothing new in that department.

      What I find crazy is that you get better resolution watching someone else play a game than playing one yourself.

    • Well it's a given you have to have a 4K TV to use the new resolution. The more pressing problem is lack of content. The games are not in 4K and only some streaming content is in 4K. In terms of future proofing, it's a feature. It's not a feature that most can use now.

  • 40% slipper? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bj94north ( 653383 ) on Tuesday August 02, 2016 @11:28AM (#52629013)
    "40% slipper form-factor " Whats the other 60%? Crocs? Open toe sandals?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      "Slipper" as in more aerodynamic. This version is 40% more aerodynamic than the previous version.

      I was going to pass until I saw this.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by SeaFox ( 739806 )

        "Slipper" as in more aerodynamic. This version is 40% more aerodynamic than the previous version.

        I was going to pass until I saw this.

        With a more aerodynamic profile you'll be able to pass it even further than you could throw the old one away.

      • The newest, high tech slippers are made out of glass... and only fit Cinderella!

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      If only there was a way to see what you typed BEFORE you posted it - that would prevent a lot of these errors...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sootman ( 158191 )

      "What you submitted appears below. If there is a mistake...well, you should have used the 'Preview' button!"

      Does Slashcode say the same thing to editors?

      • The trained monkeys don't actually follow instructions very well, so it's pointless to even try to explain things like that to them...
  • When XBOne and PS4 were released, it was noted that both broke backwards compatibility. Will Scorpio do the same? If so that would probably be the best argument MS could make for people to buy this.

    • Xbox One Scorpio, Xbox One, Xbox One S and PC PlayAnywhere games will all be compatible. The latter Xboxes will also play a good number of Xbox 360 games. All games on the Xbox One line are also streamable to a PC.

      All of the hardware is compatible as well and the new controllers even add native Bluetooth so that you don't need an Xbox Wireless Receiver dongle to play on your PC with an Xbox One controller.

      The only difference is that Xbox One Scorpio will let you play in 4k or VR. And Xbox One S adds 4k B

  • Dropping prices for the Xbox One.

    Finally pulled the trigger with prices dropping as low as $199. Considering inflation, that's incredibly cheap for a current-gen game console compared to pricing on previous generations.

  • Thanks for dropping the price of the original Xbox One to $249, right after I bought a used Xbox One... for $249!
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • I never got around to buying an Xbox One. My top question: would this new model be quiet?

    I don't like high-pitched buzzing sounds, so I'm hoping the thing doesn't have a tiny super-high-RPM cooling fan.

    And if there are aftermarket quieter fans, I'd buy one.

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