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Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S: The differences

Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S: These are the differences
Sony announced upcoming variant of Xbox Series S which will be smaller than Xbox Series X releasing on November 10th.
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It’s a somewhat strange construction: while everyone is waiting for Microsoft’s new big console, the company is just announcing another variant. Xbox Series S is the smaller brother of Xbox Series X. These are the differences and the similarities between both game machines.

Microsoft’s current console, Xbox One, was released in 2013. High time for the new generation game console. Sony will be releasing its PlayStation 5 in November and Microsoft’s next-gen answer is Xbox Series X. This console looks more like a computer case than previous Xboxes, but it also has the specs to match. actually valid next to a PC. Now comes the Xbox Series S.

New Generation Console of Xbox

The first thing that is important to know is that Series S is also a new generation console. So it is not a new variant on the Xbox One S, but really a console on which you can play the same games as on the upcoming console Xbox Series X. Think of games such as Battlefield 6, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla and Halo Infinite. [19659002] The names are similar, but not the specifications. Series S is the little brother of Xbox Series X in almost every respect. In fact, it is the smallest Xbox ever, according to Microsoft. You can also see that in its price. Xbox Series X costs 299 euros versus 499 euros. Not a bad price: the Xbox One X cost 499 euros and the Xbox One S 299 euros.

Such a smaller device also means that you sacrifice some possibilities. For example, Series S has less graphics processing power. As a result, it cannot support 4K images like Series X, but a resolution of 1440 pixels. The clock speed is almost the same, so the frame rate is almost the same. The reason that there are such large graphical differences is because of the graphics card RDNA 2. X has 12 teraflops for that, versus ‘only’ 4 teraflops of S.

A higher number of teraflops means that a computer or console will quickly improve and more beautiful images. If it gets a little more technical, it equals the computing power of the device. The higher the computing power, the more polygons (of which a game consists) a computer can display per second.

According to Xbox executive Liz Hamren the biggest difference between Xbox Series X and Xbox Series is the resolution. S. “In conversations with our customers, we noticed that fans prefer a better frame rate to a good resolution, so we wanted to build a console that doesn’t necessarily require a 4K TV.”


Xbox Series S has no disc slot

The system also has no disc slot, so Series S will only allow you to play games you’ve downloaded or streamed through Game Pass Ultimate. Like its big brother, Series S is able to play games of the current generation, so Xbox One. However, he has the difference that he offers no Xbox One X improvement on those games. Still, you shouldn’t notice that in the end, because Xbox Series S is able to upgrade the image a bit with auto-HDR.

There is a difference in speed between the consoles, although we have yet to find out to what extent that is exactly noticeable. Both consoles have a custom Zen 2 processor with eight cores. However, the processor of X is better: it works at 3.8 GHz per core versus the 3.6 GHz of S. Probably both consoles load games at lightning speed (S seems to be four times more powerful than Xbox One).

The Xbox Series S has a SSD (solid state drive) of 512 GB. Playing offline games is therefore limited to a few games. That’s a big difference from Xbox Series X, which has 1 TB of storage. However, there is hope: both consoles can be provided with more storage space with a separate SSD of 1 TB. It must be a special device from Seagate. The price of this device is still unknown. And otherwise you can of course connect a hard drive via USB. For example, it is possible to use the external drive that is now attached to your Xbox One (S or X) on the Series S or X. You can then immediately continue with the games you were already playing.

The complete specifications at a glance.

Specification Xbox Series X Xbox Series S
CPU MD Ryzen ‘Zen 2’, 8 cores and a standard frequency of 3.6 GHz MD Ryzen ‘Zen 2’, 8 cores and a standard frequency of 3.6 GHz
GPU Custom RDNA 2 GPU, but with a standard frequency of 1,825 Ghz (12 teraflops) with 52 compute cores Custom RDNA 2 GPU, with a standard frequency of 1,565 (4 teraflops) with 20 compute cores
System memory GDDR6, with 16 GB with 10 GB at 560 GB / s and 6 GB at 336 GB / s s bandwidth GDDR6, from 10 GB with 8 GB at 224 GB / s and 2 GB at 56 GB bandwidth
Internal SSD memory 1 terabyte, 2.4 GB / s raw and 4.8 GB / s compressed 512 GB, 2 , 4 GB / s raw and 4.8 GB / s compressed
Disklade Blu-Ray None
Graphics 4K at 120 frames per second and 8K at 120 frames per second [19659031] 1440 pixels at 60 frames per second, maximum 120 frames per second
Size 151 x 151 x 301 millimeters Unknown. However, this device is 60 percent smaller than X
Weight 4.45 kilos Unknown
Price 499 euros 299 euros

In short, the big difference between Series X and S is mainly in the size: the S is the smallest Xbox to date, which you can safely put between your books in the bookcase without being noticed. In addition, the device is also a bit smaller in its capacity: you cannot store discs in it, so you really have to own games digitally or stream them to play on them. With its small storage options, you cannot store too many games on it either. Finally, Microsoft also keeps it smaller in terms of image spectacle with this micro-Xbox: it is really a console for people who do not necessarily expect 4K quality from their graphics. However, it is an attractively priced new generation console that you can still enjoy all the new games that are also playable on big brother Xbox Series X.

Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S will both appear on November 10th. They are not available for pre-order at this time. This is possible from September 22.