Today I want to give my insight on the Xbox One S gaming console. I have been a diehard Xbox gamer since the original Xbox came out. I have not gone after the Xbox One X console yet because of the price tag but with what I get from my Xbox One S, I don’t think I need to. Let’s get started.
Design
The first thing you notice when you unbox the Xbox One S is the sleek design compared to the original Xbox one. The Original Xbox one looks like a first generation VHS player where the OneS, I will just say the S from here on out, looks like it is closer to what today’s generation of consoles should look like. It has a great look in the white color and the power button has been improved!
Talking about the buttons. Whoever designed the power button on the original to turn off/on with a swipe obviously didn’t have a house with either kids or pets or both. Because there is nothing worse than getting ready to score a game-winning TD in an online match in Madden and your 3 year old walks up and says “light” and pushes swipes the button. At least with the S, you can now have a few seconds to stop the push!
The back of the S looks just like the original. It has your typical HDMI In and Out, USB ports, Ethernet Port, and Optical sound port. If you haven’t gotten an Xbox One yet and don’t know why there is an HDMI In and HDMI Out then let’s talk about this and why I think it was one of the greatest things Microsoft did with their console.
The HDMI Out obviously is so you can connect your Xbox to your HDMI port on your TV or Receiver. The HDMI In is where you get the added benefit that other consoles don’t have. You can hook your Cable Box into this port, which was the original reason for this, and then let the Xbox console and it’s “One Guide app” handle all your TV watching needs. This is a great feature and I did use it for a short time when I had cable TV and it was great! Now that I don’t have cable TV though I actually use it for another, more beneficial, reason. I got a PS4 and hooked it into this port. This allows me to play my Sony Exclusive games, which is why I finally bit on a Playstation, while I wait for my friends to get on Xbox Live. Once I see they are on I can easily switch over to my Xbox game and start playing online with them. The other benefit of doing this is I don’t need a headset for my PlayStation because my Xbox Headset works with whatever is plugged in and running through the Xbox.
The CD Tray and internal hard drive are the only other things I really didn’t talk about. The CD tray is a simple slot loading tray that easily allows the insertion of games and DVD/Blu ray disks. I hardly even use my tray because I buy 99% of my games digitally which brings me to my talk about the internal Hard Drive. I feel that Sony has an edge when it comes to the internal hard drive because Sony allows their users upgrade their hard drives in their units if they need it. Microsoft makes you get an external drive if you want to add more storage. This is all good if the wear and tear on external drives weren’t so horrible. External drives will wear down faster with them being on all the time, not to mention it is easily accessible by kids in the house if you have kids, and that could spell disaster if all your games are stored on there and they get a hold of it. Don’t get me wrong when I say that I do like using my external drive but I have 2 copies because I tend to have one go bad every so often. But I don’t see why Microsoft can’t get with the program and allow the ability to upgrade the internal drive if we wanted to.
Controllers
When it comes to the Controller that comes with the S, I would have to give it a D in durability but an A in design. I love the design and feel of the S controller. I feel it is more comfortable in the hand, especially, big hands like mine. I do feel the quality of the controller is horrible. A simple drop from 1’ onto the thumbsticks have broken 3 of my S controllers (white). This I feel has to be a design flaw because the black controllers, although I have one that has the same issue, they can take more of a beating before the issue happens. So buy yourself some extra, black, controllers if you pick up an S. Or at least be aware that there is a warranty on that controller for a year and they will replace it if it is broke.
Software
The OS that the Xbox One uses is by far the best OS out of all the consoles. I have used the PS4 for a few months now and I have run the Switch over the Holiday’s and I have to say that I am not impressed with either of their setups. Some might say that the Xbox One is to complex but I say that it is designed to be elegant. The only downfall that Microsoft has and hopefully they are done with this downfall is that for a while they changed the look of it a lot in a short period of time. But it is always getting updates and most of those updates are making it even better than previous versions.
You have tabs that give you sections for what you want to do, what the community is doing, video’s, games, and store. Having things in these categories are great and give you easy ways to find what you want. If you go to the community you can see what other gamers are doing, tournaments, live streams, and more. Video and Games show you the latest in each that are out and the store allows you to search for anything you want from apps, games, and videos. By far the best experience when it comes to content is on the Xbox one just because of their online features.
Online
I am not going to spend a lot of time talking about the Xbox Live service but if you are a multiplayer/online gamer then the place to do your gaming is on Xbox Live. There is no other place to get the best overall experience than on the Xbox Live service. The party chat feature is by far the best feature. It allows for all your friends to chat with each other while you play with them in a game or while you all are playing different games. Yes, there are times this feature isn’t working but the overall experience is what makes online gaming great.
The other thing with Xbox Live service that is good is the “Games with Gold” feature. This is where they give you 2 Xbox One games and 2 Xbox 360 games for free each month. The Xbox 360 games will be playable on the Xbox One so you get 4 free games if you are an Xbox one owner. Now, this is another feature that Sony with their PlayStation Plus is better at than Microsoft because Sony usually has at least 1 AAA game each month they are giving for free whereas, in my opinion, Microsoft needs a lot of improvement on this. But if you are looking for the best online experience then I would give Xbox and their live services a try
Games
The games is where it can become a controversial subject because I feel this is all opinion based. Yes, there are occasions where if you read by 10 reviewers that a game is bad then the game is probably going to be bad for you as well. But, I have found that I have liked a lot of games that a lot of people gave bad reviews on and I didn’t like a lot of games that people gave great reviews on. When it comes to the likes of Microsoft and their Xbox games it is the same. Microsoft has some really good “old” exclusive franchises like Gears of War, Halo, Forza, Crackdown, and Fabel. They are coming out with Sea of Thieves and had a few launch exclusives. This is all great but what Microsoft is missing is those great storytelling, eye-catching, don’t want to leave your TV kind of games that Sony has. I bought my first PlayStation, the PS4, this past September because of the fact that Xbox just doesn’t have any good story driven game exclusives that I want to play.
Xbox also offers 2 subscription-based services that the Playstation doesn’t have. The EA Access and Xbox Game Pass. EA Access you pay $30 year to have access to a lot of their older games, some only 6 months old, and access to early 10 hr trials of games. The Xbox Game Pass is $9.99 month that gives you access to 100 games that you can download and play along with the added Microsoft exclusive games at game launch. Both are pretty good deals and allows you to pay very little for a lot of game entertainment.
Now don’t get me wrong when I say that if there is a game that can be played on both consoles that are either story-driven single player or multiplayer then I will be playing that game on the Xbox, hands down. It is just a better console, in my opinion, hands down. But Microsoft does need to hit it out of the park at E3 2018 if they want to survive the next Playstation launch.
Final Verdict
Pro’s: Great design, faster than the previous version, Xbox live service, OS has a better feel, budget pricing, Xbox Games with gold, recently released game pass and EA Access.
Con’s: Lack of exclusive games, no removable hard drive.
My final thought on the S is that it is a console that everyone should have. Even if you are a Sony hardcore I would recommend doing what I did in regards to getting the other console and buy the Xbox One to play online and try out their current exclusives. Overall I don’t think you will go wrong with it. The design is great and it just feels good playing on the console. If you are looking to try a new console and can’t afford the $500 Xbox one x then try out the S.