Xbox Series X review: Worth buying over a PS5?

In my Xbox Series X review, I talk about whether Microsoft’s latest console deserves a place in your home and how it compares with the Sony PS5.

As someone who had the original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on day one, I feel I’m qualified to talk about the Xbox Series X. Hell, I remember getting two free games because of the first Xbox’s price drop, the RROD debacle and that weird birth to death advert that was banned.

So here we are, a new Xbox in a year that will forever be remembered as being total s***. Still, could be worse. Amazon accidentally sent out cat food and random kitchen appliances to some console buyers. Mine was only three days late.

I should probably point out that I also own a pretty potent PC capable of 4K gaming and I’ve played just about every console, thanks to a well-spent, I mean misspent youth.

Xbox Series X review: Design, setup & user-interface

To be honest, the PC comparison is a good one because the original Xbox was the first to usher in a hard drive and other componentry of that nature. The Series X is no different, as inside that black monolithic glorified calculator is some serious hardware muscle.

It has a fast 1 terabyte SSD drive, which means much faster loading times. It also has a big metal heatsink to keep things from melting and a 130mm fan that blows upward to shift the heat away fast and provide somewhere tempting for your cat to sit.

I have to say, the look of a console is largely irrelevant when playing a game and yet I rather like the design. It’s discreet, simple, much easier to fit in your furniture than a PS5 and packs in a remarkable amount of technology in a small package. Just don’t spill anything from above. It can even lie flat.

Even when chucking around polygons, the Xbox Series X remains remarkably quiet. Quieter than my PC, anyway. For those who dislike background noises such as the PS5’s coil whine, I doubt you’ll complain much.

The controller, meanwhile, is largely similar in terms of size and layout similar. In fact, my official ChatPad and unofficial battery packs fit without issue. Except now you get some added grip on the triggers and back panel to help when things get hot and sweaty. There’s also a share button for quickly sharing screenshots and video clips, but only within a game and not the user-interface.

Microsoft has kept the user-interface familiar too, which is sad in the sense I always liked loading up a new console and experiencing a new and exciting experience. But it’s good that you know where stuff is and already Microsoft has started making design revisions to make life more intuitive.

That’s not to say I ever find myself clenching my fists and shouting towards the heavens because I cannot find a particular option. But I do miss the simplicity of the original Xbox and wish the Series X was a little more streamlined. Still, you can move stuff about and have dynamic backgrounds.

Once setup using the Xbox app preferably, it’s much easier and you can get remote play going (see above), game saves sync automatically when you sign in and play games so long as you had cloud saves enabled on your previous consoles.

Xbox Series X review: Storage, graphics, HDR & optimisation

You can actually choose to backup your hard drive on older consoles and transfer or find all games you own digitally and download them again, which is probably the cleaner and safer method. That 1TB will fill up relatively fast so it’s good to know you can buy an official 1TB SSD from Seagate.

Shifting files from the internal drive to an external one, in my case a WD Passport SSD, is only necessary if you want to play Xbox Series X titles. All other stuff will work from the external drive, providing it meets the speed and storage requirements. Moving Outlast 2 took a few minutes so unless you have some ungodly internet speed it’s really no hardship.

The Xbox Series X also doubles up as a Blu-ray player and you can download more apps for streaming content than on PS5, for now anyway. That includes Netflix, iPlayer, Spotify and Amazon Video.

You actually get Dolby Atmos support from the Series X if you have a fancy surround sound system, just download the app and away you go. Although there’s no optical this time, which might be an issue for some AV setups.

Obviously it’s the games that make a console and, sadly, in part due to 2020 being so shit there are relatively few must-haves. DIRT 5 is a fun arcade racer with impressive visuals, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Watch Dogs: Legion are very Ubisoft and there are a few others but not that many. For rally fans, WRC 9 is hard to fault and is next-gen optimised.

The absence of Halo is noticeable, no graphics jokes please, as is Forza although the new Forza Motorsport game will be with us in 2021. So you’re not missing out if you still have an older Xbox unless you want improved visuals.

But that’s a huge part of the Series X’s appeal. Honestly, I’ve been having a blast replaying Skyrim with all the awesome visual mods at 60 frames per second. It’s like a new game. Forza Horizon 4, meanwhile, is buttery smooth and rarely drops a frame even at 4K.

In fact, it’s been a blast playing older games that weren’t as smooth and took years to load. So many games have been given a new lease of life and while some are currently slower than on PS5, developers have had much less time to eke out that power.

No doubt the sheer grunt of the Series X will at least match but more likely surpass the PS5 in time. Not that it matters if all games can reach and stay at their intended frame rate and resolution drops are minimised.

Even without any optimisation, many Xbox Series X titles are simply far smoother, far prettier, far quicker to load and sometimes simply better to play. With optimisation, however, and you start to get 120 frames-per-second or native 4K graphics, both of which can look fantastic.

This is helped by the addition of HDR 10 and in-built HDR calibration, both of which allow for even crisper visuals on a TV or monitor that supports it. If you’re unsure, the Series X has an option to test your connected display and tell you what you can and can’t use. For an even better image, there’s also Dolby Vision although your TV choices are more limited.

Just the loading time improvements are welcome. Where you had to wait minutes, it’s tens of seconds at most. Going from the interior to exterior in Skyrim or loading up a new map in SnowRunner is no longer a moment to go make a tea. Which is good and bad as I really like tea.

Launch games, backwards compatability & value

The problem is that right now, when making this video, we are waiting for more and more games to be added. But with such a huge catalogue of older games to play, ranging as far back as the original Xbox, hello Fusion Frenzy, I’ve not found myself bothered about waiting.

Go for the Xbox Series S, slap it into developer mode and you can even retro game emulators, making the cheaper, disc-less Series X sibling a versatile bit of kit. All that processing power can run older games better than the original Xbox and your average gaming PC. Funny how the Xbox is better at playing old PlayStation games than something from Sony.

Speaking of which, the Xbox Series X is said to be on a par with graphics cards worth hundreds of pounds. Of course, a gaming PC also needs a power supply, motherboard, cooling system, fans, case, RAM, not the animal kind, and more. You’re getting a lot of hardware for your money.

Other useful features include Quick Resume, which lets you cycle between lots of games rapidly and pick up where you left off. Great for single-player gaming, but not so great for multiplayer.

Microsoft also offers something called Game Pass, which is the Netflix of Xbox games. Pay monthly, download and play as many games as you like and/or can fit on your storage devices. With Game Pass Ultimate, that includes Xbox Live for online gaming and the ability to play many games on PC.

In fact, my Forza Horizon 4 save is synced on both versions so I can play on PC one minute and Xbox Series X the next. Or even a previous generation Xbox. It’s this cohesive, simplistic, wallet-friendly and backwards compatible ecosystem that leaves the PS5 behind.

This is largely thanks to another feature known as Smart Delivery. Basically, when you download a game you will get the best version of it for the console you are using. This avoids the issue on PS5 of downloading the wrong version and then having to uninstall and start again. Or reformat your hard drive. Or simply the game won’t work.

In terms of hardware, the Xbox Series X has two USB 3.2 ports, one HDMI 2.1 report for allowing up to 8K and 120Hz gaming, a slot for the official SSD upgrade, Xbox logo power button, vertical Blu-Ray drive, ethernet port and the power cable. Yes, no external power supply brick of annoyance here – it lives inside.

It also has rubber feet on the side for those who want to store it sideways (as previously mentioned), which reduces the drink-down-the-top fear although it looks odd. Plus there are raised notches to indicate which port is which for those with visual impairments or if turning the console round is problematic.

As you may’ve noticed, my Series X is gold because I’m testing a wrap. It would’ve been cool if other colours were available. Perhaps not gold though as it makes my Xbox look like a giant pack of B&H cigarettes.

Worth buying an Xbox Series X in 2021?

For those scared by early adoption stories, I’ve not seen my Xbox Series X take up vaping or do weird graphics things. Over the last few weeks it’s been 100% reliable and while that doesn’t mean problems don’t exist, things are great so far.

I’d also like to point out that the Xbox Series X can also benefit from remote play. Load up the app, connect to your console, Bluetooth a controller to your phone or tablet and, boom, you can play any game remotely. While this is most stable over WiFi, you can do it over data unlike with the equivalent PlayStation app.

So is the Xbox Series X worth buying? As a YouTuber who bought his console with real money, I would say yes but there are caveats. Older games run better and that’s great. New games look almost as good as they do on my PC and there’s no hassle getting them going. I also love the reduced loading times and sheer potential this console has to offer. It’s made justifying a gaming PC harder.

But, and this could be partly due to coronavirus ruining schedules, there’s not as much new stuff to enjoy. The buzz of the original Xbox and even the 360 to some extent is quieter. While the future is bright, it’s not exactly glowing right now if you’re not the type to play older games.

Therefore it’s not an essential purchase as things stand, but Microsoft has made the transition as easy as possible. Backwards compatible games, backwards compatible accessories, Smart Delivery, graphics optimisation – there are creases to be ironed out but the transition is simpler than on PS5.

Even if coming from the 4K-capable One X, I’d say the Series X will still feel like a slice of next-gen gaming providing you have the patience to watch the platform continue to grow from strength to strength. With a games library of 1,000-plus titles, that’s really no hardship. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to snipe bandits from afar with my Dark Elf stealth archer in 60fps Skyrim.

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Xbox Series X review: Worth buying over a PS5?

The Verdict

While it's early days for next-gen games, the Xbox Series X is fast, forward-thinking where it counts and offers a whole lot of processing power for the money.

The Good

Rapid performance

Backwards compatability

Great value

The Bad

Top vent spills scare me

User-interface still needs work

Relatively few next-gen games

Tribe Score

The Pretties