After discovering Xbox Series X in 2019 on the occasion of The Game Awards, we have finally come close to the debut of the new console. It is useless to go around it, Microsoft products she failed to fully hit the target with the family Xbox One, for one reason or another, although fortunately this partial defeat did not bring down the division Xbox. With the authority of Phil Spencer at the head, many studies have been acquired and foraged, the developers have fought with teeth and claws to defeat the competition, until reaching the real battlefield: the next-gen. We have already talked about one of the two consoles in this area, Xbox series s, at the following link the review, but the real protagonist of this technological leap is still missing; precisely, Xbox Series X.
The - again - most powerful console on the market will have the task of bringing thousands of games to our screens over the next few years, including Xbox Game Studios and cross-platform of all kinds, with the constant of the many additional possibilities for next generation games. Between a tide of TFLOPs to exploit and one Super fast SSD that will make the new system snappy, we just have to put our hands on the platform to test its potential. We discovered all the features of Xbox Series X just before day one, and now we just have to talk to you about our impressions on the next-gen future of the Redmond house.
Solid and elegant
From unboxing it is easy to notice the elegance of the new Xbox platform. We find in the package the black next-gen controller it's a HDMI 2.1 cable, but the box immediately presents the parallelepiped in all its magnificence, with not particularly small but not excessive dimensions. We are talking about 30,1 cm x 15,1 cm x 15,1 cm, for a total weight of 4,45 Kg. The front offers us a door USB 3.1 Gen 1 and the reader 4K Blu-Ray, while the rear offers: two doors USB 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI socket with support for VRR and AMD FreeSync, the slot forAdditional SSD, the entrance to thesupply and the door Ethernet. While not particularly easy to insert in tight spaces, the system is quite versatile and in any case visually elegant and satisfying. Where the console in a vertical position, however, seems well structured, once extended some defects peek out on the front, which details seem poorly distributed, even if the same always manages to camouflage the hardware.
The console is aesthetically and internally well designed.
Considering the technical issues, it is possible to put the console in both directions without experiencing actual worsening of the level of performance or ventilation, albeit with due care. Noting that unfortunately the lower base cannot be removed, there remains the need to favor the circulation of ventilation without any external factor affecting the system, otherwise the noise will increase and the platform will overheat. The fan on the top, in fact, takes care of the entire dissipation system, taking the heat and pushing it outwards upwards. On the other hand, the incoming air comes from below, but while this is almost impossible to stop, thanks to the base that separates the inlet holes from the surfaces, an object that blocks the top of the system can really be harmful.
It is not difficult to respect this little foresight, and in exchange the Redmond house has provided us with a product with an edge in the field of noise, at least when compared to the current generation. Xbox Series X is almost inaudible, silent against all odds, this completes its camouflage process in all environments also thanks to this factor. The ventilation system manages for the moment to be more than solid, despite the almost absence of noises (you will have to pay attention to the fact that the console is on), but it is obvious that this will have to be tested properly over the next months and years, with the arrival of real next-gen titles and with the wear and tear of the system after several hours of use.
The Xbox Series X controller, just like some other platform features, is meant for making those arriving on the next-gen feel at home. This is quite similar, but adds some improvements to the already great product dedicated to the Xbox One family, first taking a feature from the Pro Controller released by the Xbox division. The classic directional arrows are transformed into a more comfortable circle, which in-game is much more effective, but which may be slightly difficult to get used to. The shape and size are almost unchanged, even if the key is added Share to ensure greater ease of use of the various social features.
The Xbox Series X ecosystem
The Xbox Series X SSD makes the system snappy.
Also the Dashboard initial of the platform is very reminiscent of the environment of the Xbox One family, resulting almost identical but slightly revised regarding several details. However, the novelty comes in the field of speed, favored by the presence of an SSD capable of making all operations almost instantaneous. It takes little to forget the time it takes to open the shop, the friends list and settings, as well as to start the games which now takes much less time. Thanks to the SSD, Xbox Series X introduces the Quick resume, feature that allows you to switch between games in seconds, even if the console is turned off in the process. You can then start a single player title for example, and then launch yourself in multiplayer on some work such as Gears 5 (here we talked about how it runs on next-gen), and quickly revert to the previous game in a matter of seconds. The feature is more interesting than you might imagine, moreover it represents one of the best exclusive novelties of the new platform.
On the playground, Xbox Series X continues the backward compatibility crusade, allowing the use of all - or almost - the works of the Xbox One catalog, which are optimized thanks to the greater computing power and speed of the SSD, which significantly reduces startup and loading times. There is no lack of support for some titles: these, if purchased on the old platform, can be played for free on the next-gen in an optimized version. The final icing on the cake concerns the services of the Xbox division; Xbox Game Pass e Xbox Live. While for the second we do not have precise updates yet, the Game Pass seems ready to expand dramatically, guaranteeing subscribers all the games published by the Xbox Game Studios since day one.
Power inhibited
Although Xbox Series X is solid, internally and externally, sadly we have not yet had the opportunity to test real works dedicated to the next-gen, who are concerned about putting the platform in serious difficulty in all fields. While considering how optimized versions of games approach - and sometimes surpass - PC ones, the true power of the console can only be tested with new productions, which for the moment are unfortunately absent. We therefore look forward to discovering how the machine will be able to juggle much more expensive productions, already aware of the fact that the specifications can really illuminate the new titles; we attach below the basic ones.
- CPU: Zen 2 with 8 Cores, 3,8 GHz
- GPU: 12 TFLOPs, 52 CU at 1825 MHz, RDNA 2
- Memory: 16GB GDDR6, 0GB at 560GB / s and 6GB at 336GB / s
- Internal Storage Space: 1TB NVMe SSD (approx. 800GB effective)
The pairing of new generation AMD CPUs and GPUs will allow the use of Ray Tracing, As well as the 4K at 60 FPS across many games and support for up to 120 FPS, which will clearly require compromises a few times. As already detailed in the following article, the memory may not be fully sufficient for the storage of many games, especially when you consider the possibilities of the Xbox Game Pass. The Xbox division has already talked about theSeagate 1TB expansion, with a not particularly low price, but which will allow the use of the securities even if not allocated on the main system. The use of HDD and SSD not optimized for the occasion will allow you to play with only the titles of the past generations, as well as to archive even the new ones waiting for them to be moved to the main partition to be used.
