Xbox One S is a great console with lousy timing

[#Drennn.]

Smartphones can’t settle on a size – first they’re smaller, then they’re bigger – but new versions of home video game consoles follow the traditional tech plan: they shed weight, slim down, hush up and adopt way cooler style.

That’s what happened with both the Xbox 360 and PS3, at least, and it looks like history is repeating itself in the form of the Xbox One S.

Released on August 2, the Xbox One S comes at an interesting time for Microsoft. The standard Xbox One has been steadily losing to the PS4 in monthly sales, thanks in part to a rough initial launch marred by Microsoft’s political flip-flopping and confusing policies. Since then, Microsoft has done an admirable job turning the ship around – or at least getting it moving in the right direction – but the gulf between the two systems is only widening.

So it comes as little surprise that Microsoft would be the first out of the gate with a slimmed down version of its gargantuan black box. And true to form, the Xbox One S is a prettier system, a smaller one and thanks to native support for 4K and HDR, undoubtedly a better one than the original Xbox One.

Whether or not you should buy it, though, is hardly as straightforward. It introduces a number of new features, all of them cool, but none of them essential, especially when considering what’s on the horizon for the Xbox ecosystem. Do you need an Xbox One S? Is it better than a standard Xbox One? Did Microsoft really need to offer a marginal system upgrade mid-stream? Read on to find out.



The hardware

There’s no getting around it (literally): the original Xbox One is an oversized, unattractive beast of a home console. Glance at it in your entertainment center and it could well be a VCR.

Stick an Xbox One S in its place, however, and you’ve immediately enhanced your living room’s aesthetics.

It’s a slick Apple white, but more importantly, it’s 40% smaller and weighs about a pound and a half less than its chunky forbear. It runs a bit quieter, which is something of a miracle because the Xbox One S contains an internal power supply. That means you no longer have a brick the size of a super burrito threatening to burn a hole in the space behind your cabinet. I forgot how much I hated that thing until I plugged in my Xbox One S with a nice, normal cord.

It’s also got a vertical stand, should you prefer to tempt fate (or toddlers) by aligning it on its narrow side. All 30 of you who still use Kinect should know that Microsoft’s once-exciting motion sensing camera is not included with the Xbox One S, and getting an old Kinect to work will require a separate adapter for $40.

The rest of its physical enhancements are minor. The front USB port has been moved to the actual front instead of the left side (a small point of aggravation in the original design), and a clicky power button replaces the original’s hyper-sensitive touch pad. Say goodbye to accidentally ruining your Rocket League game because your toe got too close to your console. One new controller comes with the system, and though it’s changed colors, it’s mostly identical to the old one save for some added texture to the grips and Bluetooth pairing, which should improve functionality with Windows 10 PCs.

At the moment, you can only get the 2TB hard drive version ($399), but later this month, 500GB ($299) and 1TB ($349) varieties will become available. Based on my experience with the current Xbox One and PS4, a 500GB HD for a modern game console is the equivalent of the 16GB iPhone: ridiculously, impossibly, Zoolander-y small. Unless you already have some external hard drives lying around, a moderately busy gamer should opt for the 1 or 2TB models.