Xbox One X Review: the "world's most powerful console"

[Julio Franco]

In an simpler time, the Xbox One X might have been Microsoft's next-generation console. Instead its enhanced power is mainly being applied towards taking advantage of two of the hottest display technology buzzwords since 3D (R.I.P.) - high dynamic range (HDR) and 4K resolution.

Read the full article here.

https://www.techspot.com/review/1520-microsoft-xbox-one-x/

 

[Vulcanproject]

If Microsoft hadn't said they are putting all their future games on Windows as well as console then I might have been interested in this machine. But as they were so nice to allow me to play the likes of Forza and Gears on PC again, I have no use for it. This likely applies to a lot of PC gamers who are ones that are often most willing to spend $500 in one go on gaming related hardware.

It is also still too expensive for a console. Doesn't matter how powerful your console is, doesn't matter if you claim it's good value compared to a gaming PC, at $500 it won't sell that well. Sony learned this with PS3 quickly. Lots of people just don't pay $500 for games consoles. PC yes, phones yes, tablets yes. Games consoles? No.

With so many people already entrenched on Sony's platform it was going to take more than a 4K Xbox to change that momentum. Essentially this is what Microsoft are offering up here. It's an Xbox One and plays all the same games as that console, but in 4K.

If the appeal to buy an Xbox One at $250 was lacking compared to Sony's machine because of it's games, then it's appeal to buy a $500 one with the same games is surely not any higher. This doesn't fix much at all. I can see it only being on the radars of a niche for a long time.

 

[BigMack70]

Everyone interested in Xbox games who owns a 4k screen should buy this. It's an incredible upgrade over the One/One S.

That said, I can't imagine buying an X unless you own a 4k screen.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I haven't bought into 4K yet but I already own a 'X', as in GT'X' 1070. Works for me, like a bomb. I believe this 'X' console will sell pretty well though. Apple iPhone X? Nah, it's a waste of a 'X' and most importantly, a grand, as far as I'm concerned.

 

[dirtyferret]

It's a good console and while I don't think it's a rip off giving the specs, I wonder how well it will sell with a $500 price tag. The 4K is a bit gimmicky although understandable from a marketing perspective. Given that the graphic performance is on par with an AMD 570 I would say 4k 60 FPS performance would be underwhelming without eye candy sacrifices.

 

[xKrNMBoYx]

I haven't bought into 4K yet but I already own a 'X', as in GT'X' 1070. Works for me, like a bomb. I believe this 'X' console will sell pretty well though. Apple iPhone X? Nah, it's a waste of a 'X' and most importantly, a grand, as far as I'm concerned.

Lol iPhone X will most definitely sell well even with its higher price...Do you know how many people exist that get the new iPhone every time it’s out? Lots of people skipped the 8 aka 7s.

 

[erickmendes]

I got a PC and I still play at Full HD even owning an GTX 1080. I don't have an 4K monitor or TV, and I'm very pleased with my gaming experience. I'm no early adopter, I know 4K TVs are getting more mature, but while they still expensive (where I live they still do), I'm going to stay away from 4K content.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Lol iPhone X will most definitely sell well even with its higher price...Do you know how many people exist that get the new iPhone every time it’s out? Lots of people skipped the 8 aka 7s.

Honestly? No. Apple is not very big in our market. It's Samsung & Huawei that steal most of the sales.

 

[amstech]

Great hardware and a solid package all ruined by having to be in Microsoft's ecosystem.

 

[Nero7]

That said, I can't imagine buying an X unless you own a 4k screen.

What is it that people don't understand about games being rendered in 4K and then the picture is shrunk to 1080p for your TV which results in a much much better picture than having the game rendered in 1080p? Especially when you consider that the Xbox One S renders games often in 720p with no AA and with below 60fps.

Your Full HD TV is sufficient. Sure 4K would be a bit better and even more so with HDR.

Look up the Nvidia article on DSR https://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/dsr/technology

 

[gusticles41]

That vapor-chamber cooling thing is a pretty neat idea...

 

[hahahanoobs]

Lol iPhone X will most definitely sell well even with its higher price...Do you know how many people exist that get the new iPhone every time it’s out? Lots of people skipped the 8 aka 7s.

Honestly? No. Apple is not very big in our market. It's Samsung & Huawei that steal most of the sales.

You should have said in your market and where that is in your original content. There is nothing worse than vague statements.

Samsung and Hauwei dominate the global market, but iPhone is still number two in a lot of other countries.

 

[hahahanoobs]

If Microsoft hadn't said they are putting all their future games on Windows as well as console then I might have been interested in this machine. But as they were so nice to allow me to play the likes of Forza and Gears on PC again, I have no use for it. This likely applies to a lot of PC gamers who are ones that are often most willing to spend $500 in one go on gaming related hardware.

It is also still too expensive for a console. Doesn't matter how powerful your console is, doesn't matter if you claim it's good value compared to a gaming PC, at $500 it won't sell that well. Sony learned this with PS3 quickly. Lots of people just don't pay $500 for games consoles. PC yes, phones yes, tablets yes. Games consoles? No.

With so many people already entrenched on Sony's platform it was going to take more than a 4K Xbox to change that momentum. Essentially this is what Microsoft are offering up here. It's an Xbox One and plays all the same games as that console, but in 4K.

If the appeal to buy an Xbox One at $250 was lacking compared to Sony's machine because of it's games, then it's appeal to buy a $500 one with the same games is surely not any higher. This doesn't fix much at all. I can see it only being on the radars of a niche for a long time.

Lots of gamers don't buy $500 cards though. They buy the $200 cards. And PC and console markets are not directly comparable - at all.

 

[Experimentongod]

If Microsoft hadn't said they are putting all their future games on Windows as well as console then I might have been interested in this machine. But as they were so nice to allow me to play the likes of Forza and Gears on PC again, I have no use for it. This likely applies to a lot of PC gamers who are ones that are often most willing to spend $500 in one go on gaming related hardware.

It is also still too expensive for a console. Doesn't matter how powerful your console is, doesn't matter if you claim it's good value compared to a gaming PC, at $500 it won't sell that well. Sony learned this with PS3 quickly. Lots of people just don't pay $500 for games consoles. PC yes, phones yes, tablets yes. Games consoles? No.

With so many people already entrenched on Sony's platform it was going to take more than a 4K Xbox to change that momentum. Essentially this is what Microsoft are offering up here. It's an Xbox One and plays all the same games as that console, but in 4K.

If the appeal to buy an Xbox One at $250 was lacking compared to Sony's machine because of it's games, then it's appeal to buy a $500 one with the same games is surely not any higher. This doesn't fix much at all. I can see it only being on the radars of a niche for a long time.

Wel, yes and no. From the perspective of a (mainly) PC gamer:

- The Xbox One S/X is a good UHD/4K Blu-ray player.
- There are still some games exclusive to the Xbox One platform not available on PC, for example: Halo 5: Guardians, Sunset Overdrive and Forza Motorsport 5.
- On top of that, you have back compat, which adds more games that are not available on PC to the mix (Gears of War 2, Halo: Reach, Red Dead Redemption, etc.)

Finally, this upgrade it's not only "the same games at 4K", several "X enhanced games" have already been tested and the improvements go beyond resolution; we're talking more texture detail and higher/more stable framerates.

I intend to buy an Xbox One X for those elusive exclusive Xbox games (I already have a PS4 Pro and a GTX 1080 Ti equipped PC with a ton of Steam games) and to play some 4K Blu-rays for sure. Anyway, if you don't care too much about graphics quality the Xbox One S is a FAR better value of course.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

There is nothing worse than vague statements.

There are definitely billions of things worse than that. There you go, is that statement more specific for your liking?

 

[BigMack70]

What is it that people don't understand about games being rendered in 4K and then the picture is shrunk to 1080p for your TV which results in a much much better picture than having the game rendered in 1080p? Especially when you consider that the Xbox One S renders games often in 720p with no AA and with below 60fps.

Your Full HD TV is sufficient. Sure 4K would be a bit better and even more so with HDR.

Look up the Nvidia article on DSR https://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/dsr/technology

Supersampling looks a lot worse than native resolution and no amount of advertising and marketing jargon from Nvidia can change that. No, DSR 1080p does not look anywhere near as good as 4k and no, 4k is not just a "bit better" than supersampled 1080p. The difference is quite large and the improvement of true 4k over supersampled 1080p is massive.

With the price of decent 4k TVs down to $500-800, I don't think it makes any sense at all to spend $500 on a console to play supersampled 1080p games unless you are sitting so far away from your screen that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyway. Not to mention that the UHD bluray drive is wasted on a 1080p set. If you get an X1X, you are doing it wrong if you don't pair it with a 4k TV.

 

[Nero7]

Supersampling looks a lot worse than native resolution and no amount of advertising and marketing jargon from Nvidia can change that. No, DSR 1080p does not look anywhere near as good as 4k and no, 4k is not just a "bit better" than supersampled 1080p. The difference is quite large and the improvement of true 4k over supersampled 1080p is massive.

With the price of decent 4k TVs down to $500-800, I don't think it makes any sense at all to spend $500 on a console to play supersampled 1080p games unless you are sitting so far away from your screen that you wouldn't be able to tell the difference anyway. Not to mention that the UHD bluray drive is wasted on a 1080p set. If you get an X1X, you are doing it wrong if you don't pair it with a 4k TV.

So you fully agree with me but you'd choose stronger adjectives here and there.
OK

 

[BigMack70]

So you fully agree with me but you'd choose stronger adjectives here and there.
OK

No. The effect of those "stronger adjectives" is that your conclusion "Your Full HD TV is sufficient" is incorrect.

It would be foolish to buy a GTX 1080 Ti to play games on a 1080p monitor. It would also be foolish to buy an X1X to play on a 1080p TV. The screen ought to be upgraded if that's the kind of GPU power you want to have.

 

[Vulcanproject]

Wel, yes and no. From the perspective of a (mainly) PC gamer:

- The Xbox One S/X is a good UHD/4K Blu-ray player.
- There are still some games exclusive to the Xbox One platform not available on PC, for example: Halo 5: Guardians, Sunset Overdrive and Forza Motorsport 5.
- On top of that, you have back compat, which adds more games that are not available on PC to the mix (Gears of War 2, Halo: Reach, Red Dead Redemption, etc.)

Finally, this upgrade it's not only "the same games at 4K", several "X enhanced games" have already been tested and the improvements go beyond resolution; we're talking more texture detail and higher/more stable framerates.

I intend to buy an Xbox One X for those elusive exclusive Xbox games (I already have a PS4 Pro and a GTX 1080 Ti equipped PC with a ton of Steam games) and to play some 4K Blu-rays for sure. Anyway, if you don't care too much about graphics quality the Xbox One S is a FAR better value of course.

You make well trodden points, but with a lot of caveats. They are essentially the same games, with very minor upgrades. If you didn't buy a $250 Xbox One to play them, a bit more anti aliasing, slightly smoother textures and a slightly better framerate isn't going to convince you to suddenly pay $500 to play those same games is it? Not many people anyway. You either wanted them for their game play or didn't. It isn't a game changer in this crucial regard.

The UHD player is appealing to some people, but again, I can only imagine a tiny number in 2017. It didn't work that well for bluray and PS3 in 2006 and it's an even less effective strategy today. Xbox One S is making no headway against non UHD bluray PS4 at all. The reality is physical UHD formats have lost to streaming before they even started. With the fact that you need a strong net connection to make X1X viable with those stonking patches and so forth, it goes without saying you'll probably also use that connection for streaming high quality video. 4K bluray isn't dead but it'll never truly live either.

There are indeed some exclusives left over, but a relatively small number again. You even used Forza 5 as an example, despite the fact 6 and 7 are effectively on PC! The ones it does have like Halo 5 and Sunset Overdrive are so old if you didn't buy an Xbox One for them already you probably aren't getting an X for them now. It goes back to that fundamental point I made.

The backwards compatibility point is also reasonable, until you understand a massive appeal of PC for PC gamers is the legacy support. I read all about the Oblivion and Fallout upgrades for X with interest. Knowing full well I have played those popular games in higher resolutions, settings and quality years ago on PC and retain them in my library. It's a nice feature but it is something PC has done better for the entire time it's been around. Nothing like booting up an old game and slaughtering it with your shiny new PC hardware!

When all is said and done if the best case to spend $500 on an X1X is to play Gears of War 2 and Halo Reach again then it's already a lost cause for most consumers.

 

[Vulcanproject]

Lots of gamers don't buy $500 cards though. They buy the $200 cards. And PC and console markets are not directly comparable - at all.

Lots of PC gamers do buy $500 cards, not a huge number, but we are talking in the millions here. X1X isn't equal to a $500 card though. It's about equal to those mid range cards like an AIB RX580. They do sell in bucket loads.

PC and console markets are comparable in the sense now Microsoft has committed to moving all their games onto the PC platform it's a viable alternative to not buying Microsoft console hardware. A PC can do it all from a Microsoft games perspective.

 

[Nero7]

No. The effect of those "stronger adjectives" is that your conclusion "Your Full HD TV is sufficient" is incorrect.

It would be foolish to buy a GTX 1080 Ti to play games on a 1080p monitor. It would also be foolish to buy an X1X to play on a 1080p TV. The screen ought to be upgraded if that's the kind of GPU power you want to have.

You say that while fully agreeing with me that the X1X will make games look and run way better on a 1080p TV than a X1S.
I wont argue about your "feelings" about what is foolish. I used to play with DSR on a 1080p screen and the results were great. I now play on a UHD screen and while there is a difference it isn't a huge deal to me but I am sure to you it is.

You do not need an UHD TV to benefit from a X1X. Your sole point is that the amount of benefit isn't worth it to you while to me it is.

Btw. I do have an UHD TV... no HDR thou...

 

[Johnnyblaze1957]

Everyone interested in Xbox games who owns a 4k screen should buy this. It's an incredible upgrade over the One/One S.

That said, I can't imagine buying an X unless you own a 4k screen.

I have 4k tv bought the xb1x and it is so far making games that had frame stutters before run very smooth and HDR is very nice I highly recommend it.

 

[caiokn]

"Meanwhile, Nintendo is winning hearts and minds with the Switch, a hybrid handheld/console that, in handheld mode, only runs at 720p. It’s like having good games is more important than outputting at really high resolution."

And it is. For most people a console is just a tool/device that lets them have some fun. They don't care wheter it can or not output 4K. Those who did care about those things joined the Master Race.