Let me give a little background regarding my gaming habits over the past generation so you can see where I?m coming from in my coverage here. First of all, I have zero interest in stepping back into the realm of PC gaming. I don’t have the patience nor the funds to keep up with the myriad of powerful/pricey PC hardware upgrades these days — no matter the potential for amazing visual performance that can be squeezed out of a custom rig. Secondly, full disclosure, I?m more of a PlayStation 4 gamer than an Xbox One gamer these days, which mostly has to do with the game library, more active friends list and (up until now) somewhat better multiplatform game performance — in that order. I have indeed upgraded to the realm of 4K HDR gaming with a gorgeous Samsung KS8000 UHD set and a PS4 Pro over the past year and do not regret the decision at all. So in terms of 4K gaming on a console, I have some experience now.
Oh and just to get it out of the way. The Xbox One X console and Xbox One X enhanced games were supplied by Microsoft for evaluation purposes. See our unboxing article/gallery, here.
The Xbox One X has to be Microsoft?s most well-engineered piece of console hardware yet. They’ve stumbled in the past, with some odd design choices and some faulty hardware, and I think they’ve finally found their way for sure. The Xbox One X console is unexpectedly small at ?11.81? x 9.45? x 2.36? and surprisingly weighty at around 8.5 lbs (around 2 lbs more than the Xbox One X S). Some of this weight, we?re assuming, is due to the more advanced liquid cooling system and centrifugal fan in the tightly packed form factor. Well, so far, that cooling setup seems to be working since the thing is generally whisper quiet — at least based on the somewhat limited supply of Xbox One X enhanced games that are available at the moment. At worst, I felt some warm air and hot spots on the top of the case here and there after an extended play session with many GBs of downloads happening in the background. And this is with the X stacked on top of another component in a somewhat airflow restricted cabinet. So thumbs up so far!
As for the console’s design, the Xbox One X is a clean, nice looking system — don’t get me wrong, but It?s probably a little more function over form in terms of overall aesthetics. It?s a solid matte black rectangle with some strategically placed cooling holes and the familiar light up Xbox logo power button; and to be honest at first glance, no one is going to know it?s an Xbox One X. It’s lacking sex appeal, though it’s far from ugly. Considering that it?s just another component in a cabinet in my personal home entertainment center, that?s fine by me. It?s definitely beautiful on the inside so that?s all that counts.
Microsoft is marketing the Xbox One X as a premium product, and one which costs nearly two times the going rate for a halfway decent good Xbox One S deal or bundle, so I maybe had some odd expectations on the packaging and presentation for some reason. The box is a little flimsy and I would have appreciated maybe a packed in headset like the good old Xbox 360 days, so the very first impression you get of the console doesn’t scream “premium” to me. It’s not something to lose sleep over, though it was worth commenting on at the very least. Also, that 1TB HDD isn’t going to last all that long, since some XB1X enhanced games are already topping 100GB.
In terms of dashboard performance and load times, I haven?t noticed a measurable difference thus far. I?m still not super, super fond of the new Xbox One interface although it?s functional and customizable enough. The dashboard is not silky smooth and occasionally suffers from some of the usual quirks and hitches which we assume has more to do with fetching and rendering Xbox Live online data than a lack of processing power. As for upgraded features on a system level, the ability to record gameplay clips in 4K resolution at 60 frames per second is a great enhancement for those who produce videos or livestream. I’m still of the mind that Microsoft should have held back their 4K video streaming and Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray capabilities for the Xbox One X since it would have been a bigger differentiator over the Xbox One S, although that ship has obviously sailed. 4K HDR video seems to be identical to what the Xbox One S can output, via apps or the Ultra HD Blu-ray drive itself. We had the opportunity to check out the gorgeous Planet Earth II on Ultra HD Blu-ray, and damn, is that some damn fine looking 4K nature footage.
So Microsoft is all ?4K this? and ?4K that? as a major selling point for the Xbox One X. As a number of developers have displayed to us already on the PC and PS4 Pro, gaming on a 4K-capable game platform isn?t just about the raw pixel count however. Games running at 4K (rendered natively or via other techniques) look clean and sharp, especially when the proper anti-aliasing solution is being utilized, but there?s more to the Xbox One X than that. Gears of War 4 being a great example.
With Xbox One X enhanced games and game updates popping up nearly every day (keep an eye on the official list, here), we only had the opportunity to get our hands on a few other enhanced titles which are noted below. Many games will not see their updates roll out until next week, on or around November 7th, so keep an eye on the list.
As of this review, there are still several titles which do not officially have their enhanced updates available to download quite yet. That includes Halo 3, ReCore Definitive Edition, Forza Motorsport 7, Assassin’s Creed Origins, Gears of War 4, and Rise of the Tomb Raider, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, Minecraft, EA Sports titles and others. We?ll be all over those once they are available, including future releases which will also include Xbox One X enhanced visuals and performance as well. Once again, keep an eye on that list!
So, to wrap things up here somewhat (so we can get back to evaluating the enhanced games of course), the Xbox One X is definitely a premium Xbox One product at a relatively reasonable price, especially as compared to similarly powered PC upgrades. There are still a lot of variables to consider before plunking down for any new console so the same school of thought applies here: Do you require the “best” console version of a multiplatform games? Are most of your friends on Xbox Live? Are the first party and exclusive Xbox One games in the pipeline enticing enough? Do you want the latest and greatest piece of Xbox hardware to show off your fancy 4K HDR-enabled display (and/or are too impatient to wait until the next console generation)? If you’ve answered yes to most of these, then the Xbox One X it is!
Stay tuned for more coverage and reviews as the flood of Xbox One X Enhanced game updates continue through the November 7th, 2017 launch and beyond.
Eds. Note: Beginning next week, the GA staff will have a couple of Xbox One X consoles to help evaluate future first and 3rd party release, and we will continue to break out the visual and performance enhancements moving forward.
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