Kudos to Microsoft’s engineers for making the Series X almost inaudibly quiet. Kudos to Microsoft's engineers for making the Series X almost inaudibly quiet.I won’t miss fan noise, however, because there really isn’t any. I know those weren’t the Xbox One’s most popular features, but I’ll miss them, especially since it means I can no longer use my trusty old Astro A40 headphones. On the back, there’s an HDMI 2.1 out, two more USB ports, the power plug, an ethernet port, and the internal storage expansion slot. On the front you have the power button, a single USB 3.2 port, a 4K Blu-ray drive with an eject button, and a controller pairing button. It's minimalist, yes, but bold.The top of the Series X is something of an industrial designer’s magic trick the concave ventilation screen gives an appealing look of both depth and premium quality when viewed at eye level or higher, and the green coloring on the inside half of those ventilation holes pops with a much-needed accent that makes the inside of the Series X appear to be illuminated even when it’s turned off.
But when stood tall, it’s big enough to confidently tower in your entertainment center while compact and subtle enough that it doesn’t dominate it.
On its side, it looks like a giant misplaced LEGO piece, and you can’t remove the vertical stand on the left side, which is awkward. To my eye, it’s easily the best in Xbox history – when it’s standing vertically at least. Let’s talk about the console design itself. It’s as painless as upgrading a smartphone. For instance, if your current Xbox is still hooked up to your network when you bring home the Series X, simply plug in the Series X and transfer all of your games right over the network – which, provided your network is up to snuff, is pretty quick. Once you’re up and running, you’ve got multiple options for bringing your existing library to the Series X – the best of which don’t require you to redownload anything. You can even use your smartphone to log into your account and toggle your settings and preferences while the box itself downloads and installs a firmware update. That customer-first thinking continues with an easy initial setup when you plug the Series X in and turn it on. It’s clear that every aspect of that process has been carefully considered, including the console’s central, isolated placement in the box, making it feel like you’re opening a present. This console makes few compromises and, even though there’s no killer app out of the box that immediately screams “This is next gen!” after just a short while with it, going back to even an Xbox One X would be agonizing.įrom the moment you open the Xbox Series X box, it makes a great first impression with a presentation reminiscent of an Apple product. It’s not until you fire up a game and are launched into smooth, native 4K amazingly quickly that the Series X justifies spending $500 to upgrade. Even the power button makes the same beeps, and the packed-in controller is barely changed. And when you turn it on, the dashboard looks almost identical to the one that Xbox One gamers have been using for years. It’s a minimalist block with precisely one curve on the entire thing.
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