The internet gamer-sphere is abuzz, working itself into a fever pitch the likes of which is seen only on the rarest of occasions. The reason is, of course, the upcoming release of the next-gen gaming consoles – Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X. While most of us have to wait until the tail end of November to get a look at the new systems, there are a few lucky people who have already been able to get hands-on with one of the consoles – the Xbox Series X.
Game journalists from the likes of The Verge, IGNand ArsTechnica have been putting the most powerful video games console in the world to the test. While these trials haven’t been able to test out any Xbox Series X games, they have been able to test the console’s performance with some of the best Xbox One titles, as well as looking at the start times, the user interface and Quick Resume feature.
Storage
The Xbox Series X has a 1TB SSD. The OS takes a chunk of this and leaves the user with 802GB of useable space. The 1TB Seagate Expansion Card, which was recently revealed, provides 920GB of additional storage.
Start-Up
The start-up time from idle is mere seconds, and the load from a standby is comfortably under 30-seconds – much faster than the Xbox One X. The start-up beep from pressing the power button is the same, though.
Quick Resume
IGN’s Ryan McCaffery has confirmed that the Quick Resume feature, which allows the user to jump back and forth between open games, is as efficient as Microsoft promised. McCaffery was able to jump from playing Red Dead Redemption 2 to playing control in comfortably under 10 seconds. Note that this will only work between digital editions.
Physically Impressive
The Xbox Series X has always been thought of as having an impressive and severe design. The monolithic aesthetic seems to line up with its weight and construction quality, which has been commended. The controller has also been noted as an improvement over the Xbox One’s.
Load Times
The real story here is that the Xbox Series X’s load times are impressive and make a significant difference to the experience found on the Xbox One X, the most powerful console in the Xbox One range.
The Verge’s Tom Warren reported the following:
Call Of Duty: Warzone
Xbox One X: 21 seconds
Xbox Series X: 16 seconds
No Man’s Sky
Xbox One X: 2 minutes, 13 seconds
Xbox Series X: 1 minute, 27 seconds
IGN’s Ryan McCaffery reported:
Fallout 4
Xbox One X: 2 minutes, 11 seconds
Xbox Series X: 22 seconds
Red Dead Redemption 2
Xbox One X: 2 minutes, 43 seconds
Xbox Series X: 1 minute, 5 seconds
ArsTechnica’s Sam Machovech reported:
Halo 5
Xbox One X: 2 minutes, 11 seconds
Xbox Series X: 22 seconds
Forza Horizon 3
Xbox One X: 1 minutes, 36 seconds
Xbox Series X: 43 seconds
This all looks very promising, with the Fallout 4 results being particularly impressive. We look forward to seeing what the Xbox Series X can do with its own titles in the coming months.