How Much Will The Xbox Series X Cost

What The Cost Of The Xbox Series X Is

According to Microsoft, the cost of the Xbox Series X will be $499.99 US . That’s a lower price than some people expected, and it puts it at the same original price of the Xbox One. That means Xbox fans are getting a next-gen console at a current-gen price. It’s a somewhat surprising move, and it will add to the pressure Sony is facing with its PS5 pricing whenever the company makes an official announcement.

Based off the pricing of both the Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X, it’s a good time to be a fan of Microsoft’s consoles. Although the Series X and Series S are still launching without exclusives, the lower price incentivizes purchases. It could be a great plan for Microsoft, who could sell more consoles if they really undercut Sony’s PS5 on price. Although, until the PS5 gets an official price, consumers won’t really know.

Overall, it’s an exciting week for Xbox fans. The Xbox Series X seems like a reasonable deal at $499.99, and the Series S is there for only $299.99 for people looking for an all-digital option. The Xbox Series X and Series S both arrive on November 10th, with pre-orders starting on September 22nd.

‘optimized For Series X

What if a game doesn’t use FPS Boost? That’s where the optimizations for Series X and S come in. These essentially take a game that’s available on the Xbox One and adds new features like a higher resolution, more graphical effects and of course a 60fps frame rate. These optimizations are typically handled by the developers themselves.

I hate to admit it, but I will buy games I have only a passing interest in if I see that they have the “X|S” optimized logo. I did that with Mortal Shell and The Avengers. Also, recently Xbox announced that Sea of Solitude had received the FPS Boost treatment. I’d never even heard of that game before I’d heard about the update, but I downloaded it via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate the day of the FPS Boost announcement. I will at least now give it a try.

Faster Storage Delivers Much Shorter Load Times

All games and saves on an Xbox Series X or Series S are stored on a much newer and much faster type of storagecalled NVMethan the platter-based hard drive the Xbox One uses. This new storage helps provide some of the most obvious improvements to the overall user experience and games for this new console generation, with a night-and-day difference in console startup, game boot-ups, and in-game load times.

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When Does The Xbox Series X Come Out/can I Re

The Xbox Series X came into our lives on Nov. 10, 2020. That means its been on the market since the 2020 holiday season.

You might think that more stock would be available by now. However, the supply chain and shipping issues mean that its hard to find this console and even more difficult to pick up Black Friday Xbox deals on it. As a result, youll want to act fast if you come across an Xbox Black Friday sale.

Faster Performance Higher Frame Rates

The Xbox Series X and Series S have dramatically more powerful CPUs than previous-generation consoles didin the neighborhood of four times as powerful as their predecessor in raw speed and the number of cores and threads, to say nothing of seven years worth of efficiency and other improvements. This means faster user interfaces and much faster load times,1 as well as more sophisticated character and game behaviors, and just more stuff on screen at any given moment.

But the biggest improvements are most apparent in frame rates, which should hit 60 frames per second much more often this generation than last. The more frames per second, the more often the controller and the game are communicating. So a new Series X or Series S should feel like it responds faster and more reliably to your inputs. And when games cant maintain consistent frame rates, support for variable refresh rates should help keep those games from feeling unresponsive. Recent examples here include Diablo 2: Resurrected and Psychonauts 2, both of which offer 60 FPS modes on Series X and S unavailable on the Xbox One. The upcoming Battlefield 2042, is supposed to run at 60 FPS, but never manages it on Xbox One or even the PlayStation 4. On the Series X and S, performance in the recent beta was consistently smooth.

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Should You Buy An Xbox One In 2021

With everything considered, is the Xbox One worth it right now? In most cases, we would say no. With the retail price of the Xbox One X and S matching the price of an Xbox Series X or Series S, there’s no real reason to buy an older console. The newer generation gets you faster performance and is a more future-proof purchase, compared to investing in outdated hardware.

While you can access most of what makes Xbox great on the Xbox One right now, that won’t last forever. Before long, Xbox-exclusive titles won’t release on Xbox One anymore, and Game Pass might begin offering exclusives for Xbox Series X/S.

Right now, it’s difficult to find either next-gen Xbox, thanks to scalpers. But that shouldn’t tempt you into buying an older console. Wait until the new consoles are readily available, and your money will be much better-spent.

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If there are a couple of Xbox titles that you can’t wait for, and you have a decent computer, see if they’re on Game Pass for PC. That can hold you over until the Series X/S is back in stock.

In short, we’d only recommend buying an Xbox One in 2021 if you can find it for a huge discount and don’t plan to upgrade for years. Otherwise, the matching prices and enhanced power of the Series X/S make the newer systems worth waiting for.

New Xbox Series X Features

One new Xbox feature is thats coming soon is Microsofts new cloud streaming service called Xbox Cloud Gaming, which is included as part of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Similar to or Geforce Now, it will allow you to stream games from the cloud onto your device. This way you can bypass download, install, and update times to hop right into the game or demo. As of now, its available on mobile, PC, and consoles.

Thanks to its access to the massive Xbox content library, Microsoft is already touting its superiority over other budding cloud gaming services like Stadia. Theres also Remote Play for those that want to stream directly from their console to mobile devices. This is far more stable, though youll still have to suffer through some input lag when playing. Nevertheless, its a handy option to have when someone else wants to take over the TV and youre not quite ready to quit.

Once games are installed, the upgraded SSD should drastically reduce load times in-game vs the HDDs of older-gen Xbox consoles. While it is a hair shy of the PS5s new storage speeds, it does have a slightly larger capacity, so it should fit more games. Either way, its a massive upgrade from current-gen consoles that will be felt in every game you play new or old.

The Xbox Series X can add HDR and improve framerates of Xbox One and Xbox 360 games.

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Xbox Series X Cost To Run Per Week Month And Year

Now that we know the running cost for each mode per hour, lets take a look at how much our electricity costs could be per week , per month and per year .

To work this out lets use the average number of ours gamers in the US spend gaming 6.76 hours p/w.

The table below shows the average weekly, monthly and annual cost that US gamers can expect to pay in electricity charges to run their Xbox Series X.

In the US, on average, gamers can expect to pay 19 cents per week, 80 cents per month and $9.64 per year in electricity to run their Xbox Series X.

At maximum capacity, it costs US gamers 28 cents per week, $1.20 per month and $14.39 per year, on average, in electricity costs to power their Xbox Series X.

Notably, it costs Xbox Series X gamers $1.60 less per year at max capacity compared to PS5 gamers playing the same amount. See how much it costs to run a PS5 per week, month and year in the US. Alternatively, get the direct PS5 vs Xbox Series X power consumption comparison, here.

So now we know what it costs on average while gaming, but what about when the console is not in use?

Backwards Compatibility On Xbox Series X

Another of the Xbox Series X’s best features is the breadth of its backwards compatibility. There are well over 1,000 backwards-compatible titles available, meaning youll be hard-pressed to find an older game you have that isnt supported on the Series X.

As mentioned previously, we found these titles loaded faster and simply played better improved stability means fewer frame rate drops, which makes older games feel nicer to play, even if they’re otherwise a little outdated by the standards of modern blockbusters.

This backwards compatibility also extends to Xbox accessories. We found that we could easily connect the original Xbox Wireless Controller and the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 to the Xbox Series X with no issues, and we were also able to connect our headsets.

Any officially licensed Xbox One accessory that connects either wirelessly or via a wired USB connection should work on the Xbox Series X, such as the Xbox Wireless Headset however, its worth noting that optical port connections arent supported, although some of these products may work with a firmware update.

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Xbox Series X Review: Hardware And Setup

The Xbox Series X along with its Wireless Controller.

As can be gleaned from the tech spec listed above, the Xbox Series X is a video game console powerhouse. Indeed, it’s the most powerful console on Earth on paper, bested only by very powerful gaming PCs.

When you turn the Xbox Series X on, this is the screen you are greeted with.

Packing 12 teraflops of processing power, which is delivered thanks to a combination of AMD’s latest Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures, and paired with a custom 1TB NVME SSD storage drive, the Series X absolutely smokes Xbox’s last flagship, the Xbox One X.

This is a console that can go the distance

Microsoft has absolutely nailed it with the Xbox Series X’s hardware in my opinion. This is a console that has enough power to really go the distance and power, in my mind, an entire generation of great gaming experiences.

Setup of the Xbox Series X takes place in the companion Xbox app on mobile or tablet.

To start tapping into the console’s power, though, it first needs setting up. Now, interestingly this is almost entirely handled not on the console itself, but through the companion Xbox app, which must be downloaded on a mobile device or tablet.

Through this app you can setup an Xbox account , link the device to the console for setup, and then be guided through a setup wizard.

You setup a variety of things including updates and privacy settings.

If you have multiple Xbox consoles in the house then you can designate which room they are in.

When Will Xbox Series X Be Back In Stock

Because these consoles are so popular, we recommend moving fast when they come back in stock. If you dont, you could be waiting for the next Xbox Series X console restock. Now that Walmart is promoting its Walmart Plus membership, those with an account will have early sometimes exclusive access to deals. A membership is $12.95/month or $98 for the year.

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Xbox Series X Review: Backwards Compatibility

In the run-up to the release of the Xbox Series X, backwards compatibility was touted a lot by Microsoft, as well as keen Xbox gamers. Such was the hype, I had steeled myself for disappointment. But I neednt have worried as backwards compatibility on the Xbox Series X is superb.

Simply put, getting an Xbox game from any generation to run on the Xbox Series X is just a case of getting the disc and popping it into the console. If the game is backwards compatible, and many should be, then itll begin an installation process. If you have access to Xbox Game Pass, then you can simply download any game thats listed on the service that dates back as far as the original Xbox.

These games wont immediately be able to put the graphical horsepower of the Series X to use, if ever. But the fact they can be installed directly to the consoles SSD means theyll load up in seconds. And any games that used to run badly on older hardware, should at least be a little smoothed out.

There are limits in that a game locked at 30 frames per second wont suddenly run at 60 fps or more unless it gets optimized. I found that to be the case with Red Dead Redemption, which runs at 4K/30 fps on the Series X, much like it did on the One X. Throwing Assassin’s Creed 2 in the Series X results in a game that loads a lot faster and feels smoother than it ever did on the Xbox 360.

What Is The Xbox Series X Price

The official Xbox Series X price is $499 in the US and £449 in the UK. If you see a price higher than that without any extras, you are being overcharged and should avoid. Typically the inflated prices aren’t subtle either, we’re talking hundreds rather than tens extra.

Some stores may take advantage in other ways by limited sellable stock to bundles, with extra games or headset. We’ve seen some with really naff hats and T-shirts too. Some stores might bump up the prices of these items, but one thing’s for sure, you won’t be saving a penny on the bundled items at this time.

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Xbox Series X Price: How Much Is The Xbox Series X

Following the announcement of the Xbox Series S, Xbox announced the price point for its upcoming console range.

However, if you haven’t yet bought an Xbox Series X, you might be paying more than the $499/$£449 RRP, with scalpers currently listing the next-gen consoles for much higher prices on eBay.

At the time of writing, we’re seeing regular listings for the console at over £1000, although many of these don’t have any bids. A more accurate price you’d have to pay on eBay for an Xbox is around the £750-£850 range, with listings below this price racking up tens of bids days before the auction is set to end.

There doesn’t seem to be as high a demand for the Xbox Series S at the moment, but eBay scalpers are still listing the budget console for a higher price, with consoles selling for £310 – £60 higher than its RRP.

Xbox Series X Review: Features And Os

The Xbox Series X is a tale of gains and losses, at least when it comes to features. On paper, this is an all-new generation, but the reality is more complicated. The Xbox Series S and X share an OS with Xbox One, and the 2013 Xbox One is a wildly different proposition than what we have today.

Xbox Series X media support is a bit of a mixed bag.

For fans of the old school Xbox vision as the center of your entertainment system, the reality is that the Xbox Series S and X are dropping many of the features that enabled that. HDMI pass-through is gone, along with the IR Blaster. This means that the Xbox Series S and X cannot control your TV/cable box for surfing channels seamlessly without switching hardware signals.

The OneGuide TV app has been completely removed, and perhaps oddly, even the ability to play 3D Blu-ray has been killed as well. Typically, Microsoft cites low usage as its primary reason for removing features. In fairness, the trends certainly seem to suggest viewership is increasingly moving towards apps like Netflix and Disney+, as over-the-air and cable TV viewership wanes. Still, if you built up your entertainment system around the Xbox One’s features, it may sting to know that these are gone.

While the Xbox Series X media support is a bit of a mixed bag, Xbox doubles down on gaming features with considerable success.

When emerging from Quick Resume, you’ll get a small notification in the top right.

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New Games Old Hardware

Microsoft has said you wont have to buy new hardware to enjoy its upcoming first-party titles because many of them will also come to Xbox One. Heres how Xbox chief Phil Spencer described the companys approach back in July, where he said that every Xbox Game Studios game in the next couple of years will be playable on the Xbox One.

You wont be forced into the next generation. We want every Xbox player to play all the new games from Xbox Game Studios. Thats why Xbox Game Studios titles we release in the next couple of yearslike Halo Infinitewill be available and play great on Xbox Series X and Xbox One. We wont force you to upgrade to Xbox Series X at launch to play Xbox exclusives.

And if youre more of a PC gamer and dont own an Xbox One, then Microsoft also typically releases its major titles there as well, and it says it plans to continue this policy this year.

Microsoft has promised to bring Halo Infinite to PC and Xbox One as well as its new Xbox consoles.

There are some caveats you should be aware of. First is that these promises only cover Microsofts first-party titles, aka those published by Xbox Game Studios. Microsoft isnt making any promises about how other publishers like EA, Ubisoft, or Activision will handle their new games.

Microsoft is making big promises about its own games