Disclaimer: This is a personal review; in these reviews i always try to stay neutral, giving my personal opinion at the end after i have specified the facts. Please if you have a different opinion leave a friendly comment on why you disagree apart, from that enjoy the review, thank you.
The Xbox One X is the latest console produced by Microsoft improving it's specs and components from it's predecessor's the Xbox One S and the One.
The Xbox One X and S share the same console design being visually identical in almost every way, however, the specs on both consoles are vastly different both having there pro's and con's but this is a review on the Xbox One X not an One X vs One S blog post.
Info
The Xbox one X is running better and more faster specs to play your video games on. The small ( 11.8 x 9.4 x 2.4 inches ) console is sporting some of the best specs for a video games console that money can buy. Having a '8-core Jaguar "Evolved" CPU at 2.3GHz' improves load and processing speeds dramatically giving you the best advantage when gaming as possible,furthermore, the console has a powerful 6 Teraflops of graphical power, in comparison the Xbox one S only has around 1.2 Teraflop of graphical power, meaning, the One S will struggle to play games at native 1080p resolution.
This means that the Xbox One X can effectively produce many more millions of pixels on the image ( 8,294,400 to be precise ,) this in turn will produce a more detail and more immersion. This is all well and good but what happens if you do not own 4K television?
Microsoft have enhanced over 100 video games to support 4K gaming but with the absence of a 4K monitor or TV these features are useless. Do not get me wrong with the current specifications inside the console it will effectively run any game on native 1080p without concern (unlike it's predecessor) the only issue is these products come hand-in-hand with the absence of one you cannot get the full value out of the other; in this case without a 4K monitor the Xbox One X cannot work to it's full potential.
To this end the One X needing a 4K monitor is one of it's cons. However, if you do not have a 4K screen and do not mind the native 1080p on offer then this should not be too much of a concern for you; the console works amazingly without it. If not and you truly need a 4K screen to play your video games then you will need to buy one if you have not got one already.
Specs
Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.4 x 2.4 inches
weight: 8.4 pounds
CPU: 2.3GHz x86 AMD Jaguar eight-core
GPU: 6 teraflops (TFLOPS), 40 customised compute units @ 1,172MHz
Storage: 1TB 2.5-inch
Memory: 12GB of GDDR5 RAM
Memory Bandwidth: 326GB/s
4K: Yes
HDR: Yes
Ports: HDMI-in, HDMI-out, one front-facing USB 3.0, two rear-facing USB 3.0; IR receiver/blaster; SPDIF digital audio and Ethernet.
Xbox live: (£60/yr)
Connectivity: Yes
RRP: £500
Pros and Cons:
Pros:
Improved Specs
IR blaster for TV controls, Amazon Echo for voice controls
4K media apps, Blu-ray discs, and games
Cons:
Requires a 4K TV to get the most out of it
Personal Review
Now that i have shown you the facts, pro's, con's and Spec's this is were my personal opinion comes into the review.
The Xbox One X console holds up to it's somewhat bold statement claiming to be the ' world's most powerful console', Microsoft were not wrong; the console is jam-packed with better more improved specs, faster processing power and gaming visualisations that will make this purchase worth while.
This console is also smaller than the Xbox One S ( 12.8 x 11.6 x 2.1 inches; One S size,) visually the console are identical; having the same design, however, the Xbox One X compacts more power into a smaller area, also, the stands are smaller between the consoles.
Gaming
Gaming on this console feels great, like i said previously i do not own a 4K monitor but from my personal experience the console runs fine without it. I am not one who is picky with graphics, so, the native 1080p that the games can run-on suits me perfectly, However, if you are one who is looking to get this console for the reason that it is 4K, do be warned, the console is not true 4K; with all the games Microsoft enhances being scaled up from 1080p, but the games will be sharper and more precise than native 1080p; for the price range it fits in the up scaled 4K works fine and looks great compared to it's predecessors.
Like any gaming machine there are a number of factors that affect how fast the games are that we play, from bandwidth, location, graphics, servers; processor, ram all of the above. The Xbox one handles this issue perfectly, having, an improved processor and HDD is definitely noticeable when booting the console, loading a game and searching the HUD; the speeds have vastly improved.
Finally, the price of the Xbox when it first came out sat at around £500, this i feel is fair enough price for what specs are sat inside the console. Of course, that price can go up if you wanted to get the full potential out of the console because you will also have to buy a 4K screen with the product ( if you do not have one already. ) However, in this day and age with everything slowly moving to 4K i would not say that is too big of an issue.
The console is a perfect spend for the people who do not like PC gaming or cannot afford expensive computer's. The Xbox Console holds a respectable price for the components that sit inside, almost, matching low to middle end gaming PC's. The Console is not native or true 4K but it is a vast improvement on the previous iterations of the Xbox One consoles.
The speed of the Xbox feels great, loading time are improved and are significantly faster than the older models. This has been put to the test by other bloggers, this article i found shows that on average the Xbox One X took around 46 seconds to load Forza Motorsports 7 were the Xbox One S took 61.2 seconds on average giving us a difference of 5.2 seconds before the game loaded, Which is a big difference in speed, this, however, is just one example... click here to read more from that article
In conclusion, the Xbox one as had a vast improvement from it's predecessors now sporting better specs and improved visuals, all of this combined into a relatively decent price makes this console a good pick for the gaming community. I would highly recommend this console to anyone who is looking for an all round great machine that will provide them with great graphics, speed and most importantly a better gaming experience.
Comments