Microsoft has released significantly more details about the Xbox One S and its specs, and they speak volumes to its value.
In an interview with Eurogamer, senior director of product marketing and planning at Microsoft Albert Penello discussed a lot of the technical specifics of the system. EGM has created a handy, if somewhat obtuse, list of their own. Here we will include a casual user’s guide.
Right now, the Xbox One S is the only home console currently capable of outputting to 4K from a game, although no games on the Xbox One currently output naturally to 4K (and only fairly simple games could even possibly do so); it upconverts all games to 4k, using the same tricks the Xbox One does.
The Xbox One S is 60% of the Xbox One’s size, and more power efficient, although how much more relies on too many user-specific factors to accurately gauge.
High Dynamic Range (HDR) games won’t suffer in performance (and Microsoft will accept HDR patches for older titles), and some games may see an actual performance boost on the Xbox One S. The improvement is only 6%, so Penello didn’t believe it strong enough to be a “selling point”, but a 1/20th improvement will sometimes be noticeable.
The new controller works in the same way the old one did, but now supports Bluetooth and allows for easy use with laptops and tablets, as well.
The Xbox One S ranges in size from 500GB to 2TB, double the maximum size of the PS4’s storage.
If you’re looking to use a 4K TV to its fullest, the Xbox One S is for you. If not, it may be worth waiting for the even greater-improved Xbox One Scorpio, expected in 2017, or the PlayStation Neo, expected possibly later this year. If you do spring for the Xbox One S, you may have a decently cost-effective upgrade to Scorpio with trade-ins.