The New Xbox Series X Is Completely Different and Still Exactly The Same

The new $450 Xbox Series X is simply a big, achromatic brick. It’s truthful brick-like that it doesn’t person immoderate slot to enactment your past remaining crippled discs. But don’t deliberation of this redesign similar you would Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro. It’s not smaller successful stature and lacks a disc drive, similar Sony’s slim PS5. Inside, it’s a antithetic story. Video teardowns amusement Microsoft’s gaming limb has wholly redesigned the guts of the Series X for 2024. Despite that, the somewhat cheaper console doesn’t look similar the redesign Xbox needed it to be.

Starting Tuesday, determination are present 2 caller Xbox Series X versions and a Series S with much retention space. There’s the $600 Galaxy Black variation Series X with a sparkly exterior and 2 TB of SSD storage. Lastly, the Robot White 1 TB integer edition costs $50 nether the basal exemplary MSRP (though the existent Series X positive controller costs $480 connected Amazon) and lacks the disc drive. It’s the mentation of Microsoft’s console that’s expected to entice imaginable oregon existent Game Pass subscribers.

We’ve heard a batch of consternation implicit disc drives arsenic of late. The $700 PlayStation 5 Pro volition vessel without 1 successful the box, and you’ll request to walk $80 other to play your discs. How does Xbox acceptable into that debate? The all-white, seamless integer variation console has an otherworldly aesthetic. It’s either an alien instrumentality oregon an oversized child’s gathering block. I can’t adjacent accidental it looks similar a toaster, particularly erstwhile the Xbox Series S exists.

YouTuber Austin Evans did a weigh-in and teardown of some the Galaxy Black and Robot White Xbox Series X. Despite having much retention than before, the 2 TB mentation weighs .38 pounds less. Without the disc drive, the achromatic mentation weighs 1 lb lighter.

Does that substance excessively overmuch for a console that volition beryllium connected your TV basal for the remainder of its moving life? No, not really. When you look wrong the caller disc drive-less version, you’ll spot Xbox removed the thrust and near it arsenic an bare void. According to Evans, you can’t physically integrate a caller disc thrust into the integer variation either since the recently redesigned internals don’t person the connections to powerfulness it.

The astir dramatic—and perchance impactful—changes each situation the CPU and cooling apparatus. Xbox reconfigured the motherboard to enactment a caller 6 nm SOC, smaller than the original’s CPU.  The caller consoles present athletics a wholly reconfigured heatsink. The caller Series X uses vigor pipes, whereas the 2020 mentation uses a larger vapor chamber. That cooling apparatus is acold amended than immoderate vigor tube solution but is besides much expensive. Evans expected that the smaller spot requires little voltage to deed existent timepiece speeds, requiring a little costly cooling system.

© Screenshot: Austin Evans / YouTube

It’s not similar Xbox is alone in eschewing a vapor chamber. The PlayStation 5 has utilized vigor pipes throughout several interior redesigns since its motorboat successful 2020. As Evans pointed retired successful erstwhile teardowns, Sony pulled a akin determination with its pre-slim PS5, reducing the spot size and shrinking the heatsink, each without lowering the price.

According to Evans’ tests, the caller versions tally with little powerfulness gully than the archetypal consoles by astir 11W connected mean erstwhile connected menus and in-game. They weren’t expelling much oregon little vigor than the archetypal and didn’t dependable immoderate louder (that is, not thing supra a whisper).

The engineering that went into redesigning the caller Xbox is significant, but it won’t marque immoderate existent quality for consumers. You won’t prevention thing noticeable connected your monthly powerfulness bill. With each caller consoles and internals, it would person been much heartening to spot a reduction, oregon astatine slightest competing connected terms for much storage, particularly if Microsoft is spending little connected cooling than previously. Then, 1 could marque a amended statement for buying one. As for now, it’s amended to deliberation of these consoles arsenic precisely the aforesaid arsenic earlier or—in the large achromatic brick’s case—more limited.