The Xbox One just got a whole chunk of it chopped off into a much reduced size. Announced in Los Angeles, the Xbox One S bears quite a resemblance with the original Xbox One, but the size is now way down. This fresh Xbox edition presents an alluring coat of white paint (Microsoft chose to name it “robot white”).
The end product therefore is an amazingly distinct innovative design which strongly differs from Microsoft’s older consoles. This time around, the device if compared to the normal Xbox One is much smaller by almost 40%. This Xbox One S peels off the notorious disadvantage of the Xbox One of taking a massive power supply. And equally in stark difference to the original Xbox One, you see that the new console also presents you some nice options of what mode to display it, this is very much courtesy of an optional vertical stand.
Now going past the fresh visual design, the Xbox One S also brings in this time a good count of improvements when measured against its predecessor. One of the foremost improvements is the 4K Ultra HD video support (which also includes 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray) as well as HDR capacities for both video and gaming.
On the other hand, one of the USB ports of the console has been relocated to the front; this would make for easy access, alongside the controller pairing button. In addition, there is a freshly designed built-in IR blaster. One thing is however missing from the party: the Xbox One S does not bring in a dedicated Kinect sensor port. So in the case where you want to access a Kinect for voice controls, there is the unavoidable need you’ll need a separate USB adaptor. (Microsoft asserts that there will be a program to bring in the addition of the adaptors at just no cost to to existing Xbox One owners who could make up their mind for an upgrade.)
“The Xbox One S for us was a realization that first, we want to make a smaller Xbox, but there was also some capability that we saw growing out in the market around HDR and 4K video,” Xbox head Phil Spencer says of the new device. “So we said, if we’re going to do an upgrade to our console, let’s go ahead and embrace some of the technologies that are coming and make those part of our core SKU.”
It is way more than the console been refreshed here: the Xbox One S is also escorted with a slightly upgraded version of the Xbox One controller. It brings to the party that very white color scheme as the console, even including new textured grips on the back not forgetting the addition of Bluetooth, which both contributes its wireless range and means you can employ the controller wirelessly with a Windows PC. This sins by good upgrade however small, a small upgrade, but very welcome.
A special, limited edition launch edition of the Xbox One S will be come out in the beginning of August; presenting a 2TB hard drive at the cost of $399. Two standard versions will equally be up for sales following.: a 500GB edition for $299, and 1TB for $349.
