Xbox One X Review: Great Power, Needs Games

The Xbox One X lives up to its name as the most powerful gaming console on the market and as such, it finds itself in a strange predicament. The current generation of video game consoles is the most unique in that the industry has seen a rapid shift away from physical media and into digital and streaming offerings.And just as that reality has opened the doors to games that can release in parts, or even unfinished, and to be continually evolving as live services, so to has the platforms themselves become as liquid. Most traditional generations of consoles have seen the primary hardware iterated upon as manufacturing becomes cheaper and tech evolves, leading to smaller, more user-friendly form factors replacing launch hardware. But in this generation, that idea has taken an evolutionary leap.

We're now seeing new and more powerful versions of consoles within the same family and generation. Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro brought all-new features and hardware capabilities, allowing developers to support 4K resolution and HDR. Sort of. The specs of Sony's top dog gaming console don't really allow for true 4K gaming and the exact type of improvements many games may offer isn't often clear from publishers supporting the Pro.

On the Microsoft side though, they jumped in with both feet from the very beginning and have been extremely transparent along the way. They wanted something legitimately better and something that's substantially more powerful. The exact specs, what went into making the Xbox One X (previously dubbed Project Scorpio), and how it compares to other consoles on the market is clear. So to is what gamers can expect from video gamers that are Xbox One X enhanced.

And this brings us to the aforementioned predicament. The Xbox One X is the most powerful gaming console on the market, and 40% more powerful than its closest competitor. But it's also still an Xbox One and not its successor. Every game that is playable on one is playable on the other and in that respect, it - like this current console generation - is ever inching closer to just being a PC. Add in Microsoft's 'Play Anywhere' initiative where every one of their own published games going forward will also release on Windows 10 and the gap between traditional console and gaming PC is becoming increasingly blurred.

This also means that because the Xbox One X isn't the start of new generation, most of its games do not benefit from the tech upgrade. There's of course an argument to be made that even if the Xbox One X were the Xbox One 2 (or Xbox Two?) that since all games are made available digitally, it would essentially function as the same. Currently however, no game is made with the Xbox One X as the baseline. The original Xbox One, that was obsolete before it hit store shelves in 2013, is the baseline.

And that means not many games actually have 4K support with HDR and 60fps to really propel need for the Xbox One X.

So, Who Is The Xbox One X For?

Phil Spencer, Executive Vice President of Gaming at Microsoft and the boss of the Xbox division, said from the beginning that the Xbox One X is a premium console. It's not for every gamer and it's not pretending to be. So, don't expect it to be. That's crucially important. It's also a big potential obstacle for Microsoft getting the Xbox One X out there and expanding its user base against stiff competition.

The Xbox One X is very expensive for one thing, retailing at launch for $500 in the U.S. and $600 in Canada. And Xbox One X enhanced games require a high-end screen for the 4K and HDR benefits to be accessible (after downloading the 4K update). At this point, only a subset of Xbox One games are even getting support for the X although Microsoft claims there will be 70 games getting Xbox One X enhancements in the first week.

Many of the games getting upgrades are also older games, but many of the big triple-A titles will support it as well. In that respect, big, beautiful games will be even bigger and beautiful. And it's a safe assumption that going forward, multiplatform titles that are scalable anyway if they're on PC, will benefit from the Xbox One X's power as well. The most hectic of onscreen battles in Gears of War 4 run silky smooth in 4K.

Even games without specific enhancement updates benefit from the extra power with smoother frame rates and faster loading times. We tested with several games with notable improvements come in open-world titles and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege which normally has painfully slow framerates in its Terrorist Hunt mode. The Xbox One made that mode playable without any actual enhancements from the developer.

The Xbox One X is for the gamer with disposable income looking for the absolute best non-PC gaming rig for their home entertainment setup. It's for the hardcore early adopters who demand 4K when available. And it's important and great that this is being supported in a serious way.

For everyone else (i.e. most gamers) there are far more affordable Xbox One bundles that offer the same games. If anything, the Xbox One X just allows Microsoft (who are behind PlayStation and Nintendo in the sales race) to tap into another consumer demo, and one that the competitors may not.

How The Xbox One X Compares to Original and S Variants

For Xbox users curious about what's different with the Xbox One X, or potential new consumers wondering which Xbox One model to get, the Xbox One X is a very familiar device. Its form factor is nearly identical to the equally compact Xbox One S but with some notable differences.

The Xbox One X is pleasantly quiet and just a tiny bit shorter than the S, but wow is it solid. It feels like heavy duty hardware. It feels worthy in a way the giant, hollow-feeling, cheap looking launch Xbox One didn't. Where that awful form factor evoked feelings of a cheap old VCR, the Xbox One X feels like a luxury piece of power.

And like the Xbox One S, there's no power brick so the Xbox One X keeps it all within the unit, and users just need the power cord and HDMI cable to get started. That's rather impressive for the smallest Xbox console ever.

Xbox One X Specs

Central processor (CPU): Eight custom x86 cores clocked at 2.3GHz
Graphics processor (GPU): 40 customised compute units at 1172MHz
Memory: 12GB GDDR5 (326GB/s bandwidth)
Storage: 1TB 2.5-inch Hard Drive
Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray
Dimensions: 11.8 x 9.4 x 2.4 inches
Weight: 8.4 pounds

Setting Up And Using The Xbox One X

For reviewing the Xbox One X and testing games and apps with it, we used the 55" Class Q7F QLED 4K TV by Samsung. On the audio side we used Turtle Beach's Stealth 700 for Xbox One and Razer Thresher for Xbox One, both of which use the console's new wireless technology allowing for simple one-button syncing the same way players sync up their controllers to the Xbox One. No extra cords or hubs or dongles required.

Before being able to use the console an update is required. The download size was less than 1gb but it downloaded and verified very slowly, perhaps because when we updated, the console had yet to hit retail. We've never seen such a slow download from Xbox Live this generation though so it was particularly noticeable. We also battled some issues connecting via ethernet cord to try and expedite the process during setup. Once it finally finished updating, you'll enjoy the Xbox One X's unique startup screen and it's smooth sailing.

The update, along with the Xbox One X firmware, already come with the latest Xbox One dashboard update. It'll take some getting used to but the combination of it being a faster and most customizable interface, and boosted by the Xbox One X's power, it's the most responsive Xbox interface ever.

How To Play Xbox One X Enhanced Versions of Games

Not all games have been crafted or updated to support the power of the Xbox One X but first party games and many of the bigger triple-A titles have already announced that they'll be enhanced to benefit from the 4K and HDR capabilities.

See here for a full list of Xbox One X Enhanced titles.

In the Games and App section (on the latest Xbox One dashboard interface hit the home button and use the bumpers to navigate left and right) go to the top right most dropdown and here there's a section specific to Xbox One X Enhanced titles. These games, when ready, have an additional update (quite large) for the 4K upgrade.

Do you want the latest and greatest in console gaming hardware? The Xbox One X is that. Do you want the most high-end exclusive games to go with that unique level of power? Well, that's another question. We've been hammering the idea all year long that the Xbox One family desperately needs more exclusive games at a time when there's no new Halo and Crackdown 3 was delayed out of the holiday season. Throw in an avoidance of console VR from the Xbox camp and the reality that the Xbox One line is being outsold worldwide drastically by the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, and the timing is weird for a premium Xbox.

The Xbox One X offers something awesome and special though, so the next step is Microsoft going above and beyond on the software front. They at least have PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds coming as a console exclusive before the year ends.