What has long been suspected, Microsoft has now officially confirmed. Parallel to the Xbox Series X, a cheaper entry-level model will be released. The Xbox Series S should be the “most compact Xbox of all times” according to the manufacturer.
Officially confirmed
When Microsoft unveiled the upcoming lockout tip of its new generation of consoles, gamers were thrilled. After all, the Xbox Series X offers powerful hardware components. But at the same time with the first announcement of the Series X, rumors about a cheaper version with a little less performance under the hood also came up. After there was another leak this morning, Microsoft has now put an end to the rumor mill and is instead creating certainty. The Xbox Series S is supposed to be the little sibling of the Series X. Despite its much smaller dimensions, it should also be able to offer next-gen performance.
Xbox Series S without drive
Unlike its big brother, the Xbox Series S is not equipped with a drive. This makes the Series S the equivalent of the digital edition of the PlayStation 5, so you can only play games that you have previously downloaded from the store. It has been speculated since 2018 that Microsoft will launch a lower-priced version parallel to the top model. Since then, rumors have been circulating about the console, which for a long time only bore the name “Lockhart”. Since people have already known about it for about two years, we can also draw conclusions about the technical specifications of the cheaper Xbox.
Technical equipment of the next generation
If the assumptions are true, the Xbox Series S is also a genuine next-gen console. Finally, the Series S also offers a total of 8 Zen 2 processor cores. However, you have to live with less performance when it comes to the graphics unit. With only 4 FP32 Teraflops it offers only one third of the graphics performance of the Series X. To what extent this will affect the final performance remains to be seen. After all, the long available Xbox One X already offers 6 TeraFlops. However, a direct comparison is hardly possible, since the upcoming Series S will offer a modern GCN architecture and stronger CPU cores. For the working speaker in the Series S 10 GB GDDR6 RAM will be used.
The fear of braked performance
In the future, developers will have to adapt to the special features of both Microsoft consoles. Since the Series S will offer far less GPU performance than the Series X, we will probably see differences between both next-gen consoles, especially in the area of resolution and frame rate. Nevertheless, you might have to fear that the Series S might slow down the potential power of the Series X. After all, the efforts of game developers for special graphic effects would only be economically wise if both consoles could ultimately reproduce the same. It is therefore to be feared that the Series S could slow down the stronger model.
Prices
Microsoft has already made its final statement on the Xbox Series S award. The entry-level model of the new next-generation console will be available on the market at a price of 299 US dollars or 299 euros. There is no confirmed price for the Series X yet. Here Microsoft is probably still waiting for the competition from Sony to come forward. However, the top model will most likely come onto the market for 200 US dollars or 200 euros more than the Series S. With the Series S, Microsoft is obviously going on the lookout for customers. It remains to be seen whether it can compete with the digital edition of the PlayStation 5.
