It's like having an Xbox One with a supercharged upgrade
I own a PS5 and I am terribly happy with it, yet I feel it was worth getting an Xbox Series X as well. The Series X is a more powerful machine, and also the Gamepass service makes it doubly worth getting (there are a lot of games on GamePass that are not on PS Plus and vice versa). I like how all my saves were kept in my Microsoft account in the cloud so I could seamlessly transition from playing my Xbox One games on my Xbox 1 X to playing it on this platform.
Xbox Series X does Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound as well, so it takes advantage of my home theater's full potential.
Lastly, I sold my Xbox Series S to upgrade to this one. I don't miss it at all. If you are in a dilemma about whether to get the Series S now or save up to buy a Series X, don't make the mistake I did. Get the Series X! The Series S won't play your Xbox One games as it is all-digital, and that infuriated me, owning so many XBox One game already.
If you already have an Xbox One, and a library of games, then you already have a library set for this console, and they will play better in all cases, and even considerably better if it says "Optimized for Series X" on the back of your disc case.
I also want to note that there are many Xbox 360 and original Xbox games that you can play on this machine (they don't cover all of them, but a lot). I was impressed that I could play HAWX for Xbox 360 and it not only played a little more smoothly, but also I could use my Xbox One/ Series S flight controller.
At $500.00 it does seem pricey at first, but I look at it this way-- my $1000.00 gaming pc is not even capable of playing some graphics-intensive games like Elden Ring, and this console is. And it plays a lot of the games I play on pc noticeably better.
And on that note, if you get gamepass for pc and console and download a pc game, in some cases if there is a corresponding Series X version of it, you can alternate between the two on the same game save. Oh, wow.
The only reason I might persuade someone against buying this first, or buying instead of a PS5 is if you like the Sony Exclusive games like Spider-Man, Horizon Forbidden West, and the Uncharted series. Then definitely get a PS5 first (or instead) unless your passion in life is to play Halo 12 when it comes out.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
