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Windows Central

Technology

Jez Corden

Xbox Series X 1TB Digital Edition unboxed and hands-on: Microsoft's three Xbox Series X|S consoles for the holiday are now available, and here are our early impressions

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What you need to know

Earlier in the year, Microsoft revealed three new Xbox Series X|S console editions.
The headline act is the Xbox Series X 1TB Digital Edition, which removes the disc drive for a slight MSRP saving.
There's also a Galaxy Black sparkly console with 2TB of storage, and a new 1TB Xbox Series S.
Availability will vary by region, but the consoles are generally available today in Microsoft's main markets.

The new Xbox Series X|S consoles are on sale now, at least in some regions, and we recently had the opportunity to go hands on with at least one of them.

Back at the Xbox Showcase last June, Microsoft unveiled some slight revisions to its hardware line-up. The new consoles are practically identical to what's already out there, save for new storage and color options.

The Xbox Series X 1TB Digital Edition is the headline act. This console sheds the disc drive, netting you a very slight $50 saving off the typical asking price. The 2TB Galaxy Black edition adds some gaudy sparkly blobs with some premium storage allocation, ideal if you want to prep for the 100 GB pre-install of games like Dragon Age Veilguard. There's also a new 1TB version of the Xbox Series S, also discless, also at a premium.

(Image credit: Windows Central | Jez Corden)

There are some subtle changes, however, that the vast majority of users won't see or probably appreciate. The new Xbox Series X models have a revised motherboard, complete with a new cooling block. In addition, Microsoft has shrunk the SoC down to 6nm, caught by creator Austin Evans.

For the end user, the difference will be unnoticeable, but for Microsoft's so-called climate pledges, shaving just a few watts off millions of console endpoints will reduce their overall carbon footprint on their promise to obtain "net zero" carbon neutrality. The new consoles also have a new modular unboxing experience, which essentially falls apart like Lego when opened, with minimal single-use plastics involved. The console itself is wrapped in a fabric material this time around, rather than a polymer sheath as it was previously. The focus on sustainability is a nice touch, but just make sure you don't look at the headlines about the amount of electricity Microsoft's AI binge is generating.

It should be noted that the Xbox Series X Digital Edition and Galaxy Black Editions are not exactly broadly available. Microsoft has prioritized stock in major regions such as the United States and the United Kingdom, which is likely a hint at how well they expect these units to do sales-wise.

A relatively uninspired holiday offering, considering the PS5 Pro

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Previously, Microsoft had planned a more major mid-gen upgrade for its Xbox Series X|S lineup, in the form of the console codenamed Xbox Brooklin. While this wouldn't have had PS5 Pro-like boosted performance, it would've had some future-facing features like Bluetooth support. Bluetooth is naturally something that Microsoft would want to start developing for its platform if it is indeed working on an Xbox handheld down the line, but it wasn't meant to be this time around.

Save for the slightly revised process and new packaging, there's nothing new to speak of here. While I doubt something akin to the PS5 Pro would necessarily move the needle for Xbox's dwindling hardware sales, it's still somehow disappointing that there's so little hardware innovation coming out of Xbox lately. We haven't seen the same cadence of hardware improvements that we saw during the Xbox One era, which saw a variety of controller revisions, new console designs, and new features arrive at a breakneck pace.

At least Xbox is enabling bring-your-own-games for Xbox Cloud Gaming subscribers next month, and there's also a small Xbox Partner Preview showcase to look forward to this week. But this year's "new" Xbox hardware is hardly worth being excited about.