- This is not an unboxing because I am explicitly
not allowed to unbox the Xbox Series X, but Microsoft never said anything about unveiling.
Hey, wait.
I appear to have been trolled. This is a PC.
And yes, there are still some differences. So (chuckles), we're gonna talk about that in a moment.
That's what you guys were looking at back there. - [Man] Yeah.
(staff laughing) - They're like gathered around the door
before I started filming. Well, you know what, I'm gonna hold on to this though, because this is about the closest equivalent,
in terms of form factor, to an Xbox Series X.
So, having it here as a reference is pretty good.
It's really small. I don't know why, but I was expecting this to be bigger.
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to get a 10% discount. Yeah, I don't know why, but just based on the images,
I was really expecting, like it's impressively small.
The Corsair ONE is already very small
for such a powerful gaming rig. (sighs) But you can see it's probably like a good,
just guess like 30% bigger, anyway. Oh, it's way more bigger
than that actually, now that I'm looking at it from this angle.
This is a working Xbox Series X and it's the one that we're gonna be using
for our preview content. As for the full review, I think it's up in the air
as to whether this gets a software update or they send new final hardware,
but this is basically the full experience.
So, on the front, we've got our Blu-ray disk drive slot,
on the other side we've got, wow, that's a really mushy button.
(button clicking) I wonder why. So, wireless pairing button.
Maybe it's like really durable 'cause they know people are gonna press it a lot
compared to the eject button for the optical drive.
(laughs) Caught 'em. We've got a USB Type-A port.
Over on the left-hand side, there's a whole lotta nada.
Over on the right-hand side, this is a really cool approach to the cooling solution.
In the past, we've seen consoles that can be configured either vertically or lying down,
but one of the caveats of running them that way, has been that it can restrict airflow.
But with the Series X, it actually looks like, if anything,
it might be in slightly better shape if you run it in the horizontal configuration
compared to the vertical one. The fan in the top, or side, depending on how you put it in your media center,
is a bit of an unusual configuration. So, it's exhausting,
but we can actually see the front of the hub
instead of the back of the hub. So, they've actually swept the blades the other way.
So. this is our exhaust fan and then the intakes,
so they're at the back by the IO and then also on what would be the bottom,
if the unit is standing up. Does this really not, it has to.
(plastic bangs) Really? Does this not come off?
Like why would you want a big thing like that? These are the kinds of things
that kinda drive me a little bit crazy. Like if I'm an Xbox enthusiast,
I don't want a big circle rubberized stand thing
on the side of my console where I might conceivably see it. - [Man] Kids can't lose it.
- Kids can't lose it? Okay, that's fair.
You can't lose the stands that way. Something that they could have done better as well,
is this Xbox logo. Like why not just make it rotatable?
I have seen that before on PC cases that can be configured in either a standing or lying down.
Tactile feel of the power button is really good though. (button clicking)
Can really hear that sound. I like it.
Compared to the size of the PS5, at least from, it's hard to get a real feel for it
until you see it in person, but compared to what I think the size of the PS5 is gonna be, this is way more palatable.
And what's really cool, is that while Sony went
and built a technology art piece
that I guess is supposed to be kinda the centerpiece of your living room, based on the look of it,
Microsoft built something that's actually going to fit in my media console.
Whether I have a more traditional one that's designed for AV rack-style equipment,
or whether I have a more modern one that's got smaller shelves, or whatever,
you would be able to find a spot for this. Now, with all that said, one thing that I think
is a really poorly-addressed pain point for console gamers,
is cooling for consoles that are installed
and hidden away within their media consoles.
Does that exist? Like a media cabinet that goes under your TV
that has proper frickin' cooling in it? - [Man] No. - That is so stupid.
We should develop it. Yeah, lttstore.com like media console with just,
and it wouldn't even take much. It would just need like 120 volt
to 12 volt frickin' adapter, some fans and wire management,
and some holes in it. - [Man] Yeah. - Okay, if nothing else, I promise you this now.
We are going to design one and we're gonna upload the plan so you can make your own, there.
Before we fire it up though, let's have a quick look at the back where we've got two more USB Type-As.
So, there was one on the front. Also back here, Gigabit Ethernet, Storage Expansion.
I think Lou has gotten his hands on one of those from Seagate, already, but--
- We got a (indistinct). - Do we have one? (plastic clattering) Really?
Threw it at the Xbox? (chuckles)
I like that. Altogether, it's the Xbox Series XS.
We're not compensating for anything here at Microsoft.
So, this is it, this is my, wait, does this count as an unboxing?
- [Man] There was no box. - There was no box. (light music)
It's got some heft to it. I'd love to disassemble it.
I really wanna disassemble it. Now, I'm sure this is not the case.
When Red Digital Cinema made a buncha noise about, (moaning)
REDMAGs super durable memory cards.
Turned out that it was just an MSA to SSD in a proprietary controller
with some firmware tweaks to make sure that you couldn't swap it out for a different one.
This, I suspect, is a little bit more purpose-engineered.
So, if you want another one terabyte of expansion, you just go ahead and pop that puppy in there.
Whoops, this way. Nope, this way. But what's really cool,
is that if you're playing previous generation Xbox games, or even if you have a game
that you don't wanna play immediately but you don't wanna re-download,
you can just plug in USB storage, and use that instead.
So, this is only if you have games in your library that you absolutely wanna play
and take advantage of the high-speed internal storage of the Xbox Series.
Pricing for this guy is $219 U.S. You know what I really like about this though actually?
Is compared to the just extortionist pricing
of memory expansion for things like the PS1 and PS2,
like you think back to those days, how much you were being charged for, like eight megabytes of saved game storage
and the fact that you absolutely needed it in order to save again. So yeah, it's optional,
except you can't save your progress unless you have one.
This is truly optional and the pricing's not ridiculous.
Like a Samsung 980 PRO on amazon.com,
hold on, let me just pull this up and double-check, I think is around, yeah, 230 bucks for a one terabyte model.
This is right in-line with a high performance add-in PC SSD.
Now it's just a matter of time until, just like a surface laptop, or any other computer,
you've got your storage bay and your extra RAM Bay.
What would they call that? Maybe we could get DIMM expansions for it.
No, okay, it's just the PC jokes are getting old? Okay, fine. (staff laughs)
Absent from the Xbox Series is, of course, the HDMI in.
So, gone is the whole concept of, this is your media hub
that your cable box plugs through. I think they absolutely still want it to be a media hub.
They just (chuckles) have gone with the times.
Nobody cares about cable. As for whether I'd use this to just put all my games on
and carry to a friend's house, I don't know. Seeing it in person,
I like the look of it a lot. - [Man] Same, it's really good.
- It looked kind of like, in the marketing materials and the renders and stuff,
it looked boxy but in person it looks like,
I don't know, like powerful. - [James] Monolithic?
- Yeah sure. But it's just, my ass, too small to be monolithic.
I don't know if I can get behind that. But it's like-- - [David] Minilithic. - Yeah, minilithic that's good.
Is that a thing? Did you just make that up? - [David] I just made that up. - Oh, I love it.
(Xbox beeps) Are we allowed to show that sound?
Now, you can tune a PC to be this quiet at idle,
but it's like, you gotta go in the BIOS, and configure your fan curves,
and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right out of the box, the Xbox, you might say.
Fine, James, we will talk about the sound and how it's not a new sound
because it doesn't matter. I think that's the whole point of this product lineup
and why the name is stupid, and confusing, and hard to say.
I think Microsoft's entire point is that,
which particular Xbox, it's an Xbox like that, doesn't matter.
You're gaming on Xbox and you're running at whatever.
Like this is this is the 4K one. The other one, it's a 1440p one.
You got last year one? That's a 1080p Xbox.
It's all about the games as a service now. It's all about Game Pass, cross-platform.
Xbox is just a cheap gaming box
to get people into the ecosystem, where as far as Microsoft cares,
this can be the be-all and end-all of your gaming experience,
it can be a gateway drug into PC gaming, as long as you are subscribed.
They ultimately own the ecosystem now. Anyway, that's as far as I wanna push my luck today
terms of turning it on. So, make sure you're subscribed over on Linus Tech Tips
where we're gonna have a preview with gameplay impressions, full review,
image quality comparisons, all that kinda stuff. We're gonna have some fun with this one.