Not Unboxing the Xbox Series X
ShortCircuit
·ShortCircuit
·2021-05-05
·
1,978 words · ~9 min read
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- This is not an unboxing because I am explicitly
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not allowed to unbox the Xbox Series X, but Microsoft never said anything about unveiling.
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Hey, wait.
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I appear to have been trolled. This is a PC.
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And yes, there are still some differences. So (chuckles), we're gonna talk about that in a moment.
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That's what you guys were looking at back there. - [Man] Yeah.
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(staff laughing) - They're like gathered around the door
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before I started filming. Well, you know what, I'm gonna hold on to this though, because this is about the closest equivalent,
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in terms of form factor, to an Xbox Series X.
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So, having it here as a reference is pretty good.
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It's really small. I don't know why, but I was expecting this to be bigger.
0:45
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1:10
to get a 10% discount. Yeah, I don't know why, but just based on the images,
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I was really expecting, like it's impressively small.
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The Corsair ONE is already very small
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for such a powerful gaming rig. (sighs) But you can see it's probably like a good,
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just guess like 30% bigger, anyway. Oh, it's way more bigger
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than that actually, now that I'm looking at it from this angle.
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This is a working Xbox Series X and it's the one that we're gonna be using
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for our preview content. As for the full review, I think it's up in the air
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as to whether this gets a software update or they send new final hardware,
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but this is basically the full experience.
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So, on the front, we've got our Blu-ray disk drive slot,
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on the other side we've got, wow, that's a really mushy button.
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(button clicking) I wonder why. So, wireless pairing button.
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Maybe it's like really durable 'cause they know people are gonna press it a lot
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compared to the eject button for the optical drive.
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(laughs) Caught 'em. We've got a USB Type-A port.
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Over on the left-hand side, there's a whole lotta nada.
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Over on the right-hand side, this is a really cool approach to the cooling solution.
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In the past, we've seen consoles that can be configured either vertically or lying down,
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but one of the caveats of running them that way, has been that it can restrict airflow.
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But with the Series X, it actually looks like, if anything,
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it might be in slightly better shape if you run it in the horizontal configuration
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compared to the vertical one. The fan in the top, or side, depending on how you put it in your media center,
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is a bit of an unusual configuration. So, it's exhausting,
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but we can actually see the front of the hub
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instead of the back of the hub. So, they've actually swept the blades the other way.
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So. this is our exhaust fan and then the intakes,
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so they're at the back by the IO and then also on what would be the bottom,
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if the unit is standing up. Does this really not, it has to.
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(plastic bangs) Really? Does this not come off?
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Like why would you want a big thing like that? These are the kinds of things
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that kinda drive me a little bit crazy. Like if I'm an Xbox enthusiast,
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I don't want a big circle rubberized stand thing
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on the side of my console where I might conceivably see it. - [Man] Kids can't lose it.
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- Kids can't lose it? Okay, that's fair.
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You can't lose the stands that way. Something that they could have done better as well,
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is this Xbox logo. Like why not just make it rotatable?
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I have seen that before on PC cases that can be configured in either a standing or lying down.
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Tactile feel of the power button is really good though. (button clicking)
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Can really hear that sound. I like it.
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Compared to the size of the PS5, at least from, it's hard to get a real feel for it
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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.
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And what's really cool, is that while Sony went
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and built a technology art piece
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that I guess is supposed to be kinda the centerpiece of your living room, based on the look of it,
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Microsoft built something that's actually going to fit in my media console.
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Whether I have a more traditional one that's designed for AV rack-style equipment,
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or whether I have a more modern one that's got smaller shelves, or whatever,
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you would be able to find a spot for this. Now, with all that said, one thing that I think
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is a really poorly-addressed pain point for console gamers,
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is cooling for consoles that are installed
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and hidden away within their media consoles.
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Does that exist? Like a media cabinet that goes under your TV
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that has proper frickin' cooling in it? - [Man] No. - That is so stupid.
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We should develop it. Yeah, lttstore.com like media console with just,
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and it wouldn't even take much. It would just need like 120 volt
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to 12 volt frickin' adapter, some fans and wire management,
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and some holes in it. - [Man] Yeah. - Okay, if nothing else, I promise you this now.
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We are going to design one and we're gonna upload the plan so you can make your own, there.
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Before we fire it up though, let's have a quick look at the back where we've got two more USB Type-As.
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So, there was one on the front. Also back here, Gigabit Ethernet, Storage Expansion.
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I think Lou has gotten his hands on one of those from Seagate, already, but--
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- We got a (indistinct). - Do we have one? (plastic clattering) Really?
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Threw it at the Xbox? (chuckles)
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I like that. Altogether, it's the Xbox Series XS.
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We're not compensating for anything here at Microsoft.
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So, this is it, this is my, wait, does this count as an unboxing?
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- [Man] There was no box. - There was no box. (light music)
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It's got some heft to it. I'd love to disassemble it.
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I really wanna disassemble it. Now, I'm sure this is not the case.
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When Red Digital Cinema made a buncha noise about, (moaning)
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REDMAGs super durable memory cards.
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Turned out that it was just an MSA to SSD in a proprietary controller
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with some firmware tweaks to make sure that you couldn't swap it out for a different one.
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This, I suspect, is a little bit more purpose-engineered.
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So, if you want another one terabyte of expansion, you just go ahead and pop that puppy in there.
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Whoops, this way. Nope, this way. But what's really cool,
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is that if you're playing previous generation Xbox games, or even if you have a game
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that you don't wanna play immediately but you don't wanna re-download,
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you can just plug in USB storage, and use that instead.
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So, this is only if you have games in your library that you absolutely wanna play
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and take advantage of the high-speed internal storage of the Xbox Series.
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Pricing for this guy is $219 U.S. You know what I really like about this though actually?
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Is compared to the just extortionist pricing
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of memory expansion for things like the PS1 and PS2,
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like you think back to those days, how much you were being charged for, like eight megabytes of saved game storage
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and the fact that you absolutely needed it in order to save again. So yeah, it's optional,
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except you can't save your progress unless you have one.
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This is truly optional and the pricing's not ridiculous.
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Like a Samsung 980 PRO on amazon.com,
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hold on, let me just pull this up and double-check, I think is around, yeah, 230 bucks for a one terabyte model.
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This is right in-line with a high performance add-in PC SSD.
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Now it's just a matter of time until, just like a surface laptop, or any other computer,
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you've got your storage bay and your extra RAM Bay.
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What would they call that? Maybe we could get DIMM expansions for it.
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No, okay, it's just the PC jokes are getting old? Okay, fine. (staff laughs)
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Absent from the Xbox Series is, of course, the HDMI in.
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So, gone is the whole concept of, this is your media hub
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that your cable box plugs through. I think they absolutely still want it to be a media hub.
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They just (chuckles) have gone with the times.
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Nobody cares about cable. As for whether I'd use this to just put all my games on
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and carry to a friend's house, I don't know. Seeing it in person,
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I like the look of it a lot. - [Man] Same, it's really good.
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- It looked kind of like, in the marketing materials and the renders and stuff,
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it looked boxy but in person it looks like,
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I don't know, like powerful. - [James] Monolithic?
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- Yeah sure. But it's just, my ass, too small to be monolithic.
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I don't know if I can get behind that. But it's like-- - [David] Minilithic. - Yeah, minilithic that's good.
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Is that a thing? Did you just make that up? - [David] I just made that up. - Oh, I love it.
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(Xbox beeps) Are we allowed to show that sound?
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Now, you can tune a PC to be this quiet at idle,
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but it's like, you gotta go in the BIOS, and configure your fan curves,
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and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right out of the box, the Xbox, you might say.
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Fine, James, we will talk about the sound and how it's not a new sound
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because it doesn't matter. I think that's the whole point of this product lineup
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and why the name is stupid, and confusing, and hard to say.
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I think Microsoft's entire point is that,
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which particular Xbox, it's an Xbox like that, doesn't matter.
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You're gaming on Xbox and you're running at whatever.
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Like this is this is the 4K one. The other one, it's a 1440p one.
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You got last year one? That's a 1080p Xbox.
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It's all about the games as a service now. It's all about Game Pass, cross-platform.
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Xbox is just a cheap gaming box
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to get people into the ecosystem, where as far as Microsoft cares,
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this can be the be-all and end-all of your gaming experience,
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it can be a gateway drug into PC gaming, as long as you are subscribed.
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They ultimately own the ecosystem now. Anyway, that's as far as I wanna push my luck today
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terms of turning it on. So, make sure you're subscribed over on Linus Tech Tips
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where we're gonna have a preview with gameplay impressions, full review,
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image quality comparisons, all that kinda stuff. We're gonna have some fun with this one.