Now that fans officially know the rumors about the "smallest Xbox ever," the Xbox Series S, are true, speculation abounds about how the console will perform. A senior editor for The Verge tweeted today that Microsoft is confirming the CPU specs of the Xbox Series S, and it's giving the PS5 a run for its money.
The Xbox Series S is being advertised as a "budget Xbox," standing at $200 less than the Xbox Series X. However, according to Tom Warren, Microsoft has no intention of cutting corners with the cheaper Xbox or making it a substandard experience for players. The more expensive console reportedly runs at 3.6GHz, and the Series S uses the same CPU. This makes both the Xbox Series S and X faster than the PS5, despite the fact that the PS5 is predicted to cost the same as the Xbox Series X.
Both the Xbox Series S and X use the same CPU, so the main differences between the Xbox consoles is that the cheaper console will only have about 500 GB of storage (although players can purchase a 1TB expansion card) and the Xbox Series X's better GPU that will allow for a better resolution. The PS5 is reported to run at 3.5 GHz, while the Xbox Series S can go up to 3.6 GHz. That's not a huge difference, but it is interesting that a much cheaper console can perform faster.
What's also important to note is that the Xbox Series S use next-gen features such as ray tracing and quick loading times, so the PS5 and Xbox Series S are mostly equal in quality. The Sony console has a better SSD hard drive, but with the information available right now, there doesn't seem to much real difference between the two other than what games are available and how much less expensive the Xbox Series S is.
Warren adds that he's curious to see how well the Xbox Series S runs at "1220 p," and that he is very impressed that the Xbox Series S specs are still so good in a smaller, cheaper machine. Graphics fidelity is the main difference between the Xbox Series S and X, so if people are really invested in pristine image quality and great resolution, it might be worth it to shell out the extra $200.
Some people have concerns about the Xbox Series S's optimization, but overall the $299 next-gen console is looking very tempting to a lot of potential buyers. People still on the fence will hopefully get more info soon about how the three consoles really compare as development progresses and reviews start rolling out.
The Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X launch on November 10, 2020.