Hands-On With the All-Digital Xbox Series X – Video

This is the newest Xbox gaming console, the diskless, all digital Xbox Series X, it kind of exists in between the launch series X and series S consoles. It brings up the question of whether or not game consoles still need a disk drive. I’m gonna tell you what’s new about this machine and how it stacks up against the competition. The original Xbox Series X launched in November 2020 now four years later, we get the first revision with this all digital white version. Technically, it’s called robot white. I actually think it looks real nice and slick without that disc slot. I also know some people on the internet think it looks more like a fridge than ever. This also isn’t Xbox’s first diskless console. That title goes to the Xbox one S all digital edition that came out last generation. And if we look at the current generation, we’ve had the less powerful smaller Xbox series S that has never had a disk drive, what’s unique. This one is that now you have Xbox’s most powerful current generation console, the Xbox Series X without the ability to read disks. And that’s the big difference here. Just like the launch series X. It has one terabyte of SSD storage. It comes with the standard controller. It has the same eight core at 3.8 GCP U and 12 teraflop GPU. The size and footprint is also identical one tiny difference. The launch black model had a green inside to its top vent. The white one is just blank with no accent color. It doesn’t have a disk drive so this console is cheaper to make. So the price has been lowered as well. The white all digital Xbox Series X retails for $450 which is $50 cheaper than the standard black Xbox series X. You actually have a few different options if you’re in the market for an Xbox right now. So let me give you my recommendation. This new white series X just isn’t discounted enough to make it worth missing out on the disk drive. And I say that as someone who hasn’t put a disk in their console for probably over a year at this point, with that said used games or sharing a disk with a friend are very popular ways to play games. So I would advise you to get the launch black model and pay the extra $50. Now we’re also heading into a holiday shopping season. Black Friday is right around the corner and Microsoft often discounts their Xboxes accordingly. Considering this robot white model is brand new, there probably won’t be much of a discount. But I can almost guarantee that the launch model with a disk drive will see a reduction. In fact, based on past sales, I’ve seen it get even cheaper than the all of digital’s $450 price point. On the other hand, Xbox does have another Xbox series X that launched alongside this white one, the Galaxy black special edition model. This console has the same performance specs as the other series X’s. It also has a disk drive but it doubles the internal SSD storage capacity up to two terabytes. That model retails for $600 which is $100 more than the standard black series X. Considering Microsoft sells external storage drives that you can use to upgrade any current Gen X box and those are usually around $150 for one terabyte. You’re actually saving a bit by getting the Galaxy edition. Of course, if you’re looking for the cheapest current Gen Xbox console, there’s always the series s this is the less powerful, smaller and cheaper Xbox on the market retailing for $300 with 512 gigabytes of storage. Also launching alongside the two previously mentioned consoles is a new $350 model that doubles the SSD capacity to one terabyte. It’s worth looking at how this all compares to what Sony is doing with their playstation consoles. At the moment. Playstation offers two versions of the PS five, the disc version which retails for $500. And the digital edition, which doesn’t have a disk drive and costs 450. It’s the same price breakdown as Xbox. However, Playstation has the added benefit of being able to attach a disk drive to their digital console later on the external disk drive retails for $80. Even though that costs more than the disc version alone, it’s a nice benefit if you change your mind after purchase something you can’t do with Xbox. And if we look at Sony’s next console, the PS Five Pro launching this fall, it is only being sold in a non disk drive configuration. However, you can still attach that same external drive afterwards. It’s clear that diskless all digital consoles are the future. As we see both Sony and Microsoft leaning more and more in this direction. When it comes to Xbox’s lineup, I feel like the discount you’re getting with this new robot white model just isn’t cheap enough to warrant a purchase over one that can read discs with how often physical media goes on discount or the lower price of used games, you’ll easily make up that $50 difference. But what I prefer overall is playstation’s option of allowing the player to add on a drive at any time and not get locked to one option at the point of purchase. I would love to see Xbox adopt a similar strategy in the future. But what do you think, do you still want to drive in your console or have you moved on to an all digital future? Let me know in the comments and thanks for watching.