When Did Xbox Series S Come Out

Xbox Series S: Everything you need to know

Xbox Series S standing up with Xbox Series S controller

(Image credit: Xbox)

The Xbox Series S is a slap-up manner to get the benefits of the next-generation of console gaming, merely without the need to upgrade to a 4K Tv set. It launched in November 2020 alongside the Xbox Series Ten, with the aim of offering improvements to performance and graphics, and a decrease in load times only without the 4K graphics.

The Xbox Series S is targeting gaming at 1440p and at 60 frames per second, which draws quite the contrast with the powerful Xbox Series 10. Still, the Xbox Series S is a great way for players to reconnect with the Xbox ecosystem and the all-time place to play for those who are looking to upgrade from the Xbox 1 this twelvemonth without breaking the budget.

Below you'll detect everything you need to know about the Xbox Series S, including details on its design, price, release date, and specs.

Xbox Series S design

Xbox Series S on its side — (Prototype credit: Xbox)

Xbox Serial S review

Xbox Series Southward review: We've had our hands on the Xbox Serial S for a couple of weeks at present and we're finally ready to offering our terminal verdict on the hardware, the software, controller, user experience, and more.

The Xbox Serial S is designed to be a cheap entry signal into the next generation. It's part of the new, adjacent-gen 'Xbox' serial of consoles, arriving equally a cousin to the powerful Xbox Series X. While the Xbox Series X boasts support of 4K resolutions at 120 frames-per-2nd, and a land-of-the-art SSD drive to improve everything from loading times to game performance, the Xbox Series S is a more modest unit of measurement.

The Xbox Serial Due south boasts a smaller form-factor than the Xbox Series X (information technology's 60% smaller, to be precise), arrives at a more agreeable $299 / £249 cost signal, and information technology has dropped the deejay drive entirely. This all-digital automobile comes in "Robot White" and looks an awful lot like the Xbox Ane X (which was discontinued in July 2020), albeit with a massive cooling vent on superlative of the unit. The Xbox Series S comes equipped with a USB-A port on the forepart of it, and can be positioned upright and lying downwards.

Xbox Series Due south cost

The Xbox Series S price is $299 / £249, making it the cheapest manner to get access to next-gen technology.

With the Xbox Series X coming in at $499 / £450, that $200 / £200 cost differential reflects the departure in raw GPU power and utility. If y'all want a future-proofed and top-of-the-line next-gen feel, and so you lot'll want to invest in an Xbox Serial X. If you aren't all that bothered about 4K – and take no plans to buy a 4K Television receiver in the virtually future – simply still want all the benefits of a next-gen organisation, then you'll want to invest in an Xbox Series S instead.

You can also get an Xbox I Due south via a new initiative named 'Xbox All Access' in some territories. This finance service will permit you get an Xbox Serial S and 24 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for just $24.99 / £twenty.99 a month for 24 months.

Xbox Series S specs and features

The Xbox Serial S might be 60% smaller than the Xbox Series X, but it isn't only 60% as powerful. The arrangement has an impressive corporeality of tech packed into that tiny box, delivers "the same adjacent-generation speed and performance that defines Xbox Series Ten" says Microsoft, just at 1440p 60fps rather than 4K 120fps maximums.

The Xbox Series S is basically designed to offer all of the side by side-gen benefits of the Xbox Series Ten, albeit at a lower resolution. Information technology has no disk-drive but it does come up equipped with a custom NVME 512GB SSD powered past Xbox Velocity Architecture. That means that Xbox Series Due south owners can take advantage of many of the next-gen features it has engineered for the Xbox Series X, including variable-rate shading and variable refresh rates, ultra-low latency, and DirectX Ray-tracing, non to mention "incredibly fast load times" and "seamless game switching".

Basically, the biggest difference is in the resolution. This is a console for those that aren't interested in 4K or in upgrading to a 4K television set just yet. Xbox Series Southward delivers 3x the GPU performance over that of an Xbox One, designed to run at 1440p resolution at lx frames-per second, although it will also support games that run at 120fps. The Xbox Serial Due south does support 4K streaming media playback and 4K upscaling for games though (just in example you do decide to plug it into a 4K Boob tube in the futurity).

Xbox Serial South games

Xbox Series S games — (Image credit: Xbox Game Studios)

When it comes to Xbox Serial Due south games, you should think of this matter as a Game Pass Ultimate machine. The smaller box has the same support and functionality that the Xbox Series X does, meaning it plays all Xbox Ane games (aside from those outliers on Kinect), besides as all supported Xbox 360 and original Xbox games. The Xbox Serial S does, of class, support all upcoming Xbox Series X games, including the likes of Halo Infinite, Fable iv, and Everwild.

Given there'due south no disk drive, the focus here is on digital titles, but really on Microsoft's Game Pass, Project xCloud, and Xbox Live. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is an attractive subscription service – especially at present that EA Play membership and Bethesda titles are being bundled into the package – offering a library of over 100 games for download, and its sync upward with PC players and Android users (via xCloud, which is likewise part of a Game Pass Ultimate subscription) ways it's just likely to grow and improve over time.

Best Xbox Series Ten games
Best games on Xbox Game Pass

Xbox Series S release date

The Xbox Series Southward launched on November ten, 2020, the same twenty-four hours at the Xbox Series X.

Josh West is Features Editor of GamesRadar+. With over 10 years feel in both online and print journalism, Josh has written for a number of gaming, amusement, music, and tech publications, including 3D Creative person, Edge, gamesTM, iCreate, Metal Hammer, Play, Retro Gamer, and SFX. He holds a BA (Hons) in Journalism and Feature Writing, has appeared on the BBC and ITV to provide expert annotate, written for Scholastic books, edited a book for Hachette, and worked as the Assistant Producer of the Time to come Games Show. In his spare fourth dimension, Josh plays bass guitar and video games. Years ago, he was in movies and Television set shows that you've definitely seen but volition never be able to spot him in.