In 2023, Microsoft has made a lot of news in the gaming industry. Not only has the skyrocketing acquisition of Activision Blizzard been approved by various countries after experiencing setbacks, but the launch of the new Xbox Series S (hereinafter referred to as XSS) has also attracted a lot of attention in the player community.
Three years ago, Microsoft launched the next-generation console products XSX (Xbox Series X) and XSS. After learning from the lesson of the previous generation's overpriced products, Microsoft has implemented product segmentation for its mainframe business line. Among them, the top flagship product XSX is responsible for competing with competitors on the same platform to compete for core game users. XSS, on the other hand, focuses on high cost-effectiveness and is mainly responsible for attracting young and moderate game users. It relies on XGP (Xbox Game Pass) subscription services to allow these people to access more games and stay within Microsoft's ecosystem.
Although XSS received good market feedback after its launch, due to the lack of an optical drive, the product has high storage capacity requirements. The 512GB capacity of the first generation product is clearly not sufficient, which is also the reason why many players are hindering the purchase of XSS.
In September of this year, Microsoft launched a brand new 1TB version of XSS host, priced at 2480 yuan (currently priced at nearly 2000 yuan on mainstream e-commerce platforms). The color has changed from white to black, and the configuration still has eight core AMD Zen 2 CPUs and RDNA GPUs, as well as 10GB GDDR6 RAM, supporting a maximum resolution of 1440P (2K).
After the product was released, I conducted a trial run on this product for a period of time. Even though I already have PlayStation (PS) and Switch, it still adds a lot of different experiences to me.
Put the purchase suggestions first here:
Not suitable for purchasing XSS:
1. Users with sufficient budget and willingness to pay high prices for top tier consoles (and games) can choose XSX and PS5;  
Suitable for purchasing XSS:
1. Users with limited budgets (student party and workplace newcomers) can play over a hundred masterpieces for free in a 2000 yuan slot (in conjunction with XGP);
2. Users with high requirements for appearance and portability, such as business travelers;
3. Mild to moderate gamers who do not spend a lot of time playing games on a daily basis, are the first console of Mengxin.
In terms of appearance, the black version maintains the consistent high appearance advantages of XSS, with a square shape like a box, only half the size of a PS4 host. The length, width, and height dimensions are 15.1cm X 6.5cm X 27.5cm, which is equivalent to a tablet computer and has no sense of conflict when placed in front of a TV.
I specifically tried to bring XSS for travel during a business trip or a gathering at a friend's house, as it is lightweight (only about 1.9kg) and can be easily carried away in a backpack, meeting the portability requirements of some players and especially suitable for users renting out.
The new model only differs in color from the white model in terms of appearance design. From the actual operation situation, the noise of the body is very low, and the heat dissipation effect of the body is also good. After half a day of playing, the overall temperature of the body remains good.
I have tried many games, including Starry Sky, Extreme Speed, Warhammer 40K, PAYDAY3, Beast Party, GRIS, A Way Out, and Diablo 4.
In terms of gaming experience, XSS has the same ray tracing function, Dolby Vision, and Dolby Panorama sound technology support as Big Brother XSX. The Zen 2 architecture CPU allows many major games to run at 60 frames on XSS, making it a satisfactory audio and visual experience for this generation of games.
If you don't demand full display of special effects, the smoothness of XSS is surprising. After experiencing Extreme Speed, I didn't really like racing games, but now I really enjoy sitting in front of the TV and running for an hour or two. It's not surprising to play games with bulky consoles like PS5 and XSX, but opening a small box can also provide a similar experience, making it feel great and easy.
From a practical experience, the visual performance of XSS is basically the same as that of NVIDIA 1660 graphics cards on PCs. In the global player graphics card model statistics released by Steam, the Nvidia GTX 1650 ranks first and the GTX 1060 ranks second, so the XSS graphics already have a relatively high lower limit level.
For players who do not pursue a high gaming experience (such as fully opening all the special effects of light pursuit), running mainstream games is no problem, as many games can open 60 frames of special effects without pressure.
In addition, many games on the Xbox platform have been optimized for XSS, such as "Call of Duty" and other well optimized games, which can still run smoothly at 2K 60 frames or even 120 frames.
For users whose external display devices also have 1080P or 2K resolution, XSS is the most cost-effective choice. Many casual and casual players do not need to purchase a 4K monitor or large TV separately to increase costs in order to buy a game console.
It is worth mentioning that XSS can also be used as a low-cost 4K player. Although the official claim is that it only supports 2K resolution during gaming, XSS can support 4K playback when playing audio and video content, allowing users to balance the gaming and audio entertainment experience at an extremely low cost.
In the gaming community, some users hesitate between the new XSS and the second-hand PS5. Firstly, the new version of XSS is priced close to 2000 yuan on some platforms, and the PS5 with better quality still has a much higher price; Secondly, PS exclusive games are usually expensive, and later consumption will make it difficult for many student parties and working class members.
For those who hesitate to buy a new XSS or XSX, the only two factors to consider are portability and cost-effectiveness. XSX has stronger graphics processing power and supports up to 4K resolution, at the cost of over 1000 yuan more in price and significantly larger in size.
For users who find it difficult to choose between white or black XSS, as long as you are not a white control, buying the new 1TB version without thinking is a more ideal choice.
Due to the fact that many current game masterpieces (such as Halo and GTA, which players are familiar with) often require tens to even hundreds of GB of storage space, the 1TB version actually has over 800GB of storage space after configuration, which can greatly alleviate users' space anxiety.
With the success of Microsoft's acquisition of Blizzard, Microsoft Game Business Director Phil Spencer has provided a timeline for some Blizzard games to log into XGP, and the cost-effectiveness of XSS and XGP will also be further improved.
In this context, if Microsoft can better solve the stability problem of network servers, then the low-priced XSS is undoubtedly the first console that is most suitable for light to moderate game players to get started.
Overall, the biggest feeling I've had since experiencing the new XSS for two weeks is like a comment from a community netizen saying, "I've been tired all day and really don't want to face reality, but when I see a friend say 'registered?', I know it's time to briefly break away from reality and relax