Cross-Gen Face-Off: Xbox Series S vs Xbox One X

The first year of the new console generation has been quite unlike any other – Xbox One and PlayStation 4 releases are still prolific and the hard cut-off on older hardware seen in prior transition phases simply hasn’t happened. Although there have been a small amount of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series exclusive, the new consoles are essentially getting beefed up versions of titles designed for legacy hardware. This puts Xbox One X and Xbox Series S into a particularly interesting situation: an older, but still potent GPU faces off against a less graphically adept, but arguably more rounded machine owing to its massively faster CPU and NVMe solid-state storage. However, Xbox One X can also run games from SSD, leading our latest thought experiment: how does a storage-enhanced One X fare against Series S?

The results are intriguing and in many way controversial – but this could apply to the whole concept of launching Series S in the first place in a world where a prior generation Xbox exists with more GPU horsepower, more RAM and much higher levels of memory bandwidth. Of course, we have Series machines replacing One equivalents and it’s Xbox Series X that is the successor to Xbox One X – the clue’s in the name. And by extension, we also need to be aware that One X and Series S target very, very different markets: we’re talking about a machine designed for the hardcore up against a console designed for a more mainstream audience, less likely to desire the clarity delivered by 4K resolution and higher-end rendering features.

The video embedded in these parts shows the entirety of our testing, but the overall takeaway is straightforward. We took an Xbox One X augmented with a Samsung T7 USB SSD and put it up against Series S in a range of cross-gen games and backwards compatible titles, plus we ran some loading time tests to see if the optional solid-state storage upgrade could help bridge the gap in loading times and in-game streaming. The takeaway? Series S delivers higher frame-rates and – for the most part – faster loading. However, image quality tends to suffer, even on Microsoft titles such as Forza Horizon 5 and Halo Infinite. The whole notion of an extended cross-gen phase seems to have effectively blessed Xbox One X with an Indian summer of sorts, extending its lifespan – but its demise is inevitable once this bizarre transition period is over.

In the meantime, the comparisons between One X and Series S are intriguing. Guardians of the Galaxy, for example, is an impressive-looking game, but the Series S version undoubtedly disappoints. We’re getting a 1080p30 version of the game on S with a temporally stable but soft quality image. An option to unlock the frame-rate is available on S, but only offers limited gains to the point where sticking with the 30fps cap is probably the best option – and Xbox One X has the same 30fps cap with a much higher rendering resolution. We’re talking about a 1440p to 1890p image that holds up well on a 4K display. Series S has an edge in shadow and texture quality, but Xbox One X undoubtedly produces a better-looking result.