Xbox One X re-review after one year: A tale of expectations far exceeded

The Xbox One X launched just over a year ago, with Microsoft touting 4K visuals as its main selling signal. After using the console for a year alongside its cheaper, less-powerful older blood brother Xbox I S, how is the console performing with new games, platform updates, and beyond?

Information technology's fourth dimension for another look at the Xbox Ane X.

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Is Xbox One X hardware nonetheless solid after a year?

I went through three Xbox 360 consoles owing to the dreaded Red Ring of Death, a fiasco which forced Microsoft to actually take a long difficult look at how it builds console hardware.

Microsoft'due south in-house hardware teams have grown in size and experience over the final decade or so, with Microsoft'due south Surface laptops being amid the best in the world for build quality and reliability. I've personally owned almost every Surface model, and I never fail to be impressed. Luckily, that stellar hardware tradition seems to have extended to Xbox.

My OG Xbox One, despite some fairly hefty abuse, still works perfectly fine to this day, which is something you simply wouldn't be able to say nearly the Xbox 360. The Xbox I X, nonetheless, features a far smaller overall footprint, complete with the power supply baked directly into the console. With all of that raw 4K power squeezed into a comparatively small-scale space, I'd be lying to say I didn't await some grade of complications downward the line.

I am a heavy Xbox user and might have expected to come across some deposition in the Xbox One 10 over time. So far, it runs only besides as the day I got it. It's repose and stable, set upright in a vertical position on my desk, stoically set up to provide me with entertainment at a moment's notice.

The hardware might stand the exam of time, only what about that Os?

Xbox One Ten dashboard took a step forward, a footstep dorsum

The Xbox dashboard continues to be a fleck of a hurting signal for many Xbox fans, attributable to its speed, and abundance of algorithmic "suggested" content upwards forepart and centre. Does the Xbox I X improve things at all? Yep ... and no.

The best things that accept happened to the Xbox dashboard over the past twelvemonth use to both the Xbox One South and Xbox One X. Microsoft has offered a fig leaf to disgruntled Kinect fans by assuasive users to control their Xbox consoles using a connected Amazon Echo speaker. Information technology works extremely well, too, assuasive you to launch a game and ability on your Tv fifty-fifty when your console is in an off state. You tin can also apply all the standard controls typical of Kinect now, such as media navigation, volume and TV commands via the Xbox I X's IR blaster, and much more.

The Xbox One dashboard has as well undergone some changes since final year. It'due south still covered in "dynamic" suggested content all over the dashboard, which to me looks more like a load of ads than content you might actually exist interested in. This makes the dashboard wait frustratingly cluttered, peculiarly when its giving me ads for games and services I already ain.

Additionally, the dashboard now incorporates dedicated tabs for both Mixer and Xbox Game Pass. If you're a fan of those services they might prove useful, only if y'all take no intention of using them, it'southward abrasive that you can't hibernate them or turn them off.

The Store has undergone some improvements, at present allowing you to create wishlists, add together games to a cart rather than picking them up one by one and likewise allowing you to gift games. Sadly, game gifting is region restricted (and, despite that, information technology doesn't do enough to warn you if you're gifting a game to someone in a region where they can't use it). Information technology'south all however a little tedious too. When compared to the dashboard on the PlayStation 4, it'due south a little frustrating to encounter how sluggish and unresponsive the Xbox dashboard can be.

This is i area where the ability of the Xbox One X hasn't been able to aid, and it's at least in role due to the restrictions Microsoft placed on itself when it built the console's multi-Bone arroyo. This is one area we hope the next Xbox tin can improve upon.

Microsoft and its partners delivered on Xbox I X 4K games

Forza Motorsport vii.

One of the primary areas of business concern from my review concluding year revolved around whether or not Microsoft was actually going to be able to get developers to support the affair. Non just did they go devs to support it, Microsoft and the 10 vastly exceeded my expectations on the games front.

At launch, there was simply a handful of titles that supported the Xbox One 10 and 4K, but a year later, that amount has exploded. Non but has the Xbox One X proven itself as a 4K product, information technology has outshone all other consoles to engagement, save for far more expensive PC gaming rigs.

Ruby-red Expressionless Redemption ii.

In technical comparisons, the Xbox One X has come up out on top every unmarried time, pushing more detailed visuals, more stable frame rates, and ameliorate resolutions than competitors. More pixels lead to a sharper image, which not only creates a more immersive feel but tin really provide tactical advantages equally well. That sneaky sniper that looks like a pixelated blob in the altitude on your Xbox One S volition be easier to discern on the Xbox One X.

Microsoft and the X vastly exceeded expectations on the games front.

Games similar Red Expressionless Redemption two, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, and Forza Horizon iv all showcase the panel at its best, pushing extended draw distances, higher pixel counts, and boosted details. The crawly thing about the X, which few people expected, is that Microsoft is committing time to unlocking the potential in the compressed Xbox 360 versions of backward compatible games as well. Fallout 3, Final Fantasy Xiii, Cerise Dead Redemption, and many more than nigh look like total remasters, rather than unproblematic ports. This is an unexpected added benefit and a welcome ane.

Where Microsoft hasn't yet delivered is VR, which became completely absent from Redmond'southward Xbox One X pitch non long afterward its initial announcement. Microsoft isn't as well keen on VR at the moment, instead experimenting on improving the overall experience before going all-in. Windows Mixed Reality has been decent, but it's difficult to recommend strapping a bulky headset to your face, getting tangled up in cables and move sickness, bug that oasis't actually been resolved. That said, if yous desire casual VR experiences, you lot have to leap over to PlayStation or PC for at present.

So is it still worth ownership an Xbox One X?

In a discussion, yes. The next Xbox consoles shouldn't exist expected until 2022 at the accented earliest, and even then, the Xbox One Ten volition even so be supported for a while after the fact. With Microsoft's emphasis on backward compatibility, you lot can pretty much guarantee all existing Xbox Ane content will work on future consoles, too, if y'all fancy building upwardly a digital library of content right now.

The Xbox One Ten is the most powerful games console out there by a broad margin.

The next Xbox is highly unlikely to effort to push resolutions past 4K, despite the fact that some manufacturers are already talking nearly 8K resolutions. The next Xbox is more likely to focus on improving frame rates and detail density at existing 4K resolutions.

The Xbox One X is the most powerful games console out there by a wide margin, and that remains true a year subsequently launch. To get an equivalent gaming PC you're looking at well over $1500, and that is an extremely conservative gauge, one that omits things like the 4K Blu-ray drive and IR blaster if y'all're interested in watching movies. Of class, you tin can exercise way more than with a Windows PC, but if you lot're just looking to game, you might find an Xbox One X preferable.

Perhaps the biggest issue surrounding the 10 (and the Due south) remains the lack of "exclusive" titles. PlayStation has the king of beasts's share of high-quality photorealistic "mature" games, whereas Microsoft has spent its efforts in contempo years edifice less ambitious titles. Redmond is investing "aggressively" in its sectional game portfolio. Only that might take a while to materialize.

Regardless, every major multi-platform title from heavy hitters similar EA, Bethesda, Rockstar, and beyond, await and run better on an Xbox I X. If you want the best of console gaming today, y'all won't be disappointed with the 1 X

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