Xbox One X review: This is the ultimate Xbox

This is the Xbox One X. It’s the fastest and smallest Xbox and the first to offer games in 4K. At $499 the higher resolution comes at a steep price. After a week with the console and hours of gaming, I can firmly state the Xbox One X is the best Xbox to date. This Xbox has everything.

Think about it. The Xbox One X is the culmination of the Xbox project and, right now, at this moment in history, the system is not missing a critical feature or capability. I’m happy to report it performs as advertised, too. It’s fast, smooth and capable of playing games from the past and the present with the best possible graphics.

Even though the Xbox One X provides the best possible Xbox experience, it may not be a system for everyone.

From 480p to 4k

he real promise of the Xbox One X is “true 4K” gaming. Most games made for the Xbox One are designed for 1080p TVs, which have a quarter of the pixels found on a new 4K TV. The Xbox One X is more than four times faster than the original Xbox One, so it’s capable of 4K gaming. While it’s not as powerful as the latest gaming PCs, the benefits are really going to depend on what game you’re playing. Microsoft is promising more than 150 “enhanced” games for the Xbox One X, but that doesn’t always mean they will be 4K. Some enhancements could include better frame rates instead of 4K resolution, or HDR capability. Other enhancements might include 4K, HDR, and better frame rates. It’s up to game developers to decide, and there’s not a clear pattern yet.

I enjoy PC games for the smooth frame rates, and I find it nauseating jumping back to the same game running at 30fps on a console. I spent some time playing Gears of War 4 with its new up-to-60fps “performance mode.” Although it’s an old game at this point, it’s a good example of how the Xbox One X can have 4K modes or performance-focused modes. The 4K mode, coupled with HDR, looks great, but the performance mode running at 60fps feels even better without the 4K resolution boost. Rise of the Tomb Raider also has similar options, and it’s a balance that game developers should really offer gamers.

SOME GAMES WILL OFFER 4K, HDR, AND 60FPS

Some games like Forza Motorsport 7 will offer the best of all worlds: 4K, HDR, and 60fps. This is the peak of what the Xbox One X offers, but Microsoft didn’t make the Forza 7update available in time for review. I’ve played demo versions over the past few weeks at Xbox events and it looks beautiful, but sometimes it’s hard to really notice the difference over what I have with my Xbox One S. The S runs Forza 7 at 60fps with HDR, so you'd have to really care about the resolution upgrade and the better textures and shadows.

Other titles like Titanfall 2 also boost the resolution up to 4K, but dynamically alter it based on GPU load to keep smooth gameplay at 60fps. I could argue about all the various tricks that developers will use to hit 4K gaming, whether it’s checkerboarding or dynamic resolution, but none of this really matters unless you’re a pixel nerd. It’s the gameplay that matters, and once you’ve tried a game in 60fps it’s hard to step back to 30fps, regardless of the resolution and textures.

One of the biggest improvements I noticed when an Enhanced for Xbox One X update arrived was Assassin's Creed Origins. It looks stunning on the Xbox One X, with a 4K resolution and HDR support. It’s way less blurry than on my Xbox One S, and I’d say it’s closer to looking like it does on my PC thanks to the obvious improvements in textures. On my LG OLED with HDR enabled it looks gorgeous and runs really well. I hope this is a shining example of what’s to come from developers on newer games.

NOT ALL ENHANCEMENTS ARE AVAILABLE JUST YET

It’s a mixture right now, and not all developers have made their enhancements available to test. I spent the beginning of the week playing Super Lucky’s Tale – a 3D platformer originally released in VR for the Oculus Rift – as no other games I owned had updates ready. It’s a good looking game, but it doesn’t really push what the Xbox One X can do.

You don’t necessarily need a 4K TV to get some of the console’s benefits. If you happen to have a 1440p gaming monitor laying around then the Xbox One X will soon support it. I wasn’t able to test this as Microsoft isn’t supporting 1440p just yet, but it won’t just be outputting like the PS4 Pro at 1080p and upscaling. Likewise, 1080p TVs will see benefits to pure performance. I played Destiny 2 on the Xbox One X and it felt a lot smoother than on my Xbox One S. It’s still locked to 30fps, but some of the frame rate dips I’d experienced during Destiny’s raid or public events were gone. Some games without One X-specific updates, like Destiny 2 at this point, will still see performance improvements and better texture filtering on the One X.

The Xbox One X is the third version of the third generation of the Xbox. The original came out in 2001 with the Xbox 360 hitting stores in 2005. The current generation started in 2013 with the Xbox One. The Xbox One X shares a lot of similarities with the first Xbox One yet lacks a feature of the original: Kinect. Microsoft once bet the future of the living room on motion and voice controls. Here we are, some four years later, and the Kinect is dead, and the controller stands tall.

With certain games, graphics pop and colors shimmer in a way that was not possible on past consoles. The jump in quality is significant with the One X. The increase in quality feels more like the jump from the 480p Xbox to the 720p Xbox 360 rather than the jump from the 360 to 1080p Xbox One.

Simply put, gaming at 4K is brilliant. Gaming at 4K with a faster refresh rate is even better, and this Xbox throws down. Games optimized for the higher resolution and quicker refresh rate look better and play smoother. Likewise, games that are not optimized still benefit from the One X’s extra power with faster load times and improved graphics. I guess. Sometimes I felt older Xbox One games were performing better on the One X than the One S but that could have just been because I was using an Xbox that wasn’t pulling from a full hard drive.

New games like Gears of War 4 look stunning in 4K and at 60 frames per second. I found the graphics nearly as good as anything available on a PC. Even during the most intense firefights, the gameplay was beautifully smooth. This wasn’t always the case. Sometimes with past systems there was a bit of slowdown when the action sped up. I played latest Gears last month and yet I played through a good chunk again — for TechCrunch’s readers, of course — and for the first time in a Gears game, felt like the system had enough headroom to provide the smoothest possible experience.

I literally said “wow” during the opening fight scene on Gears of War 4. I had played the game since it was released last month, so it felt like the right place to start. The game is already gorgeous, and even on a One S, the gameplay is smooth. However, on the Xbox One X, the gameplay is smoothed out to a silky experience.

This is how good Gears of War 4 looks while you’re playing it. Seriously.

It gets messy

My biggest issue with the Xbox One X is a lack of stunning 4K games to really show why this is worth $499. Assassin's Creed Origins is the best I tried, but it’s not exclusive to the Xbox One X. Microsoft doesn’t have a single launch exclusive for this console, and while enhancements to old games are great, I often found it hard to even notice big differences because I don’t think some of these games were designed with 4K textures in mind. There’s no big blockbuster game I can only play on the Xbox One X right now, and Microsoft isn’t offering up much hope for the future, either.

Crackdown 3 was supposed to launch in time for the Xbox One X, but it’s delayed until spring next year. Scalebound, Fable Legends, and Ion were outright canceled, and Microsoft has shut down Project Spark. Even PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, Microsoft’s “console launch exclusive,” won’t be available until December 12th.

Sony has God of War, Spider-Man, Death Stranding, The Last of Us Part II, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Detroit all on the way. Whether these are all native 4K or not, these are huge games and they make Microsoft’s lineup look paltry by comparison.

All the graphical improvements can be complicated.

For Gears of War 4, players have several options. In the game’s setting menu, players can select between Visuals or Performance modes. Select Visuals and the game plays in 4k at 30 fps (the pretty mode). The Performance option bumps the framerate to a 60 fps target and keeps the resolution at 1080p (the smooth mode). But this switch is only for the campaign mode. The Horde mode plays at 60 fps in 4k with adaptive resolution scaling to maintain the high frame rate.

And these options are the settings for just Gears of War 4. Each game offers different settings and modes and some do not offer any at all.

That’s just the start of the confusion. Other games have been updated to support HDR that provides a broader swath of colors and contrast. HDR lets bright parts of the picture look more vivid and dark parts look darker while serving up more colors in between. Only some games output HDR and 4K and some games support HDR or 4K. It’s a confusing mess, and the consumer will suffer.

Games like Gears of War 4 were updated to support both 4K and HDR. Others like Halo 5: Guardians or Killer Instinct only support 4K and not HDR. As a consumer, I find the situation insulting and a drawback to buying the console at launch. Eventually, most games will support at least 4K but until then, gamers will need to suffer through Microsoft’s growing pains of convincing developers to release games in 4K.

Microsoft is smart to point out that the extra power inside the Xbox One X improves the graphics even on a 1080p display. If patched for the hardware, these games look marginally better on older displays.

Sometimes the differences are inconsequential for a person with a 1080p display and a One X. Most users would be hard pressed to notice the difference outside of a few games. On the home screen, the One S performs as well as the One X thanks to the new UI Microsoft rolled out last month.

It’s important to note that the Xbox One X does not automatically make a game 4K. And of course the system has to be hooked up to a 4K TV. Moreover, some 4K TVs offer HDR for better color and faster refresh modes for smoother graphics. It gets complicated. There are many variables, and these variables can be expensive.

Right now, 4K titles available on disc have to download a patch to output at a higher resolution. There are also 4K titles available through the online Store. In both cases it’s a chore to discover games available at a higher resolution. Right now, at launch, the best place to find 4K games is with this comprehensive list on the Xbox’s site.

Users can search for 4K games through the online Store, but some of the results are not 4K games. To check if a game is available in 4K users must click through and consult the Capabilities box on the game’s product page. It’s a tedious process and Microsoft would be smart to add a label to the title’s box art that’s displayed when browsing the catalog.

Sony had a similar issue when the PS4 Pro launch, and it seems like Microsoft is handling it slightly better. The online listing is easier to parse and displayed more prominently. When it comes to retail availability right now, it’s just as hard to find a 4K Xbox game as it was a PS4 4K game. Eventually Xbox games will sport a label on the back of the title displaying its graphical capability but the stores I visited are still working through back stock and have yet to get titles with the new labels. I checked two Best Buy Stores and Forza 7 was the only game labeled as 4K capable. The selection will improve over time but it might be hard around the holidays for mom and dad to identify 4K games to buy for your new 4K gaming system.

Amazing performance, questionable value

Microsoft proudly proclaims the Xbox One X as the most powerful console ever. And by all accounts, that’s true. It packs more computing power than the PS4 Pro, which until now, held that title.

Listen, the Xbox One X is the best Xbox a gamer can buy. Hands down. It’s smoother, quicker and smaller than the Xbox One S. If the One X replaced the One S at the same price, it would be easy to recommend. With the One X priced at $499, for most people, the $279 Xbox One S is the smarter way to spend money. It offers, in most cases, a similar gaming experience and, in a few cases, slightly less pretty graphics – which you definitely won’t miss if you aren’t running a 4K-capable display, or viewing your set from the proper distance.

There is an appeal to gaming in 4K though I question the current value to gaming in 4K. Are the Xbox One X graphics better than on the Xbox One S? Yes, but sometimes the differences are marginal and often meaningless to the gameplay.

Purchasing the Xbox One X right now is an investment. 4K TVs are quickly becoming the standard and now that Microsoft and Sony offer 4K systems, eventually developers will start designing games with 4K as the standard. There will be a time when 1080p is an afterthought and that’s when the Xbox One X will be justified. And by then, the Xbox One X’s price will probably be lower and 4K games will be easier to find.

When the Xbox 360 came out, it was a runaway hit. The difference between the Xbox and the Xbox 360 are massive. Then the $500 Xbox One came out and the difference was less dramatic over the Xbox 360. The $500 Xbox One X is an even less meaningful jump in quality over its predecessor and gamers will have a hard time justifying purchasing a One X over a One S. To me, it’s not worth it. At least not right now. If you’re the person who needs the best Xbox possible, the One X is the system for you.

THE HARDWARE

Let’s start with the basics. I’m really impressed and surprised at how much power Microsoft has managed to squeeze into the Xbox One X’s small case. While the original Xbox One was a big, black box about the size of an old-school VCR, the Xbox One X matches the impressive design of the Xbox One S. It’s actually smaller than the S in terms of volume, but I did notice if you stack them, then the X is larger in some dimensions. Either way, it’s small enough to fit in a backpack, but it’s rather dense so it feels heavier than the One S.

THE XBOX ONE X DESIGN IS VERY SIMILAR TO THE S

The Xbox One X has the same inputs and ports as the S. There’s HDMI-in if you want to connect up a TV set-top box, two USBs at the rear and one at the front, and an Ethernet port. Microsoft ditched the external power supply from the original Xbox One, and it’s all integrated in and dual voltage. All in all, it’s very similar to the Xbox One S from the outside and still needs a USB adaptor for the Kinect.

The real power can be found inside. Microsoft is using a 2.3GHz 8-core AMD Jaguar processor, 12GB of RAM, and a six-teraflop AMD Radeon GPU. That’s nearly two teraflops more than the PS4 Pro, a faster CPU, and 3GB more of overall RAM. The Xbox One X comfortably outperforms the PS4 Pro. On hardware alone, it’s smaller, more powerful, and even includes a 4K Blu-ray player over its PS4 Pro rival.

All of that power means you need a good cooling system and fans to match. During my own testing, I haven’t noticed any huge issues here. The fans are noticeable (like a gaming PC) at times when you’re not even pushing the console, and they’re definitely louder than the Xbox One S. The back of the One X unit does get rather hot, and I’d recommend not keeping this locked away in a cupboard. I never had issues with it stacked inside an open shelving unit, though.