XBOX ONE S REVIEW

There’s no way to talk about the Xbox One S without talking about the console it’s replacing, the Xbox One. So I will just start by saying the really obvious thing: the Xbox One S is what the original Xbox One should have been.

That assessment is both totally fair and wildly unfair. It’s unfair because it’s been three years since Microsoft first announced the original Xbox One — and so the relentless progress of technology means that it can be made smaller, faster, and better. We usually see these mid-cycle game console refreshes do that, and the Xbox One S does it really well.

But it’s also fair: the original Xbox One came out with big, crazy dreams to take over your living room. It wanted to be more than a games console, it wanted to be the thing that handled everything connected to your television: Cable TV, streaming video, sports, and games. From its announcement, it felt as if games truly were last on Microsoft’s list — the Xbox One hasn’t fared so well because of it. It didn’t help that the original hardware looked like a VCR from 1987 and kicked out heat like a diesel truck from the same era. Or that it came with Kinect.

While Microsoft still wants the Xbox to be the first thing you turn on in your living room, it’s simplified and reprioritized that list. It’s working on getting more and better games. It’s cleaned up the software interface with a new update that applies to all Xbox Ones. And it’s released this new, smaller Xbox One S to essentially replace the big, old one — without Kinect.

The Xbox One S is available this month for $299, $349, or $399 — depending on your storage preference. It adds support for HDR, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray, and 4K streaming video. It’s actually svelte and good-looking. Which leads me to say the other obvious thing: the Xbox One S is a stupendous console and stupendously little. The only question is whether it’s too little, too late.

Microsoft says the Xbox One S is 40 percent smaller than the original, and it shows. Instead of a hulking monster of a machine squatting under your TV, you have this slim, white box. I really like the clean, squarish look of the thing, a matte white block on a black base. Microsoft calls the color "Robot White," because no consumer electronics device is allowed to have an unbranded Pantone.

But the 40 percent size difference doesn’t capture how much more comfortably this One S fits in a living room, because it integrates the power supply right into the console itself. The old Xbox needed a power adapter that so closely approximated the size and heft of a literal brick that I half-thought that was the design inspiration. No more: a simple cable is all it takes to power this new box.

IT SUPPORTS 4K VIDEO, 

BUT NOT 4K GAMES

The old Xbox required a copious amount of space to ensure it could stay well-ventilated. The One S also seems to kick off a noticeable amount of heat (don’t set anything on top of it, that’s where the fan exhaust goes), but since the case is so much smaller I feel better about enclosing it in the cabinet underneath my TV.

The One S can also be stood up vertically on a simple stand that clicks in a satisfying, sturdy way. The stand comes gratis in the 2TB model, but costs $20 extra for the 1TB or 500GB models.

It plays all the same games and does all the same things as the original Xbox One and — importantly — vice versa. Microsoft isn’t breaking any compatibility, which is an important calculus for current owners. If you have an Xbox One now, you won’t need to upgrade to get access to new games coming out in the next year. So for current owners, the decision to upgrade comes down to other factors: the look, and support for better video quality.

Yes, the Xbox One S will support High Dynamic Range and 4K video. Note that we’re talking about 4K video here, not games. Support for 4K games (and virtual reality) will come with next year’s Xbox, currently known by the codename "Project Scorpio."Chalk another point up to the "don’t upgrade if you have an Xbox One" column, because something much better is coming along in 2017.

There will be games for the Xbox One S that will support HDR, though I wasn’t able to test any. Why not? Well — for whatever reason, none of them are available for the launch of the console. That’s kind of a miss. The other reason is that Microsoft opted for the HDR 10 standard, and my TV (a Vizio P-Series) doesn’t support it quite yet. More and more TVs will support it soon, but if you’re going out and making a purchase, double check that your TV will work with this version of HDR and not just Dolby Vision (hooray for format wars :/ ).

Even though I wasn’t able to get HDR going on my set, I did enjoy watching 4K video both on Blu-ray and in Netflix. The difference from 1080p is noticeable, but as you’ve no doubt heard by now it’s not the eye-opening revelation that HD was when it first came out. Still, perhaps the best thing the Xbox One S has going for it is that it’s an affordable 4K video box, something that’s actually rarer than you might expect right now.

The Xbox One S is one of the cheapest Blu-ray players to support 4K UHD discs, making the console a sort of generation hop — not quite a full leap. Quite a few PlayStation 2s were sold thanks to its support for DVDs back in the day, and no doubt Microsoft is hoping that the same could happen with the Xbox One S in the 4K UHD Blu-ray era — but somehow I don’t think people are as eager to upgrade to 4K Blu-rays as they were to DVDs back in the day. Especially when 4K streaming boxes can be purchased for much less.

The Xbox One S scraps nearly everything I hated about the original Xbox. It’s good-looking, reasonably sized, and also reasonably priced. You can still use it as the center of your home entertainment universe if you really want to — there is an IR blaster right on the console if that’s your jam. But it doesn’t feel like Microsoft is trying to force that issue anymore; the Xbox One’s audacious plan to control your cable box is now essentially a buried option for AV junkies who want to try to figure it out.

Instead, the One S is simply a very, very good console that works like a modern streaming and gaming box should: you can stream video from a multitude of apps and play high-quality games. But despite that, I don’t know who should buy it. Every time I try to come to a final conclusion about the One S, I end up in a logic loop:

FOR PEOPLE WHO JUST CAN’T WAIT

One: If you already have an Xbox One, I doubt there’s enough here to justify the upgrade. You can probably just hang on to your current big, black box until at least next year because...

Two: Microsoft is releasing another Xbox next year that will be way more powerful. Project Scorpio will support 4K gaming and virtual reality. Whether you have an Xbox One or not, you probably can stand to wait until that comes out.

Three: Let’s say you don’t have an Xbox One (the sales numbers imply you probably don’t). The thing to think about is the reason you'd buy any console: games. How much do you love Halo, Gears of War, and Forza? If your answer is "a lot," well, it's obvious you should get this Xbox One S instead of the original, no matter how marked down the old one is. But if you love those games, you probably already have an Xbox, so… go back to step one.

There’s only one thing that breaks this logic loop: this is a console for people who just can’t wait. Maybe you just can’t wait for 4K Blu-ray. Or maybe your new HDR-ready TV won’t feel worthwhile until it’s playing HDR games. Or maybe you just can’t wait to get rid of that ugly black box under your TV.

If you can wait, do. If you can’t, well, I think you’ll be happy with the Xbox One S.