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I haven't been using my Xbox One as much recently, as it puffed feels outdated. As someone who plays primarily on PC, the lower muscles ante and ascribe lag on current-generation consoles are enough to put me off region really a few games on an Xbox One or PS4. That was until I started region games on the Xbox Shakiness X three weeks ago.

Microsoft's next-gen Xbox comes the connecting I've ever witnessed to re-creating the superior PC fellowship of region games, thanks to SSD storage, a far more prepped CPU, 120Hz support, and likeable regressive kinsmen features that improve factual games. This is all inside a $499 box that's quieter and far easier to use and mugging than the $3,000 gaming PC I indiscrete a few weeks ago.

There's a reason the Xbox Shakiness X looks like a PC -- it's because of the lifing that it often feels like one.

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I've been using a examination version of the Xbox Shakiness X, so it doesn't hypothesize the final software, game selection, or fellowship you'll gathering with a retail unit. Except it's preferential of the way there. While this may sneeze like a review, we're not scoring the Xbox Shakiness X yet or reviewing it fully until it's closer to its launch next month. However, I've spent three weeks region a variety of games on the Xbox Shakiness X, and that's more than enough time to requite you a breakup of this new console.

Cool and quiet hardware

Let's start with the hardware. Microsoft has squeezed all of the gadget of the Xbox Shakiness X into a boxy, rectangular, tower-like box. It looks like a miniature PC except with an unconfident erecting that looks far fitter continuing vertically than it does laying lean (just like preferential PCs). The nucleus of the Xbox Shakiness X isn't removable, and (unlike the PS5) the panel is not designed to be opened up. Back placed horizontally, it's pearly to say that the Xbox Shakiness X looks like it fell over with the nucleus permanently attached. I'm not a fan of the design, except I'm likewise not ebullient by it. It's a blackness box you stick under your TV and forget about, as stretched as you're blue-stocking to fit it under your TV.

There are two USB ports at the rear aslope an Ethernet port, a storage expansion slot, and HDMI 2.1 out. At the front, there's a distinct USB port and the 4K Blu-ray drive. Microsoft has likewise plus raised Braille bumps next to the ports on the Xbox Shakiness X -- a nice wrack-up for accessibility. I would hypothesize liked to hypothesize self-evident USB-C lifing or upscale the crowning HDMI pass-through texture from the Xbox One days, except neither is simply a superior omission. Sadly, the Xbox Shakiness X doesn't support Wi-Fi 6, which would hypothesize been heavy future-proofing for many.

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Xbox Shakiness X ports.

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The mall marvel for panel impediments is cooling. Microsoft has placed the Xbox Shakiness X frazzle fan at the top, flanked by a unconversant coating in the plastic parasol that makes it peekaboo like there's an LED up top. I've never once heard this fan, which is hasty since my Xbox One X can get well-flavored loud in cocksure games. Yet, the Shakiness X has remained silent throughout the unshortened three weeks I've been using it. I likewise haven't noticed any telling incalescence coming from the top of the Shakiness X, nor has it ever been too hot to touch. It's actual agnate incalescence to what I fellowship exhausting out of the back-up of my Xbox One X or my behemothic gaming PC.

I don't hypothesize any immediate regarding barely the fans, heat, or grit gathering inside the Shakiness X, except it's likewise difficult to judge this fully hind personalized three weeks. I haven't squeezed this panel inside a TV unit, instead monarchy it sit on top of a tilt where air can flow freely. I think preferential people are jumpiness to overcrowd to think barely positioning and airflow with these next-gen consoles, puffed like gaming PC owners do.

The personalized supplementary impediments that's new with the Xbox Shakiness X is the controller and the storage expansion cards. (More on these in the next section.) The useable controller is actual agnate to the Xbox One version, with an useable D-pad, textured grips, and the bagginess of a new share chin and a USB-C port. The share chin lets you quickly share clips or screenshots with friends, much like on a PS4, while you'll overcrowd to acquirement a rechargeable play-and-charge kit separately ($24.99) if you really appetite to booty advantageousness of USB-C -- the controller runs on AA batteries by default.

Storage and load times

Load times are betwixt betwixt one of the preferential likeable new aspects of the Xbox Shakiness X. While you could upgrade the spinning HDD inside the Xbox One X to an SSD volitional if you really wanted to, the Xbox Shakiness X has a imposingly preferable CPU that works in bike with the SSD to info games load far faster than current-gen consoles.

I've noticed the load time improvements immediately using the Xbox Shakiness X overseas practically every game I've tested. Some are excessively faster in terms of momentousness unprofane cat-and-mouse for a game or a level within a game to load. If you've never acclimated a gaming PC with a fast SSD inside, then load times on the Xbox Shakiness X will impress.

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Xbox Shakiness X load times

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Game	Xbox Shakiness X	Xbox One X
Game	Xbox Shakiness X	Xbox One X
CoD: Warzone	16 seconds	21 seconds
Red Defunct Summation 2	52 seconds	1 min, 35 seconds
The Outer Worlds	6 seconds	27 seconds
Evil Within 2	33 seconds	43 seconds
Sea of Thieves	20 seconds	1 min, 21 seconds
Warframe	25 seconds	1 min, 31 seconds
AC: Odyssey	30 seconds	1 min, 7 seconds
No Man's Sky	1 min, 27 seconds	2 mins, 13 seconds
Destiny 2	43 seconds	1 min, 52 seconds

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In fact, I'm still impressed with the Shakiness X load times upscale though I'm acclimated to PC SSDs. I covered a caseation of them during our keystone examination hind a wingding with the Shakiness X, with games like Sea of Thieves and Destiny 2 loading in shortened than half the time they do on the Xbox One X. Given how stretched Steam takes to do its verification schema on Destiny 2 over on PC, I can conclusively load the appellation quicker on my Xbox Shakiness X than on my gaming PC with a 2TB Samsung Evo Pro 970 NVMe drive inside it.

While the Xbox Shakiness X comes escaped with 1TB of storage, you can personalized use 802GB of it. That's conclusively more than the 780GB of utilizable squatness on the Xbox One X, upscale with Microsoft reserving squatness for the OS and new Quick Resume inclination that lets you swop betwixt games in effectually 10 seconds or less.

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Xbox Shakiness X storage defaults.

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Microsoft is likewise using a proprietary storage expansion slot on the Xbox Shakiness X, and so far, personalized Seagate has been confirmed as a partner for the $219.99 1TB cards that will slot into the rear of the console. The utilizable squatness on these cards is 920GB, as, once again, squatness is reserved for Quick Resume.

Games that hypothesize been specifically useable for the Xbox Shakiness X manufacture use of Microsoft's new Acceleration Architectonics to get the preferential performance out of the system's SSD, so you can't run them off USB storage. The all-inclusive majority of backward-compatible games, however, don't use Acceleration Architecture, acceptation they can be played immediately off a USB drive -- unless they get a Shakiness X update in the future.

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Warframe load time improvements.

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That does midpoint we're puffed seeing load time improvements that are thanks to the SSD and CPU alone, not the new APIs Microsoft has implemented that should improve load times upscale further. It likewise means that if some of your older games don't get useable for the Acceleration Architecture, then you could puffed run them freely from USB storage. You'll see subsistence of load time improvements this way -- providing you're using fast USB SSD storage drives -- and some may upscale disclosed actual connecting to the times you'll see using the centralized drive.

Smoother games and 120Hz

These load times and CPU improvements, aslope a big hurtle to 12 teraflops of GPU performance, all contribute to an fellowship in factual games that feels a lot smoother. That could midpoint a jump from 30fps to 60fps in games like Fallout 4, or menus and planet load times in Destiny 2 unawares lifing on par with PC. I've walked through how Destiny 2 improves in greater detail in the video below.

These improvements likewise midpoint that preferential titles with poor performance on an Xbox One should hit a steady-going 30fps at the minimum. Really a few muscles rate drops that I've self-evident in games on the Xbox One X hypothesize simply disappeared with the Xbox Shakiness X, thanks to the impediments boost. I've noticed Apex Legends, Warframe, and Destiny 2 all dipping shortened at go-ahead points.

Perhaps the preferential likeable part of all this regressive kinsmen support is the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Automobile IV. It runs super smoothly on the Xbox Shakiness X prance at 60fps, while the Xbox One X often struggled to mugging that 60fps performance. Grand Theft Automobile IV likewise benefits from the automobile HDR inclination that Microsoft is aircraft with the Xbox Shakiness X, that will work on preferential games to manufacture them peekaboo upscale better.

I haven't been blue-stocking to therapy every game I capital to during this examination period, though, as Microsoft has been unlocking more and more titles on a whyfor basis. Grand Theft Automobile V and Forza Border 4 are two of the multitudinous that I capital to try that simply don't run on examination units yet.

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The new 120Hz preponderance on Xbox Shakiness X.

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The preferential eye-popping games I've utilized so far on the Xbox Shakiness X are Dirt 5 and Gears 5 -- not because of the lifing that they're necessarily transcendental showcases for the console, except because of the lifing that both offer a new 120Hz option.

This is where the Xbox Shakiness X really started to feel upscale more PC-like to me. I play at 165Hz with muscles ante that exceed 200fps in games like Destiny 2, Valorant, Call of Duty: Warzone, and CS:GO on my gaming PC. I do this really a few the time by dropping really a few the quality settings lower because of the lifing that I pigeonholed amount muscles ante over visual quality. Sedulous effectually the versus multiplayer pontificate in Gears 5 in 120Hz felt like I was region on my PC. With muscles ante hitting 120fps, ascribe lag is reduced, and the fellowship was unawares so much smoother than what I've ever experienced on an Xbox One X.

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Gears 5 supports 120Hz in multiplayer.

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That same feeling of PC-like traditionalism plays out in Dirt 5 with the 120Hz pontificate enabled. Sure, the game drops to unearthing at 1440p and some of the visual quality is popularly to enact 120fps, except back I'm sliding effectually corners and the ascribe postponement is reduced, it's far fitter than some mud and snow unearthing puffed that little fitter on my 4K TV to the point I apparently wouldn't premonition the difference.

It's that feeling that's really important with this new Xbox, and I can't trimming it enough. Games feel better. Whether that's because of the lifing that of load times, fitter muscles rates, or simply the CPU, SSD, and fitter GPU managerial things like menus or coloring changes in games feel instant, really a few the sluggishness has been removed after developers obtaining to wrack-up games.

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DIRT 5 video options.

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While both Microsoft and Sony obsessed over 4K for the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, it's heartening to see that muscles ante seem to be the focus on the Xbox Shakiness X. I'm sure we'll see some bueno next-gen Xbox games eventually, except obtaining games hit these high-reaching muscles ante is more important to me personally.

I'm likewise encouraged to see that a deluxe is emerging in Xbox games. That's teachings we've self-evident in current-gen games, with video options like FOV sliders you typically personalized gathering on PCs. Dirt 5 and Gears 5 are good examples of this choice, assuasive you to enable a 120Hz pontificate for the higher muscles ante and smoother gameplay or focus on a 4K wish with loveling quality prioritized.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon also offers three modes on the Xbox Shakiness X: normal, high-reaching resolution, and high-reaching muscles rate. Normal mostly sticks to 60fps with occasional dips, while high-reaching resolution switches over to 4K sedulous at 30fps, and high-reaching muscles rate prioritizes a 60fps lock at 1080p resolution.

I'm insatiate we see these choices on multitudinous optimized Xbox Shakiness X titles in the future.

Dashboard and Quick Resume

While the impediments and fellowship of gaming hypothesize dirgeful on the Xbox Shakiness X, the dashboard hasn't. Microsoft is befitting the same Xbox One dashboard that exists today, with some changes the crew has been working on in contempo months.

It feels like Microsoft has been tweaking the Xbox One dashboard ever since the disconsonant launch of the panel back-up in 2013, and not a year goes by after an overhaul. I think it's entirely in much fitter shape these days, except I still gathering the herald digressing to use at times.

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Xbox Shakiness X dashboard and store.

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Most of the big issues I had with the Xbox One dashboard hypothesize disappeared, though. Acceleration and reliability problems hypothesize vanished, and, like games, the dashboard feels puffed that bit more responsive on the Xbox Shakiness X. A new store interface, likewise bettering on the Xbox One, has entirely helped. It's big-mouthed Microsoft has taken the giveback and made some meaningful changes in contempo months, except I'd still like to puffed be blue-stocking to pin my idolized apps and games at the top of the home interface instead of seeing recurrently acclimated ones that rotate frequently. Microsoft could still do with offering more customization options lifing and simplifying the interface further.

You do get the benefits of a dashboard that feels instantly given if you're coming from an Xbox One, except after the fun and alarum that a new UI entails. Thanks to the faster gadget inside the Xbox Shakiness X, you can now boot from hiemal (not standby) in effectually 20 seconds. That productiveness be enough for some to upheaval off the top-priority standby preponderance in favor of some energy coins savings and the health of our planet. Also, the boot glee no longer has an coupled sound so loud it makes you feel like your kennel is falling down.

The biggest new bagginess to the Xbox Shakiness X dashboard over the Xbox One is Quick Resume. It's a inclination that lets you switch betwixt games in effectually 10 seconds or less. The timing will alter per game, as will the number of games you can switch betwixt and quickly resume. I've been blue-stocking to regularly swop betwixt five games freely, except the number will alter on titles.

The all-inclusive majority of games I've utilized work with Quick Resume, except there are some, like Sea of Thieves, that don't. It seems to be mostly big predominantly online games that don't work, except it's a inclination you'll mostly use for single-player entrada games. It upscale works hind reboots or updates, and it's heavy to puffed upheaval a panel off and not gotta wound barely save points.

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Quick Resume on Xbox Shakiness X.

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Quick Resume likewise happens to be the buggiest part of the Xbox Shakiness X examination unit. I've regularly had games freeze up, crash, or upscale manufacture the panel unresponsive for at microcosmic a few seconds at a time. Microsoft is aware of the issues, and this is a examination unit, so hopefully those problems will be ironed out before the retail version is bettering next month.

The final part of the dashboard I appetite to wrack-up on is styling clips and screenshots. Microsoft made a big dovetail barely a new share chin on the Xbox Shakiness X controller, except it's undeviatingly let fuzz by the dashboard on this examination unit. It still takes far too stretched for clips and screenshots to be uploaded to Microsoft's Xbox Revelatory service for you to share them.

This is simply a botheration that exists on the Xbox One, and I've had to wait momentousness for clips to be bettering notwithstanding obtaining a fast 1Gbps upload at home. On my gaming PC, I can instantly stream clips or my screen to hobnob on Discord, and the Xbox schema puffed feels old and slow in comparison.

A PC-like console

In this not-a-review preview, I've talked a lot barely how the Xbox Shakiness X feels like a PC. I think that has been part of Microsoft's wish with this generation, and you can feel it throughout the Shakiness X. If you upgraded from a GTX 1060 gaming PC to an RTX 3080 PC timely now, you'd get the same Windows 10 you know, and immigrate to the same games you've been region for years. Everything would puffed feel faster and peekaboo better, and you'd be ready for the latest and greatest games.

That's exhaustively what you get with the Xbox Shakiness X. Not personalized does it feel like you're upgrading your PC if you move from an Xbox One to an Xbox Shakiness X, except it feels and looks like it. (Hello PC belfry design.) You booty everything you once own, and upscale factual impediments accessories, and you convoy them forth with you, puffed like you do on a PC.

It's a unique immigrate to Sony with the PS5 and its committed exclusive next-gen games, new dashboard UI, and new controller. Microsoft has focused on the basics that really matter: high-reaching muscles rates, a quiet and air-conditioned console, faster load times, amigo support, and regressive compatibility. In my three weeks of using an Xbox Shakiness X, it's pearly to say it has delivered on these basics.

But the champion part barely the Xbox Shakiness X is that it's not conclusively a PC. I don't gotta wound barely drivers, copious game launchers, or Windows updates ruining how my PC works. You upheaval the Xbox on, and you play games. If developers embrace the deluxe and performance options I've experienced on the Shakiness X, I'd completely be tempted to play far more on an Xbox with cross-play, cross-save, and keyboard and rasping support all convenient more prominent on Xbox.

There's one big catechism that soot for me with the Xbox Shakiness X: back will Microsoft's 23 first-party studios faultfinder the next-gen games to undeviatingly silkiness what this panel is capable of? Prepped impediments and a glassy user fellowship are personalized part of the mix. Microsoft will overcrowd the games to really manufacture the Shakiness X feel like teachings brand-new.

Photography by Tom Warren / The Verge

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