Microsoft has confirmed that the 512GB Xbox Series S hard drive is the size it is to help keep the cost of the console low. The cheaper next-gen console was announced last week, and will launch on November 10th for £250 - an impressive alternative to the £449 Xbox Series X.
Of course this lower cost comes with some technical concessions - and now we have a better idea of just what they are. Speaking in a leaked Xbox press briefing, head of platform engineering and hardware Liz Hamren said that the 512GB limit is to keep the Xbox Series S at the affordable price point we've all been so amazed by.
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"When we move to SSD technology we get much, much higher performance, but of course that performance comes at a higher cost. Of course, more storage is always better, so we were trying to balance storage drive size as well as cost and we landed on 512[GB]," explains Hamren.
"The Series S also supports the Seagate expansion card, and you can always connect your USB 3.1 drive for additional storage. And we've been working on a number of software features to help you more seamlessly manage your game library between the cloud and your console."
We also know that the Xbox Series S doesn't support 4K, meaning that any older Xbox games that have been enhanced for the Xbox One X won't support said enhancements on the Series S. However, it's similar in CPU and has the identical I/O performance as Xbox Series X. In short, it's still a genuinely beefy little console that boasts some serious tech for the amount you're actually paying for it.
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"The primary difference between Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S is in resolution," Microsoft explains. "Through talking to our customers, we found that many of our fans prioritise framerate over resolution, so we wanted to build a console that didn't require a 4K TV. Xbox Series S delivers approximately 3x the GPU performance of Xbox One and was designed to play games at 1440p at 60 frames per second, with support for up to 120fps."
Fair enough. I don't personally know that many people who are arsed about 4K, and I'd personally always opt for framerate over resolution if given the choice... especially if there's around £200 difference in it.
I think I might have just decided which next-gen Xbox I'm going for, guys.
Featured Image Credit: MicrosoftTopics: Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S