Xbox One X - is it Worth the Price?

Microsoft's new Xbox One X is an impressive piece of hardware, potentially changing how we consume video games. With six teraflops of processing power and a sleek package games look and feel better than ever before offering immersive true 4K gaming. The level of detail is fantastic and the experience is accentuated by the native HDR support. This is a pricey console at $499, but for the performance you get this machine is well worth the investment.

Why make the upgrade?

Simple, unlike the predecessor, the Xbox One X is a beast. Maximum resolution is Ultra HD, 4K for short as it has four times as many pixels as the original. For the first time since the dawn of the console era thirty years ago the best gaming experience does not belong only to high end PC's. More impressive is the fact that the new console is even smaller than the old one, the Xbox One S.

One of the first things you notice about the new console is the svelte and modern design. Unlike the sterile white of the One S the default color of the One X is space gray. The power button is cleverly disguised as the Xbox logo. In fact, the whole front of the device is very minimal, like the One S, even when it comes to I/O.

Apart from the power button, the front panel has a disc slot, USB 3.0 port, controller sync, and an IR blaster on the front. The back has two more USB 3.0 ports, HDMI in, HDMI out, ethernet, Optical Audio port, and an IR out port. Like the One S, the One X can stand on its side and all the cords transfer over from the One S to the One X.

Better game experience

With 40 percent more power than any other console, the One X is truly the world's most powerful game console, easily offering smooth and crisp 4K 60 FPS gaming and video capture. That power goes towards the six teraflop Scorpio engine which can even create fake 4K for HD games by utilizing the built-in supersampling; giving the edges more detail, making them smoother.

From a game development perspective, the One X is different as there are no Xbox One X exclusives, only Xbox One games. Any game developed for the One X will need to be compatible on older hardware. This is a great feature because the older One or One S consoles you have are not useless as you will be able to play any One X games on them. Yes, the graphical fidelity will not be as good but the games will be playable and have all the same features apart from the true 4K.

Better hardware

The hardware specs for the One X were leaked long before E3 and we knew that the One X would have an eight core CPU clocked at 2.3 GHz. We knew that there would be 12 GB of DDR5 RAM and we new the GPU would be clocked at 1172 MHz. The 1 TB hard drive is plenty big, but we are disappointed not to see an SSD.

Yes, to have an SSD would mean having less than 1 TB of storage but that could have been offset with cloud based storage anyway. Regardless, this is a powerful machine, on paper. More modern high-end graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD exist in some gaming rigs, but the One X is more versatile with its built in Blu-ray player and Dolby Atmos surround sound technology.

Gaming at 4K with 60 FPS is an exciting prospect! The One X offers high-end PC gaming quality at a much lower price point. Pre-orders begin soon in anticipation of the November 7, 2017.

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