Should you buy an Xbox One S as the Xbox Series S is priced at a fantastic $299? Does this make the Xbox One S obsolete? As a gamer myself I understand your concerns, why buy a console if it will become obsolete? I will answer all questions you have.
Xbox One S accessories and games are future compatible with Xbox Series X&S and Microsoft will support the Xbox One S for years with games into the new console’s lifespan. Xbox One S is capable of 4K upscaling with a Ultra HD Blue-Ray Player and will drop in price with the release of Xbox Series S.
I bought my Xbox One S in December 2019 and loved my time with it, but should you bother with the Xbox One S? I will explain the reasons why and why not it is not obsolete. Read on to find out.
If your interested in the best Xbox One Accessories you can find them on Amazon here
Why The Xbox One S Is Not Obsolete
Xbox One Has Full Forwards Compatibility
Every accessory for your Xbox One S, no matter if it’s a headset or a controller will work on the new Xbox series consoles! So cool right? The console bundled together with your Xbox One S will work perfectly if you ever upgrade to an Xbox Series S
See my personal take on the console in my video above, as I bought it 3 years after it released I was and still impressed with how modern it looks and how well it performed.
You don’t need to worry about Microsoft not supporting the Xbox One with new games as the newer consoles released, as games like Halo Infinite and Hellblade 2 which are Xbox Series X/S launch titles are even playable on the original 2013 Xbox One!
For proof look at Microsoft supporting the Xbox 360 way into the Xbox One lifespan with games such as The Phantom Pain(2015) being released on the Xbox 360 2 years after the Xbox One was released.
This generation of consoles are more PCs with the Xbox Series X/S being upgrades instead of complete technological overhauls, so the console architecture is similar; meaning games might be out even longer on the Xbox One S.
Although from 2022 Microsoft will start creating games exclusively for the Xbox Series X/S until then every game will be cross-platform.
See an interview with games business publication MCV with Microsoft internal development boss Matt Booty(yes that’s his name haha) said Microsoft is not planning to have any next-generation exclusives soon.
As our content comes out over the next year, two years, all of our games — sort of like PC — will play up and down that family of devices,” Booty told MCV. “We want to make sure that if someone invests in Xbox between now and [the next-gen Xbox] that they feel that they made a good investment and that we’re committed to them with content.”Matt Boot Microsoft
Microsoft understands consumers like you and me don’t want to buy a console only to have it obsolete a few years after purchase.
If you buy Halo Infinite on the Xbox One S you automatically get Halo Infinite for the Xbox Series X! So cool from Microsoft right, I doubt Sony would do the same.
The controller that comes with the Xbox Series S uses the same wireless protocol introduced in the existing Xbox One architecture, this applies to all accessories so every accessory from the Xbox One 2013 library up until now will still be usable!
To understand more about forwards compatibility and why what Microsoft did it so impressive check out this post.
Xbox One S Has Full Backwards Compatability
All previous Xbox generation backward-compatible games(see the list here) are playable on the Xbox One S!
If you have any Xbox 360 or Xbox games lying around somewhere in your house buying an Xbox One S as it is the perfect opportunity to dust the cobwebs and start gaming again! This increases the longevity of the console as already you might have dozens and dozens of fantastic titles to play.
Better still is the Xbox One S gives you access to Xbox Game Pass the best deal in gaming(see more about it here), it’s a Netflix subscription that gives access to over 100 high-quality AAA games including every Microsoft first-party studio game like Halo Infinite or Forza being playable on launch.
As the next generation consoles are more like upgrading your PC since they are based on the same console architecture all the new Xbox Series X/S games will be available on Game Pass for your Xbox One X so don’t think you will miss out on anything.
Xbox One S Will Drop-In Price
| Xbox One (2014) | Xbox One S (2017) | Xbox Series S (2020 | |
| Proccessor | 8 Core AMD custom CPU Frequency: 1.75 GHz [ | CPU: 1.75GHz AMD Jaguar eight-core | 8x Cores Zen 2 3.8 GHZ |
| Graphics | Clock Speed: 853 MHz(originally 800 MHz) Shader Cores: 768 Peak Throughput: 1.31 TFLOPS [6] | GPU: 1.4 T-FLOPS, 12 compute units @ 914MHz | 4 TLOPS, 20 CU’S 1.55 Ghz Custom RDNA 2 GPU |
| Memory | 8GB Flash Memory | 8GB DDR3 RAM + 32MB eSRAM @ 219GB/s | 10 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | |||
| Internal Storage | 500GB | 1TB | 512 GB Custom NVME SSD |
| Optical Drive | DVD Drive (up to 1080p) | DVD/4k capable Blue-Ray | No Drive |
| Price | $100-$150 | $150-$200 | $299 |
As Microsoft has discontinued the Xbox One S digital edition and Xbox One X I estimate the Xbox One S will shortly be discontinued. If the One S stays at a similar price what incentive would anyone have in buying an Xbox One S over an Xbox Series S?
The Xbox Series S is an upgrade the Xbox One S and a massive one that retails for $299 so the Xbox One Sas to be at least $100 cheaper for there to even be a choice. But is it really that simple? As the Xbox Series X is disc-less and cannot play Xbox One disc games which I will discuss later.
eBay will be your best bet for picking up an Xbox One S for a bargain price, as everyone will sell their Xbox One S since they are upgrading it for a Series S. These prices were before the Series S release.
Already you can see people start to sell their Xbox One S whilst the price is high, something I am seriously considering despite not owning my One S for even a year!
If you can get an Xbox One s for around $100-$150 I still think that is a great deal, as a new Xbox Series S is $299.
If playing Xbox 360 games and Xbox games in native 4K are important to you, then consider buying an Xbox One X Since the series S cannot play Xbox One enhanced games as it cannot output native 4K.
Xbox Series S Is Disc Less
I’m not going to lie, I am not a fan of digital games watch my video above or read my post here for more information, but the main reason is physical games are usually a lot cheaper.
If I sold my Xbox One S to fund the Xbox Series S then immediately I cannot play the dozens of different 360 games and the recently purchased Xbox One games, in my case Resident Evil 2 and Red Dead Redemption 2.
As you cannot get a digital copy of a physical game you already own! To find out why check out my post.
Let’s take Red Dead Redemption 2 one of the best games or last generation as an example it’s about $30-35 pre-owned, I actually got it bundled with my Xbox One S for a great price.
If you want to buy it from the official Microsoft store you’d need to pay $59.99! Yes I know you can get game keys way cheaper legitimately from websites like CD keys but there is no denying physical games are cheaper and the option to sell them later is always there.
You always will have the Xbox Game Pass which I still think is the best deal in gaming. See my video here or my post for more information but basically it’s a streaming and download service that gives you 100+ excellent games for $9.99/month which includes games from Microsoft Studios like Obsidian Entertainment
I prefer the ability to pick and choose if I play disc or digital and you’d need to pay the $499 for the Xbox Series X to do that, also the Series S lacks a blue ray DVD whilst the Xbox One S supports 4K Ultra HD streaming and comes with an inbuilt 4K UHD Blue-Ray player!
A Sony DVD player with the same specs costs around $150-160 so imagine the savings when an Xbox One S goes down in price with the Series S coming out!
Xbox Series S Forces You To Buy External Storage
The Xbox series S has 512 GB of internal memory, how much do you think a 1B Seagate SSD expansion is for the Xbox Series S costs $50? $100? Well, you would be wrong as it’s a whopping $219.99! Almost the same as the console itself.
Now, this isn’t a rip off from Microsoft as the memory cards have to be super fast and it is a completive retail price the equivalent for PC(above) is near enough the same price.
What is the issue you might say? Well, games are getting SUPER massive nowadays Call Of Duty Modern Warfare is 200GB with all the updates is half of the Xbox Series S’s memory!
Unless you only play a few games buying an Xbox Series S requires you to either buy an SSD expansion or store games on an external hard drive. I recommend the WD 4TB Elements external hard drive it is excellent value for money and loads your games like lightening, get it from Amazon here
With the Xbox One S, you get double the storage at 1TB, saving you the $219/$79 on an external hard drive! You could always upgrade down the line, but that extra 500GB is nice to have.
