The Xbox Series X is officially the next Xbox, and it’s coming out in just days, up against Sony’s PlayStation 5.
Microsoft showed the console itself off a while ago, and now we finally know when it goes on sale and how much it’ll cost. Pre-orders have already sold out, but we’ve also got a bit of advice to give you the best chance of grabbing one if stock picks up again.
Not to mention we’ve now reviewed the Xbox Series X ourselves, so go read that if you want to know what we think – or read on for all the info on the price, release date, games, and more.
When will the Xbox Series X be released?
Microsoft has confirmed that the next-gen Xbox Series X console will launch on 10 November 2020. That’s not surprising, as the Xbox One had a similar release window, and it’s also just before when Sony is aiming for with the PS5 – 12 November in the US, and 19 November in the UK.
Pre-orders for the new Xbox have already begun, though unsurprisingly sold out fast. Microsoft has promised more stock on launch day, but we’re still holding out hope that some retailers will allocate more stock before then. If you still need a pre-order, it’s worth checking all of the following sites and signing up for notifications from any that are offering them:
UK: Microsoft Store, Game, Amazon, Carphone Warehouse, Currys PC World, Argos, John Lewis, Smyths Toys, Very, AO, Tesco, Simply Games, ShopTo
US: Microsoft Store, Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Walmart, Target, Sam’s Club, Newegg
See our full guide to Xbox Series X pre-orders.
How much does the next Xbox cost?
The Series X will cost £449/$499 when it launches – the exact same price as the current Xbox One X, and the same as the PS5.
It will be joined by a cheaper, disc-less variant with lower specs in the Xbox Series S, and this will cost £249/$299 – significantly cheaper than the £359/$399 entry-level PS5 Digital Edition. If you’re not sure which Xbox to buy, check out our full Xbox Series S vs Series X comparison for a detailed breakdown.
Watch the Xbox ad
Still not sold? Microsoft’s made a nifty ad to win you over, starring none other than Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya. There are nods to Halo, Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, and more, along with more CGI than you can throw a stick at.
What should we expect from Xbox Series X?
Microsoft has now revealed the full specs for the Xbox Series X. The headline is the custom eight-core AMD Zen 2 CPU, which is combined with a 12 teraflop, 52 compute unit GPU. Regular output will be at 4K 60fps, although this can be scaled up to 120fps.
There will also be native support for expandable storage up to 1TB, along with a 4K Blu-ray drive and USB 3.0 external HDD support.
See the full list of specs below:
8-core 3.8Ghz custom CPU
12 teraflop, 52 compute unit 1.825Ghz GPU
16GB GDDR6 memory with up to 10GB bandwidth
1TB custom NVMe SSD
Expandable storage up to 1TB
USB 3.0 HDD Support
4K UHD Blu-ray Drive
4K 60fps target performance – up to 120fps
Design
The tall, thick chassis is able to be placed on its side as well as upright, so should be able to blend into your existing home entertainment setup. There’s no denying that it looks like a PC tower, but that might not be a bad thing as Microsoft finally tries to bridge the gap to desktop gaming.
In terms of physical measurements, the Series X is 15.1cm x 15.1cm x 30.1cm, and weighs 4.45kg/9.8lbs.
The large fan grille will be important for temperature control, but we hope the loud whirring sounds aren’t present every time you play a graphics-intensive title.
As for ports, you’ll get a single HDMI 2.1 output, three USB-A 3.1 ports, and Ethernet. There’s support for 802.11ac dual band Wi-Fi, but there’s no Bluetooth in the console.
Controller
The controller has also been updated, but it looks remarkably similar to the one currently available, and current-gen controllers will still work on the Series X. The ergonomics have been improved a little, and there’s a new Share button and tweaked D-pad, but beyond that things are fundamentally the same, so there’s no need to replace your whole controller collection.
It’s available in Carbon Black, Robot White, and a new Shock Blue finish, and is also available to pre-order for £54.99/$59.99. Note that unlike the PlayStation pad it still uses regular disposable batteries, so you’ll have to buy a rechargeable battery accessory if you want to stop worrying about running out of AAs.
CPU & GPU
The console is powered by a custom AMD chip on Zen 2 and RDNA 2 architectures. It’s capable of providing four times more computing power than the original Xbox One, and a whopping 12 teraflops of GPU performance – more than eight times the original One, and double the more powerful One X.
In practical terms, that translates to support for 120fps, hardware accelerated DirectX ray-tracing (and even new tech Microsoft is calling audio ray-tracing), and support for Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) over HDMI 2.1.
4K at 60fps is the target output for most games, but as already mentioned for some titles it will go up to 120fps, and in other cases will support output at up to 8K resolutions.
Find out if your TV is compatible with the Xbox Series X.
SSD storage
Along with vastly improved graphical support, the console is set to get an upgrade in the storage department. Current-gen consoles come with mechanical hard drives as standard and as such, gamers are left with noticeably long loading times.
That’s set to change with the next-gen console, which will offer a fast SSD as standard. Microsoft has gone into even more detail on the tech behind this – which it has dubbed Velocity Architecture – explaining that it’s using a custom SSD with 40x the throughput of the Xbox One hard drive.
This is optimised for consistent, sustained performance as opposed to peak performance, and is combined with hardware accelerated decompression, a new DirectStorage API, and a new system called Sampler Feedback Streaming that helps make sure that textures are only loaded as and when the GPU needs them. That may sound like a lot of tech buzz words, but it’ll translate to faster loading, bigger game worlds, and few tricks like narrow corridors to mask loading.
Improved Quick Resume features will help too – the console will let you jump back into a game right where you left off even after a reboot.
Expandable storage is handled through custom SSD cards which slot directly into the console. So far Seagate is the only confirmed manufacturer, with a 1TB card that costs a cool $219 – so it’s not cheap. Other manufacturers and storage sizes are expected to follow.
If you want to expand your storage and play from it directly, this is the only way. You will also be able to plug in an external drive over USB, but you won’t be able to play directly from this drive – at least not any Series X-optimised games. At least you can use it as storage space for games you’re not currently playing, or to play older titles, and move games between the drives when you need them.
Backwards compatibility
A major lure will be backwards compatibility. Microsoft has already said that at launch the Series X will be capable of playing almost every game from the Xbox One, Xbox 360, and even original Xbox, except those that require Kinect to play – as the Series X won’t support Kinect at all.
They’ll all run natively on the console hardware, with no downclocking, meaning they should run better than they ever have before, especially given the faster load times of the SSD.
Even better, Microsoft has build in platform-level tech to add HDR to older titles that never had it, and a “select set” of games will even benefit from frame-rate enhancements that could see frame-rates double from 30fps to 60fps, and even from 60fps to 120fps in some games.
Perhaps more importantly, a program called Smart Delivery will ensure that if you buy a compatible game once you’ll be able to play it on either Xbox One or Xbox Series X and play the right version for the console you’re on at the time. All Xbox Game Studios titles will be included, along with some third-party titles like Cyberpunk 2077.
Will the Series X software be different?
Yes and no. Microsoft is updating the Xbox dashboard for the launch of the Xbox Series X, but all of the changes it’s making will also roll out to existing Xbox One consoles.
The big changes are to efficiency and speed. Microsoft says that the home screen on the Series X should load more than 50% faster from booting up, and almost a third faster when you’re coming out of a game – all while using 40% less memory.
Animations and readability have also been tweaked and improved across the UI, but the biggest change is to video sharing. Clips you capture from your console will now automatically be sent to the Xbox app on your phone, if you have it, so you can quickly send them to friends or post them on social media without trying to faff about logging into Twitter with your controller.
Xbox Series X games
Microsoft has ambitious plans for Xbox Series X games, including the upcoming Halo Infinite – but surprisingly it won’t be an exclusive.
That’s because the Xbox Series X will have barely any exclusives in its first few years – at least not from Microsoft itself. The company has confirmed that for the next two years at least, almost every new game published by Xbox Game Studios will be playable on any Xbox or PC – meaning all the first few first-party Series X games will also released on the Xbox One.
They’ll also be cross-compatible thanks to the Smart Delivery program mentioned above. Third-party publishers may take a different approach, however.
That doesn’t mean that this will always be the case – at some point Microsoft will likely have to cut off Xbox One support – but it will take the pressure off upgrading straight away. It helps that the Series X will also be backwards compatible, so any new Xbox One games you buy in that time will still work on the Series X whenever you upgrade.
It would be impossible to keep track of every game on its way to the Xbox Series X, so check out our full guide to the best upcoming games for a more comprehensive list.
We do at least have a bit of a sense of what the console’s launch line-up will be, though this will no doubt change between now and 10 November:
Check out our guide to the Xbox Series X launch games for a more up-to-date list.
Xbox also stated that “hundreds of games” will be on the way in 2021, with every major publisher working on something Xbox Series X related (obviously with the exception of Sony and Nintendo).