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Would the Series S be a good console to get right now?

Karmic Raze

Member
Well, we all know that it’s pretty hard to get a PS5 or an Xbox Series X right now unless you’re Twitter tracking and even that has never worked out for me the entire time I’ve been trying it. I am still considering a Switch OLED, but a Series S is also on my mind right now. I’m just thinking that it’s a pretty good deal. I have a 4K TV, but it’s several years old. Maybe 3-4. It’s nothing fancy. Maybe a 50” Samsung and it doesn’t have 120fps or anything like that. I’m just wondering if the Series S is viable for me. I do like the 4K capabilities of the PS5 and Series X and would love to have the top end versions, but if the Series S isn’t complete shit I think I’d be okay with it. I could always sell it down the line when stock stabilizes with the others, because I’m not paying a scalper or chasing Twitter account updates for a “chance” to get a console. For starters, I had a PS5 locked down twice on Best Buy through a Twitter tracker account, but apparently they wouldn’t ship it to me and nowhere within 250 miles of me had it in stock so I was out of luck. My closest Best Buy is over an hour away, the same with Target. That leaves me with Walmart, GameStop, and Amazon as my only options. Two of which (or all 3?) have the consoles locked behind premium membership tiers, so yeah.

What would you do if you were me? The Series S is looking mighty fine to me. I was set on a Switch OLED, but there’s a LOT more games I want to play on the Series S, it’s $50 cheaper, and it has Game Pass. Anyone own a Series S and play it on a 4K TV? How does it look?
 
prolly the only one you can get right now unless you want to risk and ebay sale.

"What would you do if you were me? The Series S is looking mighty fine to me. I was set on a Switch OLED, but there’s a LOT more games I want to play on the Series S, it’s $50 cheaper, and it has Game Pass. "

You answered your own question.
 
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Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
You could download some high quality Series S game footage and play it on your TV and see if its acceptable to you.

Also if the alternative is no gaming system at all, the seriesS is luxury compared to nothing or even a last gen system.
 

Deerock71

Member
A Series S on a 50" 4K tv would serve you much better than a Switch, OLED or otherwise. The difference between the Series S and the PS5/XSX is much less noticeable than a blown up Switch image.

If you mostly play handheld, then get an OLED Switch all the way!
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
Its a great console but chances are you might regret it if Series X is suddenly in stock. But you could always sell the S, take the hit, and get an SX anyway. Or you don't get a new console for what might be months, nobody knows.

However, the S is really good and gets more playtime than my PS5. The difference in graphics is mostly resolution, and its not that big of a deal for me. FH5, Halo Infinite look and play amazing on my 55 CX despite not having 4k resolutions on XSS. Chances are on 50 inch the differences are even smaller.
 

rofif

Banned
probably the best thing in the price / performance / services ratio you can have well under 499 ....So yes. absolutely a great choice
The worst. You pay way more $/TF with series s.
And no 4k, no disc drive, no used market... wow such ratio.

I mean, I would only recommend the S to most casual of casuals. Some of my coworkers who only play a game here and there or for gamepass for kids
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Yeah it’s a brilliant machine. Owned since day 1, alongside a PS5 DE and Switch.

Ignore the same 5 or 6 posters who don’t own one but constantly shit on it on GAF, they literally have no idea what they are talking about. 1 of them has already turned up.
 

Karmic Raze

Member
Not now, not never.
Why cut yourself off from higher resolutions/performance and from physical games? It's not that much cheaper.
you said You have 4k tv... Just hunt for a normal next gen console. You will find it
Fuck physical games. I’ve been completely digital for years now and haven’t looked back. You have to install the games anyways, so what’s the point of buying physical? Do you like collecting games? If so, more power to you. I’m probably going for the Series S after all the replies. It’d be way better than not having any game console at all and I doubt I’d notice the difference at all.
 

rofif

Banned
Fuck physical games. I’ve been completely digital for years now and haven’t looked back. You have to install the games anyways, so what’s the point of buying physical? Do you like collecting games? If so, more power to you. I’m probably going for the Series S after all the replies. It’d be way better than not having any game console at all and I doubt I’d notice the difference at all.
even i you don't use physical games... why cut yourself entirely from that possibility? to get a game cheaper
 

Banjo64

cumsessed
Fuck physical games. I’ve been completely digital for years now and haven’t looked back. You have to install the games anyways, so what’s the point of buying physical? Do you like collecting games? If so, more power to you. I’m probably going for the Series S after all the replies. It’d be way better than not having any game console at all and I doubt I’d notice the difference at all.
I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

If you’re expectations are in check, you can’t be disappointed.

It plays Xbox and enhanced 360 games at native 1440p. You don’t get One X enhancements, but you do get FPS boosted Xbox One games. I’d buy a SATA SSD for these games, 250gb or 500gb. Some enhanced Series S/X games can be played from a standard external drive, like MCC, Ori, Sea of Thieves and Rocket League.

Quick Resume still works with games on an external drive.

Some Xbox One games will obviously look disappointing because they are running from their One S profile (stuck at 720p/900p etc).

Next gen games look brilliant on it though. The SSD is pure fire.
 
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Karmic Raze

Member
I’m happy to answer any questions you might have.

If you’re expectations are in check, you can’t be disappointed.

It plays Xbox and enhanced 360 games at native 1440p. You don’t get One X enhancements, but you do get FPS boosted Xbox One games. I’d buy a SATA SSD for these games, 250gb or 500gb. Some enhanced Series S/X games can be played from a standard external drive, like MCC, Ori, Sea of Thieves and Rocket League.

Quick Resume still works with games on an external drive.

Some Xbox One games will obviously look disappointing because they are running from their One S profile (stuck at 720p/900p etc).

Next gen games look brilliant on it though. The SSD is pure fire.
I appreciate it. So, would you say it’s more powerful than the One X? Or less powerful? Also, I don’t really plan on playing too many Xbox One games. Maybe some. Like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, My Hero One’s Justice 2… Actually, maybe quite a few. But you said only some are stuck at their One S profile?
 
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M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Not now, not never.
Why cut yourself off from higher resolutions/performance and from physical games? It's not that much cheaper.
you said You have 4k tv... Just hunt for a normal next gen console. You will find it
I would agree with this 100%, but the OP somewhat states, that they want console as soon as possible and given that even here XSX and PS5 is back ordered to something like march, I can only imagine the situation for other countries.
 

Haggard

Banned
, so what’s the point of buying physical?
- much cheaper
- you actually own the game
- you can resell it whenever you want
- you can share it however you want
Do you like collecting games?
Do you like not having a choice but to stick to and buy from whatever digital platform/marketplace your box is exclusively tied to?
 
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AV

We ain't outta here in ten minutes, we won't need no rocket to fly through space
It's a little odd that you're trying to look for value while being firmly all-digital which locks you out of any competitive pricing and also ensures you're stuck with any games you don't end up liking.

That said, the trade-off is Game Pass. If you can look at the current catalogue and pick out a bunch of games you'll play then it's crazy good value for money whatever price your get the sub at.

If you really can't wait, get the S, but getting an X / PS5 is not as hard as people make it out to be.
 

kingfey

Banned
The worst. You pay way more $/TF with series s.
And no 4k, no disc drive, no used market... wow such ratio.

I mean, I would only recommend the S to most casual of casuals. Some of my coworkers who only play a game here and there or for gamepass for kids
Xss is much worth it, due to how much you save, compared to xsx.

I can get cheap xbox digital games online, which makes xss value Worth it.

As long as xbox supports 3rd party digital key sellers, xss will save you alot of money. That 200$ from xsx can get you 5-10 digital games

As for 4k, you really don't need to. It's not gonna affect your games at all. Unless you glue your eyes to your TV, the gameplay is fine. Only difference would be the FPS.
 

Karmic Raze

Member
- much cheaper
- you actually own the game
- you can resell it whenever you want
- you can share it however you want

Do you like not having a choice but to stick to and buy from whatever digital platform/marketplace your box is exclusively tied to?
It’s called being patient and waiting on the game you want to go on sale on the Xbox Store. It’s not that hard to get a good deal on a digital game.
 

kingfey

Banned
Fuck physical games. I’ve been completely digital for years now and haven’t looked back. You have to install the games anyways, so what’s the point of buying physical? Do you like collecting games? If so, more power to you. I’m probably going for the Series S after all the replies. It’d be way better than not having any game console at all and I doubt I’d notice the difference at all.
If you want to buy digital games, try 3rd party keys.

I can get alot of xbox digital games for cheap, through 3rd party key sellers, like I do on steam.
 

Markio128

Member
Surely you’re big and clever enough to make your own decisions?
And there are lots of similar threads from folk asking the same question in a slightly different way. Go and read the comments in one of those.
Sorry to be a grump, but these sorts of threads twist my melon, man.
 

MrTentakel

Member
Stock situation for the Series X is improving (at least in Europe).
Upgrade the SSD in the Series S and you are very close to the Series X price.

-> Follow some Twitter feeds for the availability of the Series X.
 

Haggard

Banned
It’s called being patient and waiting on the game you want to go on sale on the Xbox Store. It’s not that hard to get a good deal on a digital game.
It´s called shooting yourself in the foot.
Taking 5 seconds to put a disc into the console is unacceptable, but waiting 6 months for a sale is ok.
I´m always suprised what some people can write with a straight face :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy:
 
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kingfey

Banned
much cheaper
- you actually own the game
- you can resell it whenever you want
- you can share it however you want
1: xbox has 3rd party digital keys sellers like steam. So you save more money through digital, than disc.

2: you don't own the game for both. You own day1 non updated game on disc, while digital can be removed.

3: if you are lucky. People get shot, scammed, or need a reliable buyer to buy the game.

4: you can share digital too. If you do family share on steam/xbox/Playstation. Disc allows you to share 1 game only.
 

Chukhopops

Member
If your only option is a Switch OLED and you don’t value portability then it’s already decided.

If you care for physical media and higher performance then either wait or resell your XSS when the situation improves, you’ll keep all the games.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
From a financial perspective, you are not going to lose much getting a series S, when seriesX become widely available you will just be able to sell the S and the if u get less then what u paid for it then at least you got to play games reasonable well.

Theres literally no downside to get the series s as a stopgap or 2nd console. Its even a good option if you dont care about high resolutions.
 

kingfey

Banned
It’s called being patient and waiting on the game you want to go on sale on the Xbox Store. It’s not that hard to get a good deal on a digital game.
Op don't listen to these trolls.

There is 3rd party, which sells xbox games digitally. Just like steam, those games are cheap.


That is basic fh5 digital game sales. Actual disc costs 55$ on sale, and 60$ regular sale.
 

MonarchJT

Banned
The worst. You pay way more $/TF with series s.
And no 4k, no disc drive, no used market... wow such ratio.

I mean, I would only recommend the S to most casual of casuals. Some of my coworkers who only play a game here and there or for gamepass for kids
where you can play basically all the next gen games for 269/299 and have with only 1 euro more access to a huge library of brand new games? It's probably the only choice .... budgeting up you would have the PS5 digital but you should get to pretty much EUR 500 with the purchase of just one single game.
 

Haggard

Banned
You are the impatient one here.
No need to be patient with physical.......
Buy it, play it sell it.
I´ll not pay more than 20 bucks(max) for a game like Horizon FW in the end. And I´ll still play it day one.

There is absolutely no benefit for going digital besides saving on rack space/seconds when putting in the disc. You happily bend over for a little bit of convenience when you go digital.
 
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kingfey

Banned
No need to be patient with physical.......
Buy it, play it sell it.

I´ll not pay more than 20 bucks for a game like horizon FW in the end. And I´ll still play it day one.

There is absolutely no benefit for going digital besides saving on rack space/seconds when putting in the disc......
You make it simple.

If 1m users has disc games, only fraction of them sells their copies. And by the time you are trying to sell it, it losses value. Unless you know what you are doing, selling disc games on online is risky. As a person who used to sell digital products on eBay, its very hard.

Digital saves you alot of trouble. Not just space, but the ability to see your games faster, and downloading and Uninstall it anytime you want to. For disc, you need to wait for the update to download for each disc. By that time, I have 10 digital games downloaded on my system, which is ready to go.

Playstation is the only system, that doesn't do 3rd party digital key seller. It's why you find Playstation games cheaper on disc.

On xbox right now, fh5 is 35$-40$ on digital key, which actual disc is 55$ on sale.
 

Deerock71

Member
The only reason I'd want an X would be because I have lots of old OG and 360 discs lying around and would like to play em on the latest hardware

Otherwise the S is a dope little machine
That's the realization I came to. I don't have any Xbox or 360 discs laying around, so going all digital for Microsoft's stuff just made sense to me. Couple that with GP Ulltimate (which includes GWG), and I'm looking at a tremendous value.

As a side note, I have well in excess of 100 physical Switch games, so I'm less inclined to think going all digital on that would be a good idea.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
Not now, not never.
Why cut yourself off from higher resolutions/performance and from physical games? It's not that much cheaper.
you said You have 4k tv... Just hunt for a normal next gen console. You will find it

This tbh. There seems to have been more series x out in the wild this week so a quick hunt from the op will come up trumps.

Saying that I think the series s is a cool little box so if op is looking to save some money it's an option.
 
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Edgelord79

Gold Member
Yes. Considering if things keep up the way they are then eventually the Series S could also be difficult to get.
 

Haggard

Banned
You make it simple.
because it is
If 1m users has disc games, only fraction of them sells their copies.
That is their choice. And the only reason they even have a choice is because they have a disc.
And by the time you are trying to sell it, it losses value
Which is why I wrote that I´ll pay ~20 bucks and not 0......
Digital saves you alot of trouble. Not just space, but the ability to see your games faster, and downloading and Uninstall it anytime you want to. For disc, you need to wait for the update to download for each disc. By that time, I have 10 digital games downloaded on my system, which is ready to go.
Because everyone has gigabit internet, plays at least 10 games at the same time and likes to waste power on perma-online standby modes, not to mention that disc games behave the same once installed.... This argument just sued you because you dragged it into the room by its hair while it kicked and screamed.
Unless you know what you are doing, selling disc games on online is risky. As a person who used to sell digital products on eBay, its very hard.
Using something like ebay is now "very hard" and "risky". How do you even survive going to the toilet?
On xbox right now, fh5 is 35$-40$ on digital key, which actual disc is 55$ on sale.
The disc is 45 bucks new, 30 used where I live. Would probably be possible to get to 0 with resale here actually.
Give it up, no amount of discount will ever beat buying and reselling if there`s not years between those. The absolute only situation where digital beats physical is gamepass, for MS first party at least.


Just be honest and admit that you are so incredibly lazy that you`ll gladly pay triple as long as you don`t have to do anything beyond clicking on a purchase-link in whatever e-shop.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
I appreciate it. So, would you say it’s more powerful than the One X? Or less powerful? Also, I don’t really plan on playing too many Xbox One games. Maybe some. Like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, My Hero One’s Justice 2… Actually, maybe quite a few. But you said only some are stuck at their One S profile?

I'd say S is more powerful.

One X does support a higher resolution here and there, but nearly always at a much lower framerate (usually cut in half). And longer load times, no quick resume. Also no 120hz support if you would have such a set. The Series S is largely a 60fps machine thats super fast.
 
I have one and absolutely love it. Not just the price and the insanely long list of GP games, but the system itself even looks cool. Much smaller than you'd expect.

Its possible that at some point in the future I may regret it if the performance can't keep up. But as of today, 12/24/21, it hasn't happened yet. I play it a lot more than my ps5.

So yeah, its a slight gamble on future titles but so far so good.
 

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Seems like a great choice for you, likely you are viewing from 50 ft or further from your 50" tv, your eyes 100% can't see 4k anyhow, you probably can barely resolve 1080p from that size/distance. Unless you have better than 20/20 vision. Also like you say, down the road you can get an x or ps5. In the meantime you can be having fun now.
 
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Banjo64

cumsessed
I appreciate it. So, would you say it’s more powerful than the One X? Or less powerful? Also, I don’t really plan on playing too many Xbox One games. Maybe some. Like Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4, My Hero One’s Justice 2… Actually, maybe quite a few. But you said only some are stuck at their One S profile?
I’m not sure how to answer the power question - I’d say it has higher level of detail than the One X on average but at 1080p instead of 4k. The One X uses the majority of its grunt to reach 4k resolution.

The Series S has 128 player lobbies in Battlefield 2042, whilst the One X is stuck with 64.

This is what From have done for Elden Ring:

7efc59i.png


And yeah to be clear, all Xbox One games will run at their One S profile. You’ll only get FPS boost where it applies or improved performance of the game had dynamic resolution (like Halo 5 will always run at max resolution) or an unlocked framerate.
 
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