Xbox One review - 18 months on, should you buy one?

The Xbox One had something of a rocky reception at launch, now 18 months ago. Since then things have worked out rather well for Microsoft, though, with some good exclusive titles and a series of firmware updates that have improved the hardware considerably. It may lag behind its PS4 rival in terms of raw power, but the Xbox One is still a great games console.

As it's now 18 months old, and with some great new games coming out such as The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, we've taken the opportunity to revisit our original review for a frank reassessment of where the Xbox One sits today.

The Xbox One is more than a games console - or at least that's what Microsoft wants people to think. The company has invested a huge amount of resources into the multimedia features of its latest console, which could arguably make or break the Xbox One in the eyes of gamers and set it apart from Sony's PS4.

We've pitted the two next-generation consoles against each other in a separate article, but here we'll be putting the machine under the microscope to see if Microsoft has delivered on its promise of a console that will become the centre of your living room.

The Xbox One is now available both with and without its divisive Kinect peripheral

XBOX ONE DESIGN

There's no escaping it; the Xbox One is huge. It dwarfs the PlayStation 4, as well as both previous-generation systems, and could rival some AV amplifiers for the space it will take up underneath your TV. The angular lines, lack of physical buttons and combination of glossy and matt plastics give it an imposing, almost monolithic appearance.

Simple. Understated. Massive.

The design gives the internal components plenty of room to breathe; after the notorious Xbox 360 Red Ring of Death issue, Microsoft has taken no chances with the Xbox One when it comes to heat. An oversized CPU heatsink and fan, positioned directly below a massive exhaust vent, ensure the console doesn't overheat even after hours of continuous gaming. It's barely audible when gaming, something we can't say of its slender rival.

Our one sticking point is that it does make a constant low hum when sat in its 'Instant On' mode, which we could hear when sitting in a very quiet room. For more on its standby modes and power usage, see Interface.

XBOX ONE SPECS

After Microsoft revealed it was using semi-custom AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) for the Xbox One, Games consoles have never looked closer to desktop PCs in terms of hardware. The two quad-core Jaguar processor modules in the Xbox One, which each run at 1.75GHz and are paired with 8GB of DDR3 memory, should be significantly easier to program for than the PowerPC-based CPU used in the Xbox 360.

Plenty of space inside. Image courtesy of iFixit - because we weren't brave enough to open up our console

Sony has taken a similar approach, also opting for an eight-core Jaguar APU and 8GB of RAM for the PS4, but both companies have made their own adjustments to AMD's reference design and taken wildly different approaches to graphics memory. The Xbox One relies on 32MB of fast-access ESRAM to quickly buffer textures into the slower DDR3 memory, which according to developers is more complex to program than the PS4's faster GDDR5 RAM.

This has led to an ongoing resolution and quality disparity between the two consoles in most multiplatform games. In general the PS4 runs game at a Full HD 1,920x1,080 resolution, while the Xbox One uses a slightly less detailed 1,600x900 resolution. It's not a dramatic difference, but the fussy will be able to notice it.

Not the most convenient place for a USB port if you'll be putting your Xbox One in a tight TV cabinet

The slot-loading Blu-ray optical drive allows developers to use bigger textures, increasing detail in games without needing to ship multiple discs. However, games aren't read directly from the disc; they must be installed to the 500GB internal hard disk; and with retail games approaching 50GB in size, it won't be long until that disk is filled.

While the PS4's hard disk can be swapped out by you at home, getting to the Xbox One's disc isn't for the faint-hearted. However, by plugging in a USB hard disk with 256GB or more space you can expand the internal storage with ease. Note that the Xbox formats the disc, so you can't continue using it as external storage for a PC.

The Xbox One automatically saves your game progress to both the console and to the cloud, so you can access your saves from other consoles. You can do this without Xbox Live Gold, unlike on PS4 which requires PlayStation Plus.

XBOX ONE PORTS

In order to avoid spoiling its minimal front face, Microsoft moved all the ports to the rear and left-hand side of the Xbox One. There are two HDMI ports; one to output video to your TV and a second to receive pictures from an external source - most likely a TV set-top box (see Xbox One TV and OneGuide). There's also a digital optical S/PDIF to output surround sound to older AV receivers and sound bars. 

The HDMI input is perfect for your Sky or TiVo box, but is too laggy to feed a PC or other games console into

There are two USB3 ports on the rear, as well as a third on the side of the console. We'd have rather seen some front-facing ports for convenience but it's not a huge problem for most. You'll also find the proprietary Kinect port and an IR blaster input at the back. The Xbox One can control your set top box, to change channels and the like; this is usually be done with the Kinect, which has its own powerful IR emitter, so the IR blaster is simply a backup for those without a Kinect, or for where the setup isn't practical.

You have the choice between wired Ethernet and wireless 802.11n Wi-Fi for getting online. It's pretty essential to have one or the other these days, for console and game updates, if not for actual online play.

XBOX ONE CONTROLLER

The Xbox 360 controller was widely regarded as one of the best controllers ever made, so Microsoft didn't been change the formula too drastically for the Xbox One. The controller has the same offset analogue stick layout, four face buttons, two triggers and two shoulder buttons, but the start and select buttons have been replaced with menu and multi-tasking buttons respectively.

The smooth textured plastic creates plenty of grip and the contoured shape comfortably fits your hands

Despite being similar to its predecessor, numerous little changes make a world of difference. The new four-way directional pad is much more precise than the 8-way 360 D-pad, which was arguably its weakest feature. Individual rumble motors in the new 'impulse triggers' add force feedback directly to your fingers. A smaller dead zone and greater resistance to movement make the analogue sticks feel incredibly responsive.

The Micro USB port can't charge the AA batteries, but plugging it in will save battery power

The battery compartment is now recessed within the controller, rather than protruding outwards as it was with the Xbox 360. Microsoft has opted for AA batteries rather than a built-in rechargeable pack, and these can't be charged via the micro USB port so you'll want to buy the optional Play-and-Charge battery pack to avoid constantly buying replacements. The Xbox Dashboard now shows you how much battery power you have left in the player one controller - unfortunately additional icons aren't added as subsequent controllers are paired with the console. 

You'll also need the optional headset adaptor if you want to use most headphones with the Xbox One. Unlike the PS4, which has a standard 3.5mm audio jack that will work with just about any wired headset.

On the plus side, PC gamers can plug the Xbox One controller into their computer via the supplied USB cable and use Microsoft's official drivers to play PC titles when they are away from the Xbox. Better yet, when Windows 10 arrives you'll be able to stream Xbox One games to any PC, laptop or tablet with the operating system.

Overall, the controller feels superior in almost every way, which is a major achievement given the 360 pad's pedigree. We narrowly prefer the Xbox One's controls, but the PS4 controller levels things up with its headphone socket and built-in battery.

XBOX ONE KINECT

Microsoft was adamant that Kinect would be an integral part of the Xbox One - so much so that it initially bundled the depth-sensing camera with every console. The company has since backtracked on that decision, following an outcry by gamers about the price and lacck of support in big games. You can now decide for yourself if you want one, with bundles available with and without.

Kinect is heavily integrated with the Xbox One UI - but it's still far from essential

It's bigger than the original Kinect, with a black finish and angular lines that match the console. The camera detects the number of people in the room, automatically signing in profiles as it recognises faces. If you download the free Xbox Fitness app, it can monitor you while you exercise, using a combination of RGB and infra-red cameras to monitor small details like flushed cheeks to read your heart rate. It also reads QR codes, which is far easier than typing in 25-digit numerical codes to redeem Xbox Live subscriptions or digital downloads - it takes less than a second to detect a code, having activated it almost as soon as you raise the card to the camera lens.

It's more than just a camera, however. Microsoft says Kinect's microphones are precise enough to isolate your speech from across a room, even with game audio in the background, although a Chat headset does still ship with the console. In our experience, we still got some in-game feedback from our online friends when playing Killer Instinct, but for the most part speech was clear and of a much higher bit rate than the Xbox 360.

Support for Kinect is patchy beyond Microsoft own titles. Forza 5 can track your head movement to move the in-car view as you lean left and right, while Ryse: Son of Rome lets you command your fellow soldiers with voice commands. Dead Rising 3 lets you shout at zombies to get their attention, distracting them from your fellow survivors if they get into trouble. Third-party launch games FIFA 14 and Need for Speed Rivals let you use Kinect to navigate through the menus, while NBA 2K14 will actually penalise you with a technical foul if Kinect catches you swearing over a bad call.

However, these small touches are by no means groundbreaking, and apart from a handful of titles developed specifically for Kinect there's nothing we've seen that makes us feel it is a crucial addition to the Xbox One. The second wave of Xbox One titles haven't used Kinect to any real extent, either, so if you're torn on whether to buy a console with or without the camera, we don't think you'll miss it if you opt for the cheaper version.

XBOX ONE INTERFACE

Booting up the Xbox One takes over a minute, which feels like a lifetime but you'll only do it rarely. Once you activate the Instant On function, the console resumes from an energy-friendly deep sleep in just a tenth of the time. This speed is present throughout the operating system, letting you jump from a game, to the Xbox store, to recorded video clips and back into your game without barely a pause.

Logging in to your Xbox Live account takes seconds with Kinect, so the first thing you see is the home screen

The tiled Xbox One interface takes several visual cues from Microsoft's Windows 8 desktop operating system, with simple yet colourful icons and a grid-based layout which is well suited to big-screen use. Kinect voice commands are heavily integrated into the system, so you can get to pretty much any game, app or menu without having to reach for a controller. 

You can say "Xbox" at any time to get a brief overview of available voice commands. Any text highlighted in green can be spoken and Kinect will recognise it, although it doesn't pick up on shortened versions - this means you'll need to say "Forza Motorsport 5" instead of "Forza 5", or "Ryse Son of Rome" instead of "Ryse".

Most commands make sense; "Xbox Snap" will split the screen into two, letting you have one app running in the background while you play a game or watch TV. "Xbox Record That" will save the last 30 seconds of gameplay as a video clip which can then be watched by your Xbox Live friends. Others, however, are slightly more obscure. Saying "Xbox On" will wake the console from standby if you're using the Instant On power saving mode, but you'll have to say "Xbox Turn Off" to power it down again. 

A very handy cheat sheet, originally posted to Reddit, could come in handy for anyone wanting to learn how to quickly navigate the Xbox UI.

Once you learn the right commands though, it's often faster than using a controller, as Microsoft has oddly decided to bury some apps, menus and settings in counter-intuitive places. There is now a shortcut to some of these though, called the Snap menu. You bring it up by double-tapping the Xbox button on the controller and it gives you easy access to a number of functions, all of which are hard to use if you don't have a Kinect.

Saying "Xbox" will highlight every onscreen command in green

Pinning apps to the home screen puts them in easy reach, but to do so requires a press of the menu button and there's no on-screen prompt to do so. The list of installed apps is arranged horizontally, and quickly builds up; the amount of scrolling required to find your games could prove cumbersome after a year of installing new titles. 

These two rows hold every app and game installed on your console - it will quickly build up into an epic list

We're already beginning to experience this effect, as almost everything has its own app. You'll need to install a specific app to play Blu-ray films as there's no in-built player, meaning there's no way to play films at all until you take the console online. It takes around 6 seconds to load a film, so it at least reads discs quickly, but there's no auto-resume function. Audio CDs have their own separate app too.

The Xbox One is designed to be a hub for all your content, and now it has the DLNA-compatible media player to back that up. You can use it to play files over the network, including the sometimes tricky MKV file format, or play content directly from a USB flash drive.

XBOX ONE TV AND ONEGUIDE

Support for streaming and catch-up services has hugely improved over the 18 months since launch. BBC iPlayer, All4 (previously 4OD), Now TV, Blinkbox and Demand 5 sit alongside Amazon Instant Video and Netflix, amongst others. Most are fully featured catch-up services, but notably, iPlayer is lacking any kind of Resume Playback function, although the BBC is expected to update the app at a later date with the feature. 

We're still waiting for Sky to add Sky Go support, which is particularly troublesome for Microsoft as rival Sony managed to secure 'TV from Sky' (essentially Sky Go by another name) in December. But generally the Xbox's line-up matches that of its rival.

The Xbox Store got off to a slow start, especially where on-demand video apps are concerned

TV integration is arguably the Xbox One's killer feature outside of games. Once connected to the console, you can use your Sky, Virgin or YouView box just as you did before, but with many added benefits. You can see notifications and invites from gaming friends, have a Skype conversation in a Windows alongside live TV, or even bring up a web browser there.

The Xbox One isn't fussy about what devices it displays through the HDMI passthrough port, happily accepting 720p, 1080i and 1080p signals. That means you could connect a PC, smartphone, tablet, digital camera or camcorder, or even another games console. However, be aware that the Xbox One introduces a significant amount of latency to the input signal that could make it difficult to play your games this way, so we wouldn't recommend it.

Most people will therefore stick to using the HDMI passthrough with a set-top box. Microsoft finally added UK support for the OneGuide unified program guide in June, which brings your set top box's TV channel listings to your Xbox One for browsing programmes and setting up recordings from the console. It'a also able to put content from streaming services and even YouTube subscriptions alongside TV content and recordings, letting you search it all in one place. It's a slick system that would appear to be a no-brainer for Xbox owners, but convincing the rest of the family to abandon a familiar remote control in favour of an Xbox One controller or Kinect voice commands might be a challenge.

The Xbox One is by default set to a 60Hz output, to make the most of your TV, while UK TV runs at 50HZ. If you are going to watch TV through the console be sure to change the setting in Settings, or else you'll get juddery video, particularly noticeable in panning shots.

SHARING AND STREAMING

Snice launch Microsoft has added Twitch, so gamers watch other players (very handy in conjunction with the Snap feature, so you can play and watch at the same time) or stream their own gameplay straight to the web.

You can upload screenshots to Microsoft's OneDrive cloud storage, share them with Xbox Live friends or post them to Twitter. There's no Facebook option at present though, which is a shame. Video clips can also be uploaded to OneDrive and now directly to YouTube too, via the YouTube app.

It's a good range of services, but everything just hangs together a little better on PS4, with simple menus accessible from the dedicated share button that let you upload to all the available services in one place. That said for those who love watching Twitch, the Xbox One is fantastic.

XBOX ONE EXCLUSIVE GAMES

In the 18 months since it first went on sale, there have only been a handful of Microsoft exclusive titles to justify buying an Xbox One over rival Sony's PS4. Having said that, it's the Xbox that has the upper hand here, with Sony's exclusives largely failing to live up to expectations, or simply being niche titles.

The biggest of the lot remains Titanfall. Respawn Entertainment's debut game is a hectic sci-fi shooter that lets you run and gun as an infantry soldier, or stomp around the battlefield in a giant mech. It's the best-selling Xbox One game to date and after a few minutes playing it's clear to see why; it's incredibly fun. However, it's looking most likely that the inevitable sequel will be available on both consoles, though we'd bet the bigger community will be found on Xbox One.

Since Titanfall, there's been the fun and frantic third-person shooter Sunset Overdrive, although it's not a system seller. Then there's arguably the best racing game to date in the form of Forza Horizon 2 - it's more on the fun side than a serious simulation but don't let that put you off. Worth a mention is Halo: Master Chief Collection, which has prettied up versions of all four core Halo games, great for a nostalgic blast though the multiplayer has been dogged by problems.

That bring us round neatly to upcoming titles, of which the biggest has to be Halo 5: Guardians. Having played the beta extensively earlier this year we can confidetnly say this will be a huge multiplayer game, and if the singleplayer has the same physical presence the firefights at least should be excellent.

Alongside Halo, Microsoft also has the much-hyped Quantum Break. It's a third-person shooter with time-bending gameplay, which is then interwoven with a live-action TV episodes that you'll stream from Xbox Live. Then there's Rise of the Tomb Raider, which is a timed exclusive, though we don't know for how long. We absolutely loved the Tomb Raider reboot, so can't wait to get our hands on this.

XBOX ONE SMARTGLASS

The Xbox One was built with 'second-screen' gaming in mind. Microsoft’s SmartGlass may have made its debut on the Xbox 360, but it was slow to respond and few developers took advantage of it. That isn’t the case with the new console, as it uses Wi-Fi Direct to create an uninterrupted connection to your smartphone or tablet.

At the most basic level, SmartGlass is another way to interact with the Xbox One beyond the gamepad or Kinect. It mimics the Xbox One UI on your handheld, letting you see your Xbox Live friends, track your achievements and send messages remotely. That last one is a godsend, as typing out long messages using a controller and onscreen keyboard quickly gets tedious – the touchscreen of your smartphone or tablet is much quicker.

It also doubles as a wireless touchpad, which makes browsing the web through Internet Explorer a lot easier than using the game controller, and can control multimedia playback and navigate the Xbox One interface too.

SmartGlass makes it easy to jump between games or send messages to your Live friends when you’re away from your console

The app remembers your pinned apps and will launch them on the console when you tap them. Once playing a compatible game, SmartGlass turns into a companion app to give you information that isn’t normally available to anyone playing on a single screen. With Ryse: Son of Rome, this takes the form of gameplay statistics, hints and the locations of in-game collectibles, saving you a trip to GameFAQs if you’re using a tablet.

It goes much deeper than that though. In the opening 10 minutes of zombie-fest Dead Rising 3, your character finds a smartphone. With SmartGlass, your real world handset becomes that device, routing in-game calls to your phone, putting a map in your hand and even letting you call in airstrikes or accept SmartGlass-only bonus missions.

Dead Rising 3 has an incredibly in-depth Companion app that unlocks additional content not available elsewhere

SmartGlass is available on iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Windows 8, so almost everyone should have at least one device in the house to install it on. Once you’ve downloaded it, you won’t need to download additional apps for every game – at least the Microsoft published ones, anyway. Third-party games like Battlefield 4 have their own second screen apps, which can be downloaded separately. Some companion apps only work on tablets, but we had no trouble with Dead Rising 3 on a smartphone.

With next to no lag between device and console thanks to Wi-Fi direct, the possibilities for new ways to interact with your games should make either a smartphone or tablet a must-have accessory to pair with your console in the future. Although to date its only Microsoft's own titles that have taken full advantage of the technology.

XBOX ONE PRICE

The Xbox One's price has had a rollercoaster ride since launch but that's all behind us now. Today you can pick up an Xbox One (without a Kinect) for £280 bundled with the best game of the moment: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. That's £20 less than a PS4 with the same game at the time of writing.

If that doesn't tempt you, and it really should, then head over to our Best Xbox One deals page for some more options.

THE WRAP UP

The Xbox One has really come into its own over the last six montths. It has now delivered on its promise to provide something more than just a games console. Even without Kinect, it has lots of extra features: its HDMI input and OneGuide service mean it really can be centre of your home entertainment; the ability to split the screen to both watch-and-play is a killer feature for some, while a proper DLNA media server lets you stream your media files to the console. Add in Kinect and you get voice control, motion-based gaming and fantastic video chat via Skype.

Then there's the excellent controller and a good range of exclusive titles, with a current line-up that puts Sony's in the shade for most gamers, plus a range of upcoming exclusives that look arguably stronger this Christmas - epecially given that Uncharted 4 has slipped into 2016, the latest in a line of Sony slip ups.

So despite all that, why is the PS4 still our preferred console? Well it's an established fact that it's technically superior to the Xbox One when playing multiplatform games, and at present those make up the large majority of our gaming diets. It also has a simpler and clearer menu system and an equally great controller.

It's a narrow thing though, and if the exclusives on the Xbox One appeal to you, then we'd recommend you buy Microsoft's console over Sony's.