As much as I like the Xbox One, there's no denying that it's an absolute beast of a console – and I don't mean that in a good way. It's huge, comes with a massive power brick, and its half matte, half gloss finish doesn’t age well at all, scuffing and scratching up at the slightest provocation. Having put up with this for three years, fans will welcome the arrival of new Xbox One S.
As its S suffix implies, it’s a slimline version of the current Xbox One. An astonishing 40% smaller overall, the Xbox One S is positively tiny compared to its hulking forebear. It's a gorgeous bit of modern console design, too, and rectifies many of the issues we had with the original console.
The physical power button, for instance, is no longer touch-sensitive, so you'll never accidentally turn it off while you're dusting, and there's now a USB port on the front of the console rather than the side, making it easier to plug in your controller when you want to charge it.
Connections, Noise and Power Consumption
At the back, you'll find almost the same number of ports, including HDMI input and outputs, a pair of USB ports, an optical S/PDIF out, Ethernet port and an infrared output. The only thing missing is the port for Kinect, which has been ditched here to help streamline the console's overall dimensions. You can still use Kinect with the Xbox One S, but you'll need to buy a separate USB adapter. There's also a standard figure of eight power connector, signifying the fact that Microsoft has finally moved the power supply inside the main chassis, negating the need for that pesky power brick.
It still kicks up a fair amount of noise during those quieter moments of operation – when you're browsing the menus or searching for apps, for instance – but once you've got a game or film going, you'd be pretty hard-pushed to hear it. Indeed, our Dr Meter Sound Level Meter recorded the Xbox One S at between 44dB and 47dB up close when it was playing a Blu-ray disc (with the background office aircon hum at 41dB), which is around the same as the original Xbox One.
One thing the Xbox One S does improve on is power consumption. When sitting idle on the menu screen the Xbox One S drew only 30W of power from the mains, which barely changed when I put in a Blu-ray disc. The original Xbox One, however, drew 46W of power on the menu screen and up to 55W when playing a Blu-ray, so the Xbox One S should be slightly less expensive to run over the course of a year.
4K Blu-ray drive
However, the Xbox One S is much more than just a streamlined Xbox One. It also has a 4K Blu-ray drive packed into it as well as high dynamic range (HDR) support. With HDR enabled content, the colour gamut becomes considerably wider than your standard sRGB palette, showing brilliant white, blacker black and a whole lot more colour content in between. This translates into brighter, more vibrant images and a more detailed picture overall, as highlights are less prone to clipping around very bright objects like sun flares, for example, and darker scenes will have a much smoother shadow gradient.
It also happens to be the cheapest 4K Blu-ray player you can buy today. Until now, those in search of a 4K Blu-ray player only had two choices: Samsung's UBD-K8500 player, which currently costs £350, or Panasonic's £600 DMP-UB900. That's a lot of money for a standalone Blu-ray player, but the Xbox One S finally opens things up to the masses, with the 500GB version costing £249 and the 1TB version £299, knocking off at least £100 the price of entry. Both of these consoles will be arriving on 22 September (the initial run of 2TB Xbox One S bundles has now sold out) so that alone is a pretty compelling reason to go out and buy one.
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Of course, it goes without saying that you'll also need a 4K TV to take full advantage of the Xbox One S (see our Best 4K TVs for 2016 article if you're thinking of buying one) and preferably one that supports HDR. However, bear in mind that this doesn't mean it will play Xbox One games in 4K. I repeat, it WILL NOT play games in 4K. Instead, it outputs games at their original resolution, leaving your TV to do the extra legwork of upscaling them to match its 4K resolution – much like it does with standard TV content.
Xbox One S vs Project Scorpio
Instead, those after a proper 4K gaming console will need to wait for Microsoft's Project Scorpio. This will be much more powerful than both the Xbox One and Xbox One S – a sort of Xbox Two, so to speak – and will launch around Christmas next year. However, just to make things extra confusing, Microsoft's has also said that Scorpio, the Xbox One and Xbox One S will all be able to run the same games, which rather calls into question why the Xbox One S exists in the first place. To find out more about what Project Scorpio has to offer, take a look at our dedicated Scorpio hub page.
With this new, all-powerful console just around the corner, you might (rightly) be wondering why you should even consider buying an Xbox One S. After all, if Scorpio will be able to do everything the Xbox One S does and more, why spend your money now when it will, to all intents and purposes, be superseded by something bigger and better next year?
There's no easy answer to that question, sadly, but I can make a few educated guesses. Based on the specs Microsoft has confirmed so far, and what its head marketing executive Aaron Greenberg has said during interviews, I wouldn't be surprised if Scorpio ended up costing somewhere in the region of £500 to £800. It will, after all, be a "premium" product that's "very high-end", with Microsoft going so far as saying it will be the "most powerful console ever made", so expect to pay a pretty penny for it. Either way, even if it's as low as £500, that's still a far cry from £249 or £299, so the Xbox One S could well become a great budget option alongside Scorpio for those that want something more entry-level, especially if you don’t already own an Xbox One.
The Xbox One S is instantly preferable to the existing Xbox One, and its 4K HDR capabilities provide a handy bit of future proofing for when you do eventually decide to upgrade your TV. Its HDR support isn't just limited to films and streamed TV shows, either. It will also play games in HDR if they support it. Microsoft has yet to release a game that supports HDR, but upcoming titles such as Gears of War 4, Forza Horizon 3 and Scalebound will be playable in HDR, with many more, no doubt, to follow.
HDR
With no current games available, I tested the console's HDR using our Ultra HD Blu-ray disc of The Lego Movie while it was hooked up to our Samsung UE55KS9000 test TV. Admittedly, the Xbox One S isn't currently certified to receive the same UHD Premium badge as Samsung's UBD-K8500 player. This requires a Blu-ray player to be able to read every last shred of information on an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc.
Even without the UHD Premium badge, though, the Xbox One S produced some staggeringly good results. This is thanks in no small part to the TV, of course, but sun beams, glowing Lego bricks and spotlight torches really stood out against darker objects onscreen. Likewise, the sheer intensity of the colours made them almost appear 3D.
Picture settings
The Xbox One S also has a surprisingly useful display calibration guide available in its Display settings to help you get the best picture, which is more than can be said of other Blu-ray players. They're no different to the calibration tools on the regular Xbox One, but it's still nice to see them included, as most Blu-ray players often only give you very basic brightness and contrast controls, if that.
It can’t replace proper calibration equipment, but it nevertheless provides a useful guide for those less certain about how to use their TV's picture settings. For instance, it will recommend what mode you should set your TV to and which settings to turn on or off (such as dynamic contrast, edge enhancement and motion lighting), and you're also shown how to correctly adjust the aspect ratio and sharpness levels, in case your TV is overscanning the current picture. Next you're presented with full brightness and contrast test patterns to help get your TV looking just right, and finally, there's a basic RGB filter mode.
Apps and 4K streaming
The Xbox One S is a great option for 4K streaming as well, and there are apps galore just waiting to be downloaded from the Xbox One Store. These include Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and YouTube, all of which have 4K support, and you can also download apps for BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All4, Demand 5, Now TV, TV From Sky, Twitch, Plex, Crunchyroll and Wuaki, giving you more streaming and catch-up options than even most modern Smart TVs, including the Samsung KS9000 we used to test with. As such, the Xbox One S provides a great way to turn an ageing 'dumb' TV into a modern, up-to-date entertainment system, although you'll also need all the necessary extra subscriptions to make the most of it.
Games
Of course, a big part of buying a games console is whether you actually want to play any of the games available for that particular machine. At the moment, Microsoft and Sony's game output is pretty similar, with neither console having many big, must-have exclusives. The PS4 has Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Bloodborne, No Man's Sky and upcoming games such as Horizon: Zero Dawn and The Last Guardian, but most other popular titles, such as DOOM, The Witcher III, Dark Souls III, Overwatch, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Hitman and the Final Fantasy XV, for instance, are all multi-platform.
What's more, Microsoft is due to release a big crop of exclusive titles in the coming months, such as ReCore, Forza Horizon 3, Gears of War 4, Sea of Thieves, Scalebound and Crackdown 3, so if those sorts of games sound right up your alley, then the Xbox One S could well be a better choice over Sony's PS4. However, with Sony also expected to release its own slim version of the PS4, as well as the 4K-capable PlayStation Neo very soon, then you may also want to hold off buying a new console for now and see what Sony has to offer.
Verdict
That means there's no easy answer as to whether you should definitely buy an Xbox One S right now. The console itself is gorgeous and its 4K Blu-ray drive makes it a tempting proposition for those thinking about making the jump to Ultra HD Blu-ray, but ultimately a large part of its appeal will come down to whether you want to play the games currently available for it.
If you're not sure which side of the console fence you sit on, I'd recommend waiting a couple of weeks to see what Sony has to say about its highly anticipated PS4 Slim. However, if you're dead-set on getting an Xbox One, then the Xbox One S certainly won't disappoint.