Xbox One X review: Does the 'world's most powerful console' live up to its name?

Ever since it was first unveiled as Project Scorpio, the Xbox One X has long been marketed by Microsoft as "the most powerful console ever made" and is targeting a simple goal: your blockbuster video games look best on this console. If you have the AV setup to support it, of course.

As such, it does make evaluating such devices a little tricky. This author assumes you already know if you want an Xbox One X and are after an answer to a more prosaic question: does it do what it sets out to do? And the answer is a mostly unreserved yes.

What is the Xbox One X?

It is Microsoft’s mid-generational upgrade to its Xbox One console. It will play the same games as its predecessor and newer sibling, the Xbox One S, but will offer a handful of technological improvements. It is 4K and HDR enabled for compatible displays and it has a custom eight-core CPU that runs at a much-touted six teraflops for the potential of increased performance.

It packs a 4K Blu-Ray payer and the internal hard drive is 1TB.  And for the affluent audiophile the X also supports Dolby Atmos, an advanced "object-based" surround sound that helps you pinpoint the "location" of sounds more accurately. Like a 4K TV, though, you will need the correct audio kit.

What’s in the box?

You get the console, a HDMI cable, power supply and one Xbox One controller.

Design

Considering the technological grunt beneath its hood, the Xbox One X is an impressively compact and discreet piece of kit. There is a heft to it but, at 11.81 x 9.44 inches, is slightly smaller than the sandwich-esque PS4 Pro (but slightly bigger than its sibling the Xbox One S).

The aesthetic is remarkably unassuming, a matte black case with few discerning marks aside from the glowing white X power button on the front. A textured base to stop it sliding around is about as exciting as it gets. So while it shares some design DNA, it is a far cry from the striking white, half-and-half aesthetic of the Xbox One S. But in its own way, is a smart and decidedly premium looking console. I’m a professional, it says, I’m all business.

Start-up and user interface

The initial set-up of the X is relatively quick and painless. There will certainly be an update waiting for you when you first switch on and connect to the internet; a necessary peril of modern gaming. It doesn’t take too long to install, however, and set-up is clear and easy thanks to the Xbox’s chunky tutorials.

These are part of a wider refinement that is most welcome. The Xbox One struggled with its dashboard at its initial launch, but has been steadily if not completely renovated since. Its clunky patchwork interface gradually whittled down to something a lot quicker and more user-friendly. The most recent dashboard has recently gone live ahead of the X’s release and is by far the most improved update of the UI. 

The home screen is now arranged more horizontally, rather than the waterfall of tiles in the previous dashboard, with your most recent games and apps lined up for easy access. In a nice touch, your most recently played game takes pride of place at the top of the screen, with in-progress achievements tempting you back in. The pop-up menu accessed with a press of the home button on your controller is also much improved, with better shortcuts to commonly accessed areas such as your game library and the settings menu.

The friends list still seems a little tucked away, screenshot and video sharing isn’t as easy as its competition and there is still a touch of clutter on the home screen, but this is by far the quickest and slickest the UI has been. And I am still rather fond of the simple pins screen, which lets you arrange your favourite apps into their own tiles so they are never far from hand.

While a few clunky remnants of the old dashboard remain, there has been a lot of work put into accessibility too. It is easy to transfer and separate files from the internal hard drive to an external device, for instance, and in another smart touch, you can filter your games to see which are ‘Xbox One X Enhanced’ in order to get the most out of your library.

Game performance

Which brings us to the games, always the raison d’etre for these boxes, and how the Xbox One X lives up to its promise of being the most capable console. One of the disappointments of the Xbox One X launch is that there is not much in the way of brand new titles to show what it is capable of. And middling platform game Super Lucky’s Tale isn’t really going to cut it.

However, some of Microsoft’s existing first-party titles are ready to stretch the consoles promises. Recent racer Forza Motorsport 7 is probably the machine’s best showcase, efficiently ticking off boxes of the X’s capabilities. It loads quicker than on the Xbox One S, as promised, with less waiting around between races, while the 4K resolution brings out more detail, as promised, from an already stunning looking game. With the enhancements, there are improved reflections and lighting and greater clarity in its gorgeous vistas. It was already a looker, but with the X enhancements Forza 7 has a strong claim to being the most technically impressive console game we’ve ever seen.

Last year’s Gears of War 4 has also been afforded an upgrade, with native 4K support, improved HDR and the option to play the campaign at an increased 60fps. While Forza is probably more impressive technically, it looks superb on the S already, so Gears offers a more stark difference. Its destroyed beauty made for a supremely attractive game last year but, here, the exceptional detail in the game’s fantastical environments and character models are highlighted.

It has a fine way with lighting too, which is sharpened in the update, with terrific contrast and reflection. It is a similar story for Halo 5: Guardians, with a higher resolution making that game’s vibrant colours and alien detail pop.

If it feels like we are getting into the nitty-gritty, the finer details, that’s because that is exactly the kind of thing the Xbox One X (and the PS4 Pro for that matter) are offering right now. To go in expecting sweeping spectacular changes, particularly at this nascent stage, will leave players disappointed. It is more about getting the most out of your setup and having a similar flexibility to PC players in an accessible console casing. Being able to choose your frame-rate on the Gears campaign might not be the type of thing to get the blood pumping, but it gives the option for players to use the extra technological grunt in a way that suits them. Personally I would go for the slightly more ‘cinematic’ 30fps for Gears campaign and choose to render at 4K, but many would prefer the smoother action that 60fps provides. And that choice is the point.

The worry for Xbox One X it is that its library of exclusives is arguably thinner than its closest rival. Although neither Microsoft or Sony are pulling up trees with first-party blockbusters this Christmas (something which cannot be said of the blisteringly in-form Nintendo, by the way). So much of the X’s appeal will come down to convincing people that third-party titles like Assassin’s Creed Origins, Call of Duty: WW2 and so forth will play best on the console.

And the early signs for Microsoft are good, if laced with certain caveats. The most pressing of which is that not all third-party games are ready to be patched with Xbox One X upgrades. That will come in time, of course, though does limit the X’s potential to prove it is the best place to play right now.

However, Assassin’s Creed Origins, for example, is notably prettier on Microsoft’s machine than on the PS4 Pro. The main difference is that on Xbox One X, Origins is outputting at a native 4K resolution whereas the PS4 Pro is upscaling to achieve a similar effect. Make no mistake, Origins looks gorgeous on both machines, but on X the colours are slightly more vibrant, the detail is sharper and has some more prosaic improvements like improved draw distance and less pop-in at certain areas.

It is fine margins, of course, even finer than moving from Xbox One S to Xbox One X but Microsoft’s console does have the visual edge on some of these early games. As you hope it would. Its main advantage will be the volume of games running at a native 4K rather than upscaling. While the PS4 Pro can run at native 4K, contrary to some reports, it often doesn’t have the grunt to output the biggest blockbuster games at that resolution, hence the upscaling. Whereas it appears the Xbox One X will be able to do this more consistently. This is reflected in part at this early stage, with games like Wolfenstein II running native 4K on X but upscaling on PS4 Pro.

While sheer power doesn’t always mean that games will run better on a certain machine, the PC-esque similarities in current home consoles mean that will likely be the case more often than not. The differences are going to be small, and we will see how the respective performances continue across the X and Pro’s’ lifespans, but Microsoft’s machine is showing signs that it will be able to flex its muscles.

Backwards compatibility upgrades

The Xbox One X also has something of a secret weapon in its more extensive backwards compatibility offering. Microsoft has made a not insignificant commitment to making both Xbox 360 and some original Xbox games work on the Xbox One and to add to that, the X is offering patch-free improvements.

Compatible Xbox 360 games like Halo 3 or Red Dead Redemption will benefit from the X’s extra power. Loading times may be reduced, frame rates may be more stable, while visually the games are clearer and cleaner, smoothing off edges and avoiding screen tearing.

Again this might seem like a small advantage, particularly as a stopgap in the light of limited new exclusives, but we are in a time where existing game libraries are in danger of being sidelined. That the X can not only play a large selection of these games, but improve them, is a lovely and most welcome feature.

Media and 4K Blu-Ray

Of course, the Xbox One X will also provide a slew of TV and movie streaming apps, all outputting at 4K and HDR where appropriate. That is nothing unique to the X, of course, with Netflix, Now TV and (somewhat belatedly) Amazon Video all present and correct as they are on other consoles. Where the X is looking to differentiate itself from the PS4 Pro on the media front is having a fully-functioning 4K Blu-Ray player.

Sony decided against including the drive in the PS4 Pro, citing the fact that physical media is going the way of the dodo. It isn’t an unreasonable point, although for many movies a 4K disc is the only way to watch it in ultra high-definition. I, for instance, can barely contain myself waiting to splash out on the Blade Runner 2049 4K Blu-Ray.

The trade-off, however, is contributing to the Xbox One X’s price. At the time of launch the Xbox One X will be £449. Which is one hundred pounds more than the PS4 Pro’s £349. A not insignificant difference for the extra power and a disc drive that, to further muddy the waters, is also included with the much cheaper Xbox One S.

Verdict

Suffice to say, then, that the 4K Blu-Ray player is a nice extra but perhaps won’t be a key difference maker in whether people plump for an Xbox One X over the other options this Christmas.

So what will? The answer to that is something that Microsoft hopes will emerge after the X’s launch with third-party games performing significantly better on its more powerful console. The fundamental question here is: how far can this impressive grunt be pushed? A current commitment of both console manufacturers to have games play across their respective ‘families’ will naturally limit just how far both first and third party developers can go beyond sprucing up the visuals.

The future is unclear, then, but the Xbox One X is undoubtedly a sleek, impressive machine, while early signs are showing it will indeed be the home console on which games perform at their best. Even if the results are yet to be revelatory, it is an intriguing course for the home console industry to be headed.

And depending on that road ahead, the Xbox One X’s extra power could have stolen it a march.