Microsoft recently released their new gaming console. With the upcoming holiday season, people may be hoping to get their hands on one, as consoles come into stores near you. 

There are two versions of the console/next generation. The Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X. Luckily, I was able to get my hands on the Series S model for MSRP. With scalpers, people who sell consoles for double their value, with the low stock on consoles/chips being made, it’s going to be a challenge for people to find one with the original price point of $300.

The Series S was released November 10, 2020. Here’s how this console has aged, and let’s see if it’s worth upgrading to.

Starting off, statistically the Series S has an 8-core CPU that can clock up to 3.6 ghz, as well as 10 gigabytes of ram. Comparing this to the last generation, the Xbox One S, which has a 1.7ghz AMD Jaguar eight-core GPU: 1.4 T-FLOPS, 12 compute units at 914MHz and has 8 gigabytes of ram, this is a much better improvement for players to launch games more quickly. 

When trying to boot GTA 5, which has 120 gigabytes of storage, it took around three to four minutes to launch on my Xbox One S. GTA 5 launched in 30 seconds on the Series S, and I was able to start gaming in an instant. This is remarkably quick for a console and will improve overall performance and wait times for gamers. The visuals have improved; you can now game at 120 frames a second and play in 4K. Statistically, compared to older generation consoles, the Series S is clocked faster at 1.825GHz, compared to the One S model which is at 1.565GHz.

Old games are still cross compatible with this new generation of Xbox, which is great. I was able to boot up Halo 1 which was made for the original Xbox. I found out shortly after this that I could play Xbox One and 360 games as well.

Something that people may be considering is that the Series S model does not have a disk drive, so all games will have to be bought off the Xbox Store/Microsoft Store. For me, this was not an issue, as most of my games are online. 

Overall, this new generation of Xbox is much improved and better than the previous generations, and if you have the money, it would be worth upgrading to the next gen. If you are going to buy the Series S above MSRP and from a scalper, just wait for a sale to get your hands on one. For $300, this console is great. Overall, I am giving it a 4 out of 5 stars as it has a lot of potential — but give it a little more time for new generation games to release, and this console will be even better.