Microsoft has bitten the bullet and officially revealed the price of the Xbox Series X, before Sony reveals the price of the PS5. Earlier this week, Microsoft also officially revealed the all-digital Xbox Series S to complete with the PS5 Digital Edition.
The Xbox Series X will retail for £449 or $499, while the Series S weighs in at £249 or $299. Pre-orders for the console start from 22nd September, with both models launching on 10th November 2020.
As for Sony, an announcement is rumoured to take place today, but as of yet, nothing has been announced. The price reveal by Microsoft now gives Sony a small advantage to undercut the cost of the Xbox Series X, if they choose to do so, but can they afford it?
The specs of the two new Xbox Series consoles are as follows:
| Xbox Series X | Xbox Series S | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 8-Core Zen 2 @ 3.8Ghz / 3.6Ghz w/ SMT | 8–Core Zen 2 @ 3.6Ghz / 3.4Ghz w/ SMT |
| GPU | RDNA 2 GPU – 52 CUs @ 1.825 GHz | RDNA 2 – 20 CUs @ 1.565 GHz |
| GPU Power | 12.15 TFLOPS | 4 TFLOPS |
| Memory | 16 GB GDDR6 | 10 GB GDDR6 |
| Memory Bandwidth | 10GB @ 560 GB/s, 6GB @ 336 GB/s | 8GB @ 224 GB/s, 2GB @ 56 GB/s |
| Performance Target | 4K @ 60 FPS, Up to 120 FPS | 1440p @ 60 FPS, Up to 120 FPS |
| Internal Storage | 1 TB PCIe Gen 4 NVME SSD | 512 GB PCIe Gen 4 NVME SSD |
| I/O Throughput | 2.4 GB/s (Raw), 4.8 GB/s (Compressed) | 2.4 GB/s (Raw), 4.8 GB/s (Compressed) |
| Expandable Storage | 1 TB NVME Expansion Card | 1 TB NVME Expansion Card |
| Optical Drive | 4K UHD Blu-Ray Drive | Digital Only |
| Video Output | HDMI 2.1 – Up to 4K at 120Hz, 8K, VRR | HDMI 2.1 – Up to 4K at 120Hz, 8K, VRR |
| Backward Compatibility | Xbox One, Xbox 360, Xbox | Xbox One, Xbox 360, Xbox |
| Availability | 10th November 2020 | 10th November 2020 |
| Price | $499 / £449 / €499 | $299 / £249 / €299 |
The Xbox Series S is £200 / $200 cheaper than the Series X due to compromises in many areas including slower CPU, much lower GPU power, smaller RAM / Memory, lower resolution (1440p vs 4K) and no Blu-ray disc drive.
It will be interesting to see how the PS5 Digital Edition compares to the regular PS5 as the only (known) difference between the two is lack of physical Blu-ray drive in the Digital Edition. It’s almost guaranteed that Sony won’t be able to discount the Digital Edition by the same amount.