Xbox One Price
Calling the launch of the Xbox One a bit of a false start
would be going rather easy on Microsoft.
There was Kinect, which nobody wanted but which was bundled
into every box for an £80 premium. There was the TV integration, which wasn’t
only unpopular but which also didn’t work anywhere near well enough in the UK.
And there was a performance deficit when comparing the same games against the
PS4. Needless to say, the Xbox One has been losing out to the PS4 in sales ever
since.
But that was eight months ago, and the Xbox One of August
2014 is very different to the Xbox One of November 2013. All of the flaws have
been tackled to one extent or another. Most significantly, Kinect is now out of
the deal – that’s allowed Microsoft to drop the price to a PS4-matching £350
and has released enough extra power for developers to make their games look and
play better.
The ambition has been pared back then, but there’s a renewed focus on perfecting the basics. Does that make it a better console than it was? And even more importantly, is it now as good as or even better than the PS4? Continue reading this fully upated review to find out.
Is it still worth buying the Xbox One in 2022?
If you don't mind sticking to older games then it's still
worth buying the Xbox One because it's cheaper now than ever before. You can
buy it on second-hand sites like ebay. But if you want a console that will
support new games then it won't be worth buying this in 2022.
If
you still considering finding the Xbox One X then keep reading for T3's review
that was written when it was still available.
The
Xbox One was very much focused on gaming and while it lacks the hardware
improvements offered by the later Xbox one S and the Xbox One Xbox One X (such
as support for 4K and HDR), the original Xbox One is still a powerful machine
that can play every single game on the system, and plenty more from the
previous two gens thanks to support for Backwards Compatibility emulation.
While
Microsoft has definitely lost the battle of the exclusives in this generation,
it's already preparing for the next with a newly bolstered line-up of in-house
studios. So even if you're investing in an Xbox One now, you're getting a
console that's slowly been re-evolved into a proper gaming system.
Design
and build quality
The
Xbox One certainly doesn't look as sleek as Sony's PS4. In fact, it's a big,
hulking brute of a machine that bears more than a passing resemblance to a
Betamax video recorder circa 1984. It's a 263 x 80 x 305 mm slab weighing about
3.2kg. Cast in 'Liquid Black', its top is split in half with a reflective
surface on one side and a massive vent on the other.
Incidentally,
this is a console designed to sit flat underneath your television set, with its
Kinect sensor staring grimly out at the contents of your living room. Plonk it
on its side and Microsoft won't be held responsible for your discs getting
scratched.
Kinect
slots into the back of the Xbox One, next to a series of ports including
HDMI-in, HDMI-out, three super-speed USB ports, an Ethernet connector, S/PDIF
for optical audio out and an added IR port.
The front-facing side has a disc slot – that will play Blu-ray discs, once the
app is downloaded – a power stud, eject tab and a sync-tab for hooking up the
one wireless controller the Xbox One comes packaged with.
Under the hood, the Xbox One is packing an eight-core x86 processor with an
amped up 853 MHz GPU, 500GB of local storage, 8GB RAM with 32MB of eS RAM
embedded memory. It also has wireless networking capability through its 802.11
wireless radio with built-in Wi-Fi support. It also makes barely a sound when
you power it up.
Setup
and Feautures
If
all of this sounds intimidating, don't worry, setting this beast up is a
doddle. Kinect, the power cable and – if you fancy watching live television
through the Xbox One - most set-top boxes all slot neatly into the back. Once
you boot it up, the console will ask you if you already have a profile. If you
do, you'll need to go online to load it up. If not – or if online is an
anathema to you – you can create a new one from scratch.
Online
is easier, though. If you have a profile, you simply login with your password
and instantly, your Achievements, save games, friend-lists and avatars are all
ported across. It doesn't wipe your Xbox 360 gamertag – rather you now have
gamertags on two platforms.
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