Picked up a Series S for Halo, honestly 4k vs 1080 or 1440p is not that big a difference.

[Shalashaska]

1080p to 4k is still a pretty big jump, and definitely very noticeable especially when you're on a large screen or sit close to the TV. That being said the Series S is great for what it is.

It's too bad 1440p didn't become a common in the TV space because it's a good clarity bump from 1080p, but requires a lot less power to display natively. Pushing a native 4k eats up a ton of resources that would otherwise go a long way.

 

[Leo-Tyrant]

My GF has a Series S and its an incredible machine. I'm amazed at how well everything looks and runs for such a small price and form factor.

That being said, I DO see major differences in IQ between her S on her 4K TV and my X on my 4K TV.

I'm glad some people dont mind that much, but I'm a bit of an "IQ focused gamer" so I wouldn't choose an S knowing what I would miss from the X.

 

[CheapJi]

One of my biggest complaints about the series s was regular xbox one games. For example Resident Evil 2. On the series S it uses the xbox one s performance profile. On the series x it uses the xbox one x performance profile. I think the worst one, that I stuck with, was Resident Evil 7. What a blurry mess and all because the series S couldn't use the xbox one x performance profile.

Sure, the titles that were specifically enhanced for series s and x look good, but the ones that didn't receive those enhancements look pretty bad.

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Oh yeah some xbox one games can look terrible on the series S.

 

[Outtrigger888]

I bought a series S for the bedroom and have a series X in my living room. It's a great little machine.

 

[The Wraith]

I own a Series S and X. I have my Series S hooked up to a 1440p 144hz monitor and honestly I'm impressed by this little beast. Sure some games are 1080p but games like Gears 5 look amazing on it. Color me impressed.

Battlefield 2042 impresses me a lot. The fact that I can play 128 player games and it's 1080p 60hz is amazing. Very happy with this little machine.

 

[Incubuster]

1440p is the ultimate sweet spot for resolution imo, but I went and got a 4k monitor seeing as XSX and PS5 are outputting that a lot of the time.

 

[rsfour]

There is no way I could've justified a Series S unless I was 150% sure that I would never buy expansion card, or be fine with lesser performance.

The XSX was worth it for me.

 

[Masterz1337]

There is no way I could've justified a Series S unless I was 150% sure that I would never buy expansion card, or be fine with lesser performance.

The XSX was worth it for me.

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I'd have liked one, but the supply constraints is what pushed me to the S. I still plan to sell it and get the X at some point... but at this point they may as well do the hardware refresh since we won't have systems readily available until probably a year from now it feels.

 

[Deleted member 10270]

OP needs to go to specsavers asap

 

[Lkr]

I agree that resolution isn't too important for a multiplayer shooter, but framerate is to me. got a series x so I could do performance mode

 

[Forerunner]

I also bought a Series S the other day (don't feel like building a new pc this time around). It has been fine for me, but I'm playing on my 1080p 27" 144Hz monitor. However, I've been playing all my PC games at 1080p, so it really didn't matter to me in the first place. I might upgrade to a 1440p monitor later, but honestly this is fine. Good bang for your buck.

 

[Patrese86]

There's a difference. I desperately want a 144hz screen but the only alternative is an LGC1 as I'm not prepared to lose that amount of resolution (and screen size) for a higher frame rate.

 

[darkazcura]

Most of my friends opted for Series X at all costs even though they run 1080-1440p monitors and I just don't get it. There are a few games that fall behind on S but otherwise yea it really was a smart decision by MS

Have to say though, and I won't be first to say this, diff between 1080 and 4k is massive on a large enough TV so this topic title may get you dogpiled. 1440 is def fine up into the 50s of inches but 1080 is stretching

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I wanted to like the S, but that was when I thought the only difference was the graphics card and disc drive. When I realized the S had significantly less RAM (and slower) plus half the storage, the difference between the consoles felt much larger than $200, imo. The graphics card difference alone feels worth $150-200 let alone the other aspects. An extra 512 GB of storage is 'worth' $140 more on its own as well based on Microsoft's pricing.

I dunno, there are so many compromises on the S, but I'm glad there are those that enjoy it. I can definitely understand why someone would get the X even without a 4k TV. The extra storage, disc drive, and RAM are easily worth the $200 premium, imo, even without accounting for the graphics card.

If someone definitely wants more than 512 GB of SSD storage on their Xbox, it's hard to recommend the S even if they only have a 1080p TV. A 512 GB expansion card brings the S close to the X in cost all on its own.

 

[horsemama1956]

Yeah, I'm good with 1080p60. Anything close to 4K just seems like a waste of resources. I'm also not a fan of HDR in games either.

 

[Makeno]

Nah, I was genuinely about to buy a Series X today because because I've had enough 1080p on my Series S.

 

[Sordid Plebeian]

Infinite looks really good on the Series S. However, playing it on a 1080p no-HDR TV versus a 4k HDR TV does make a noticeable difference.

 

[scitek]

Depends on the size of your screen and how far you sit from it.

 

[Goddo Hando]

i love my Series S. It's one of my favorite systems tbh.

i bought a 120hz gaming monitor that only maxes out at 1080p and it's perfect for what i need it for.

 

[MikeE21286]

I sort of regretfully bought a Series S to play Halo on as it was clear it was going to run like dogs hit on even One X, and I got to say I am pleasantly not bothered by the lack of 4k. Even playing 360 games like Gears 3, HDR, the FPS boost and the 1440p res look great, to the point the visual quality I would say is higher than it did on my one X. Same thing for Halo 5, which looks so much better on the Series S than the One X.

Of course some games like the Matrix tech demo can drop pretty hard in resolution, but the advantages of this hardware are really great. I still wish I had a Series X, but seeing as you still can't get them I am pretty impressed by this thing.

What other games are worth checking out or re-checking out? I was thinking of testing out Metro and Gears 5.

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I'd be interested to know what size TV/monitor you use and how far away you sit from the Tv/monitor. There are certainly diminishing returns I agree with certain distance and size combinations. Most people sit way too far than recommended to notice anything different between 4k and 1080

 

[Basquiat]

I wanted to like the S, but that was when I thought the only difference was the graphics card and disc drive. When I realized the S had significantly less RAM (and slower) plus half the storage, the difference between the consoles felt much larger than $200, imo. The graphics card difference alone feels worth $150-200 let alone the other aspects. An extra 512 GB of storage is 'worth' $140 more on its own as well based on Microsoft's pricing.

I dunno, there are so many compromises on the S, but I'm glad there are those that enjoy it. I can definitely understand why someone would get the X even without a 4k TV. The extra storage, disc drive, and RAM are easily worth the $200 premium, imo, even without accounting for the graphics card.

If someone definitely wants more than 512 GB of SSD storage on their Xbox, it's hard to recommend the S even if they only have a 1080p TV. A 512 GB expansion card brings the S close to the X in cost all on its own.

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They really are aimed at different audiences. I'm using mine pretty much solely as a more casual arcade style game system for all the game pass titles. An XSX would have been overkill for that.

I'm glad they released a mid tier console with all the latest tech and features.

 

[HiLife]

There's a big difference between 1080 and 4K to me. I play at 120/1080 for multiplayer games but switch to 4K for the campaign and the sharpness is pretty obvious.

 

[HardRojo]

Whenever I play non-next gen enhanced titles on my OLED I can immediately tell the resolution is lower, so the difference is very noticeable for me. Guardians of the Galaxy made it very noticeable when I went from performance to quality mode and decided to stick to the 4K option.

 

[Deleted member 26526]

1080p is fine for me for another number of years.

Playing my PS5 on an old high quality plasma and the image quality is more than fine.

It's diminishing returns for me now after originally starting on a Commodore 64

 

[Masterz1337]

I'd be interested to know what size TV/monitor you use and how far away you sit from the Tv/monitor. There are certainly diminishing returns I agree with certain distance and size combinations. Most people sit way too far than recommended to notice anything different between 4k and 1080

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It's a 70" LG, I sit maybe 5 feet away from it.

It's not that I don't notice the difference between 1080 and 4k, It's just that when games are at 1440p or at 1080p plus all the other enhancements the SX delivers, I still don't see it as that much of a downgrade.

 

[Cogniferous]

I'm getting a Series S for Christmas. Already have a PS5 but my TV is only a 1080 so it's all I need really. I'm hoping to get a 4k set in the next couple of years and might upgrade to the Series X then for now everything I've heard makes Microsoft's small white box tge perfect companion to Sony's massive white box.

 

[shadowsdarknes]

It's all subjective.

We've been debating the difference between 1080p, 2k, and 4k for years now. For me, I'm not going to be purchasing a new home console with the power of the Series S. This is going to be another long generation. I expect the PS5 and Series consoles will be getting games well into 2025-2026. I just wouldn't want to be using the SS down the line.

 

[oneils]

Yeah that's the other thing. Any backwards compat 360 or OG XBox games are based on the Xbox One S versions of those games and don't get the extra resolution and FPS bumps that the Series X will get sometimes.

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This is the main reason I'd like to get a Series X. I have a Series S but it is hooked up to my 1080p tv in the den rather than the 4k TV in the living room. I have my One X in the living room for now. edit (I'd rather play the games on a panel at its native resolution....although, I haven't actually tried to see what the series s looks like at 1440p on my 4k tv so maybe I should try that out now that I have a few days off...).

 

[vixolus]

at 12:30 and thats even close to the ground.

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I'm pretty sure that was misleading because it had frame interpolation on which effectively doubled the frame output. They mentioned it on a direct or tweet or something after the video launched iirc

 

[GlitchyDegree]

Definitely agree. I was a bit worried about it being blurry, but I thought games looked fine after hooking up the Series S to my mom's 4K TV.

 

[Snert]

Only times I've really had issues with the Series S is when I'm running non-native games hooked up to a 1440p monitor (Warzone's last-gen client comes to mind). But those situations are super few and far between.

 

[meenseen84]

4k looks great. When I bought a One X years ago I thought it was a bigger jump from the 360 to the Xbox One.

 

[Dunlop]

Love the Series S

reading the halo infinite credits as I just beat the campaign.

have a series x on a 65" 4K tv but mostly play on the series s due to its more convenient location and I have yet to find a game that runs poorly on it

 

[Apathy]

There's a big, big difference between 1080p and 4K, doesn't mean you can't be perfectly happy with the former. We spent decades playing games on smaller resolutions.

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This. I play games on 1080p and enjoy them, but let's not pretend there isn't a difference between this and 4k. Now if the op can't tell the difference that's a whole different story.

And I don't think anyone ever means that a 1080p can't be good or that resolution is the only thing that matters.

 

[zma1013]

One of the issues though is Series S runs the original Xbox One versions of Xbox One games, so there are drawbacks like lower textures, pop in, reduced lighting and such, if you want to play those Xbox One games.

 

[AwakenedCloud]

I went home for the holidays and ended up watching my cousins play some Halo on their S. Honestly, in motion it looked essentially the same as my X on a 4K LG. If I stopped and assessed it I'm sure I'd notice some things, but when you're in the heat of the moment the difference seemed negligible. I was genuinely stunned at how good it looked.

 

[Hippopuncher12]

I can 100% see a difference between 1080p and 4K, 1440 however? Not really. I can play any of them though.

 

[Edward]

If you're playing on my 4k monitor 1080p looks insanely blurry and uncomfortable, so yes there is a difference

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But 1080p on a 1080p monitor is fine.

That's the difference. I prefer my monitor i don't notice enough on my TV to make that much of a difference. Monitor scaling is absolute shit.

 

[mausterhunter]

I've been pretty satisfied

One of the issues though is Series S runs the original Xbox One versions of Xbox One games, so there are drawbacks like lower textures, pop in, reduced lighting and such, if you want to play those Xbox One games.

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Yes, it's always deflating to see even simple games looking significantly worse than they did on my old One X.

 

[Surface]

Most will say something is wrong with my eyes (I have good vision from doctor visit so no) or brain dont cope

I sit 2,5m from a 70" TV but cant really tell a difference between 4K and 1080p.

Heck I even recently started playing skyrim from a PC toaster connected to the TV (dont have the game on console) on 720p (!?!) Resolution with FPS between 23-27. I am totally immersed and enjoy it so much, better than any recent AAA game in 4K and high fps

With that said, for sure high resolution and fps helps but the game itself what you play is so much more of a dealbreaker for me.

At same time wished I could see and feel and appriciate technical showcases like many others

 

[Mr. RPG]

The difference between 1080p and 4K is massive. I can never go back. I consider it more important than even a higher refresh rate.

 

[JigglesBunny]

It is a big difference, just not a difference that matters much to you and that's totally okay.

 

[SteviaRelievingYa]

It's a brilliant strategy by MS. most casual gamers only want next gen graphical effects and don't really care about resolution. It's especially good for kids who want to play next gen games. I know I wouldn't have given a crap about playing in 1080p over 4K as a kid.

 

[Chrono78]

I completely agree on the Series-S being plenty fine. I have a PS5 as well, but if a title is on GamePass there is no good reason to pay separately for the PS5 version

 

[GamerJM]

I agree but I also still regularly play games at 280p and have no issues with that resolution either. I'd still get a Series X over the S if I were to get an Xbox because of physical games and FOMO on better versions.

 

[horsemama1956]

I wanted to like the S, but that was when I thought the only difference was the graphics card and disc drive. When I realized the S had significantly less RAM (and slower) plus half the storage, the difference between the consoles felt much larger than $200, imo. The graphics card difference alone feels worth $150-200 let alone the other aspects. An extra 512 GB of storage is 'worth' $140 more on its own as well based on Microsoft's pricing.

I dunno, there are so many compromises on the S, but I'm glad there are those that enjoy it. I can definitely understand why someone would get the X even without a 4k TV. The extra storage, disc drive, and RAM are easily worth the $200 premium, imo, even without accounting for the graphics card.

If someone definitely wants more than 512 GB of SSD storage on their Xbox, it's hard to recommend the S even if they only have a 1080p TV. A 512 GB expansion card brings the S close to the X in cost all on its own.

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Keep in mind the huge difference in RAM is mostly to do with 4K. You just need more VRAM at higher resolutions. Overall, there wouldn't be much difference in RAM usage.

 

[Castro]

It's a 70" LG, I sit maybe 5 feet away from it.

It's not that I don't notice the difference between 1080 and 4k, It's just that when games are at 1440p or at 1080p plus all the other enhancements the SX delivers, I still don't see it as that much of a downgrade.

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5 feet?! You're all up on that jawn!!

Has anyone in the thread asked about your eyesight yet? Lol, maybe grasping at straws here. Honestly, I know what you mean. I didn't really appreciate or acknowledge the difference… until I started gaming on a 4K PC monitor. On a PS5 and a gaming laptop, I've become a bit of a resolution snob.

 

[Shadow]

The difference between 1080p and 4K is massive. I can never go back. I consider it more important than even a higher refresh rate.

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On my 50" 4K Samsung TV it looks slightly blurrier, which doesn't really bother me, unless I'm like 3 feet away(I sit about 7 feet away from a 50"), then it's more noticeable. When I first got the 4k TV I thought playing Switch games was going to be some horrid thing, but turns out I don't even care. I mean on full open world games it is cool to see trees, etc in the distance clearer.

On the other hand, on a PC monitor the difference even between 1080p and 1440p is indeed massive as you sit so close to it. No going back to 1080p on a monitor I can agree with.

 

[Rumenapp]

OP gamepass and go in hard on Horizon 5, Halo Infinite and The Ascent.

Pick up Metro Exodus cheap and enjoy the RT.

 

[Raiden]

Depends on the monitor for me. I have 66 inch LG CX and lower res can look blurry. But then I have a 144hz 1440p screen where everything in that res looks supersharp, smaller pc monitor though.

 

[Bookman]

I was playing star wars fallen order on my series x on a 4k hdr vvr tv in my gaming room but had to continue playing downstairs on our 1080p non hdr old tv.

Honestly I can hardly tell the difference.