Xbox Series S Specs Reveal Surprisingly Powerful Series X Alternative

Microsoft has finally revealed the specs for the Xbox Series S, and they are almost as surprising as the console’s incredibly low price point.

For reference, here are the full Xbox Series S specs that Microsoft posted on the Xbox blog and how they compare to the specs of the Xbox Series X:

The biggest difference between these two consoles from a pure power perspective is undoubtedly their GPUs. We know you’re probably pretty tired of hearing the word “Teraflops” at this point, but the difference between 12.15 Teraflops and 4 Teraflops is certainly notable. Considering that the Xbox One X boasted 6 Teraflops of GPU processing power, that also means that the Xbox Series S’ GPU is, on paper, less powerful than the Xbox One X’s.

While the case may not prove to be quite so simple as that when you account for other factors, the Xbox Series S does seem to be more powerful than the Xbox One S, slightly less powerful than the Xbox One X (overall), and noticeably less powerful than the Xbox Series X. The spec sheet above clearly notes that the difference in performance power means that the Xbox Series S will struggle indeed not be capable of delivering native 4K gaming (although it will offer 4K upscaling), while the Series X’ extra RAM means that it will certainly scale much better in the coming years as next-gen games grow more advanced and demand more resources.

That aside, you’ve got to be impressed with how the Xbox Series S looks on paper. Its SSD is strong (if smaller), its CPU is honestly not that far removed from the Xbox Series X’, it features an expandable storage slot, and while its GPU doesn’t compare to the one in the Series X, it’s really not that bad for the price.

Overall, we remain impressed with what Microsoft is offering with the Xbox Series S. You’ve got to accept that there will be a performance gap, but for a console that will primarily be a Game Pass delivery system that will also allow you to keep up with new games, it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that the Series S is one of the better “low-end” launch consoles that we’ve seen over the years. It’s a viable alternative to the Xbox Series X that we imagine will be very tempting to millions of gamers who may also want to purchase it as a companion to the PlayStation 5.