Ah, Black Friday, the time of year we all collectively lose our minds and control of our wallets. But among all the craziness there are legitimately good deals out there, and with the holiday season on the doorstep, it’s a perfect time to grab some gifts for your nearest and dearest.
Black Friday is also a great time to stock up on some normally expensive goodies if you’re a gamer. And this year there’s one deal that stands out as being the one to get: the Xbox Series S. Microsoft’s pint-sized console has a decent $50 discount right now and honestly, it’s the stand-out from the gaming crowd.
![Microsoft's cheapest new-generation console brings many of the benefits of the Series X to the table in a smaller, more affordable package.]()
Xbox Series S
Microsoft Xbox Series S
$250 $300 Save $50
Microsoft’s cheapest new-generation console brings many of the benefits of the Series X to the table in a smaller, more affordable package.
Pint-sized but powerful
The Xbox Series S might be the smaller and ‘weaker’ of the two latest generation Microsoft consoles, but don’t get hung up on that. Sure, its raw graphics power does fall way short of its more powerful sibling, but we wouldn’t call it poor. In fact, this might be the best all-around console right now for most people. My son has a Series S, and it’s been a great buy. Most of the time I can’t even tell it’s the cheaper model.
For starters, it benefits from most of the same upgrades as the Series X, notably the inclusion of super fast NVMe-based storage. Loading times on the Series S are essentially as good as they are on the Series X, and even though it has half the capacity, it takes the same expansion cards. And these offer identical performance to the internal drive. The Xbox Velocity Architecture isn’t solely about loading times, but the Series S gets all the same benefits from it as the Series X.
The Series S also benefits from access to the same modern technologies, such as Direct X 12 Ultimate and ray-traced reflections. While it doesn’t target 4K resolution, it can hit 1440p easily, and in optimized games, you’ll usually get at least a slick 60 FPS.
Lives in harmony with PC and cloud gaming
Microsoft’s Xbox ecosystem is no longer exclusive to console gaming. With Game Pass Ultimate you get access to a library of games on both PC and console, and Xbox Play Anywhere titles allow you to seamlessly play across both platforms.
There’s also the cloud to consider these days as well. Game Pass is clearly the future of Xbox gaming, and Microsoft is making it as easy as possible to play the latest games on any of your devices. The Series S can also play games from the cloud, and since these are now based on the Series X, it’s a total win. Being able to access the cloud library from the console also helps negate the fairly slim internal storage. After all, if you install Modern Warfare 2 you’re taking up about a third of that SSD. Streaming through the cloud takes up no space.
The Xbox ecosystem is really strong and represents incredibly good value. With Game Pass family plans on the horizon, too, life is going to get even easier for those of us with kids who want to play the latest games. The Xbox Series S is a really great buy at its normal price, but with a $50 discount for Black Friday, it’s a no-brainer.
![Microsoft's cheapest new-generation console brings many of the benefits of the Series X to the table in a smaller, more affordable package.]()
Xbox Series S
Microsoft Xbox Series S
$250 $300 Save $50
Microsoft’s cheapest new-generation console brings many of the benefits of the Series X to the table in a smaller, more affordable package.
This content was originally published here.
