The console wars breathed a new life with the release of Microsoft's Xbox One X. Microsoft is calling the new video game system "the most powerful console ever made" and believe me they're not wrong.
As a matter of fact, the new Xbox is even powerful than the Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, finally trying to changing something that has been a Sony-dominated gaming generation. The Xbox One X brings with it the power of immersive 4K gaming, 4K entertainment to local gamers and has 40 per cent more processing power than any other console currently in the market.
The Xbox One X is available for purchase online on the Microsoft India store, Amazon and Flipkart at Rs 44,990. Consumers can also buy the Xbox One X from Landmark and Croma retail stores.
The console now has access to the largest and most diverse games line-up in Xbox history, including Forza Motorsport 7, Assassin’s Creed: Origins, Cuphead and Super Lucky’s Tale, out of more than 1,300 titles and more than 220 exclusives available on the Xbox One X, just a few short months after the device’s global launch.
Xbox One X vs PS4 Pro: What’s the difference?
I have played on both the console systems and like you, I also have looked at various comparison videos, and while the Xbox One X has a graphical edge, it not a noticeable one. The screen you will choose will have a larger impact on how your games look. This is in particular true when you're shooting at enemies in the middle of a game, or trying to stay mortal rather than dipping yourself in screenshot comparison which makes me to say that gameplay has much higher importance than graphics and always will.
And speaking of games, the main USP for the huge sales of the PlayStation 4 Pro is its great strong exclusive line-up which for me is the sole enough reason to justify PS4 Pro over the Xbox One X (liking for Games will be subjective)
The PS4 Pro plenty of great games that you can't play on an Xbox One X including Uncharted 4, Uncharted The Lost Legacy, Bloodborne, Horizon Zero Dawn, and many others.
And while many cross-platform games will look superior on the Xbox One X, this doesn't bypass the fact that Sony holds a bunch of exclusive deals with major game publishers. Playstation games have access to exclusive content in Destiny 2 and fans of Call of Duty gain early access to maps on PS4 than on PC or Xbox One X.
The Hardware
Well, it’s really surprising to see the power Microsoft has managed to implant into the small case of Xbox One X’s. It is smaller than the original Xbox One but resembles closely with Xbox One S in sleek design. The Xbox One X has the same inputs and ports as the S. There’s HDMI-in if you want to connect up a TV set-top box, two USBs at the rear and one at the front, and an Ethernet port.
Further, Microsoft is relying on a 2.3GHz 8-core AMD Jaguar processor, 12GB of RAM, and a six-teraflop AMD Radeon GPU. That’s nearly two teraflops more than the PS4 Pro, a faster CPU, and 3GB more of overall RAM. The Xbox One X easily outshines the PS4 Pro on hardware alone.
4K Gaming
Majority of games designed for the Xbox One run smoothly on 1080p TVs, which technically speaking have a quarter of the pixels found on a 4K TV. And while the Xbox One X is approximately four times faster than the original Xbox One, it’s not as powerful as the latest gaming PCs, but the benefits will largely depend on what game you’re playing.
According to Microsoft, over 80 new and existing games are enhanced for Xbox One X to take advantage of its full power, including Middle-earth: Shadow of War, Halo Wars 2, Gears of War 4, Halo 5: Guardians, Minecraft, FIFA 18, Final Fantasy XV, Star Wars Battlefront II and PLAYERUNKNOWN’S BATTLEGROUNDS.
But, these enhancements doesn’t every time indicate that these games will be 4K, instead some tweaks could include improved better frame rates or HDR capability. Other enhancements might include 4K, HDR, and better frame rates. It’s up to game developers to decide, and there’s not a clear pattern yet.
Games like Forza Motorsport 7, Assassin’s Creed Origins offer the best of all worlds: 4K, HDR, and 60fps. Other titles like Titanfall 2 also boost the resolution up to 4K, but dynamically alter it based on GPU load to keep smooth gameplay at 60fps. In my time with PUBG, the game on the Xbox One X offered exhilarating fun on every emotion I have be it shooting, frame rates, graphic capability and looks incredible on the Xbox One X. On my LG OLED with HDR enabled it looked phenomenal and runs really well.
But what disappoints is that Microsoft doesn’t have a single exclusive 4K games for this console, and while enhancements to old games are great, at times it was very difficult to quantify the differences because I don’t think few of the games were not designed with 4K graphics.
Entertainment
The Xbox One X not only is a gaming console, but is also home to entertainment. The in-built 4K Blu-ray drive is designed to bring crisp movies with Dolby Atmos and HDR 10 (but no Dolby Vision) to a larger screen -- an addition the PS4 Pro lacks. While Microsoft doesn’t offer 4K movies or TV shows you will have to rely on a Netflix or Amazon Video subscription to get streaming 4K movies or TV shows.
Microsoft has partnered with third-party apps for entertainment, including Plex, Spotify, Amazon Video, Netflix, HBO Go, and Hulu Plus. Users can also connect Chromecast using the built-in HDMI-in port.
Also, the in-built 1TB drive is not enough to hold a large library of games and apps. My space ran out with approx. 12 games and nearly 18 apps installed. Most Xbox One X games are around 40GB or 50GB in size, and some of them are bigger. Gears of War 4 and Halo 5 are at least 100GB, and Titanfall 2 is around 70GB.
Conclusion
If you can live without Sony’s exclusives titles in your game library, then the Xbox One X will be the best console to play all the cross-platform games out there in the market. That said, the Xbox One X does offer the best graphics currently possible on a console.
Pros
4K Blu-ray drive, capable hardware
Cons
Limited 4K games, 1TB storage not enough
