Today is a day I have waited a long time for, the day my Xbox One is no longer the size of a VCR from 1989.



Compared with the original Xbox One, we have a few key differences. Most good, but not all.



Pros vs. Original Xbox One:

[+] 40% smaller! And yes, the difference is very noticeable (see my comparison pictures)

[+] 4K output. Not as big of a deal to most people as 4K adoption is not huge yet, and it's only really for video/Blu-ray (games are upscaled)

[+] The side USB port has been moved from the left side to the front, which is great for space saving (if another device is to the left) and less damaging if someone trips over the USB cable.

[+] No gloss finish. They did get rid of the gloss in a minor pre-S refresh, but I'm happy to see it is completely gone. As always, glossy finishes look great on day one but do NOT age well (easily scuffed and scratched).

[+] Built-in power supply. To me, this is HUGE (reverse pun intended). The old power supply added an unreasonable amount of heft to the already oversized console. It is especially great if you like to pack and travel with your Xbox since that's one less brick to carry around, and makes it much easier and cheaper to have spare 'travel' power cables so you don't have to remove your main cables when traveling.

[+] Hardware upgrade. In addition to the 4K hardware upgrade (HDMI 1.4 vs HDMI 2.0), there is more processing power available for HDR, though to be honest I'm not sure how much I care about that. The real hardware upgrade won't be until Project Scorpio in 2017.

[*] Higher capacity. You can now choose from models ranging from 500GB to 2TB! I definitely recommend no less than 1TB considering how quickly these games eat up hard drive space. I'm not a fan of cluttering up my area with external USB hard drives, so the extra internal space of the 2TB version was a huge selling point to upgrade.



Cons vs. Original Xbox One:

[-] As of launch, only available in white. Don't get me wrong, the white looks beautiful, but you can't go wrong with additional color choices. In my case, white matching NOTHING else in my home theater setup, so I would have preferred to stick with black. I'm sure that will come soon though.

[-] No elite version (yet), which means no hybrid SSD available for faster load times. Elite controller still works great though.

[-] Does not offer any option of a bundled Kinect, though it has been clear for awhile that Kinect support has been dwindling.

[-] Does not include a headset, not even a cheapy earbud-style one.

[-] Kinect users *raises own hand* effectively lost a USB port. They removed the Kinect-specific port, so now you'll have to use up one of the two rear USB ports to get your Kinect on. This also raises the issue of the console not including a Kinect-to-USB adapter, which just adds extra hassle to get your Kinect Kinected again.



PSA regarding Kinectability mentioned above: For a limited time, you can get a free Kinect-to-USB adapter by contacting Xbox Support and providing your serial numbers.



*Is it worth upgrading my Xbox One?*



There is not a one-size-fits all answer to this. For me, it was a yes, as I was replacing a secondary Xbox One and I wanted the 2TB and smaller footprint. My Elite is still my main console, which I'm not ready to replace with the S due to the hybrid SSD and color. For most people, I would bet the answer is no. If money is a concern, it's probably no. If you don't 4K game or need the extra terabyte, it's probably no. If you're just a tech geek like me and always need the latest stuffs and thingies, then go for it!



For bonus entertainment, check out my attached comparison pictures of 15 years worth of Xbox hardware generations. The Xbox One S is now as small as the original Xbox 360, but not quite to the size of the Xbox 360 S/E. Unsurprisingly, the original Xbox One was even bigger than the original 2001 Xbox.



Ultimately, I'm still much more eagerly awaiting the full Scorpio hardware update, but the Xbox One S was a long overdue refresh. If nothing else, it at least leaves the Xbox One no longer as a beastly, oversized, whalephant, VCR, gargantuan, monolithic mass of plastic as its prior version was.