Microsoft’s junior Xbox takes on SSD-enhanced legacy hardware.
The video embedded in these parts shows the entirety of our testing, but the overall takeaway is straightforward.
Series S delivers higher frame-rates and - for the most part - faster loading.
However, image quality tends to suffer, even on Microsoft titles such asForza Horizon 5andHalo Infinite.
In the meantime, the comparisons between One X and Series S are intriguing.
We’re getting a 1080p30 version of the game on S with a temporally stable but soft quality image.
We’re talking about a 1440p to 1890p image that holds up well on a 4K display.
Series S enjoys some asset quality boosts, but ultimately, Halo Infinite looks better on One X.
However, despite the more limited GPU power, Series S still produces the better game.
It’s an impressive looking version, though resolution isn’t particularly high.
You’ll find a more detailed image on One X, though that’s not the full visual picture.
There are a range of visual downgrades on Microsoft’s last-gen machine.
Series S is essentially a locked 60fps, with occasional one-off frame drops.
One X really struggles with cutscenes, however.
And when Vanguard does drop frames, it exhibits tearing in the top fifth of the screen.
Performance and graphics are both best on Series S I feel, even though the raw resolution is lower.
That gets even lower in Series S’s 120Hz mode, but at least it has one!
I also took a look at Call of Duty: Warzone, now boasting a brand-new map.
That means pulled in draw distances and reductions to foliage.
Performance strongly favours the Series S however.
Series S is essentially a locked 60, with no in game drops in my testing.
And just like Vanguard, those dropped frames are accompanied by tearing in the top portion of the screen.
Neither version of Warzone feels like a great way to play, unfortunately.
Series S gets the nod here, but only just.
Far Cry 6sums up the more basic cross-gen project.
The lighting is much more realistic as a result, with beautifully bounced light that realistically fills each area.
The improvement is most profound in indoor areas, which often look completely different as a result.
Series S has a more natural appearance however, and it feels much smoother to play.
On cross-gen games, the score between the One X and Series S is fairly even.
Each system has their own unequivocal wins, but they seem fairly evenly matched in these games overall.
However, loading times are a clear next-gen win - even with solid-state storage attached to Xbox One X.
Again, it’s all down to the CPU, which often handles decompression of streamed assets.
Finally: back-compat - and something of a pitched battle.
It’s in Xbox One support that the comparison between the two machines becomes trickier.
And it’s in this respect where cross-gen development continues to favour Xbox One X.
The Matrix Awakens is an unbelievably high-fidelity glimpse into the future of real-time rendering.
