Should You / I Buy An Xbox Slim Or Scorpio? Read This Comparison And Decide!

For those of us who love gaming, the impending release of new consoles from the major manufacturers is definitely a good thing. The only thing is, with this much choice, which is the best fit for you?

Lets break down what the differences / advantages of the Slim are over the old wrinkly version.

Its white. Is this a big deal? Depends on whether you prefer white to black. All of my other AV stuff is black so this one is not a big draw to me and I suspect won't be that much of a big sell for most other people. Who has a white TV?

It's smaller. This is pretty cool, although as mine sits on an AV rack, once again it will make no difference to me as although the xbox is quite big, it's not any bigger than an amp so seems to fit ok. However for the people that like to take their xbox around with them this is a big deal as its going to be much easier to cart it around and of course the fact the power brick is integrated will also help. Plus if you only have a smallish TV stand, then it won't take up as much room. Also, its just nice to have small gadgets sometimes..

It can stand vertically. This may or may not be a deal breaker, but it is nice to have the option to do this at least.

4K capability. Although this is cool, for the people that use their Xbox only for playing games, this isn't going to be a huge deal breaker. Games will still only play in 1080p if you're lucky as the console isn't powerful enough to play games in 4K. This is only applicable for video, so if you use your Xbox as a media system with Netflix or Amazon. It's cool if you do use it to watch amazon tv and don't have a fire tv though as you can watch in 4K, but I do have to wonder why anyone does this, as the fire tv is very cheap and completely silent, whereas the Xbox is pretty noisy and the fan noise can really interrupt tv viewing.

HDR. High Dynamic Range is the next big thing in AV circles. It makes the blacks blacker, the whites whiter and colours more vivid. 4K is an increase in resolution, whereas HDR is an increase in range of colours. The two together makes for a big increase in image quality. This is a pretty cool thing to have, but of course you need a TV or projector that can display HDR or it's all for nothing. However if you have got a decent display, then this is a big selling point.

2TB hard drive. A larger hard drive has been pretty much essential for xbox gaming since the start. 500gb was never enough for long. It is certainly more convenient to have a larger internal drive, but for much better performance, an external drive enclosure with an SSD (solid state drive) is definitely the way to go. Your games load much faster and life is generally better. Of course it costs more, but for those who are into gaming, its worth it. Of course for the people who like the size of the new Xbox and want to minimise the amount of boxes sitting under their TV, the new larger internal drive is a good thing.

New controller. Well this is exciting. A new controller that looks the same as the old one but with much larger range? Fantastic. I often found that when I was sitting and playing a game, my controller would lose connectivity with the console. Oh hold on. No, actually that never happened. The increased range is not really much of a benefit for most, but I guess if you have an enormous house with a huge cinema room this one could be beneficial as you may be sitting miles away from the Xbox and need the extra range.

What is more interesting is that the controller now comes with Bluetooth connectivity. This could mean that you could use if for PC gaming as well, as you can now use it wirelessly. This is another of those features that will be useful for some and not for others.

The Xbox One S (or slim) is an improvement over the existing Xbox console in a few ways, but mainly if you have a decent TV and use the media capabilities. It will be superseded by the Xbox Scorpio console in Christmas 2017, but that is a long way off. If you feel like spending some money on a new gadget and have the display to use the new 4K and HDR features then it is probably worth buying as you will be experiencing games and movies at their best. If you don't have a 4k / HDR TV yet, then it will take a bit more consideration, but at some point that will be the new standard in TV. There's always something to spend money on...!

If you have any comments, please leave them below. Thanks for reading and happy gaming!