Gaming Consoles & PCs Xbox Series S Price, Release Date, Specs, Games, News, and Rumors The all-digital console just might have the edge over Xbox Series X by S.E. Slack Strategy Director, Lifewire.com S.E. Slack has 30+ years' experience writing about technology. She has authored 12 books and thousands of articles, and she has worked for IBM and Microsoft. our editorial process LinkedIn S.E. Slack Updated on September 23, 2020 Consoles & PCs Xbox Buyer's Guide Tweet Share Email The Xbox Series S from Microsoft is the companion console to the more powerful Xbox Series X. Billed as the smallest Xbox ever, it plays only downloaded games and doesn't support 4K gaming. Still, it packs a pretty delightful punch. When Will the Xbox Series S Be Released? The Xbox Series S will be released on November 10, 2020. Xbox Series S Price Microsoft is making the Series S available in two different ways: You can purchase it separately for a flat $299 or you can bundle it with Xbox All Access. If you choose to bundle, it will cost you $24.99/month for two years. That gives you the console plus 24 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Pre-Order and Purchase Information Pre-orders for the Xbox Series S went live on September 22, 2020, even though the console won't actually be available until November 10. Sites taking the pre-orders were sold out within minutes, so Microsoft swiftly promised to release more inventory for retailers to take additional pre-orders. The following sites and retailers will be taking pre-orders when things open up again; no date has been announced for that yet. ; Target and Best Buy allow you to sign up for email notifications: Pre-order Xbox Series S on BestBuy.comPre-order Xbox Series S on Microsoft.com The console supports a 1TB Seagate expansion SSD; you can preorder it here for $219.99 and Best Buy or other retailers should also have it available for preorder. The Latest News about Xbox Series S Microsoft officially announced the pre-order and release dates of the Xbox Series S on September 9, 2020. Xbox Series S News Release from Microsoft Your Old Xbox Games Will Play on Xbox Series X Xbox Series S Features The console comes only in white and includes a wireless controller. If has the same CPU as the Xbox Series X with the three key differences: a slightly slower GPU, less memory, and the lack of a disc drive. That puts the Series S focus on frame rate over resolution, which is what Microsoft says more of its customers want. Even though the GPU is not as fast in the Series S as it is in the Series X, it's still four times faster than the Xbox One. You can scale up games for 4k on TVs and there's full hardware support for graphics, including ray tracing, mesh shaders, and variable rate shading. The primary difference between Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S is in resolution. Xbox Series S Specs and Hardware The xBox Series S is an all-digital gaming console powered by an 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU. It delivers more than 40 times the I/O bandwidth of an Xbox One for faster load times, steadier frame rates, and Quick Resume for multiple titles. Xbox Series X-at-a-Glance Frame rate 1440P at up to 120fps Optical drive None. Digital only. System on a Chip Custom 7nm Enhanced SoC Expandable storage 1 TB expansion card Internal storage 512 GB SSD Memory interface 10GB GDDR6 Memory bandwidth 8GB @ 224 GB/s or 2 GB 56GB/s IO throughput (raw) 4.8GB/s, (uncompressed) 2.4GB/s CPU 8-core AMD Zen 2 CPU @ 3.6 GHz/3.6GHz with SMT enabled GPU 4 TFLOPS GPU architecture AMD RDNA 2 GPU 20 CUs @ 1.565GHz Xbox Series S Games and Backwards Compatibility Microsoft is promising that 'thousands' of digital Xbox One and Xbox 360 digital games will all be available to use on the Series S at launch. That means when you see a game in the digital store for the original Xbox, the Xbox 360, or the Xbox One, you can play it on the Xbox Series S. However, some enhancements found in other consoles might not be available in the Series S. For example, while you can play some games in 4K on the Xbox One X, system memory limitations of the Series S could limit that same experience even though you can play the same game on both consoles. On the other hand, some games are being updated so it's possible you won't really see much difference at all visually. An unidentified Microsoft spokesperson told Gamespew that "Xbox Series S was designed to be the most affordable next generation console and play next generation games at 1440P at 60fps. To deliver the highest quality backwards compatible experience consistent with the developer’s original intent, the Xbox Series S runs the Xbox One S version of backward compatible games while applying improved texture filtering, higher and more consistent frame rates, faster load times and Auto HDR.” The Xbox Series X and S are referred to as 'next generation' by Microsoft so if you see that wording, that's all it's referring to. Xbox One gaming accessories will be compatible as well. The Wireless Controller The Xbox controller has been redesigned in several key ways. New technology between the console and the HDMI television connection sends information more frequently between the two, which shaves off time and makes gameplay more responsive. It now fits a wider range of hand sizes and includes rounded bumpers, a tactile dot pattern on triggers and bumpers, carefully sculpted grips and a new D-pad. The D-pad now has a slightly deeper dish for your thumb and the angles are tuned differently so that you can use the D-pad with minimal movement. The controller is also designed for cross-compatability between Xbox Series X and Xbox One, plus PC, Android, and iOS. It will remember multiple devices so that switching is easy to do. One interesting nod to modern times is the Share button. With it, gamers can easily grab screenshots or record videos to share with others. The Headset The console does not come with a headset. However, multiple manufacturers are already claiming their headsets will be compatible with the Xbox Series S.