When Microsoft's Xbox development team started work on the successor to the Xbox One consoles around 2016, they had already envisioned the need to have two console versions, similar to their Xbox One X and Xbox One S models, to meet the needs of different markets. By developing both units in concert, they would be able to make sure games developed would be able to be played on both systems without exception. As has been tradition with past Xbox projects, the consoles were given code names based on cities. The Xbox Series S was named Project Lockhart, based on the city of
Lockhart, Texas, which Aaron Greenberg said was known as "the little city with the big heart". For the high-end console, the Xbox Series X, Microsoft's primary goals were to at least double the graphical performance of the
Xbox One X as measured by its
floating point operations per second (FLOPS), and to increase CPU performance four-fold compared to Xbox One X while maintaining the same acoustic performance from the Xbox One consoles. As the engineers collected power requirements to meet these specifications, they saw these parts would draw a large amount of internal power (approximately 315
W) and would generate a significant amount of heat. Compared to the Xbox One X, the CPU is about four times as powerful and the GPU is twice as powerful. The Xbox Series X is powered by a custom 7 nm
AMD SoC combining Zen 2 CPU and RDNA 2 GPU. The custom
Zen 2 CPU with eight cores running at a nominal 3.8 GHz or, when
simultaneous multithreading (SMT) is used, at 3.66 GHz. One CPU core is dedicated to the underlying operating system. The unit ships with 16 GB of
GDDR6 SDRAM, with 10 GB running at 560 GB/s primarily to be used with the graphics system and the other 6 GB at 336 GB/s to be used for the other computing functions. After accounting for the system software, about 13.5 GB of memory will be available for games and other applications, with the system software only drawing from the slower pool. The Xbox Series X's console form is designed to be unobtrusive and minimalistic. It has a footprint, is high, and weighs . The Series X includes an HDMI 2.1 output, the storage expansion slot, three
USB 3.2 ports, and an
Ethernet port. The console has an IR receiver in its controller pairing button next to the front USB port.
Xbox Series S The Xbox Series S is comparable in its hardware to the Xbox Series X, similar to how the Xbox One S relates to the Xbox One X, but has less processing power. While it runs the same CPU with slightly slower clock frequencies, it uses a slower GPU, a custom RDNA2 with 20 CUs at 1.55 GHz for 4.006 TFLOPS, compared to 12.155 TFLOPS of the Series X. It ships with 10 GB of GDDR6 SDRAM, with 8 GB running at 224 GB/s primarily to be used with the graphics system and the other 2 GB at 56 GB/s to be used for the other computing functions, and a 512 GB SSD storage unit with a raw input/output throughput of 2.4 GB/s. It does not include an optical drive, so all games and software must be obtained
digitally via
Microsoft Store. It is intended to render games nominally at
1440p, with support for a 4K
upscaler, at 60 frames per second, although it can go as high at 120 frames per second at this resolution. It starts at $299.99. Otherwise, the console has the same functions as the Xbox Series X, including ports, expansions, and game support. Microsoft designed the Series S to easily fit inside of a small bag or backpack for portability and travel usage. The Series S unit is about 60% smaller by volume than the Series X, measuring in its vertical orientation. In this orientation, its large side surface features the major exhaust port for active air cooling, similar to the top surface of the Series X; additional vents are then located on the top of the Series S. Like the Series X, the front of the Series S features one USB port and a controller pairing button with an integrated IR receiver. The rear of the console includes the power connector, one HDMI port, two additional USB ports, and an Ethernet port. Like the Series X, the Series S can also be placed horizontally with the exhaust port facing upward to maintain airflow. The Series S launched in a matte white case along with a matching controller, distinguishing it from the matte black that the Series X uses. with a raw input/output throughput of 2.4 GB/s. An on-board compression/decompression block includes both the industry standard
zlib decompression algorithm and a proprietary BCPack algorithm geared for
game textures, and it gives a combined throughput as high as 4.8 GB/s. The Series S includes a 512 GB SSD (364 GB available) The consoles support external storage through a proprietary SSD
expansion card inserted into the back of the console, which was manufactured exclusively by
Seagate Technology on launch and limited to a 1 TB size when first released. Later versions included 512 GB and 2 TB versions and were released at the end of 2021, while expansion cards manufactured by
Western Digital were released in June 2023. 4 TB versions were released by Seagate in June 2025. As with the Xbox One, the consoles will also support external USB storage, but only
backward compatible games (which can also be transferred directly from an Xbox One console) will be able to run directly from external USB storage. Xbox Series X- and S-native games must be stored on the internal SSD or an expansion card in order to be played, but they can be moved to a USB storage device to make room for other games. The DirectStorage API was released in March 2022 for Windows-based computers with
graphics cards that support DirectX 12 and NVMe SSDs, though games must be programmed to take advantage of the DirectStorage API. DirectStorage was planned to be a built-in feature along with Auto HDR for
Windows 11 at release in late 2021, as well as offered within Windows 10.
Video and audio rendering technologies Both the Series X and Series S support real-time
ray-tracing and support the new features of the
HDMI 2.1 standard including
variable refresh rate (VRR) and Auto Low Latency Mode (ALLM) that are currently being incorporated into newer televisions. The console will have dedicated audio hardware acceleration. A feature called "audio ray tracing" will use the graphics ray tracing processors to process spatial audio in the same manner to improve the audio immersion for the player. Another goal for Microsoft was to reduce the effects of input latency to improve responsiveness, adding support for HDMI 2.1 Auto Low Latency Mode and Variable Refresh Rate features, and "dynamic latency input" technology—a new input pathway that allows developers to incorporate potential controller lag into their games. Both consoles support
Dolby Vision and
Dolby Atmos technologies. Dolby Vision was initially limited to streaming apps at launch, but was released for games in September 2021.
Comparison The following table is a comparison of the major components of the fourth generation of Xbox consoles.
Xbox Wireless Controller The Series X and Series S ship with an updated version of the
Xbox Wireless Controller intended to fit a larger range of hand sizes. They include same key buttons as the past controllers: two analog joysticks that can be depressed, a
circle pad, four action buttons, two system buttons ("View" and "Menu"), the main Xbox home button, two grip triggers (left and right), and two shoulder buttons (left and right). The new controller adds a "Share" button alongside the "View" and "Menu" buttons; pressing "Share" once takes a screenshot, while holding the button begins a Game DVR recording. The D-pad is a new concave design that senior console designer Ryan Whitaker said was a means to merge the normal D-pad style on the standard Xbox One controller and the version on the Elite variant to accommodate a range of playstyles. The new controller also supports the
Bluetooth Low Energy standard allowing it to pair with mobile devices and other hardware supporting that standard, and has internal storage to remember those connections. Spencer said that the Xbox Series X would likely not have immediate
virtual reality (VR) support at launch, and that they expect that any VR support would be based on the
Windows Mixed Reality components contained within the console's
Windows 10 components, but was otherwise not a focus of the console's development prior to release.
Mid-generation refreshes An updated Xbox Series S with a matte black finish and 1 TB of storage launched on September 1, 2023; the internal design remains otherwise unchanged. Unrelated court documents from the 2022 court case
FTC v. Microsoft included plans for refreshed mid-generation consoles planned to be released in 2024. The updated Xbox Series X, codenamed "Brooklin", would feature a cylindrical design that drops the optical drive, draw less power, increase internal storage to 2 TB, and improve wireless connectivity with
Wi-Fi 6E. The updated Xbox Series S, codenamed "Ellewood", would retain the same design as the current Series S, reducing power consumption and adding Wi-Fi 6E and 1 TB of internal storage. Both console refreshes were planned to ship with a new Xbox controller, codenamed "Sebile". The new controller would be named the Xbox Universal Controller and would include a rechargeable, swappable battery. Microsoft released refreshed versions of both consoles on October 15, 2024, which included a 1 TB Xbox Series S in a white finish, an Xbox Series X in white without the optical drive, and the 2 TB Xbox Series X Galaxy Black Special Edition. The new Series X models use a redesigned motherboard with a smaller system-on-chip, and replace its
vapor chamber cooling mechanism with copper heat pipes. The new models were reported to have slightly reduced power consumption. == Software ==