We were all aware of its existence, but now we know it’s a real thing: Microsoft is releasing a smaller, leaner version of the Xbox One called… the Xbox One S.
Thanks to this official listing, we now know that the 2TB Xbox One S will retail for $549 in Australia.
Microsoft Australia confirmed to us it would be available in August.
In addition, Microsoft announced an official price drop for the existing Xbox One. Starting from today the 500GB Xbox One is $399, and the 1TB Xbox One is now available at $499.
Comments
62 responses to “The New 2TB Xbox One S Will Retail For $549.95 In Australia”
I’d still rather pay $549 for a 512 SSD.
I just did some over due reading on the hard drive in the XBone (DRM put me right off) and now I understand the volume of complaints.
Honestly, a $55 5400RPM hard disk can cannot be swapped out unless the console is dismantled?
I was thinking maybe this console for 4K playback but nope, I’d rather put that money to a PS4.5 or an SSD in my current PS4. At least Sony is not paranoid about me upping the internal storage capacity of the console I paid for.
And yes, I know that putting an SSD in will only (at best) improve load times by a third but that is still a good improvement.
I even put one in my old PS3 and it took care of the texture pop-in on Rage. Didn’t make the game any more fun but I was only expecting performance improvements, not miracles, 😛
I’m not even worried about game load times. It’s OS responsiveness. This is the only device I currently own with a platter drive for the operating system. Nothing can fix it except an SSD. Add to that the fact Microsoft could ban you at any time if you change the drive and it’s pretty frustrating.
It’s offical, the first model XBox from the early 00’s is still the best MS made.
They banned people on that if they took a modified console online didn’t they? Online gaming wasn’t quite as big back then though, it was all about the split screen.
I think Sony did as well. From memory they used to try and authenticate the console during online play and if the scan detected inconsistencies they kicked the users off.
But in terms of MS, yes, the did throw the ban hammer but it was on the console, not the Live account.
So to get around it one simply had to get a new console. The problem I saw with that is what if the banned console was traded?
Although MS allows game/dlc installs on external hdd – something Sony doesn’t – so it’s swings and roundabouts. And up to 2 hdds attached at once. Infinitely easier expandability. But swings and roundabouts.
Personally I find it easier to get another external hdd than to keep having to rely on constantly updating a single internal hdd. I’m currently running a 4tb external 5400rpm hdd and a 1Tb 7200 rpm (where my currently played games reside for speedier load times) – and have no storage issues.
I prefer the external for games, but the internal is abysmal for OS load times and responsiveness. I haven’t had a laptop with a SATA2 5400rpm drive for years now, and wouldn’t choose it for any operating system.
If I could put a smaller SSD for OS and apps, maybe my favourite game or two, and everything else on a big 3tb external, then I’d be happy.
Pulled out mine for a bit of a quick play and to see what slow down you were speaking of.
Don’t know if it’s my hardware but for the most part is snappy. But when things do go wrong I get the impression the OS has hung itself/hit a kernel panic.
But in saying that, personally I think the UI has gotten even worse. The home screen (if I can still call it that) is basically a large billboard for MS.
Call me nuts but I think we were better off with the blades the 360 used back in the day.
This UI is terrible, but so we’re the blades. I wouldn’t even buy an Xbox until they replaced blades. The only saving grace of the current Xbox UI is kinect and voice launching.
If it was for a windows PC, sure, I would too. But since it makes almost zero difference to the speed of launching games, you’re better off getting the larger capacity.
I’m not worried about launching games, I’m worried about pulling up menu’s and experiencing lag in OS responsiveness. A couple of seconds in game load doesn’t make a difference to me, once it’s loaded, it’s loaded, and there is going to be a load screen anyway. It’s things you expect instantly that are jarring.
Was interested in an Xbox one without the brick and in a slimmer form factor but at $549AUD not on your nelly!! Put it at $450 outright and I’ll change my mind. Say no to being ripped off.
All of this rendered completed pointless by the Scorpio being released about a year from now.
Is it though? Scorpio is currently a working name accompanied by a bunch of useless buzzwords.
You’d be better off saying that the Xbones is pointless because $549 worth of beer would provide greater longevity, more fun, and still leave you with the same feelings of worthlessness.
Fair enough. Should have made it clear I was refering to people who already own a xbone who may for some reason have been considering a slim.
So if I was going to buy a 4k bluray player, is a $500 Xbox/PlayStation, or a $600 Samsung bluray player more appealing? Doesn’t seem pointless to me. If you have a crappy old TV or don’t use your Xbox for media though, there’s no point in upgrading.
Not entirely. When HD-DVD was still a thing, I used one on my then CRT. It may seem strange as the resolution is higher but there was a reason.
A clearer image without fewer artefacts than MPEG2 and better colour was still sent to the screen. So while it was still in SD, it was clearer SD than DVD etc.
But I will concede, using an old TV is still viable for 2K content but for 4K it’s just too much waste in the down scaling.
I can honestly see more benefit to that tactic with an analogue signal than digital. With digital it’s almost pointless, you can’t send anything higher than what it can render and the bandwidth available.
At $550, it’s really not worth it. I traded my original Xbox One in months back and will be sticking with my day one PS4 until more news on the Scorpio or Neo comes to light.
Sorry in advance if I am over stepping my bounds but what made you trade in your Xbone?
I have the Forza model so at least it being a limited run gives me some reason to retain it but I’ve hardly played it due to the unfriendly nature of the game installs and torturous update methods.
I think $450 would be a fairer price but deep cuts and bundles will bring down the cost eventually if not day one 😉
Im pretty sure in the original trailer it mentioned that the new console would be in more sizes than just 2tb. Im curious to see how cheap a 500gb xbox one s would be as it might be worth it for the 40% smaller especially seeing as I already have an external I use for most of my xbox one stuff anyway
Yeah, I was expecting this to be smaller AND cheaper! I’ve also never understood the need for such large amounts of storage in consoles, seriously…who’s using 2TB of storage on an Xbox?!
I am. Ive got a 2tb external plugged in and thats 3/4 full. My internal is about half full too. That gets me pretty close to 2tb used on my x1.
Is that all game installs?
Yup. The apps prob only add up to about 200mb
yeah I am the same. The external hdd I mentioned is pretty big so I can see people needing 2tb but usually the price difference between the console versions is bigger than the price of a cheap external.
So it does 4K video, does it actually have a 4K blu Ray drive or are they just talking about 4K Netflix and the like?
Since it supports High Dynamic Range I’m guessing it has a new 4k Bluray drive as I believe the HDR stuff is currently only available on 4k BR.
HDR is available on Netflix. You can even search “HDR” and find the content, Lifehacker have done a handy article on this.
There you go, you learn something everyday. Link for anyone who’s interested: http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2016/04/hdr-on-netflix-do-you-need-to-care/
I think the reason why a new drive is needed is because 4K movies come on tri-layer disks and most current drives can only read up to dual-layer disks.
Yeah the promo video says 4k Bluray
Big W are selling the current Xbox one for $299 with games in a few days. You really have to be keen to fork out nearly double that amount to essentially get the same thing.
It’s shiny and new!!
It does 4k Blu-Ray play back where as the current Xbone does not. Also considering the price of standalone 4k Blu-Ray players at the moment and the Xbone is also a games console & can be a DVR & a rang of other entertainment features it’s a pretty tempting price for something that does more than just one thing.
especially when you could literally just use a dremel to make the xbox one slim, by replacing the heatsink/fan with a low profile, and cutting the plastic down to size.
Well shit how much will the more powerful 1.5 cost then???
US$599
Holiday 2017, I’d guess about the same price.
Bwahahahaha!
$100 extra for 500GB more space???
It’s a bit dif. The 1TB internal in the x1 is the ssd hybrid thing. Not just 500gb extra.
OK fair enough, but it still seems like a lot extra to pay. Does the hybrid SSD result in any leaps in performance or does it just cut loading times?
No idea. I think the idea was to imporve load times.
Only Xbox Elite has hybrid drive, AFAIK?
The people talking about this being overpriced, or being “basically the same thing”, clearly haven’t been looking at the market for actual 4K bluray players. This is a day one purchase for me, if only for that. Beats spending $900+ on a Panasonic player that can’t do anything else.
Yah I saw Sony 4K players for around the $500 mark.
Not very hard to do at all, with an external HD I am using about 3.5gb. Being a fan of games across a wide range of genres, it’s good to have everything ready go.
So the price drops on the current models will bring them down to…. their current prices.
ummmmm
Australia Tax strikes again. I just read it is USD$299 ($AUD404). We get so ripped off in this country! I will be sure to pick up lots of tech if i ever visit the US.
What’s the problem mate? We’re actually getting the new consoles cheaper than US consumers…
Slim 500GB = $399AUD (incl tax/gst)
Slim 2TB = $549AUD (incl tax/gst)
While in the US:
Slim 500GB = USD$299 = AUD$406 + sales tax
Slim 2TB = USD$399 = AUD$542 + sales tax
You need to compare it against USD$399 (AUD$540). The USD$299 is for the 500gb base version, then USD$349 for 1TB and USD$399 for 2TB.
Then possibly add tax on top of it, which is included in the AUD price but probably not in the USD price.
I’m in the market for a blu-ray player this year and as I’ll be upgrading to a 4K TV as well this looks like a decent purchase for me.
2 year price protection on my credit card should mean that I can claim back some price drops when Scorpio comes out.
I’d revisit your ccard price protection, I highly doubt a 2-yr period is feasible.
I use it all the time for things more than a year old with succesful claims.
https://financialservices.coles.com.au/credit-cards/about-our-credit-cards/account-cover-plus
The full PDS:
https://financialservices.coles.com.au/~/media/financial-services/files/creditcards/account-cover-plus-combined.pdf
There are conditions like It has to be from an Australian store, and I can only price match with the same store. But it works great for Graphics Cards, Mobile Phones, and most technology items that come down in price quite rapidly as new products hit the market.
Shit.. I sound like a salesman.
Wow, 2 yrs. Coles must be dumb. Their card project can go bankrupt just from this one clause if more people know about it.
Does the slim have the hybrid SSD hard drive?
All I wanna know is if I wanna get an Xbox console in the next year or so would I be better off holding out for Project Scorpio? I feel like with how powerful Project Scorpio is rumored to be it should be worth the wait, though I’d miss out on fair amount of games :/
The teraflops of Scorpio isn’t enough to play games in 4K on high. Medium at best. I think at best you’ll see Xbone level graphics, or even worse.
Source: every single tech website that predicted teraflops of current-gen isn’t enough for 1080p.
Remember when slim versions of consoles were cheaper than their predecessors?
I think I’ll get an iPhone 5s I mean xbox1s