The Xbox One Review: Unifying Your Living Room Experience

[Marcus Yam]

We've been messing with Microsoft's Xbox One for a while now, and it's surprisingly hard to compare against Sony's PS4. Join us as we walk through the hardware, the software, and the console's role quarterbacking your more connected living room.

The Xbox One Review: Unifying Your Living Room Experience : Read more

 

[lostgamer_03]

Great review, really made reflect over what a gaming machine should be able to do nowadays. A gaming machine isn't just a gaming machine anymore and the Xbox One, even though it might not be as powerful as PS4, is a really attractive product in my perspective.

 

[Ceee9]

any Am%$^$N want to trash this?

 

[Nahkman]

Reinventing the TV experience only applies to the Americas as the rest of the world does not really care much about ESPN, and also a lot of the functionality is NA only, there was also a rumor that kinect voice commands do not work in a lot of european countries.

 

[Maziar]

Great review
At the time being,IMO PS4 is a better gaming machine;whereas,X1 is a better entertainment system.
PS4 has a more powerful GPU so it should perform better in games and is $100 cheaper too;whereas,X1 tries to do more than just gaming and costs more.
For me,PS4 is a better machine because I only tend to play games on a console but X1 is also a great machine

 

[de5_Roy]

10 pages and.. nothing about xbone(R)'s gaming capability or gaming experience. the review was done well, but seems restricted to media capabilities. the device seems versatile.
some of the ps4 reviews i read had info on gaming as well as media/entertainment. i mean info like how the games look and feel to a player, resolution and user perception, joystick (and other input devices) performance in gaming etc.

 

[daglesj]

As a 42 year old that back in 2006 played a lot of games on my console but now mainly uses it for media and streaming with a bit of gaming on the side (I'm sure I'm not the only one) the Xbox One is a more compelling unit than the PS4.

I'm pretty sure MS went over the usage stats of the 360 and found that more and more people were using the media/TV/movie aspects. After all thats where the money is.

MS could sell half as many Xbox Ones as Sony but it will still be making far more per console in subscriptions and services. The money going forward isn't in games.

However, I don't think this generation will be as long lived as the 360/PS4. I see One.5 or PS4.5 models or total replacement within 5 years.

 

[zzzaac]

Unfortunately all these nifty things are half working or not working at all for countries other than US of A

I might be getting both, but to be honest I might not get any, as I've become more of a PC gamer

 

[daglesj]

delete

 

[daglesj]

delete

 

[cats_Paw]

I think im getting old, becouse when i read this i think that the Xbox one is basicly a low end PC with limited usability...

 

[daglesj]

Holy moly what other web forum keeps your comment hidden below and adds it every time you refresh the page???

One day Tom's will move into the 21st century. Apologies folks.

 

[-Fran-]

Ugh... I think Microsoft tried (and wants to) put in the same bag as much people as possible with the XBox One. Just like the Wii did at first with the "casual" games and first party "hardcore" games (yeah, whatever).

It is not a bad thing when done right, yes, but then you'll have a "jack of all trades" instead of a "gaming machine". I'm not an advocate of putting too many specific functions into one device until the technology is up to par with the individual ones. Smartphone cameras is a fine example for that: today we find "good" picture quality compared to a Point and Shoot and it will get even better down the road thanks to tech advancements. In the case of consoles, I expect SteamBox to trash everything else in the living room gaming wise first and other-stuff second, including the recent-out consoles. There's a world of horsepower of difference between the custom APUs and using an Intel + nVidia/AMD video card with an optimized OS (SteamOS, remember?).

I'll need a first hand experience with the XB1 and the PS4, but as "consoles", they must not disappoint. Kinnect is a feature you should/can put in a PC/HTPC with little effort if you want one (we're in a tech site, so this phrase is valid). Same for the EyeToy. Hell, even speech recognition used in the XB1, I'm sure is a derivative from the one in Windows that anyone can actually tune and use.

Cheers!

 

[Jgriff]

look at that new and improved steam controller, thats all i see when i look at the x1

 

[SteelCity1981]

So basicly the xbox one has a bunch of stuff that I already have on my tv and cable box, which makes its features pretty much useless to me. Already have a smart TV don't need another smart deivce. Already have a DVR, don't need that either. Also I find some of the features they put on there rather dumb. if I'm playing a game why would I want to Skype with someone or watch tv at the same time, which would distract me from playing the game in the first place! I don't need a Kinect so why would have to shell out an extra 100 dollars for something I don't want not to mention I don't have the room for it. if microsoft was actually smart they would bundle the xbox one without a Kinect and cut the price by 100 dollars to compete with sony I just think that Microsoft really missed out here.

 

[rsktek]

The reasons why the Xbox One is not the right choice for me ( I appreciate what they tried to do ) is that I DON'T HAVE CABLE, rural USA doesnt have that available. So all the TV functionality is pointless :/ Also, having a tablet, like the Nexus 7 along with you as you're playing games or watching Local TV, I don't see Kinect and its voice commands being any faster than searching stuff on the tablet. Just my 2 cents (Disclaimer: Not getting any Next Gen machines, only appreciate them pushing developers to use more CPU resources AKA better PC ports)

 

[tuanies]

Great review
At the time being,IMO PS4 is a better gaming machine;whereas,X1 is a better entertainment system.
PS4 has a more powerful GPU so it should perform better in games and is $100 cheaper too;whereas,X1 tries to do more than just gaming and costs more.
For me,PS4 is a better machine because I only tend to play games on a console but X1 is also a great machine

We'll have more stories on both consoles.

10 pages and.. nothing about xbone(R)'s gaming capability or gaming experience. the review was done well, but seems restricted to media capabilities. the device seems versatile.
some of the ps4 reviews i read had info on gaming as well as media/entertainment. i mean info like how the games look and feel to a player, resolution and user perception, joystick (and other input devices) performance in gaming etc.

The problem is a lot of the functionality is limited until the day one update, which the press samples did not have yet. We will have follow ups in the coming weeks. I'll be out camping for mine Thursday night

 

[rsktek]

*Edit I hope this doesn't double post -_-

 

[cknobman]

Wow the review really put in perspective just how big and ugly the Xbox One is (physically). It will make my XBox 360S look like a midget.

The Xbox One may be an astounding piece of technology but it looks fat and ugly.

 

[expl0itfinder]

I don't think this is a very relevant console compared to the PS4 (for a gamer). The value is just plain bad for a gaming machine. This is mainly because of the price point. There is no significant advantage over the PS4 to justify a $100 price bump IMHO.

 

[monkeycmonkeydu]

This thing is simply a low end DVR that happens to be able to play a few games, while the PS4 is actually optimized for games and can do a few simple media functions. Anybody who buys this thinking it will compete with the PS4 in gaming quality is an idiot.

 

[monkeycmonkeydu]

This thing CAN'T do cable, the cards to decrypt the mostly encrypted cable systems cost $200 by themselves and still require a cable card from the provider.. You think the blowback from PS4's "failing" because stupid customers can't set their TV settings right is bad, wait until you hear the whining from all these kiddies at home who can't figure out how a cable card works.

 

[tuanies]

The reasons why the Xbox One is not the right choice for me ( I appreciate what they tried to do ) is that I DON'T HAVE CABLE, rural USA gets the BIG D* when it come to that shit. So all the TV functionality is pointless :/ Also, having a tablet, like the Nexus 7 along with you as you're playing games or watching Local TV, I don't see Kinect and its voice commands being any faster than searching stuff on the tablet. Just my 2 cents (Disclaimer: Not getting any Next Gen machines, only appreciate them pushing developers to use more CPU resources AKA better PC ports)

This thing CAN'T do cable, the cards to decrypt the mostly encrypted cable systems cost $200 by themselves and still require a cable card from the provider.. You think the blowback from PS4's "failing" because stupid customers can't set their TV settings right is bad, wait until you hear the whining from all these kiddies at home who can't figure out how a cable card works.

It doesn't use CableCard. It has an HDMI input for your cable box and uses an IR blaster.

 

[de5_Roy]

The problem is a lot of the functionality is limited until the day one update, which the press samples did not have yet. We will have follow ups in the coming weeks. I'll be out camping for mine Thursday night

wow, the article just made much more sense to me. i must have missed that bit about toms' sample not having the update (i assumed it had already or microsoft was smart enough to include it in the review kit). thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

[tuanies]

The problem is a lot of the functionality is limited until the day one update, which the press samples did not have yet. We will have follow ups in the coming weeks. I'll be out camping for mine Thursday night

wow, the article just made much more sense to me. i must have missed that bit about toms' sample not having the update (i assumed it had already or microsoft was smart enough to include it in the review kit). thanks for clearing that up for me.

I take that back. It had the update but there's no program guide for Canada so some of the functionality is limited unless you're in the US.