Microsoft’s Xbox One S, which was announced at E3 this year, will finally be available to purchase from August 2, Major Nelson announced on his blog today. To begin with, the 2TB SKU, which retails for $399, will be the only configuration that will be offered, though Microsoft will also be offering variants with 1TB of on board storage and 500GB of on board storage for $349 and $299 respectively.
The Xbox One S features a whole range of improvements over the existing model- it features an improved controller with better wireless range and better grips, it is 40% smaller than the existing Xbox One, and it comes with an integrated power supply, ports and buttons have been shuffled around on the system to make them more accessible, and the system supports the 4K, UHD, and HDR standards for Blu Ray playback, making it the only console to do so. That said, however, it does lack a native port for Kinect, although an adaptor will be made available.
In spite of Microsoft having announced the Xbox One Scorpio for release in Holiday 2017, pre-orders for the Xbox One S have apparently been brisk, and we should not be surprised to see the Xbox One’s sales performance pick up a bit as a result of the launch of the new system. Sony, on their part, are also apparently preparing a PS4 Slim, as well as a Scorpio-esque upgrade, the PS4 Neo, for release soon.
