Xbox Series X Reportedly Won’t Render its UI in 4K

We are now close enough to next-gen that by this point, Microsoft and Sony have both revealed the user experience features and details of their upcoming consoles. The new Xbox UI, in fact, was revealed quite a while ago, but new details may now have emerged on it that fans might now be too pleased with.

Digital Foundry’s John Linneman recently took to Twitter and said that the Xbox Series X’s UI is rendered in 1080p, same as the Xbox One X. It’s surprising, of course, because the Xbox Series X, as Microsoft’s flagship next-gen console, is perfectly capable of 4K (and more).

Of course, it’s fair to say that players probably won’t be spending too much time in the UI anyway, and what matters more is the games themselves. That said, jumping between 4K games and a 1080p dashboard might be a jarring. This won’t be much of an issue for the Xbox Series S, if nothing else.

Sony recently also revealed the PS5’s new UI in full. Its been confirmed that it will run in 4K.

The new next-gen Xbox dashboard has been rolled out on Xbox One, and will also be used on the Xbox Series X and Series S when they launch in November.

Well, the big problem for me, more than anything, with the Xbox dash is the low resolution. I was disappointed with Xbox One X only offering 1080p UI rendering when PS4 Pro did native 4K but for 1080p UI to continue on Series X…that's really not acceptable to me.

— John Linneman @dark1x.bsky.social (@dark1x) October 15, 2020