As someone who loves to travel, New York City is probably my favorite place on this spinning globe. But while I may love Brooklyn, I definitely harbor far less fuzzy feelings for Xbox Series X ’s now all but confirmed successor, ‘Brooklin.’
The next Xbox was leaked through filed documents during the ongoing FTC lawsuit regarding Microsoft’s attempted acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Not only were images of this newly svelte Series X accidentally leaked to the public, the successor to the Xbox Series S also got a premature unveiling in the form of ‘Project Ellewood.’ Both are set to launch in 2024, if the filings are accurate.
Personally, I’ve got no problem with the latter console’s refresh. It keeps the current model’s consumer-friendly $299 price tag, while doubling the internal storage capacity of the launch console in the form of a new 1TB SSD. Not a bad deal at all. On paper, it’s also friendlier to the environment, thanks to a new low-power standby mode that runs at just 20% of the output of the current Xbox Series S.
So thumbs up Ellewood… or Xbox Series S 2.0… or whatever Microsoft may end up calling its budget-conscious console refresh.
I’m flipping those same thumbs all the way down when it comes to Brooklin, though. While I appreciate it’s a more energy efficient version of the high-end Xbox we currently have — the PSU is 15% less power-hungry — I just can’t stomach it losing the disc drive of the OG model.
Blue-urns
Yes, that is Back to Future Part III sticking out of my Xbox Series’ X Blu-ray drive, thank you very much. (Image credit: Future / Microsoft)
Recently, I wrote about how Xbox Series X is an excellent 4K Blu-ray player. As someone who still values both UHD movies and regular 1080p discs, a refreshed Series X losing a component I really value without offering any significant hardware upgrades is a tough pill to swallow.
And make no mistake, this is not an ‘Xbox One S evolves into Xbox One X’ Pokemon-style situation. Pikachu isn’t being transformed into a more powerful, console-shaped Raichu here. Aside from improved wireless connectivity in the form of Wi-Fi 6E and 2TB of storage, the refreshed Xbox Series X doesn’t look like it will provide a single meaningful hardware upgrade.
If (but most certainly when), the much-rumored PS5 Pro comes along, it should theoretically wipe the floor with Brooklin. This is a machine tipsters suggest could be a 4K ray tracing powerhouse, and a console with a significantly upgraded GPU and RAM that might even make 8K gaming on Sony’s refreshed PS5 possible.
I’ll admit my collection of Xbox discs is on the sparse side, but I still appreciate the value of physically owning something I can hold in my hands
Microsoft’s discless Xbox future is a slap in the face to everyone who loves physical media
