The real question is where you can begin pre-ordering the Microsoft Xbox Series X: a number of different retailers are already showing stock, as well as the availability to pre-order. This includes Best Buy, which is no real surprise to anyone, but you can also find them at Sam’s Club. Listing for preorders went live on the usual retailer websites today, including Target, Walmart, Microsoft, and GameStop, but as quickly as the listings appeared, they were sold out. No big surprise there either, as everyone probably jumped on the opportunity to pre-order the new consoles as swiftly as possible.
You can also find listings available on Amazon, the Microsoft Store, Newegg, and even My Exchange if you’re military. Problem is, stock is going very quickly. Even Microsoft has gone as far as to recommend that prospective buyers sign up for stock alerts with their preferred retailers, in order to be informed of when stock is available as quickly as possible, giving you a better chance to buy before they are sold out again.
As for which console you should buy, there are a few factors to consider. The Series X is the main flagship console, just like the Xbox One is to the Xbox One S. It’s shaped like a PC tower and has many features, including ray-tracing, smart delivery that allows you to buy games for both the Xbox One and the Series X simultaneously, and a quick resume function. It’ll also have a disc drive for physical copies of games, and can support 4K resolution at 120 FPS, though that doesn’t mean every game will reliably hit those thresholds. This model is $500.
For $200 less, you can get the Xbox Series S, which is just like the Xbox One S: it’s a smaller, cheaper variant that is mildly less powerful than its big brother. It doesn’t have a disc drive for physical games, and is capable of 1440p at 120 FPS with 4K upscaling where possible. The SSD is only 512 GB instead of one terabyte for the Series X, which may seem like a problem, but Microsoft has said that all Series S game files will be 30% smaller than the Series X version. The Series S is undeniably a weaker console specs-wise, but for $300 it’s a very affordable way to get involved in the next generation of gaming. If you primarily play games digitally and don’t care for physical game copies, it is an even better option, so it’s really just about weighing what you want from the next generation.
