The Xbox One is an excellent follow-up to the Xbox 360. While not perfect, it is a solid machine that I think will be many times more reliable than the original launch Xbox 360s. I have owned each redesign of the previous generation of consoles, so am approaching this review from an objective, non-fanboy context, having a good basis for comparison.
What I like:
+ The dashboard is integrated WAY better than the Xbox 360 and PS3. There is no longer the feeling of "in a game" or "in the dashboard". You are ALWAYS in both. Say you are in the middle of a game but want to spontaneously change a system setting or launch another app etc. Both the 360 and PS3 had some semi-dashboard functionality built into the dashboard/home button, but most everything required you to first exit the game and go to the dashboard (aside from some shortcuts to go straight to a different game). Now, you press the dashboard button and without interrupting your game in any way, you now have access to the full dashboard and settings, etc. There is really no such thing as being required to "quit" a game anymore, which is awesome.
+ The HDMI-In is definitely a unique feature to the Xbox One that Nintendo and Sony's consoles can't touch. It's not for everyone; you might not care about it. But it certainly opens up some neat possibilities. Any other HDMI-enabled device you may be interested in using can be switched to and from at a moment's notice. I plugged my PS3 into mine, not for the purpose of gaming (since there is a tiny bit of input lag), but to be able to have a game disc in my XBO and a Blu-ray movie in my PS3 so I can switch without removing the game. I could certainly live without the HDMI input, but since it's there I may as well experiment with some interesting ways to use it.
+ Speed. I always was surprised that through the entire life of the Xbox 360 (including the 360 S and 360 E), there was an unacceptable amount of lag on many core dashboard functions. Something as basic as showing your list of games, or list of gamerpics to change to, or achievement lists, or loading marketplace screens, would often take several seconds or waiting to populate. The Xbox One's startup is acceptably fast, but could still be improved on, but basic things like loading marketplace content or my list of installed apps, achievements, etc, is very quick. Switching between game and dashboard is no longer the slow annoyance it used to be, but rather is nearly instantaneous.
+ Day One bonus: Vanity "Day One" achievement, sleek black "Day One" box (instead of green), and "Day One" inscribed on included controller. The value of these may range anywhere from zero to a lot, depending on the person. But I personally really like these small perks, and ultimately pushed me to pre-order the console instead of wait a little bit and likely end up still paying the same price.
+ Dashboard Layout: The Xbox 360 dashboard was too cluttered and poorly organized, in my opinion. There were many different 'sections' to scroll through with LB and RB that made it take longer than necessary to get around. The Xbox One dashboard only has three now, it's much cleaner and simpler. Your pinned games/apps, main section to switch back to currently in-use game/app or browse your other apps, etc, and the third section is for browsing/downloading new games/apps. Very easy to navigate. I also like the notification and achievement changes. You can earn 0-point achievements in random apps, like for watching videos and such. It's admittedly pretty pointless, but if you don't like the idea of pointless achievements, you can easily ignore their existence.
+ Built-in game DVR. Very cool feature that removes the need for external recording equipment for anyone interested in that. Even if you don't plan on using this feature, it could still benefit you in the form of more & better guide videos from other people that will likely be swarming onto YouTube.
+ I obviously can't speak for everyone else, but my Xbox One console, controller, and Kinect, all function flawlessly and had absolutely no issues.
What I'm not thrilled about:
- Launch line-up. If you are on the fence about buying the console and you're not immediately sure what game(s) to even get for it, you could easily wait it out a while longer. Forza 5 and some of the multi-platform releases are pretty cool, but I'm not sure they're $60 cool. If you are buying the Xbox One now, you're doing it for the novelty of being among the first to have a cutting-edge system. This is true with the PS4 as well. Anybody who swears by any of the launch game is just a fanboy drone. There are a handful of *pretty good* games for both systems, but I see them as more of $30-40 titles. Honestly, I've enjoyed the downloadable Xbox One games the most. Killer Instinct is free-to-play with one character, or $20 to unlock all the characters. KI has some good nostalgia-factor for anyone who liked the old SNES/N64 games. The $40 premium version will even unlock the original SNES version of the game too. Crimson Dragon ($20) and the new Kinect Sports game (free, 1 sport only for now) are also good, inexpensive launch games to try without investing a lot of money.
- There are not yet many ways to show the system off to your friends. The games are nowhere close to pushing the graphics to their limit. The cars on Forza 5 are gorgeous. But Call of Duty and any other multiplatform release will disappoint as far as graphical difference between 360/PS3 and One/PS4. But that's expected, and happens with every new generation. I'm sure the exclusive games further down the line will be much more graphically impressive (Gears of War, Halo, etc.)
What I'm neutral about:
* The Kinect: Luckily, you aren't required to even have this plugged in so it's not a big deal. But you are forced to buy it with your console anyway, so you might as well find out what it has to offer. The voice commands are *kind of* cool, but I'm still more of a controller person. I prefer to navigate with my fingers than with my body or voice. I'm glad they made the new Kinect look a little bit neater than the 360's Kinect though. It does have a very much improved camera though. Skype calls with the Kinect are awesome (though outside of the novelty & testing factors, I probably won't use Skype that much). When the full version of Kinect Sports Rivals, and other games designed specifically for Kinect are released, I will probably see more of the value it offers. But for now: eeehh.
* The console's physical design: It actually looks very nice to me. But it does have a small amount of boring-ness to it. It's just a big black box, basically. The key will be to keep the glossy part free of scratches and dust. Glossy consoles are notorious for aging much worse than matte consoles. It's also quite a bit bigger than the Xbox 360 redesigns (but on par with the launch Xbox & Xbox 360 sizes). But I do have to say, I am very glad they are taking precautions to avoid the overheating issues of the launch 360s. The giant cooling heatsink/fan inside, and ample ventilation room inside this ominous monolith, will make it much more reliable and less susceptible to failure; an acceptable trade-off in my mind. I'm sure down the line there will be a smaller version of it. But I didn't want to wait 3-4 years to get it.
Xbox One vs. PlayStation 4 vs. Wii U:
Strangely enough, despite the criticism of its library, I have gotten a lot of mileage out of my Wii U from a lot of the first-party titles Nintendo has put out. I would say that although none of these consoles have an expansive library of triple-A games yet, the Wii U definitely has the most games worth buying at the moment. It also has the advantage of being the cheapest system. The trade-off to that is the power of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, which greatly exceed that of the Wii U. Both XBO and PS4 are honestly very close in their real-world power. Is one more powerful than the other? Probably to some extent, but I find it irrelevant since there is such a small difference between their raw computing capabilities. On-paper analysis is pointless, at the end of the day, the games will determine which is the best. And right now my ratings as far as game line-up is: Wii U - 6.5/10, Xbox One - 4.0/10, PlayStation 4, 4.0/10. They all have a long way to go. Price-wise, obviously the Wii U wins, PS4 is second, and Xbox One is last. It really just depends on what you want. The PS4 has had some bad press with manufacturing issues though. So for reliability I'd rank Wii U first, then Xbox One, then PS4. We'll have to wait a few months though for a clearer consensus on Xbox One & PS4 reliability. What will really matter is what the game libraries look like a year from now.
The bottom line is this: It's a great console with great potential, but as with most launch consoles, the games just aren't quite there to back it up, YET. If you are on the fence over the console because of the 360's launch reliability, I would honestly not let that hold you back on this one since Microsoft learned a very painful & expensive lesson from that, and designed a much more reliable console this time around. If you are waiting because you're unsure of the game library, you may be justified in continuing to wait. I honestly just got it because I knew for sure I would eventually get it anyway when Halo 5 comes out. But it the price is holding you back, you may have to wait YEARS for this to become affordable. So if you are okay waiting that long, great. But otherwise you might as well get it now so you can actually use it while you wait for the game library to improve. Chances are, there won't be any price cuts on it for at least a couple years, and the price cuts aren't usually anything significant until around 4-5 years after launch. So if you have the patience (I didn't), definitely wait. But since I am 98.4% sure the price will still be $499 when Halo 5 comes out, I figured I may as well get it now along with the extra pre-order perks.
A solid system; I definitely do not regret my purchase.
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So far, so good!
I've had almost no issues so far with the Xbox One. Voice recognition is working well and it hasn't hung up yet on a correct command. What I mean by correct command is saying something that your supposed to say. It will hang up if you don't issue the correct command for what you want to do.The only issue I have is the communication between the xbox and my cable box. It will pass through just fine but it has trouble finding the station I want. It will attempt the change the channel but it's just not working. I think possibly it doesn't have the correct remote control code. Hopefully I can figure that out because it would complete this great system.I'm not going to rate it 5 stars until I can get the cable to work seamlessly. Everything else has been great though.Update 11/24/13:I got some excellent support on the Xbox forums regarding my cable box issues and now everything is working as it should. Voice commands now work great with the cable box. I can now safely say that the Xbox One is a fantastic achievement. It does everything I hoped it would and it does it very well. This truly is a one stop entertainment hub. I love that I can do everything with the sound of my voice.
Top reviews from other countries
Dennis Madison
Absolutely Amazing! Perfect for Gamers and non-Gamers.
Reviewed in Canada on December 11, 2013
Amazon Customer
Better than expected, but be warned some features are not available
Reviewed in Canada on November 22, 2013H377
Late delivery, and the power supply failed not a month later
Reviewed in Canada on January 23, 2014