unboxing
/ʌnˈbɒksɪŋ/
noun: unboxing; plural noun: unboxings

an act or instance of removing a newly purchased product from its packaging and examining its features, typically when filmed and shared on a social media site.

Two members of Onclick have been excited about a November delivery for a couple of months now. And it’s not our two birthday girls, Kat and Luci who’ve been getting amped up…

On a balmy September morning, the two Onclickers in question both spent a good half hour refreshing windows on their browsers trying to order the “fastest most powerful xbox ever”. Since then, they’ve mentioned it, I would take a guess at most days on our team calls!

So, how could we not celebrate the arrivals by sharing with you the grand moment of unboxing as well as our current thoughts on the new releases…

The Reviews

Xbox Series S:

Straight away my thought is: “This thing is TINY!”. It’s less than half the size of my intial launch day Xbox One console and fits nicely onto the stand. Coupled with the simple white design it’s not too imposing in the living room.

Letting it up with the xbox app was as easy as logging in with the xboxlive account I’ve had for 13 years and pressing a couple of buttons to bring over all my settings.

Luckily I’d transfered all my games from my old xbox to an external SSD and with a simple change of usb port those followed instantly.

Gameplay wise even the S is a huge jump up from my now 7 year old xbox, even loading up beefy games like “The Witcher” in seconds! Loading screens are practically a thing of the past and with the insanely quick “Resume” saving exactly where you stopped playing one game whilst switching to another (even after console shutdown), it’s a major game changer (pun intended).

I’m loving this tiny new xbox and cant wait to see what this next generation of gaming has in store.

Sean Hallihan
Digital Learning Developer

Xbox Series X:

Positives:
Very classy looking, black matt finish, rectangular device
Fits nicely on it’s side under the TV
Running games is almost silent
Notable upscale in graphics, even on games not optimised for the new machine
Controller has a new matt finish and texture grips
SSD storage means games run so much quicker/smoother than previous Xbox One

Negatives:
When the device is laid sideways, the xbox logo lights up at 90 angle
Quick resume not always working on some games (Jedi: Fallen Order)
No Series X/S exclusive games as yet
Controller is pretty much the same as before
SSD storage is limited to 1TB which I can see filling up quickly. Additional 1TB is £220!

Mark Baldwin
Creative Designer