The Xbox One was recently released on Nov. 22, 2013. For the Xbox One being a new console, it is pretty bulky and much more expensive than previous consoles. The new Xbox One costs $500 and the previous console, the Xbox 360, went for around $300. Also, its main competition, the PlayStation 4, is $100 cheaper which makes consumers wonder why the Xbox One is $100 more. Many question if the Xbox One is worth the extra money and or the upgrade.
The first thing to talk about is what you get for $500 in the box you get the Xbox One console, a Xbox One Kinect, HDMI cord, power brick, Xbox One controller and a Xbox One headset. Everything is pretty self-explanatory, cords are included to plug in the console as well as a controller.
With 8 GB of RAM and an eight-core processor, the Xbox One is very speedy and doesn’t lag too much during use. The graphics on the Xbox One are amazing; in certain games it almost looks real. Some people bought the console for this exact reason.
“[The] graphics are much better, too,” junior Daniel Magno said. “And it’s a home theater system, too.”
That brings up an excellent point: how does the Xbox One weigh in on other things besides games. The Xbox One has a ton of video watching apps that help in connect in to your living room. A couple of notable apps would be Netflix, Hulu plus, Fox Now and Crackle.
A consumer can also plug in a cable box directly into the console and by speaking to the Kinect can say watch TV while doing anything and it will turn on TV. Just by saying “Go to NBC” will take a customer straight to the NBC channel without having to scroll through the guide. Just speaking to the console gives full control; it allows anyone from a child to a grandmother to use it.
This brings up the Kinect, which reads all the voice commands, and also has a camera in it which is always on when the console is. The speech function works great and creates an easy way to navigate through the console menus. Having the camera always on can be bothersome to certain people and having an eye always on the user can be annoying.
“It makes me uncomfortable that the camera is always watching me,” junior Tom Schultz said.
The biggest problem though is the shortage of games for the console. There really are only eight good games out for the console right now. Eventually this won’t be a problem, but it could be worth it to wait to buy the Xbox One until more games come out.
Overall the console is very powerful and is different than anything that has been seen before. The Xbox One is perfect as a home theater system especially with voice commands that prevent having to go look for a remote. But if gaming is what’s important, then the recommendation would be to wait because there aren’t enough games out yet. Although the console costs a lot at $500, it definitely doesn’t go to waste.
