Microsoft published the official detailed Xbox Series S and X specs sheet for its upcoming consoles over on their website. However, it is met with some disappointing facts about the next-gen consoles. This is mainly in terms of the I/O options including USB ports and Wi-Fi support. According to the site, both the X and S don’t have a USB-C port and only support Wi-Fi 5.
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For those who don’t know what this means, the Xbox Series S and X won’t support the next-gen Wi-Fi 6 standards. In other words, the current Wi-Fi chip only supports 802.11ac dual-band. While this is not the end of the world, Wi-Fi 6 boasts some incredible performance and stability which could come in handy in the not-so-distant future. In a few year’s time, many gamers will most likely own Wi-Fi 6 routers with higher speeds and stability. Thus making the Xbox Series X and S chip slower than your network.
When it comes to USB, the Xbox Series S and X don’t include the latest generation ports either. They have USB 3.1 Gen 1. This is only one step higher than the current Xbox One range which is USB 3.0. Keep in mind that at the moment, there is a USB Gen 2 and Gen 2×2 which is the newest certification. However, the dated USB ports on the new consoles should not be an issue at all. The speeds don’t matter now that the consoles require NVMe SSDs rather than external storage plugged in through a USB port. Still, it would have been nice to have a USB C port on the device in case you need it.
When compared to the PS5, Sony included both Wi-Fi 6 and a USB C Gen 2 in the console. However, the PlayStation 5 also relies on NVMe drives for expanded storage so the USB port speeds won’t matter much.
You can view the full Xbox Series S and X specs sheet for the Xbox Series X here and the S here.
