Xbox Series S Specifications
Complete verified specifications for the Microsoft Xbox Series S, including our measured figures rather than manufacturer claims.
Last revised
Full specifications for the Microsoft Xbox Series S, as measured and verified during our review rather than copied from a press release. Where our figure differs from the manufacturer's, ours is the one listed.
At a glance
- Manufacturer
- Microsoft
- Released
- 2020
- Category
- Gaming
- Price at review
- £249
- Our score
- 4 / 5
Full specifications
| Specification | Value |
|---|---|
| Output | 1440p 120Hz |
| Chip | Custom AMD Zen 2 / RDNA 2 |
| RAM | 10GB GDDR6 |
| Storage | 512GB NVMe |
| Weight | 1.9kg |
| Power draw | 74W under load |
| Load time | 4.6s average |
How we verified these figures
Nothing on this page is copied from a press release. Each unit spends two weeks as the reviewer’s only games machine, across a fixed set of twelve titles. The same twelve games on every device, handhelds at a metered 200 nits, consoles on a calibrated 4K 120Hz OLED.
| What we measure | How |
|---|---|
| Play time | Battery life in three demanding titles at default settings, averaged, from full to shutdown. |
| Sustained frame rate | Thirty minutes of continuous play, reporting the 1% low rather than the average. |
| Load time | Cold boot to playable across ten titles, timed to the tenth of a second. |
| Thermals and noise | Surface temperature at the grip and fan noise at 30cm after the sustained run. |
| Power draw | At the wall under load, because it is the running cost nobody quotes. |
We deliberately do not publish peak frame rates in menus, and any performance figure from a launch trailer. Handheld battery figures assume default power profiles; capping frame rate changes them substantially.
How it compares in the category
A specification only means something next to the alternatives. These are the gaming we have measured under the same conditions.
| Model | Released | Price | Our score | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xbox Series S (this page) | 2020 | £249 | 4 / 5 | A second TV, a first console, or Game Pass on a budget |
| Switch OLED | 2021 | £309 | 4 / 5 | Families, and anyone who wants Nintendo games |
| Steam Deck OLED | 2023 | £479 | 5 / 5 | Anyone with a large Steam library who wants it to just work |
| PlayStation 5 Slim | 2023 | £479 | 4 / 5 | Living-room play where exclusives and controller feel matter most |
| Xbox Series X | 2020 | £479 | 4 / 5 | Anyone who plays broadly rather than chasing exclusives |
| Ayaneo Air 1S | 2023 | £649 | 3 / 5 | Travel, where weight and size matter more than battery |
What the spec sheet leaves out
- Sustained performance — the output figure above is a capability, not a promise about what happens after twenty minutes
- How it behaves when warm, which is where most of the difference between similarly specified gaming actually lives
- Software support length, which decides how long this stays usable and appears on no specification sheet we have seen
- The thing we actually noticed most: it used a third of the power of the Series X for the same library
What the numbers mean in use
Specifications describe capability, not experience. In practice the detail that mattered most was this: it used a third of the power of the Series X for the same library. That is the sort of thing a table cannot capture.
Strengths on paper and in practice
- The cheapest route into current-generation gaming by a wide margin
- 74W under load is a third of its larger sibling
- Small enough to sit on a shelf or travel
Known limitations
- 10GB of shared memory is the reason some ports run poorly
- 512GB fills after about six modern installs
- No disc drive, so no second-hand games
Who this suits
This hardware is a good fit for a second TV, a first console, or Game Pass on a budget.
Behind this page
This reference page is written from the same testing notes as the reviews it supports, and it is revised whenever the hardware or the software underneath it changes. Where a figure appears here it has been measured rather than quoted from a specification sheet.
If something on this page no longer matches what you are seeing, it is out of date rather than disputed — tell us and it gets checked again.
Related reading
The reviews this page supports go into the measurements behind these figures, and the knowledge base collects every reference page we keep.
Elsewhere in specifications: Xbox Series X Specifications, Xiaomi 15 Ultra Specifications and eero 6+ Specifications.