The ‘Carbon Black’ Xbox Series S is the ultimate companion to my PC

After using an Xbox Series S for several weeks, I’ve come to really enjoy the console and appreciate its role in my home far more than I expected.

It’s actually surprised me how much I enjoy the system, given I’ve gamed almost exclusively on PC for about a decade now (and with few regrets!). So, how did I go from PC gamer to console scrub in a few short weeks?

Well, it all started with Microsoft launching the new Carbon Black version of the Series S, which I got to test out. I’ve already written extensively about the company’s work designing the new colourway, which you can read here. Beyond that, it was just a matter of playing games.

The Series S hits a sweet spot for me

While I might be playing more console games thanks to the Series S, I am still very much a PC gamer. It’s partially inputs – once I went keyboard and mouse, I found it hard to go back to controller (though it’s worth noting you can use keyboard and mouse with the Series S). But it’s also that I’ve got a decade’s worth of PC games in my Steam library, and I’m not keen on giving them up. There are other creature comforts on PC as well – I like to listen to podcasts while I play some games, which is easier to do on PC. And my second monitor lets me access additional tools for games I play, such as having Destiny Item Manager open while playing Destiny 2 or quickly pulling up a guide if I get stuck on something. I could do the same things while playing on a console using another device, like my phone, but it doesn’t feel as seamless.

However, not every game feels good when using a keyboard and mouse, and I don’t always want to sit in my office chair while I game. Plus, there are certain genres I’ve avoided in recent years because I either couldn’t play or didn’t enjoy playing them with a keyboard. Soulslike games come to mind, with one of the first games I tried on the Series S being Lies of P. I had a great time being extremely frustrated playing it on the Series S, and I thought it looked great, too, despite the Series S being less powerful than the Xbox Series X. But the thing is, if I really want the best visuals I can get from a game, I’d play it on my PC.

The Series S occupies a space where games look good enough to satisfy me without being the absolute best in terms of visual quality. And I’ve found over the years that I care less about visual quality than I do about smooth, consistent framerates (preferably above 60fps when possible). Besides, pursuing the ultimate visual fidelity in games is usually a massive money sink as you’ll always need the newest, more powerful hardware to achieve it.

The other main thing I like about the Series S is its co-op capabilities. My wife and I love playing games together, and while we can do so with PCs, it’s rarely a smooth experience. For one, traditional couch co-op is basically non-existent on PC. Even when games do have it, it’s tough to do couch co-op without a couch. Sure, I could move my PC to where my couch is, but that’s a lot of hassle, especially when I’ve got to move it back later.

By comparison, the Series S takes a lot of friction out of the equation. Not only does it live next to my TV and, thus, in the same room as my couch, but it also has Game Pass, which provides access to a wide variety of games that I can enjoy with my wife.

The Game Pass of it all

Really, Game Pass is perhaps one of the biggest selling points of the Series S. At least, it is for someone like me. Given the choice between watching or playing something, I’ll almost always choose to play, which makes a gaming subscription more valuable than a streaming subscription in my eyes. Not only does Game Pass offer a wide variety of games, allowing me to try out titles I typically wouldn’t or access new games to play with my wife, but the subscriber-exclusive 20 percent discount also allows me to support developers whose works I really enjoy.

Couple that with the fact that I still enjoy playing games on my PC, and Game Pass is available there, too, so I can access a huge library of games on whatever platform I currently feel like playing on. Saves carry across as well, letting me pick up a game on PC where I left off on my Xbox and vice versa.

The Series S pairs great with Game Pass, especially the new Carbon Black model with the 1TB SSD. For one, the Series S has no disc drive, so digital games (and thus Game Pass titles) are really the only way to play, and I was surprised by how much it reduces the friction of console gaming. No more getting up to swap discs or cartridges –– it feels much more like a PC where I just turn it on and pick the game I want from my library. Sure, you might have to wait for titles to download, but with a little bit of planning, such as queueing large titles to download while I played another game or went to bed, it was rare I ever had to wait.

More affordable

There are a few other things that help set the Series S apart. I haven’t written much about the console’s design since I already dedicated several hundred words to that here, but I do want to say the console is small and sleek, making it a relatively unobtrusive addition to my entertainment centre. And as much as I like the Carbon Black colourway, the regular white version also looks good.

The size also makes it fairly portable if you want to move it around, such as heading over to a friend’s house for a gaming night (I brought it all the way from my home in Hamilton to MobileSyrup’s Toronto office to take pictures of it and hardly noticed the extra weight in my backpack). Granted, it’s not as portable as some of the handheld devices out there, but it’s not a chore to lug around.

Despite being small, I found the Series S to be remarkably quiet. Even after a long gaming session, and with the fans clearly on –– I could hold my hand over the vent and feel the warm air blasting out – it wasn’t noisy at all. I can’t say the same for my PC, which is certainly louder when all the fans ramp up.

I’d also argue the price is right for the Series S. At $379.99 for the white or $449.99 for the black with extra storage, it’s a lot better than the $659.99 for the Series X, especially if you’re looking at it as a companion device rather than your main gaming station like me. And that’s not even getting into the various holiday deals that are on as I write this (though the Carbon Black, disappointingly, is not on sale).

Ultimately, for me, the Series S has become the ultimate companion console, even more so than my Nintendo Switch. That mostly comes down to Game Pass, which gives me significantly more access to games to play on the Series S and also allows me to access titles across various devices easily. The Switch is great in its own way, but outside of the odd Nintendo exclusive, I had a hard time justifying paying for games on it that I wouldn’t be able to access anywhere else.

PC gamers out there looking for a console to complement their desktop should consider the Series S, especially if they already subscribe to Game Pass. It truly feels like a best-of-both-worlds setup.

The Xbox Series S 1TB in Carbon Black is available from Microsoft, Best Buy, and more retailers for $449.99 in Canada.

Photography by Bradley Bennett.

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