Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is such a difficult product to review because it includes so many things in one single (and huge) box but I'll try to do my best and I'll also include some comparisons with the PS4 which I also own and have reviewed. I tried to be as objective as I possible while provided a brief comparison to the PS4. A lot of people on both sides (X1 and PS4 are just downvoting the other console because they don't like it when the other one succeeds. Take the reviews as you please but don't believe every one star review you see here. (Video coming soon too) Hardware: The best comparison (and the most popular) is that the Xbox One basically looks like a futuristic VCR, just as big, not pretty by any means with just the logo and the loading slot in the front. Half glossy and half vents to prevent the box from getting too warm (like the previous gen). One USB port on the side and the rest at the back: HDMI (x2) In and Out. 2 USB, digital audio, network and one for the Kinect, which is surprisingly massive and bulky and will definitely be noticed on top or below your TV. For all of you who are wondering if the big power brick is back, yes, it's back but thankfully it's a thing that tends to stay at the back of your furniture unless you are used to moving it from TV to TV or to a friend's place. X1 vs PS4: PS4's console is definitely better-looking, smaller and if we even get into the technical specs has a slighter edge over the X1 Controller: I'll review the controller separately but in summary. It's a mostly-better version of the Xbox 360 one. The layout is basically the same with the buttons and sticks in the same place. It's slightly heavier and the analog sticks include a grippy texture in the rim that will definitely help your gameplay if you have sweaty hands that slip off them. The bumper buttons are a little harder to press this time, which I don't particularly like and the rumble feature in the triggers feel really weird/funny but once you get used to them and developers focus on them I'm sure it'll enhance the experience while playing. X1 vs PS4: X1 wins, especially with a way better battery life Software: I'm not a Windows 8 user so I can't say I'm familiar with the interface at all and it's not as intuitive as the PS4 one (which works fine for now but I'm not sure when I have more apps and games in there). As expected, you have your gamerscore, the last couple of apps you've used, and links to other things like friends or other apps. The other screens are the usual sections for movies, games, etc. And there's another screen when you can pin up the apps that you use the most. The multitasking is miles better than the bad implementation of the 360. You can move between a game and the dashboard super quickly, do some other thing and come back with the tap of a button in contrast with the slow and painful process you had to go through on the 360 to message a friend or something like that. Snap is a feature I don't see myself using a lot right now, but it's there and I can see how some people might make a lot out of it. You can basically "attach" another app to the side of the screen, be it a browser or live TV in case you want to keep track of a NFL game while you play a NFL game :) In case you don't know, it CAN'T play Xbox 360 games. It's a different architecture so you might want to hold on to your old console if you still play some of the games. what you can do is login with the same account and carry over all your friends and gamerscore. You can record gameplay just as with the PS4, only that the Xbox provides a more robust editing feature but unfortunately, live streaming will not be supported at launch. X1 vs PS4: I'll say it's a tie for now, which might be able to change in favor of Microsoft if they improve the experience. Kinect: After the considerably longer set up than I expected I was able to use some of the commands with the Kinect, which is now included with every console (and explains the $100 price difference between the PS4). It's trying to replace the use of the controller to navigate through the system so you can say things like: "Xbox, on" or "Xbox, play Dead Rising 3" and it should know how to do it (It's "Xbox, turn off" NOT "Xbox off"... silly Xbox). When it works it's fantastic but in my short experience with it, it doesn't work until a few attempts which ruins the experience and misses the purpose of it. Maybe it'll get better with time, I hope it does. I still feel weird talking to a camera but maybe that's the future. One of my favorite things it does is when you walk into a room, the Xbox will recognize your face and log you in automatically, you don't have to do anything. And the same thing happens if someone else walks into the room. It's a cool feature but overall I don't think they succeeded with it as they advertise it. Forget using it with motion, it works worse than voice commands. I can see the potential. It's there, I just hope they make the most out of it. Thankfully, it's not required to be plugged in to use the Xbox so I'm sure a lot of people will lose interest and just do that. X1 vs PS4: I don't have the PS4 camera but from what I've read everywhere it doesn't come close to what the kinect can do so if you're into this you'll appreciate the X1 a lot more. TV Integration: For the record, I have DirecTV with a DVR which I use most of the time instead of watching live TV. This is one of the features that made me NOT cancel my preorder since I was really excited from what I had seen in the demos and thought I might be using it a lot. WRONG! If you use your cable subscription to watch mostly recorded stuff like me, this is not for you. You can't say something like `Play episode X of show X' which was recorded 1 hour ago. It only works for live TV right now. What's happening is that the X1 is not just taking control of your TV signal, it's just showing whatever your cable box is sending through HDMI so any menus you get there, you'll get BELOW the xbox menus making a very clunky interface that doesn't look pretty. When you change the channel through the Kinect (as I understand), the xbox is sending an IR signal everywhere in your room in hope that it bounces and makes it back to your cable receiver so it works even if they're side by side. Maybe in the future some cable providers will get into it and give better integration but for now It's a no-go for me, at least until surround sound is here. At least it has Netflix, Hulu, Amazon plus some sports channels too. Since I don't have a PC I can't test the media streaming feature it comes with but maybe I'll try to get one to test it and I'll update the review. Games: Microsoft is saying that the X1's launch lineup is the "best ever" or something like that. I'd say that if we take all the cross-platform games for both consoles you're left with very few options that in no way represent what we should expect from this generation. I can't wait to what developers can make out of these boxes and wow us all. As with the PS4, you need to install the games before playing them (at least part of it) and man is that slow. Why can't I just insert a disc and start playing like before? I'm sure it can't copy things in the background without having me to wait!