At its first E3 event today, Microsoft finally unveiled the full name of its brand-new console: the Xbox One X. Not to be confused with the Xbox One S, the existing revision to the Xbox One. Nope, this new console is new and radically redesigned entry in the Xbox lineup.
We’ve speculated for months about the features the Xbox “Project Scorpio” would have, but today Microsoft finally pulled back the curtain and gave us a sneak peek at what’s in store for the Xbox family. The new Xbox One X will feature powerful new hardware, a huge lineup of exclusive games, and it’ll even make your old Xbox games look better than ever.
Featuring a six teraflop GPU clocked at 1.72 GHz, 12GB of GDDR memory, and a new processor engineered on the 16nm architecture, the Xbox One X is — according to Microsoft — the most powerful gaming console ever produced, and it’s the smallest Xbox ever.
That’s right, Microsoft is claiming its new console is the most powerful piece of console gaming hardware ever wrought by the hands of man — and it just might be right. Microsoft also pointed out that the new console will be able to run games in true 4K UHD with full HDR support (finding games that support HDR on Xbox wasn’t always easy), and that’s good news even if you don’t have a 4K TV.
Microsoft went on to describe that the new console will feature the ability to use supersampling to make the most of existing 1080p displays so your games look sharper than ever … even the old ones.
Yep, Microsoft is rededicating itself to the back catalogue of Xbox One and Xbox One S titles, promising that they’ll look better than ever on Xbox One X. The new console will reportedly apply a number of cosmetic tricks, including anisotropic filtering, to smooth-out and improve how your games look.
Further evidence of Microsoft’s dedication to its existing fanbase, the new Xbox One X is backwards compatible with each and every one of your Xbox One accessories — controllers, headsets, you name it.
That’s about it for the new Xbox One X, we don’t have much more to go on other than its release date: November 7, 2017 for $500.
For everything else you need to know about the Xbox One X, check out our continuing coverage.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.