The $300 Xbox Series S is an excellent entry point into current-gen gaming, but its relatively measly 512GB of storage fills up pretty fast as games get bigger and bigger. Microsoft knows this, which is why it just launched a new 1TB version of the console — and coated it in black just for good measure.
The $350 Xbox Series S Carbon Black features the same compact design that first launched back in 2020, this time ditching the white for a more subdued look and serving up nearly twice the storage space. It’s available for preorder right now and hits stores on Sept. 1.
The Xbox Series S 1TB Carbon Black edition takes Microsoft's tiny, affordable next-gen console and gives it a sleek black coat of paint — and nearly twice the storage.
For the uninitiated, the Xbox Series S is Microsoft’s entry-level console, offering many of the same key benefits as the $500 Xbox Series X at a much lower price. That includes a speedy SSD for nearly instant loading times, a Quick Resume feature for hopping between multiple games in a snap and enough internal power to run games at up to a smooth 120 frames per second. We’ve long considered it to be one of the best values in console gaming, and while you’ll have to live without a disc drive for physical games and the more immersive 4K capabilities of the Series X, it’s a fantastic jumping-on point for anyone who wants to play the latest blockbusters.
Offering almost twice the storage for just $50 more than the launch model, the new Carbon Black Series S makes this great value even better — especially when you consider how expensive external storage is. Until recently, your only option for expanding your Xbox Series S or X’s storage was to pick up one of Seagate’s proprietary expansion cards, which start at $90 for an extra 512GB of storage and go all the way up to $280 for 2TB of extra space. Storage maker WD_Black recently entered the market with its own cards that are $80 for 500GB and $150 for 1TB, which are attainable but not exactly cheap.
Purchased separately at full retail, a starting Series S and a 500GB expansion card would run you a total of at least $380 — that makes the Carbon Black model a $30 value that leaves you some cash to put toward more games or a Game Pass subscription.
“We’ve heard the feedback that the 500GB can be a limit for some people, and yes, we’ve heard the feedback on the expansion cards and we’re working on that,” said Xbox chief Phil Spencer at a roundtable the company hosted after its big Xbox Games Showcase in Los Angeles. “But we also wanted to make a console that had 1TB inside. We continue to take feedback on our console, we continue to build out the roadmap of where [the] console is today, where it’ll be tomorrow and, frankly, where it’ll be in the future for us.”
That being said, the white 512GB Xbox Series S is almost always on sale these days — it’s currently $250 on Amazon — and is still the better choice for folks looking to spend as little as possible. Throw in an $80 WD_Black card, and you can theoretically get a 1TB Series S for less than the price of the Carbon Black unit if you catch the white model at a discount.
I got to briefly see the new Carbon Black model up close, and it’s very much a black Xbox Series S that sports the same matte coating as the Xbox Series X. It seems a lot more susceptible to fingerprints than the white model, and part of me is worried that it looks too similar to its higher-end sibling — something that could potentially lead to an uninformed parent buying the wrong box. I’m still partial to the two-tone look of my white Series S, but the Carbon Black version seems like a perfectly slick little black box that’ll sit unassumingly in your entertainment center (and remains wonderfully tiny should you need to throw it in a backpack).
There’s little reason to pick this model up if you already own a current-gen Xbox, but if you’re getting your first Xbox console, you’re finally upgrading from your old Xbox One or you just want a second system to stick in your kids’ room, the Carbon Black edition is definitely the best value in the lineup right now.
In addition to a new Xbox Series S, Microsoft also took the wraps off of special Starfield-themed versions of the Xbox Wireless Controller (our favorite PC gamepad) and Xbox Wireless Headset. Both are pricier than their non-branded counterparts at $80 and $125, respectively, but they also sport some really neat features and design elements — for example, the controller has transparent triggers, textured grips and handy text around the buttons that let you see the game’s starship controls at a quick glance. The hugely anticipated Starfield finally hits Xbox consoles and PC on Sept. 6, so now’s not a bad time to gear up. And if you’re getting an Xbox just for this game — which will come in at a whopping 125GB — you should probably get one with lots of storage.