Best Buy has revealed its SSD storage solution for Xbox Series X and S consoles this week. The 1TB unit is called the “Xbox Series X and Series S External Custom PCI Express Gen4 x2 (NVMe) Solid State Drive,” and costs $220 and launches same day as Xbox Series X/S on Nov. 11. Pre-orders are already live.
[UPDATE]: A new article over on Xbox’s official website has clarified official storage solutions for both Xbox Series X and S. In addition to further spotlighting its relationship with Seagate for the $219.99 external SSD expansion, Microsoft explains that conventional USB 3.1 HDDs remain compatible with all Xbox devices.
Notably, Microsoft once again reiterates that as a result of the Series X’s limited 1440p resolution, players can expect games to be 30% less in total size. That should make its 512GB SSD card more viable than it might otherwise seem.
It’s a fairly steep price when you consider that’s half the cost of an entire Xbox Series X, but SSDs have never been cheap. With modern video game install sizes constantly increasing and the somewhat limited storage capability of both Microsoft’s consoles, it’s sure to become a popular upgrade.
Seagate describes the product’s key features over on Best Buy’s page:
- Seamless gameplay Designed in partnership with Xbox to seamlessly play Xbox Series X games from the internal SSD or the expansion card without sacrificing graphics, latency, load times, or framerates.
- Exclusive to Xbox The only available expansion card that replicates the Xbox Velocity Architecture – providing faster load times, richer environments, and more immersive gameplay.
- Quick resume Switch between multiple titles in seconds – directly from the internal SSD or the expansion card.
- High capacity 1TB of storage increases the overall capacity of the Xbox Series X|S – collect thousands of games across four generations of Xbox without sacrificing performance.
- Warranty Enjoy long-term peace of mind with the included 3-year limited warranty.
There doesn’t seem to be any information on the SSD’s write speed, but presumably it’s at least as fast as the standard SSD inside the Series X/S.
If you’re on the fence about whether to purchase Xbox Series X or S then why not take our quiz to see which is the best fit for you?
