A first look at the 1TB black Xbox Series S

Microsoft has started selling a new black version of the Xbox Series S with 1TB of built-in storage. The only changes over the original white Xbox Series S are a black paint job on the exterior and more storage inside. Priced at $349, it’s still one of the most affordable ways to play Bethesda’s new Starfield game, which launches on Xbox Series S / X and PC this week.

The carbon black exterior now matches the larger Xbox Series X, with the $299 white Xbox Series S still available with its regular 512GB of storage. The increase to 1TB on this black model will allow you to install a modern Call of Duty game and not have to worry too much about how much storage is left over.

You’re essentially paying an extra $50 for 512GB of additional storage here, rather than the more than $100 pricing for the Seagate 512GB Xbox expansion card. This bump to storage is super important, as on the old Xbox Series S model you’d only get 364GB of usable storage. You now more than double that with over 800GB of usable storage on the black model.

There are no changes to the ports on this model, so at the rear there are two USB ports, an Ethernet port, the storage expansion slot, and HDMI 2.1 out. At the front, there’s a single USB port and no disc drive. The black Xbox Series S also ships with a black controller, just like the Xbox Series X.

Microsoft has continued with the black coating on the speaker-like circle at the top, rather than swapping to a white coating. It’s the main fan for the Xbox Series S, where heat exhausts out of the console. It keeps the entire Xbox Series S uniformly black, unlike the black coating on this fan area found on the “robot white” 512GB model.

There could be some minor additional changes inside, but we’ll need to wait on a full teardown to see if that’s the case. The 1TB Xbox Series S in black is available now priced at $349.99.