The Xbox Series X is now officially faster compared to the PlayStation 5. But, before you get the pitchforks, hear us out first.
Over the past few days, Xbox testers noticed their bootup times getting faster. Eventually, Microsoft fessed up and admitted that they tweaked something. Josh Munsee, director of Xbox integrated marketing, confirmed that the company did some backend work to shorten the boot up animation from 9 seconds down to 4 seconds.
Can confirm – worked with @harrisonhoffman and @jakerose27 to create a shorter boot up animation (~4s) from the original boot up animation (~9s), helping to reduce the overall startup time.
— Josh Munsee (@joshmunsee) July 23, 2022
Mind you, the changes aren’t limited to Microsoft’s latest consoles.
Senior product manager lead at Xbox, Jake Rosenberg, explained in a follow-up tweet that Xbox One owners should have their consoles booting up faster. Unfortunately, Xbox owners will only feel the shorter boot times if they have their consoles set to Energy Saver mode. Unlike with Standby mode, Energy Saver mode fully powers off the console. This way, the console doesn’t consume any electricity at all.
In total, the Xbox Series S/X boot process should now only take around 15 seconds instead of the usual 20. If you weren’t a huge fan of the Energy Saver mode before, this should help persuade you to give it a try.
Ultimately, shaving off 5 seconds from the boot times of the Xbox Series S/X is not that big of a deal but it’s still impressive that Microsoft is finding ways to outpace its competition. In comparison, the PS5 takes roughly 20 seconds to cold boot. Both of the boot times are quite amazing when you consider how long it took for older consoles to power up.
In other Xbox news, the Microsoft console isn’t just beating the PS5 in boot times but also in getting first dibs on Discord voice chat functionality. Also, Microsoft confirmed earlier this year that changes are coming to Games with Gold in October. Finally, after making several announcements at last month’s Xbox and Bethesda showcase, Xbox revealed that it has more unannounced games coming.
