The Xbox One S is an interesting system with a variety of improvements to the core Xbox One product, but I was on the fence about picking one up knowing that Project Scorpio was on the way.
One detail shown during the system's unboxing on the YouTube Live @ E3 show that convinced me to slap down the money for the new console, even if I ultimately end up trading it in for the more powerful console in 2017.
Are you ready? It's a little detail, but it's going to make all the difference. Here it is.
It's a physical power button!
There are some people who mocked us for calling attention to the fact that we were often still confused about the power and eject buttons on the PlayStation 4, but we were deluged by notes and messages from people who had the same problem. The addition of a mechanical power button, combined with buttons and ports that are both more visible and easier to understand, is a huge selling point.
These may seem like tiny updates, but the capacitance power button on the Xbox One is a giant piece of shit. It's too easy to accidentally hit, and I've had friends and family come over who don't even realize it's a button.
Both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One suffer from some pretty terrible design decisions when it comes to the hardware itself, and it's great to see Microsoft take those criticisms to heart to create a console that's both more attractive and more functional.
