Second time’s a charm?
Take two, let’s try this again. Yesterday, there was a tumultuous and short-lived saga where AMD revealed a full 3D model of the Xbox Series X at its CES press conference. This included a shot of the console’s backside showing off all its ports. AMD is an official hardware partner of Xbox in that it’s creating a custom APU (chip that contains both a CPU and GPU) to run the Series X. It seemed as though AMD would certainly be privy to everything pertaining to the technical side of the machine.
Not so. After the press conference, AMD was left to clarify that the rendering wasn’t run by Xbox in any capacity. It was actually a $10 fan-made mock-up that someone at AMD purchased (cheaply) from turbosquid.com. Those ports weren’t official at all. That’s not what the back of the Xbox Series X looks like.
Today, we have a new estimate as to the configuration of the Xbox Series X’s ports. It’s no more confirmed than yesterday’s mix-up but at least it comes from sources within Microsoft. Thurrott has published a report on the Series X’s ports as it currently exists on Microsoft’s early-version (and not-final) hardware. It’s worth noting that Thurrott generally has a good track record with Microsoft leaks.
Thurrott lists the Xbox Series X as having: two SuperSpeed USB-A ports, ethernet, an HDMI port (seemingly doing away with the dual HDMI in and out that graced the Xbox One), TOSLink (optical audio), and a slot for the power connector. Additionally, there’s another unknown port that’s guessed to be for debugging; there’s a good chance this will be omitted from the consumer version.
Thurrott also created its own mock-up image based on these new reports. Everything is said to sit on the lower half of the console, with ventilation openings surrounding all the ports. Keep in mind that this also isn’t official, but it’s probably a hell of a lot more accurate than what AMD showed yesterday.
The Ports on the Xbox Series X [Thurrott]
