PS5 Digital Edition vs. Xbox Series S: Which affordable console is for you? - Tom's Guide

The PS5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S could save you hundreds of dollars.

The PS5 Digital Edition and the Xbox Series S both ask an unusual question: What if a next-gen console didn’t have to cost an exorbitant amount of money? While the full-featured PS5 and Xbox Series X will cost $500 apiece, both companies have also offered a cheaper alternative. For Sony, there’s the PS5 Digital Edition: a $400 console that has no disc drive, but is otherwise identical to the PS5. For Microsoft, there’s the Xbox Series S: a $300 all-digital console that’s optimized for quad HD output rather than UHD..

While the PS5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S don’t address exactly the same needs, they both represent the same idea: a cheaper alternative to full-priced next-gen consoles. As such, it’s worth comparing the two machines, even though a) It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison, and b) We won’t know for sure how the two systems stack up until we get to try them for ourselves.

With that in mind, let’s see how the PS5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S stack up in terms of price, specs, game selection and more.

While the Xbox Series S actually has a slightly more powerful CPU than the PS5 Digital Edition, its GPU, RAM and storage are all weaker.

Still, we can say definitively that the Xbox Series S employs, for the most part, less powerful hardware than the PS5 Digital Edition.

The easiest point of comparison between the PS5 Digital Edition and the Xbox Series S is their prices.

The PS5 Digital Edition costs $400; the Xbox Series S costs $300.

As stated above, the Xbox Series S employs less powerful hardware than the PS5 Digital Edition.

As far as we know, the PS5 Digital Edition can play every single PS5 game; the Xbox Series S can play every single Xbox Series X game.

(Recent reports put the number around 99% of the PS4 library, so hopefully that’s true.) The Xbox Series S, on the other hand, will be backwards compatible with every single Xbox One game, plus a variety of Xbox 360 and original Xbox games.

Since neither the PS5 Digital Edition nor the Xbox Series S has a disc drive, you won’t be able to play games you own physically, unless you buy them again as digital versions.

While I can’t prove this until we see some sales figures for the two devices, I don’t think that the PS5 Digital Edition and the Xbox Series S are angling for exactly the same buyers.

At the risk of fortune-telling, it seems as though the PS5 Digital Edition is for more dedicated gamers who are simply ready to give up physical media, whereas the Xbox Series S is for more casual fans who simply don’t need the power — or expense — of a full-featured Xbox Series X.

On the other hand, the Xbox Series S is considerably less powerful than the Xbox Series X, and Microsoft has made no secret of that.

One final thing to consider is that both the PS5 Digital Edition and the Xbox Series S will exist as part of larger subscription-based ecosystems: PlayStation Plus for the former, and Xbox Game Pass for the latter.

Generally speaking, Xbox Game Pass seems to be a huge part of the Xbox Series S’ strategy, while Sony probably expects most PS5 Digital Edition customers to buy games à la carte, one at a time

But remember that you’ll have to live with less powerful hardware if you choose the Xbox Series S, and extra $100 up front if you choose the PS5 Digital Edition