Xbox Series X: 4 Ups & 4 Downs After 4 Months

Downs

4. Clunky UI Hides Valuable Features

I don't know how many more times Microsoft needs to be told this, but nobody likes the tiled "Windows Phone"-style interface.

For as much as you can argue having dynamic tiles for games and various storefront options spread across a dashboard is "clean", the reality is that navigating can feel like pot luck.

Things like "Games With Gold" or "Game Pass" flash in and out of featured tiles on the home screen, and features like FPS boost are buried in per-game options menus, if you want to see what's enabled. The pop-up Xbox home screen is very much still an offshoot of the "Snap" menu from last generation, and a far cry from the simplicity and clarity of the 360's Blades overlay.

In terms of pinning achievement trackers to the screen, using Spotify without leaving a game, seeing which titles are hanging in Quick Resume or just making sure HDR is set up properly, the Xbox UI does a bad job making sure every user is aware of everything their systems can do.