How To Score An Xbox Series X Or S Before Microsoft’s Price Hike
Microsoft surprised the console community when, just a few days ago, it announced a round of significant price hikes to its Xbox hardware lineup, including new MSRPs for its aging Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S systems ranging from $80 to $130 more than the launch prices. That's a tough pill to swallow for a nearly five-year-old platform. Fortunately, there are still places to find some of the SKUs at the old price points.
We'll kick things off with the Xbox Series S (512GB) in Robot White—it's still listed for $273.99 at Walmart. That's actually 8.7% below the original MSRP, but more importantly, it's right at 28% below the system's new $379.99 MSRP.
Bear in mind that the Xbox Series S is the less powerful model in the current-generation Xbox lineup. One of the key specs is the 4 TFLOPS of graphics horsepower versus 12 TFLOPS for the Xbox Series X. Support is limited to gaming at 1440p (versus 4K), though for video streaming, it supports up to 8K with HDR just like its burlier sibling. It also features support for variable refresh rate (VRR), auto low latency mode (ALLM), and Dolby Vision.
It's fairly compact too. If you're primarily interest in gaming at 1440p or 1080p, the Xbox Series S is a fine option at the old price point.
Crave more storage? You can find the Xbox Series S (1TB) for $347 at Walmart. That's a couple of dollars below its old $349.99 MSRP, and 19.3% below its new and inflated $429.99 MSRP.
Unfortunately, the Xbox Series X (1TB) is fast becoming more scarce at the old price point. Recently, it was selling for $449.99 at Dell, but the price we're seeing at the time of this writing is the new $549.99 MSRP. Still, it's worth hitting the link and checking from time to time to see if Dell adjusts the price again.
Barring that, we're currently seeing it listed for $449 at Sams's Club. We don't get any affiliate juice from that link. Note that it's the white colorway with the standard 1TB of storage. Microsoft also released an Xbox Series X 2TB Galaxy Special Edition for $599.99, which has gone up in price to $729.99.
Outside of the main consoles, you can still find some accompanying accessories at or below the old price points. Two that we found include...
- Xbox Elite Series 2 Core Controller: $100.99 at Walmart (versus $149.99)
- Xbox Elite Series 2 Full Controller: $142.99 at Target (versus $199.99)
Microsoft raised the price of the Core controller from $139.99 to $149.99, and the full controller from $179.99 to $199.99. Both can still be found for less than their original MSRPs.
