Xbox One foreign media review-many features are immature but ambitious

When the Xbox came out 3,608 years ago, it was just a game device. But over time, Xbox 360 not only has more and more good games, multimedia features and applications are also gradually joined. By the year 2008, Microsoft has made the Xbox interface much closer to Zune and Windows Media Center, as well as the most recent Windows 8. Multimedia apps have become more popular than multiplayer games, and Microsoft is openly claiming that "Xbox" is not just a game ...

And this has become the Xbox one development concept. The 499-dollar device, though still a home gaming machine, is more than that: this ambitious device wants to be the most important thing in your living room for the next 10 years. Microsoft also needs a reason to put the Xbox handle in the hands of every member of your family and become the first thing you see when you turn on the TV.

Will Microsoft be able to achieve these goals with Xbox one? Technology web site The Verge in the evaluation of this is explored:

If you use one sentence to describe the hardware design of Xbox One, it is more functional than the form. In any case, the device is unattractive on the outside: it's a huge black box, similar in size to an old-fashioned VCR, and even designed to look alike. The front of its fuselage is only the capacitive Xbox power button and the optical drive, and unfamiliar people may confuse it with a Blu-ray player or a set-top box.

That's the problem. The Xbox one isn't designed to stand out from the design--like the PlayStation 4--it wants to fit into a pile of black boxes on your TV. The PS4 's indicator beats when it is turned on to highlight its presence, while the Xbox one is only going to hide in the shadows so you can't notice it.

Half of the Xbox one surface is made of glossy piano black plastic material, while the other half is plastic grille. The grille is not for good looks but for heat dissipation. Because of these grids, Xbox One can stay cool and quiet in most cases-at least not as hot as the Xbox 360-but you can still feel when it is working if you close your hand to the machine.

The Xbox one has a USB interface on the left side of the fuselage, but most of the device's interfaces are located on the back of the fuselage. Here you will see Power jacks (unfortunately, huge power modules remain), HDMI input (from set-top box to Xbox), HDMI output (from Xbox to TV), 2 USB ports, digital audio outlets, Ethernet sockets, and Kinect dedicated jacks. The key of the Resync handle is located to the left of the device near the optical drive.

From a purely aesthetic point of view, Sony's PS4 is a undisputed champion. But to attract attention is not always the primary goal, in the author's living room, Xbox one can be well integrated into the set-top box and other devices, without disrupting the overall coordination. It's like Microsoft wants to sneak its own equipment into the living room of millions of households, and when we find it, we can't leave it.

As for the Xbox one's good partner, Kinect, it's not small. Although the fuselage specifications reached 25.4 x 6.6 cm, the Kinect is not particularly noticeable, it looks just like a black box with a camera's glowing Xbox logo.

Microsoft spent 100 million of dollars to develop a new handle for Xbox One, but it turned out to be almost identical to the Xbox 360 handle 8 years ago. This new handle in size and 360 of the handle is exactly the same, weight only increased by 14 grams, all the keys are exactly the same position, even the length of the rocker has not changed.

But a new generation of handles does bring some subtle but meaningful ascension. From the button surface to the direction of the key to the seam, everything in the appearance and feel more refined than ever before. The distance between the two rocker Poles is now just 6.35 centimeters, and the surface material uses a very hand-made rubber to ensure that the rocker does not slide off the thumb. The arrow keys now adopt a new cross design, and the response of the shoulder button is also very sensitive. More notably, Microsoft has completely replaced the creaking cheap trigger button on the Xbox 360 handle, and the new button is quiet and smooth. The new Start button is moved to a higher position to prevent a false touch.

Even the vibrating motor of the handle is lifted: one of the most important features of the Xbox single handle is the "pulsing trigger", which provides more accurate tactile feedback. For example, when shooting in a game, your right hand will feel a noticeable impact, and if you control the car to make a sharp turn, your fingers will feel the traction of the tyre. This is a cool feature, but sometimes the location of the vibration is wrong and a bit noisy.

Because the battery compartment is already integrated into the frame, the portion of the Xbox one handle is no longer protruding. As mentioned above, the new Xbox Guide key is moved to a higher position and is surrounded by trigger keys, shoulder buttons, and standard MicroUSB charging interfaces. Unfortunately, Microsoft has not completely abandoned its proprietary interface--a glimpse of the new headphone jack on the handle--but that's not to be expected. Overall, the new handle to Xbox one is as good or better in every respect as the predecessor.

However, there is a difference that may cause some dissatisfaction. Although Microsoft has carefully avoided changing the base design of the handle, they have made a slight adjustment to the ergonomic design of the handle. Because of the integration of the battery compartment, while the palmrest elevated to the half-moon, handle the grip is not as clear as the 360 handle, while the handle back also did not leave the finger grip the obvious area. Whether this change is good or bad depends largely on your hand type.

Although the Xbox 360 handle is undoubtedly the gold standard, one of the handle is more than a chip, but PS4 DualShock 4 in the secondary generation of the host is not inferior. The Xbox one handle is a lot more powerful, and it will collaborate with Kinect and go into a low-power state when idle-the author has not yet replaced the battery. However, DualShock 4 in the comfort of more than a chip, the special interface is also less, but also has a lot of features.

But Sony's fight is not limited to handles, because Xbox one is not the only way to control it.

The first set of Xbox one is not easy. After connecting to the TV, set-top box, Kinect, and wireless handles, you must also download the first day upgrade patch, login to Xbox Live, wait for the game to be installed before you can begin to play the game. If you want to do something else, such as playing Blu-ray discs, Skype calls, uploading videos, it will take some time to download apps.

But the hardest part about setting up Xbox One is not these, but getting used to its user interface. The Xbox one interface is like a hodgepodge of Windows 8 dynamic tiles, compared to PS4 's concise scrolling list.

The center of the Xbox one interface is the main screen, which displays 9 of the largest tiles for real-time previews of the games or apps that the user has recently run, and below are 4 apps that were used before. On the left side of the interface, you'll see a link to the buddy list, as well as a personal file and game score, while the right side will display the disc in the CD, browse through all the apps and games links, and stick to the commands. If you continue scrolling to the right, the system will display a store interface that includes carefully selected games, apps, music, and movie recommendations. On the left side of the interface, you can also fix 25 favorites. At the top of the screen, there is a consolidated notification bar to track reminders and messages, and each player icon currently logged into the device.

Basic navigation is very simple, as long as you know how to operate. You can go to the store, download what you need, and then continue browsing while you wait for the installation. Once the installation is complete, you can run the game in full screen. Press the Xbox key on the handle, the system will return to the main screen, you can put on the screen with another application, and then continue to return to the game. The Xbox keeps track of what you're doing, so if you want to back up to the previous step or 5 steps, just press the B key. If you don't know what to do, just click on the Xbox key to return to the main screen.

Although this interface is not fast, but it is not a problem to use, sticking is also a very cool function. With this feature, you can go to the video, brush the pages, or even view the introduction of the game-this is the real multitasking in the home machine. With a lot of keystrokes and a little bit of error, the empty home screen and application tray will be filled with custom content that belongs to you.

If you use the Xbox one in the way Microsoft wants, you probably don't need a button at all.

This is because each Xbox one comes with Microsoft's new Kinect, a powerful gadget with a camera/microphone that can turn you into a controller, replacing keystrokes and joysticks with gestures and voice controls. In the Xbox 360, Kinect has a small role in the interface: You can swing your arms around the application icon, or you can select a menu by Voice command. In Xbox One, Kinect is everywhere.

As soon as Kinect sees you, it automatically logs on to your Xbox Live account. After that, whether you want to play a game, watch a movie, record a video or read a page, you can do it through voice commands.

With the help of Kinect, you can use voice commands to do anything in the user interface. This completely compensates for the slightly complex interface of Xbox one when it works correctly.

But Kinect doesn't always use it, it's not even reliable or flexible. It often happens that Kinect does not recognize my voice commands, and finally I have to use a handle instead.

The Kinect's flaws are mainly in two areas, the first of which is simply unforgivable. Many of the Kinect's voice commands are so inflexible that you have to memorize a whole bunch of phrases to use the relative functionality. For example, if you want to run an app or game, you have to start with "Xbox go". But if you want to use Bing to search for something, the phrase doesn't work, and the correct command is "Xbox Bing" because Microsoft wants to use Bing as a verb. If the "Xbox on" rep turns on, why is the Xbox off not turned off? Because "Xbox turn off" is the right command, you have to remember.

Even if you remember these commands, Kinect sometimes doesn't recognize them. There is no trace of this, and sometimes the Kinect doesn't recognize my voice commands, whether it's changing position, stressing, yelling, or slowing down. And sometimes in the middle of the game, a bear child's screams open the Settings menu. In contrast, although the Kinect 360 has limited functionality, it is at least reliable and does not have any of these bizarre problems.

Kinect has another way of using it, and that's through your hand. Raise your hand in front of the screen, suspend it on any magnetic tape, and then push to select an application. A clenched fist grabs the screen and can then scroll through the page. In IE browsers, you can even use your fist to "hit" or "Pull out" the screen to zoom. Unfortunately, the Kinect's hand recognition is even more elusive than voice commands, sometimes unrecognized and sometimes biased.

If you are not interested in the Kinect or are unwilling to tolerate its erratic working status, turn off the microphone and camera in the settings menu (either individually or completely), or turn off its connection to the Xbox one directly.

Without backward compatibility, Xbox One can extend your Xbox Live account and friends. An interface is added to the system to look at Buddy Dynamics, but it's easy to overlook after the personal File menu. You can send text messages to 360 friends from Xbox one, but you can't record or listen to voice messages.

Team Voice Chat is a system-level feature, so you can talk to anyone regardless of which app or game you're using. The Kinect's ability to filter TV noise is amazing, but because it's a distance from the user, your voice may sound a little too far or too much. However, since it is not necessary to wear headsets, this is a convenient function.

Xbox One's coolest social function may be a video recording. Although the device does not currently support live broadcast, you can shoot and edit short video clips. If something interesting happens, you can say "xbox,record that" to instantly capture what appears on the last 28 seconds screen. If you stick to the Game DVR app, you can also record the first 5 minutes of the game. In addition, Xbox one is currently unable to record audio chat content.

You can then use Upload Studio to edit the video, although the application is very simple (compression, add voice narration, etc.), but it is also very fast and intuitive. In a few minutes, you can finish editing, rendering, and uploading. It should be explained that the videos will be shared among the Xbox Live community and cannot be personalized.

Xbox One currently does not support local multimedia playback capabilities. Like PS4, you can play Blu-ray, DVD, and audio CDs, but this device does not support any form of USB external storage. In fact, the Xbox one USB interface is now basically useless-no keyboard, no USB audio, etc. But by using a sharing command called play to, you can stream multimedia content from Windows 8 PCs to Xbox one, or view pictures and videos through SkyDrive. In multimedia capabilities, Xbox one is more like a set-top box than a Windows PC.

One of the biggest selling points of TV integration with Xbox I is that it seems pretty cool. By connecting your set-top box to Xbox one, you can receive game invitations and Skype notifications while you're watching TV, and you can also stick your TV content on the side of the game while you're playing. The Kinect has the ability to make basic controls over TV and set-top boxes via infrared commands, such as voice searches or a program.

Although the idea is good, Microsoft's implementation is not in place. First, the TV content is dimmed by the Xbox one, and the Dolby Digital audio code in the signal is stripped away, thus without stereo. There is currently a test feature that can turn Dolby into DTS or PCM. However, the effect does not seem obvious and may cause distortion of the image.

If you can accept changes in audio and video quality, the Xbox TV is good to use in the simplest case. However, you will still encounter many strange problems, such as overlapping interface elements, and unexpected behavior. Microsoft decided to give up HDMI-CEC control because there were too few set-top boxes to support the standard. So you can only use Kinect as a high-performance IR transmitter. Kinect is currently the best infrared emitter, but it still doesn't work: you'll see the set-top-box interface every time you switch, and the Xbox doesn't know what your set-top box is doing, or how to control it, so when you're on the Set-top box menu or a DVR list, it doesn't do anything. When it comes to dvr,xbox one simply can't see the recorded program, you can only use the remote control and the set-top box UI. On-demand functionality is the same, the Xbox does not know anything about it, you can only use the Set-top box UI to implement the operation.

In other words, unless you only watch the live broadcast, otherwise do not use the Set-top box interface control basically can not see the television. This is what the Xbox one does to prove that Microsoft is doing better than Google TV by using an infrared emitter to try to forge a display of TV consolidation.

Microsoft has also failed to deal with the way in which private applications such as SkyDrive and Skype exist in the living room. Do you really want your family to watch you talk on Skype? Or is it when you are not at home that the invitation is accepted by others? Do you want the game invitations to pop up on the screen when you're watching a beautiful show with a group of friends? We think the Kinect should be able to tell whether the user is out of the room, alone in the house, or with someone else in the room, and intelligently handle the notifications based on these conditions.

As a final question, opening the Xbox one does not immediately go into the TV screen, you need to turn on your own TV application. This is not a big problem, but it brings unnecessary trouble to the core television viewing experience. The design decision also reflects the entire Xbox one TV experience: It's a bit complicated, but it's not good.

"Like 360, it's a little bit better," which is basically the game experience that Xbox One brings, at least for now. Xbox One's first game is a total of 22, are suitable for all ages, different tastes of the work. As with PS4, it is a pleasure to experience the grip and understanding of the system, but these games do not experience the obvious advantages of "secondary generations".

Even with a CD-ROM, all Xbox One games need to be installed, and after the disc is inserted, the game will begin to install immediately, and you can also play during the installation process. But Xbox One's game has been installed much longer than PS4: it took 19 minutes to install the Call of Duty: Ghost 54%, and I was able to get into the game at this point. Even if the game is installed, the speed of loading is not much faster than 360. Loading "Zombie Siege 3" requires more than 1 minutes and a half time, which is much longer than the PS4.

Xbox one still only supports downloading a game at the same time, and you can pause or cancel the download task. But if you're downloading a big game, it's best to find something else to spend time waiting for.

When you compare the same game on different hosts, there is a distinct difference between Xbox one and 360 or PS3. But if compared with PS4, the difference between the two is less obvious. Part of the game looks a little better on the PS4, while the other part is better on the Xbox one. But in general, it's almost the same.

While Xbox One and PS4 are similar in both screen and gaming experience, the Kinect does give Xbox One something unique. Although the second generation of Kinect is powerful, it is only a little higher in gaming than on a first-generation model.

The most interesting use of Kinect is as an additional feature, you can use voice commands to quickly perform some of the game's operations, such as in the "Ryse: the son of Rome" to the army to give instructions, or in "Zombie Siege 3" as a friend shout.

Although the Xbox one has a lot of games, we all know that the real masterpiece that can embody the performance of the secondary generation hosts will come out in the next year, and they are the more attractive factors.

As developers use it in depth, they will learn more about the next generation of home machine platforms. And that means shorter loading times, better graphics, and maximizing performance.

If the Kinect and handle are not enough, you can also use the SmartGlass application to control the many features of the Xbox one. The app currently supports Windows 8,windows Phone, Android and IOS platforms, like the next-generation Xbox One, which is similar to the Xbox 360 version, but it does have some new features. SmartGlass allows you to view basic information such as information, accomplishments, and friend activities, or to run the game's supporting applications-if any.

"Zombie Siege 3" has a rich package of applications, some of which have a second screen exclusive function. When you get a mobile phone in the game, you can use your real phone instead of the mobile phone in the game to get a map of the city and to accept tasks on the phone, and you can also find items on the map, get text messages and game hints, call friends to fight against zombies, or request an air raid.

You can also run games and apps through SmartGlass, full-screen or stick to patterns, but it's not really practical. In theory, it allows you to run a second application such as Skype without having to quit the game, but in practice it is almost as good as using a handle or a smartphone, and using Kinect is faster-if it is successfully identified. However, SmartGlass can be used as a touch screen remote control, which will be very useful in the use of IE browser. Although the touch screen is not the best way to type text, it is at least easier to use than a handle, and SmartGlass thus becomes the easiest way to enter URLs and scroll pages on the Xbox one. With the Windows 8 version of SmartGlass, you can open the same page on your notebook/tablet and Xbox one with just a single click.

Microsoft's talk of building a home machine for the next 10 years is not a big boast. If PS4 is just trying to outdo himself, the goal of Xbox one is to be a completely different and unprecedented device. It not only complements content, but also plans to replace your set-top box. It may have a rich app store, and the game will become even better and more interactive. What Microsoft does is basically smart, practical and advanced.

But the Xbox one has apparently not reached such heights. Although it has outstanding hardware and performance, but has not been well implemented in the game, the system's voice control function in speed and accuracy is also deficient, and the effect of television integration is not ideal.

is Xbox one stronger than PS4? This is a completely subjective question: if you're going to buy a home machine by the end of the year, pick the game you want to play. It's too early to judge any feature outside of the game, and don't expect to buy Xbox one right now to turn it into your home entertainment center.

Xbox one is for the next 10 years. If Microsoft can deliver on all of its commitments during this time, the device will indeed be a real "hub"-but let's not forget the big one.