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It was widely reported, over the weekend, that Microsoft’s Xbox One S had been leaked on gaming forum Neogaf. The images seemed legitimate enough, but it wouldn’t have been the first time a Gaffer had fooled the world with some prodigious Photoshopping – incidentally, Adobe hate it when you use ‘Photoshop’ as a verb, so I try to do it wherever possible – and a little bit of logical imagination; as happened earlier in the year with the Nintendo NX.

So while E3 2016 has been a particularly leaky event – even by E3’s own rigorous standards of superleakiness – a hasty screengrab found on Neogaf isn’t quite as gospel as all those trailers we’ve seen flying around over the past few weeks. It doesn’t make it any easier to sound excited when the announcement eventually comes, though, like arriving to a surprise party you already know is happening.

So with a lot less fanfare and impact today, Microsoft announced (confirmed?) the diminutive Xbox One S. Here’s the skinny*:

  • It’s white! (Robot White, to be precise)
  • It’s 40% smaller than the current Xbox One!
  • It has a Blu-Ray player!
  • It supports 4K video! (But not 4K gaming)
  • It supports HDR! (High Dynamic Range, for both video and games)
  • It has a vertical stand!
  • It has a compact, internal power supply! (Thank goodness for that)
  • It has a USB port on the front!
  • It has a controller pairing button!
  • It has a front-facing IR blaster! (But no dedicated Kinect port)

Ooh. Shiny.

The Xbox One S will come in a special, limited launch edition flavour (with a 2 TB internal hard disk) for $399 US. There will also be two ‘standard’ Xbox One S variants: a 500 GB option for $299, and a 1 TB model for $349.

Microsoft also confirmed that as well as a new little brother – the Xbox One S – the Xbox One will also be getting a bigger brother in the family: Project Scorpio. Details are scarce, bordering on conjecture and hyperbole at this point, but we’re told it will support full 4K gaming and VR.

Ooh. Shinier.

*Pun intended

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