XBox

Series X, Series S and the Digital Edition:

three current consoles that play the same games and differ in power and in whether there is a drive. The black Series X reads discs and renders in 4K. The white Digital Edition is the same machine without the drive, and the Series S is the smaller, cheaper box aimed at 1440p, sold with 512GB or 1TB and also download-only. Behind them sit the Xbox One family, from the original to the One S and the One X, and the 360 and first Xbox, which go mostly to collectors; a selected list of their discs also plays on a Series X. If exclusives matter more to you than a subscription library, compare PlayStation, and for a household that plays handheld, Nintendo.

The disc drive and the storage card:

for most buyers these matter more than the graphics. Discs can be bought used and passed on when you finish them; downloads stay on your Microsoft account and cannot be resold. Over a few years that makes a disc Series X cheaper to keep fed, while a Series S suits someone who plays mostly through Game Pass or on a smaller TV. Storage is the other catch. Only about 364GB of a 512GB Series S is free for games, and games built for Series X|S have to run from the internal drive or from an official Seagate or WD expansion card in the back. A USB drive can store them and play older Xbox One titles, but cannot run the new ones. Xbox has never supported a VR headset, so anyone after one should look under virtual reality instead.

A used Series X against a new one:

Microsoft has raised console prices several times since launch, most steeply on the 1TB models, and local shelf prices follow as stock turns over. That has propped up what a clean used Series X fetches, so one with a working drive holds its value far better than consoles used to. A Series X whose drive has died sells closer to a Digital Edition, because that is what it has become, and the Xbox One family drops much further because it cannot run games made for the newer machines.

Testing a used Xbox before money changes hands:

leave it running a game for a while; a fan that roars or a hot smell from the top vents means dust inside. On a Series X, put a disc in. Grinding, clicking or a disc that will not read points to the drive fault this model is known for, and that is a job for a technician rather than a part you swap at home. Then sign in with your own account and open something online. Microsoft bans consoles for modding and cheating, and the ban is tied to the hardware, so it survives a reset and a change of owner. Check both sticks for drift, and the bumpers on an Elite Series 2. Copied controllers circulate, but the Series consoles refuse many unlicensed pads outright, and a genuine one has a sticker with the model and serial under the battery cover. On a 360, three red lights around the power button are the old hardware failure.

Photos and details for an Xbox listing:

show the console switched on at the home screen, the sticker on the base, the controller and both cables. State the storage, whether an expansion card goes with it, whether the drive reads discs and whether the console has ever been opened or modified. Before handing it over, go to Settings, System, Console info, Reset console, and choose to remove everything, so your account and saved card leave with you. A Kinect adds little, since the Series consoles do not support it. A buyer driving in from Heredia or Liberia will want to watch it boot, read a disc and get online before paying, so have it hooked up to a TV with a game ready.