REVIEW: The new $500 Xbox One is incredibly powerful and far too expensive

The new, $500 Xbox One X is the most powerful home video game console ever made. With its beefy internals, the Xbox One X is more powerful than most home computers. It can power 4K and HDR gaming - the next major graphical step up after HD.

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It's also the most expensive home game console ever made, only matched in price by the original Xbox One (which came with an expensive Kinect peripheral) and the original PlayStation 3.

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It's not just you: $500 is a tremendously high asking price for a game console in 2017. The Nintendo Switch, which launched earlier this year, costs $300. The next best version of the Xbox One, the "S" model, costs $250. Even Sony's PlayStation 4 "Pro" model, which touts the ability to produce 4K and HDR games, costs $100 less than the Xbox One X at $400.

In short, it's a hard sell.

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Microsoft Xbox lead Phil Spencer selling the concept of Xbox One X during Microsoft's annual E3 press briefing in June.

Whether it's worth your money is a more complicated question. Do you have an Xbox One already? Do you own a 4K/HDR-capable television? Do you consider $500 to be a major expense?

For me, however, it simply isn't. Here's why.

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