It’s Not Just You: The Xbox Series X/S Are Booting Way Faster

Several members of the Xbox Insider test program have noticed significantly faster boot-up times on the Xbox Series X and S, and now, a Microsoft employee has confirmed the change. The company cut the start time by more than half, letting gamers get into the action faster than ever.

First spotted by The Verge, both of Microsoft’s popular game consoles can completely boot up from cold in under five seconds, thanks to a shorter boot-up animation.

Usually, an Xbox Series S or S will need around 10 seconds to finish the boot process and open to the dashboard. Now, you’ll be all set in less than half that amount of time.

Can confirm – worked with @harrisonhoffman and @jakerose27 to create a shorter boot up animation (~4s) from the original boot up animation (~9s), helping to reduce the overall startup time.

— Josh Munsee (@joshmunsee) July 23, 2022

Sadly, this feature is currently only available to members of the Insider test program, but it’ll roll out to all users soon. It’s worth noting that if you’re an Xbox owner that uses the speedier “Standby Mode” for boot-up, you won’t experience a change. Only users with consoles set to Energy Saver mode, where the console fully powers off, will notice the difference.

For those unaware, Energy Saver mode uses around 20 times less power than standby and is actually the default mode on new consoles. So, unless you change your console to standby mode, you’ll experience this sooner than later.

While this isn’t anything major, it’s nice to see Microsoft continue making changes and improvements to its game console. Grab a new Xbox from the link below if you’ve yet to get one.

via The Verge