Microsoft confirms leaked Xbox Series S for $299 with 1440p, ray-tracing, and 512GB SSD

Welcome back from Labor Day: Here's a fresh leak of the Xbox Series S, courtesy of Brad Sams on Twitter. Sams claims the Xbox Series S will go for $299. We don't yet know the price of the Xbox Series X, but rumors suggest it could start at $499.

Leaker WalkingCat also shared a video of the alleged Xbox Series S showing off the size difference between it and the Series X. If these two leaks are authentic, we're looking at a Series S console that's about half the size of the Series X, comes in white, and has some kind of round speaker?! on the front? What is that thing?

No optical drive — One glaring feature missing from the Xbox Series S? An optical drive. If you've got a collection of Xbox One physical discs or a Blu-ray or DVD collection, this console won't cut it.

Update: It's gone legit!

Good things, small packages — Microsoft's now posted the full video for the Xbox Series S, revealing its specs. The console will be capable of gaming at a max 1440p resolution at 120 fps with 4K upscaling and support 4K media playback, DirectX ray-tracing with variable-rate shading and refresh rate. It'll come with a custom 512GB SSD, and like the Series X have ultra-low latency.

Best place to play — This puts the ball squarely in Sony's court. While the Series S may have slightly lower specs than the PS5's Digital Edition, it's unlikely that Sony will be able to hit that aggressive $299 price point. At the moment, the Series X has the PS5 beat on most specs and the Series S has it beat on price.

Also, there's always Game Pass with cloud streaming if players just want to get their feet wet. Microsoft is coming at this next generation from all angles — and we love to see it.

November launch — According to Windows Central, both the Series S and X are expected to launch on November 10. We wouldn't pencil that date in just yet. It could change.