The console in question, as reported in official news posts, was to be the final Xbox One X special edition ever released, ending what I would consider to be a run that, in a few cases, pushed the envelope of what was possible (including console etchings that started with the Gears Of War 4 special edition and has continued in various guises ever since).
But enough with the introduction. The real question is this: Just how good is this final Xbox One X outing?
If you find the long rectangular label on one of the long edges, that's the bottom of the box. Standing the box with the bottom on the surface you're working with, place a finger between the top flap and the outside of the box and lift it up and away to reveal the inner packaging.
To retrieve the first item, look around until you find a hole in a piece of cardboard. Place a finger into this hole and pull the small flat box upwards and out of the main package. The part of the box that has the hole in it can be lifted up much like a book to reveal a stand for the console inside.
Looking in the main box you'll find a second smaller box with a hole in. Repeating the process as before, place your finger into the whole and lift this cuboid box up and out of the main package.
The side of the box you've just lifted up contains the power supply (accessed by using yet another hole to lift the flap on that side). The supply, much like the other cables you'll see shortly, are tied with an adhesive seal which can be removed by pulling the tab round until it unties from the rest of the cable.
In the longer section of this smaller box, again opened via a hole in a cardboard flap, you can find the controller wrapped in a polystyrene or foam-like material, held together with a piece of tape. It's actually underneath a foam rectangle protecting it.
Lift the foam insert away and put it to one side, then remove the controller by simply pulling the bag out of the box. Slide your finger under the tape and carefully pull upwards and away from you to open the bag, the controller can then gently be pulled up and out, along with the batteries should you choose to use them. The batteries are wrapped in the same material as the controller.
In the bottom of this controller segment are the product regulatory guide, limited warranty and agreement leaflets and at the end of this same section is a HDMI cable, again wrapped in an adhesive seal.
With the console still in the foam inserts, hold the console with one hand and remove one at a time, keeping the console stable.
Once the console is on a flat surface, you can begin unwrapping the same material that surrounded the controller earlier. There are two pieces of tape one on each side, as well as one underneath which I didn't use during my removal of the unit.
Undo the tape on both sides and, holding the console securely in one hand, you can pull the wrapping away with the other and put it to one side.
Finally, at the bottom of the box, there was a set of codes much like the ones that came with the Gears 5 console I previously reviewed. As well as the Xbox One X quick start guide, I found an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate free trial and a leaflet concerning the new Digital Direct program.
After a little while the console didn't seem to be doing anything, but sighted assistance revealed the press A prompt was already present. Pressing this didn't start Narrator speaking, however, but using the shortcut to enable it resolved this issue. From here, everything spoke as usual, including the update process.
Interestingly, during the update process, sighted assistance confirmed that though the console was updating and showing increasing values, Narrator was only telling me a value of 0% that was displayed at the bottom of the screen which eventually changed to 1%. This is likely a bug in the UI and hopefully can be resolved in future.
After the update had downloaded, verified and applied, I was prompted to sign into my Microsoft account.
After going through dialogues for enhanced error reporting and sharing game and app data with publishers, I was presented with a screen that allowed me to claim Xbox Game Pass Ultimate should I wish to do so. Given that I prefer to just use standard Game Pass at present, I opted to decide later to see what would happen next. On this same rather confusing screen I was also able to get sighted assistance to confirm that I could claim the Cyberpunk 2077 game itself, which I promptly did.
After moving on to the next screen where I had the option of entering any code(s) should I have them and declining it as I did not, I was then placed on to my home screen. Without the games and apps that I'd used initially populating it, it looked a little unusual, but once I started testing the console, this was soon put out of my mind.
The Cyberpunk Xbox One X console, however, has none of these issues, being whisper quiet even whilst playing high-intensity titles like Doom Eternal or Gears 5, something I'm incredibly happy with. I've had no crashes so far in the time I've had this console (touch wood) and everything has worked as expected.
That QR code referenced previously, when scanned, takes you to a link for the Cyberpunk 2077 official soundtrack on YouTube.