I have a S and X. X on the 4k TV living room and S on the 1080p in my bedroom.
If you can’t afford the X or unable to find one, The S is just fine for this game. Actually it’s amazing for $250 the graphically output it produces.
Both systems I am several feet away from the TVs. Honestly, sometimes I can’t tell the difference. Maybe if I was on a monitor/desk setup only being a few inches away the difference between the two would be more glaring but you can’t go wrong w/ the S for this game.
That has been my feeling. 2 years back I was happy to get an X but there was none so I went for the Series S. During the first year from reading reports in the forum I had the impression that the X was experiencing more glitches than the S. Now I feel those glitches are slowly smoothed out and both consoles perform as they should but I am still not convinced I should sell the S to get something that cost double as much and only looks a little better. Whatever console one has to have a sim running on these machines is incredible.
Ok I will say the beta has much better graphics. It’s a big improvement. The pop ins of the scenery are still there, so much that I find it very annoying. I also turned off HDR cuz my TV just doesn’t do HDR very well. So it looks much better now. However I compared it to hooking my laptop up to the TV via HDMI and running the PC version. My conclusion is this. The Xbox S is a serious downgrade in graphics compared to the PC version. And with no graphics options on Xbox it would be a pain to live with. Also with the PC version I can run nvidia filters and make it look close to 4k, or letterbox it if I want. I just found the Xbox to look like the PC version on lowest quality setting.
So the Xbox isn’t going to work for me. For my situation it would be better to just hook my laptop up to it, get a wireless keyboard and run it that way. In the future I can always get the X series or more than likely a dedicated desktop PC.
I will say I think the S series is great if you want to get in on flight simming on a budget. For $239 it can’t be beat. Other games look great. Of course other games aren’t trying to replicate the whole world. That’s gonna take a little more power.
So back to Walmart. Hoping I can do a curbside return.
They’re working out the graphical issues on the SX. You should have seen flight simulator when it first came out…man…
Anyhow, apart from aliasing and pop in/bad LOD on some runways or areas, it looks great … that has to be a server proximity issue than the console. But the beta is overall much better than the public version.
Good things are on the way… I can sense it in my gamer gut 
This video might be helpful to compare S vs X.
That is really well done! Thanks a lot. I see the sharper definition in cockpit and on buildings…still not sure if I should cough the extra pounds and swap! Many thanks.
XBOX X
I must say I personally have never managed to achieve anything like the photogrammetry shown in the video flying over london .
Are you referring to the London discovery flight on Series X? Cos those are prebaked conditions with no “live anything” or time of day changing. Usually looks better 
Oh but you must… You must!
You’re missing out bigtime…things are almost back to the way they were with the Xbox beta and they are improving things as we speak.
Look… If you knew there was a Ferrari waiting for you in the garage … Would you go to your “other” garage to get into a Miata?
Exactly 
Big difference in the scenery. The Naples discovery flight is laughable on the S, better on the X. but a mid range PC beats both.
I watched that long ago when deciding which to get. I got the series S because I didn’t see much difference. The video doesn’t do it justice. For me personally upgrading to the series X has been well worth it. There is much more detail in the cockpits and the distance rendering, ground lighting, even reflections in the cockpit. It’s better, trust me. Note I am running at 1440p.
Thank you for kind reply and helping with your personal experience.
I just got the X delivery 30 minutes ago 
.
Midrange pc? The Xbox Series X is kicking out high-ultra detail levels at near-4k… For $500!
I may have spoken too soon. The day I bought the Xbox Series S and downloaded MSFS it looked like ■■■■. Then someone told me to join the beta which I did. It looked better but I was getting a lot of pop ins of the scenery and it still looked like crapola. Today I’ve been flying it pretty much all day and it’s been looking pretty ■■■■ decent. Sill not as good as my laptop but pretty close. Then just about an hour ago I got a warning that my system was having server issues and it was putting me offline. Then I was getting all the ugly scenery and pop ins again, exactly how it looked the first day. I did do a couple of things this morning to help it out. I turned off HDR cuz it looks better without it. I went to my HDMI settings on my TV and instead of setting it to HDMI 2 which is what Xbox configured for me (for the best experienice), I set it to automatic. I also made sure game mode was “on” on that port because before, Xbox would turn it on. I also turned the rolling cache on. All these things help.
But with that server issue warning, I think that’s the main culprit. I’m hooked up via wifi, have a really decent router and my laptop or other streaming devices never hiccup on it. But either the XBox wifi card ain’t up to snuff or the Mircosoft servers have been lagging. Anyway, I’m giving it a chance.
What is find strange is, I used to fly the MSFS X back in 2007 and onwards for a few years. I had never faced a crash, system freeze, connectivity issues for authentication etc… it used to be perfectly smooth on that front.
The only issue I used to face was lack of good hardware (in my location, at least) like we have now, had to use my mouse to control nearly everything and that would make flying large aircraft very challenging on decent and landings. All I had back then was a saitek yoke and throttle. no rudders, switches for lights, flaps, trim, autopilot etc… all was done with a mouse.
Why has Microsoft made this authentication a problem? I read maybe on this thread (or some other) that users of windows, office, powerpoint etc do not get stuck, as Microsoft does not try authenticate them each and every time you use those products. Then why this stupid treatment to MSFS, PC and Xbox users? It makes no sense.
I bought one for that and I sell it because of that.
End of story
Friend, you need a SX. I only have a 50mbps fiber optic connection and a 2k SDR TV… I’m in the beta… It’s almost back to looking pristine again. Mind blowing at times… Pretty much every time I think
You’re probably right. Even though S is running good now my laptop is still better. I’ll more than likely return the S. Only thing holding me from the X is I need to decide if I can live without add-ons.
I have been making the transition from PC to Xbox over the last few months.
Mainly for the graphics.
You might want to wait for full WASM support (SU12 fingers crossed).
The main drawback is not being able to use the GTN750 or PMS50 and having to integrate SimBrief or NaviGraph manually.
Planes are FINALLY releasing on Xbox with perks you would only expect on PC.
Persistent state saving seems to be the only major PC addon perk that prevents a plane from making it to Xbox without WASM support. So this keeps JustFlight and MilViz addons from joining the console fun. For now, at least.
I cannot in good conscience say the Xbox is as good as PC but it is getting there. And the sim itself is maturing so there is usually more than one Xbox compatible way to do things in sim, and once you learn the Xbox way, you are golden.
And there are things the Xbox does that my PC can’t like 4K HDR at 30 FPS with high to ultra settings.
I do fly several different planes on PC than on Xbox. And vice versa.
But developers have slowly learned how to work around the WASM issues and are bringing study level planes to Xbox (finally) with great results.
I highly suggest making your PC purchases in the Marketplace if you want to try the Xbox so you don’t have to buy compatible addons twice.
What is WASM? I keep reading that term here in the forums.