With so many to choose from, you may have asked yourself: "which Xbox is the best?" While most of the same software can be played across the Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S and the Xbox One range, there’s a clear difference when it comes to performance.

Answering which Xbox is the best comes down to three key factors. How well does the console perform on a game-to-game basis, especially when it comes to Xbox Series X/S enhanced titles? Does one console have any killer features the other models lack? And crucially, how do the specs of each model compare to its siblings?

If you are after the best Xbox on the market, then you should go for the most expensive model, the Xbox Series X. But you may find it difficult to find one on sale and it’s easier to find the cheaper Xbox Series S or Xbox One. Thanks to the ongoing global chip shortages, the more powerful consoles that use them are a lot harder to come by.

Depending on what you plan on using your Xbox for, you may not need to get the most expensive, hardest to find model. Read on to find out which Xbox is the best that you can buy today.

And our winner is...

Microsoft’s naming conventions for its current line-up of Xbox consoles is confusing, especially if you’ve not owned an Xbox before. The most recently released consoles from Microsoft are the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. Both are designed to let you play every game available on Xbox and access services like Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming, albeit at different price points and specifications.

The Xbox Series S is cheaper, generally easier to buy, and is Microsoft’s smallest Xbox to date. That makes the Xbox Series S ideal if you’re short on space, or if you need a console you can move around with little hassle.

And in the Xbox Series X, we find our answer to which Xbox is the best. Indeed, the Xbox Series X is the best Microsoft console you can buy right now, boasting powerful specs and capabilities that rival its competition in the PS5 .

The Xbox Series X enjoys the same library of games and services as the Xbox Series S, with features like X/S Enhanced titles, Smart Delivery and the fantastic Xbox Game Pass subscription service accessible on both platforms. But if you’re looking for the Xbox console that will show those games off at their best, is capable of outputting 4K resolution, and is fitted with a CPU roughly three times as powerful as its sibling, then the Xbox Series X should be on your radar.

Xbox Series X's best features

So what exactly makes the Xbox Series X the best Xbox you can buy today? For starters, its 1TB SSD means you’ll have bags of space for installing games from the jump and won’t have to resort to an external SSD for a while. Although fantastic options do exist, such as the Seagate Xbox Storage Expansion Card , you’ve got plenty of storage right off the bat to start downloading and installing games.

Additionally, the Xbox Series X includes a HDMI 2.1 cable in the box. So if you’ve got a HDMI 2.1 supported TV or monitor, you’ll be able to take advantage of features like VRR (variable refresh rate) and a 120Hz refresh rate in supported titles, without the need to buy a HDMI 2.1 cable separately.

Xbox Series X also features a disk drive, which is no longer a given with digital-only versions of consoles becoming more common. The drive gives you the option to buy and play physical copies of games, including older Xbox One and supported Xbox 360 and original Xbox games.

Of course, all these extra flourishes mean the Xbox Series X doesn’t come cheap, costing $499 / £449. It’s an expensive piece of tech, but one we ultimately think is worth the cash. If you can find the elusive console, that is.

MyMiniFactory could spare digital artists from the NFT hype train

If you own a 3D printer or have previously hunted around online for printable files, chances are you may have stumbled onto MyMiniFactory , a website best known for hosting digital storefronts for 3D artists. While most of the content found on the site is geared towards folk who enjoy tabletop RPGs and wargames, some changes have occurred on MyMiniFactory in recent months that opens up the possibilities not just to digital sculptors who create printable files, but also to illustrators, writers and musicians looking to make some cash from their skills.

The 3D printing hobby may not have a huge community, but it's one that’s growing at an incredible rate thanks to greater accessibility to affordable 3D printing hardware and how well it meshes with existing hobbies. The largest of this is likely to be in tabletop wargames and RPGs, where people who enjoy the genre would be expected to buy injection-molded figurines or kits from an official vendor like Games Workshop or WizKids.

In some cases, this is actually a requirement in order to officially enjoy the game (like Warhammer where using non-official armies is taboo), but with 3D printers becoming cheaper and more advanced at an incredible pace each year, more people are jumping into the world of printing to explore new hobbies that were previously inaccessible.

As mentioned, while the name might imply that tabletop and board game miniatures (or at the least, small figurines), you’re now likely to see all sorts of things on MyMiniFactory that will appeal to a wider range of people outside of the gaming community - from DIY Steampunk lamps and immersive RPG music management , to open-source museum Scan The World .

Outside of the sheer variety of printable files you’d find, MyMiniFactory has actually introduced features to the site that just makes sense , especially if you’ve been on the printing scene for a while. It’s hardly the only 3D file website available, but traditionally there are a few hoops or systems you would use to make sure you’re getting your files from a credible source and, more importantly, that the artists who have created the work are getting fairly compensated.

Artists could create their own digital store using a system like Shopify , but this makes them difficult to locate if they don’t have sufficient marketing and an active social media account. You'll also find bulk STL files being sold as a package deal on various digital marketplaces, but many of these don't credit the original artists who created the work, so you could be left unsure if you've just purchased stolen content. It’s not impossible to navigate, but it makes the process of setting up a business selling 3D printables more of a nuisance than it should be.

The ultimate one-stop-shop for geeky creatives

To fix these issues, MyMiniFactory has instead started to offer pretty much every service you’d need to start selling your work, ditching the previous requirement for external sites for creatives who wanted to branch out. For example, many established artists have a Patreon where they offer a large discount on their catalog to subscribers in exchange for a small monthly subscription, with the files themselves being made available to purchase on MyMiniFactory or downloadable via a file hosting website for free subscriber rewards.

Now, MyMiniFactory has rolled out ‘Tribes’, where you can choose to support your favorite creators directly from their storefront, either with one-off donations or with a monthly subscription. You can even choose to do this publicly or anonymously, and attach a message - ideally thanking the artist -, while being provided with the same loyalty rewards set by the creator. Full transparency is available and the creators have a great deal of creative control over how they want to set up their Tribe - with the ability to post upcoming releases, ask for community votes on what they should make next, and advertise any upcoming sales.

And it's not just Tribes that caught my eye, with MyMiniFactory now also offering a crowdfunding platform on the site that artists can use to finance projects and releases, something that would have previously needed to be navigated on dedicated crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter. Elsewhere on the site, you’ll find tutorials and articles hosted on the dedicated ‘Stories’ section, basically introducing in-house community forums and blog posts, as well as official design competitions created by small creators and established faces in the 3D printing space.

While all of these systems are available externally, It’s clear that MyMiniFactory has worked hard to make a Jack-of-all-trades space specifically for small creators and designers trying to set up shop and be fairly compensated for their skills.

I spoke to the MyMiniFactory CEO, Nebo Nikolic, who made it clear that they were a community-first business trying to provide a space for artists to succeed. “If Disney were to come knocking and ask for a collab, we would say no” he laughed, adding “we’re a space for small creators looking to create a sustainable business, even if they don’t have any prior marketing or eCommerce skills. We just want to provide them with all the tools they need to succeed”.

He also expressed that despite its roots in the 3D printing scene, he also wants MyMiniFactory to be a welcome environment for people outside of 3D artists, such as writers and illustrators.

“We want to cover the entire scope of digital creators, from illustrators creating maps or bespoke character sheets, or writers who could create PDF campaigns for various systems. We don't want to exclude any medium, so where the name MyMiniFactory used to mean ‘miniatures’, that's since evolved to mean a ‘mini factory’ where small businesses can take full control of their stores and how they interact with customers”.

It’s early days, but it seems to be working. Creatives are becoming well established on the site and have growing numbers of loyal subscribers and fans.

The conversation reminded me of how discouraged I felt many years ago as a young digital illustrator. As a teen, art was a passion that I spent many hours of the day on, but was never a career I had any hopes of pursuing. Given the recognizable ‘starving artist’ joke, the idea of supporting myself or even just supplementing my employed wage off my own creativity just didn’t seem sustainable, a similar story that many young artists would have told you at the time.

Making bank without Blockchain

But what does any of this have to do with NFTs? Many of us have mixed feelings about them, if we’re even able to understand exactly what they are in the first place.

Non Fungible Tokens, often abbreviated to NFTs , are a way of authenticating digital content on cryptocurrency blockchains, primarily Ethereum. This doesn't just mean illustrations or photography though - in theory, anything can be logged as an NFT, including sound clips and even tweets, but you don’t get to own the actual asset. Instead, you’re getting a kind of virtual receipt or logbook that proves the NFT is logged in your name.

Given its connection with cryptocurrency, this system can result in people spending high amounts of cash to jump on board with the trend, often for investments or simply bragging rights. Those hideous Bored Ape NFTs you may have seen used as profile pictures all over Twitter can actually sell for thousands of dollars, despite anyone being able to simply… save the actual art to their computer drive.

While I’m sick of seeing low-effort collections like those monkeys all over the internet, there was one positive keeping me conflicted: small artists were finally making some serious money using their skills. Years of offering commissions or creating work based on the specific needs of a client could be over, leaving artists to work for themselves, on whatever they liked and still make a living.

This isn’t without risks though. Vice reported earlier this week that 80% of the NFTs created on OpenSea , one of the largest NFT marketplaces, are fake, plagiarized from actual artists or straight up spam, and many popular digital artists have found their work being fraudulently sold online by scammers making a quick buck off the talents of real creatives.

I still don’t agree with the ecological or social impact of NFTs, but creatives deserve a space where they can make a living, especially without the fear of their work being stolen. It’s likely that NFTs will be around for a good while yet, but MyMiniFactory offers a compelling alternative for artists to set up a growing business that has multiple income streams, across subscriptions, file sales and donations.

Strictly speaking, there's also nothing that would prevent you from getting involved with NFTs if you did sign up to MyMiniFactory. I didn’t discuss NFTs or blockchain with Nikolic, but he was clear that artists using the site are free to use any other platform they see fit, stating “we’re staying away from contracts, and we certainly won’t make artists take their work down from other stores, services or galleries”.

I hardly think that this will revolutionize the creative market overnight, but as digital content steadily develops, it’s important to ensure small businesses are well supported as their skills become more in demand. The trend of art theft is prolific within NFT sales, and I fear that things could develop for the worse as the Metaverse looms ever closer. The kind of service that MyMiniFactory is currently providing to the designers it hosts is nothing short of fantastic, and a model that I’d love to see more of in order to ensure artists get fairly compensated for their work.

This new e-bike is so powerful, it had to be engineered to stop ripping itself apart

Canadian e-bike company Biktrix has unveiled a new e-bike with its most powerful motor to date. The Juggernaut XD features the Biktrix XD Dual Drive System, which is specially designed to handle the forces of a 2,000W motor without ripping itself to pieces.

As Electrek reports, most e-bikes rely on regular bicycle parts to transfer power from the motor to the back wheel. That can result in faster wear and tear, including broken chains and wrecked derailleurs, which will put an end to your fun pretty swiftly.

Even in the best circumstances, e-bikes typically need components replacing more frequently than conventional bikes – even if you don't notice it. As Shimano's head of training Julian Thrasher told TechRadar in an interview last year, the bike's motor can work harder to compensate for a worn drivetrain, meaning you can't tell the difference, but the battery will run down faster. If the wear becomes severe and the chain jumps, you could be thrown from the bike.

Reinforced chain and sprocket

To prevent this, Biktrix has developed a system that uses a standard bicycle groupset to handle conventional pedalling, with a second reinforced chain and thick alloy sprocket for power assistance. This second drive unit is able to withstand 10 times the forces of a regular chain and sprocket – which is very important for a bike capable of 2,000W power output.

You can reserve the Juggernaut XD in the US and Canada now for an early bird price of $4,999 (about £3,700 / AU$7,000). It's expected to start shipping in mid 2022, and will have a retail price of $5,999 (about £4,500 / AU$8,300) when it goes on general sale.

Analysis: when is an e-bike not an e-bike?

Different territories have very different rules on what type of vehicle is legally classified as an 'e-bike'. In the UK and EU, for example, electric bikes must have motors no more powerful than 250W, which only kicks in when the rider is pedalling (it can't have a throttle control), and doesn't provide assistance at speeds over 15.5mph. If it meets these criteria, you can ride it on cycle paths and anywhere else you could use a conventional bike, provided you're over the age of 14.

A vehicle like the Juggernaut XD would be classed as a motorbike or moped, which would mean it could only be ridden on public roads, and would need to be taxed and insured like any other motor vehicle. If you wanted to take it for some off-road action, you'd need to do so on privately owned land with permission, much like you would a quad-bike.

In Canada, where Biktrix is based, laws vary by province. Generally speaking the maximum power output for an e-bike is 500W and can't travel faster than 32.km/h. Some provinces allow the use of a throttle, while others (such as New Brunswick) do not. More powerful bikes are regarded as motorcycles.

Rules in the US vary between states, but federal law defines a low-speed e-bike as "A two- or three-wheeled vehicle with fully operable pedals and an electric motor of less than 750 watts (1hp), whose maximum speed on a paved level surface, when powered solely by such a motor while ridden by an operator who weighs 170 pounds, is less than 20mph.”

Before buying an e-bike, always check the laws in your area to make sure it's OK to use for your intended type of riding.