Tomorrow, Microsoft will launch its next generation of games consoles, and there's good news for anyone concerned about future repair costs. The internal storage for the Xbox Series X (and Series S) console isn't soldered to the motherboard.
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As Hyped Pixels reports, early teardowns of the new consoles are starting to reveal the design decisions Microsoft and Sony made. For the PS5, the internal storage is soldered to the motherboard meaning the entire board would need to be replaced if the flash storage fails. However, Microsoft opted for a an easy to repair solution instead.
As the tweet by Siri's Ex above reveals, the Xbox Series X uses an M.2 2230 NVMe SSD manufactured by Western Digital. It's slotted into the motherboard and covered by a flat copper heatsink. This means that replacing the SSD is as easy as undoing a screw and detaching the heatsink. It seems unlikely Microsoft would ever support users performing such an upgrade themselves, but it does mean storage repairs will be easier, quicker, and much less costly. Twitter uses Rato Borrachudo also confirmed the Xbox Series S uses the same solution.
Hackers are sure to take great interest in the news of a removeable drive, because if you can replace the main storage, it potentially offers a way to add a new SSD with a different or modified operating system on board (assuming they can bypass any protections Microsoft has in place).